Irish whisky was on the rocks and Irish accents were in the air last week as a Manhattan department store kicked off a merchandising maneuver that had all the government brass and economic implications of a trade treaty. Ireland's Minister for Industry and Commerce John Lynch was on hand, and so were officials from the Irish Export Board. Ambassadors, industrialists and such shamrock-struck Americans as James A. Farley milled through a series of receptions, dinners, cocktail parties and pretty speeches. It was hard to believe that crass commercial enterprise was involved. But it was—to an extent that could nudge...
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