The drive for political and social solidity that coloured all aspects of Irish life in the post-revolutionary aftermath had become more of a reality from the late 1930s onwards. In other words, a certain stability in the civic workings of the independent state had come to pass. The implementation of the 1937 constitution reflects the success of bedding down the fledgling state constitutionally, giving textual legitimacy to the notion of an independent Ireland. Ironically, what reinforces Ireland's relatively sedate status is the advent of the Second World War. The official reaction to global war – Ireland's decision to remain neutral – became the outward public sign of what had been an almost private individual introspection. Ireland's neutral stance, for some, is the most tangible indicator of Ireland's cultural and intellectual isolation and backwardness at this time. Calling this period the ‘Emergency’ indicates how even the use of language conspires to distance Ireland from the actuality of the devastation of war, bestowing an air of unreality to Irish life. However, much recent scholarship has begun to reassess this hackneyed view of Ireland as politically and culturally isolated, demonstrating clearly that the consequences of this first tangible assertion of an autonomous foreign policy were far from straightforwardly negative.