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tial visitors. Further, Dutch immigrants had experienced Nazi occupation in the Netherlands during World War II; upon entering Ireland, they couldn’t believe there was a place so untouched by industrialization. “For them, it was really an escape into almost, at the time, a pre-modern world that I think just helped them recalibrate because they had seen terrible things during that period,” she said. King said the advertising was based on the Dutch designers’ appreciation for the minutiae of Irish life. Pebbles on the beach and brown bread were incorporated into the designers’ work for tourism-related companies, ultimately helping engagement in Irish tourism and involvement in the global economy. families. “I’d like people to maybe think about just how dependent we have been on immigration in terms of design expertise,” she said. “I suppose ‘Come Fly With Me’ is also, maybe, to prompt a bit of reflection about how we saw ourselves, how other people saw us, what it means to be Irish in the mid-century, and what it means to be Irish today.” WITH ME Throughout the narrative, the exhibition’s items construct a vision of Ireland’s development of connections with the rest of Europe and the United States – presenting what may not yet have been Ireland’s reality, but rather what it could become. “There’s a vision of a more outwardly facing Ireland that hadn’t been articulated by the politicians to that point,” she said. “Advertising is aspirational. It sells as dreams, it sells as aspirations, and there’s very much a sense of that with a lot of this work. There’s an Ireland that’s forming that political rhetoric has not yet caught up with.” Advertising and its graphic design, especially in the realms of aviation, tourism, and travel, proved necessary for Ireland’s economic and social development – especially following mass emigration, which spiked during the famine in 1847 and then again in 1957, due to severe economic issues stemming from failed protectionist policies. King said that it was Sean Lemass and TK Whitaker’s policies that drove the shift from protectionism to global integration, encouraging a rise in young Irish professionals who helped transition Ireland from an agricultural economy to a consumer-based market. This shift was anticipated by the aspirational nature of the Aer Lingus posters, as the switch occurred both before and during the newer aviation advertisements. “And even what you see with some of the other work by Guinness and Tayto, you can see that a more modernized Ireland is emerging, and it is to do with consumer development,” King said. “It’s a really interesting story about the development of our infrastructure.” King said that success in advertising for Ireland by Dutch designers was supported by the country’s novelty to them, helping them The designs’ emphasis on the peaceful, day-to-day details is evident throughout the exhibition: the items highlight quaint stereotypes of physical geography, cuisines, clothing styles, and music throughout European nations to incentivize tourism via Irish travel. From clog-donning Hollanders in poster illustrations for the Netherlands to accordionplaying, pipe-smoking German caricatures, the exhibition comments on how national costuming helped to advertise tourism with countries that were “less familiar with cultural nuances than today.” Come Fly With Me showcases aviation advertising and tourism that shaped Irish identity and culture as they integrated into the global economy, and implicates the importance of immigration and immigrants’ contributions to society. But King doesn’t want visitors to feel like they are being told what exactly to take away from it. “I think people are intelligent; they have their own kind of window into the material,” she said. “There’s no particular view that I would like people to come away with, and you can absolutely read the exhibition on several levels.” King said that in addition to Research Ireland’s funding, collaboration with the National Print Museum made the exhibition come to life and thrive in the way it has. “It’s been wonderful working with the National Print Museum, and I think they do fantastic work,” King said. “They’re a people’s museum, and they’re so accessible, and it’s just been a joy working with them.” Come Fly With Me is at at the National Print Museum of Ireland during operating hours (10am-4pm Tuesday-Friday and 12-4pm Saturday and Sunday) until December 17, 2026, and is free of charge to all visitors. 47
