Ba í Éire i 1963 an Áit le Bheith

I can't really remember what started my wondering if 1963 was the most Irish year of the 20th century - while I'd hate to think my entire reason for this is that it's the year JFK both visited Ireland & was murdered and the only time The Beatles ever played Ireland, and there's something Irish-magical in the soft contrasts of green & yellow from the photographs of the day, it turns out 1963 really was a watershed year for the Irish:

July: Time magazine published an article, Lifting The Green Curtain, which described how 'for the first time in this century, most Irishmen are ready to believe that [the future] can be a bright one.[...] The signs are everywhere: in the new factories and office buildings, in the Irish-assembled cars (Fords, Austins, Volkswagens) fighting for street space in Dublin, in the new TV antennas crowding the rooftops, in the waning of national self-pity.'

I'm not joking when I say I can feel it my bones it's true, even with much less cultural evidence than my England/1966 thesis.