When war first came to Europe in September 1939, Taoiseach Eamon de Valera reshuffled his cabinet. A new department, the Department of Supplies, was established under Sean Lemass. It was given the task on ensuring that Ireland would continue to have sufficient supplies of raw materials, food and fuel throughout the war. John A. Murphy states that "Keeping things going rather than making progress became the economic keynote of the war years". And kept things going they did, but not without hardship, suffered particularly by Irish retailers.

Before the war, the Department of Industry and Commerce outlined in a memorandum to the Taoiseach, the effect of a European war on Ireland's economy. The document pointed out that the United Kingdom provided 50% of the country's imports and the market for no less than 90% of Eire's exports. A high proportion of the imports consisted of essential supplies which Ireland could not supply itself. Only 5% of the shipping tonnage entering Irish ports in 1938 was Irish owned, the British owned 64%. Robert Fisk called this "a crippling economic dependence for a neutral to owe any nation involved in hostilities". There was a large

increase in the amount of tonnage being sunk as a direct result of the defeat of France by Germany in June 1940. This rapidly manifested itself in shortages, from which Ireland, its neutrality notwithstanding, was not immune. Suddenly the shortages began to bite.

The company grew rapidly and within six years, it had over 5,600 members.

Bernard Share: Ireland 1939-1945 The Emergency

Robert Fisk: In Time of War, published 1983

It is true to say that the wartime shortages caused Irish retailers a period of great difficulty but at the same time it pushed them to form a powerful representative body. RGDATA allowed independent retailers to pool their strength together for the benefit of the entire independent sector and the consumer.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Labour Exchange, Val Mccarthy, Patrick O'Connell, Trade Association, Sean Lemass, United Kingdom, Germany June, Robert Fisk, Department Supplies, Murphy Keeping, irish retailers, retail trade, department supplies, irish retailers war, price controls, shortages caused, sean lemass, val mccarthy, retailers war, profit margins, robert fisk,
Approximate Word count = 864
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)