The Institute of Public Administration’s Journal Administration is fifty years old. This compilation of articles and book reviews, Ireland Develops, is drawn from the pages of the journal over those five decades. The selections are presented in four parts. The first of these, The Pursuit of Growth, offers an account of the relationship between economic development and social policy in Ireland from the early 1950s, when the Irish economy was poorly served by isolationist policies, to the era of the ‘Celtic Tiger’. The second strand, Health and the Mixed Economy of Welfare, examines the developing role of the state in Ireland in securing the welfare of its citizens. The third strand, Social Change and Social Citizenship, examines some debates on and shifts in social policy relating to gender, the family and child protection. The fourth strand, Conflicts and Debates, reflects some of the shifting academic debates about and understandings of Irish social policy that have emerged over time.