Seán Lemass

Three of Lemass's brothers died while young. When he was 16, Lemass killed his own baby brother, Herbert, aged twenty-two months, in a domestic shooting accident with a revolver on 28 January 1916.[6] His older brother, Noel, an anti-Treaty officer, was abducted in June 1923 and murdered the following October, when he was 25; the Lemass family believed he was killed by Emmet Dalton. Another of Lemass's brothers, Patrick, died of natural causes at the age of 19 in 1926.[6]

Following the Easter Rising, Lemass remained active in the Irish Volunteers, carrying out raids for arms.

Until November 1920, Lemass remained a part-time member of the Volunteers. In that month, during the height of the Irish War of Independence, twelve members of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA took part in an attack on British agents living in Dublin, whose names and addresses had been leaked to Michael Collins by his network of spies.

The group was under the leadership of Collins. The names[note 1] of those who carried out Collins' orders on the morning of 21 November 1920 were not disclosed until author Tim Pat Coogan mentioned them in his book on the history of the IRA, published in 1970. Coogan identified Lemass as taking part in the killing of a British agent as a member of "Apostles" entourage that killed fourteen and wounded five British agents of the Cairo Gang. That day, 21 November 1920, became known as Bloody Sunday.

Lemass was arrested in December 1920 and interned at Ballykinlar Camp, County Down.

In December 1921, after the signing of Anglo-Irish Treaty, Lemass was released. He became a training officer for a period in Beggars Bush Barracks before the IRA split and was involved in the Belfast Boycott operations. During the debates of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, Lemass was one of the minority who opposed it along with de Valera. As a protest all the anti-Treaty side withdrew from the Dáil. In the Irish Civil War which followed Lemass was adjutant and second in command to Rory O'Connor, when the group seized the Four Courts, the home of the High Court of Ireland. The occupation of the Four Courts eventually resulted in the outbreak of Civil War, when, under British pressure, the Free State side shelled the building on 28 June 1922.[7] As a result, fighting broke out in Dublin between pro and anti Treaty factions. The Four Courts surrendered after two days bombardment, however Lemass escaped with Ernie O'Malley and some others to Blessington.[8] Their Flying Column operated in Enniscorthy, Tullow, Ferns, Baltinglass and Borris before the Column was broken up. Lemass and O'Malley returned to Dublin along with Thomas Derrig as a member of the IRA Eastern Command Headquarters but was later captured in December 1922 and interned again.

In June 1923, after the end of the civil war, Seán Lemass's brother Noel Lemass, an anti-Treaty IRA officer, was abducted in Dublin by a number of men, believed to be connected to the National Army or the Police CID unit.[9] He was held in secret until October when his mutilated body was found in the Dublin Mountains,[10] (see also Executions during the Irish Civil War). Seán Lemass was released from prison on compassionate following his brother's death. On 18 November 1924, Lemass was elected for the first time as a Sinn Féin TD.[11]

Lemass in 1932

In 1932, Fianna Fáil won power in the Free State, remaining in government for 16 uninterrupted years. The party which Lemass had described as only a "slightly constitutional party" in 1929[note 3] was now leading the Irish Free State, a state that de Valera and Lemass had fought a civil war to destroy a decade earlier. De Valera appointed Lemass as Minister for Industry and Commerce, one of the most powerful offices in the Executive Council (cabinet), and a position he would occupy, with only one short break, in all three of de Valera's governments.

Lemass had the two difficult tasks of developing Irish industry behind his new tariff walls, and convincing the conservative Department of Finance to promote state involvement in industry. Against the background of the Great Depression, he and de Valera engaged in the Anglo-Irish Trade War which lasted from 1933 until 1938, causing severe damage and hardship to the Irish economy and the cattle industry. In 1933, Lemass set up the Industrial Credit Corporation to facilitate investment for industrial development; in the climate of the depression investment had dried up. A number of semi-state companies, modelled on the success of the ESB, were also set up. These included the Irish Sugar Company, to develop the sugar-beet industry, Turf Development Board for turf development, and an Irish airline, Aer Lingus. Years later Lemass described Aer Lingus as his "proudest achievement". These helped create management skills within Ireland, as most people of ability preferred to emigrate.

The Irish market was still too small for multiple companies to exist, so practically all the semi-states had a monopoly on the Irish market. While Lemass concentrated on economic matters, de Valera focused primarily on constitutional affairs, leading to the passage of the new Constitution of Ireland in 1937. De Valera became Taoiseach, while Lemass served in the new Government (the new name for the cabinet) again as Minister for Industry and Commerce.

Subsequently, Irish economic historians have found that many of his decisions on tariffs and licences were made on an ad-hoc basis, with little coherent policy and forward planning.[13][14]

Lemass became Minister for Supplies in 1939, following the outbreak of World War II (known in Ireland as The Emergency). It was a crucial role for Ireland, which maintained an official neutrality.[note 4]

The state had to achieve an unprecedented degree of self-sufficiency and it was Lemass's role to ensure this; he had the difficult task of organising what little resources existed. In 1941, the Irish Shipping Company was set up to keep a vital trickle of supplies coming into the country. However, petrol, gas, and some foodstuffs remained in short supply. De Valera chose Lemass over older cabinet colleagues to become Tánaiste (deputy prime minister), when Seán T. O'Kelly was elected President of Ireland in 1945.

Lemass in 1947

After the Second World War Lemass sought help from the Marshall Aid Plan, securing $100m that was mainly spent on the road network. Emigration continued, particularly to Britain. Despite a high birth rate, the Republic's population continued to fall until the 1960s (see chart).

In 1948, partly due to its own increasing isolation and also due to a republican backlash against its anti-IRA policies (which during the Emergency had seen the execution of IRA prisoners – in part due to IRA links with the Nazis), which had produced a rival republican party, Clann na Poblachta, Fianna Fáil lost power.

The First Inter-Party Government, made up of Fine Gael, the Labour Party, National Labour Party, Clann na Talmhan, Clann na Poblachta and others, was formed under Fine Gael TD John A. Costello. In opposition, Lemass played a crucial role in re-organising and streamlining Fianna Fáil. As a result of this, and also due to crises within the Inter-Party government over the controversial Mother and Child Scheme, Fianna Fáil were not long out of government.

In 1951, Fianna Fáil returned to power as a minority government. Lemass again returned as Minister for Industry and Commerce. Lemass believed that a new economic policy was needed, however de Valera disagreed. Seán MacEntee, the Minister for Finance, tried to deal with the crisis in the balance of payments. He was also unsympathetic to a new economic outlook. In 1954, the government fell and was replaced by the Second Inter-Party Government.

Lemass was confined to the Opposition benches for another three years. In 1957, de Valera, at the age of seventy-five, announced to Fianna Fáil that he planned to retire. He was persuaded however to become Taoiseach one more time until 1959, when the office of President of Ireland would become vacant. Lemass returned as Tánaiste and Minister for Industry and Commerce. In 1958, the first Programme for Economic Development was launched. De Valera was elected President of Ireland in 1959 and retired as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach.

Lemass summed up his economic philosophy by copying an often quoted phrase: "A rising tide lifts all boats." By this he meant that an upsurge in the Irish economy would benefit both the richest and the poorest.

Although the White Paper entitled "Economic Development" was first introduced in 1958 in de Valera's last government, its main recommendations formed the basis for the First Programme for Economic Expansion, which was adopted by Lemass as government policy upon his ascension in 1959.

The programme, which was the brainchild of T. K. Whitaker, involved a move away from the protectionist policies that had been in place since the 1930s. Tax breaks and grants were also to be provided to foreign firms wishing to set up a company in Ireland. The programme also allowed for the spending of P£220 million of state capital in investing in an integrated system of national development.[15]

Following the introduction of this programme the policy of protection was eventually ended and the Control of Manufacturers Act, which had been in place since 1932 and had been introduced by Lemass himself, was also abolished. The implementation of the programme coincided with favourable trading conditions, which contributed to the initiative's popularity. However, the government's introduction of a 2.5% turnover tax in 1963, badly damaged the political position, with a by-election of that year reducing the government's majority to one seat. But by the beginning of 1964, another round of by-elections saw a rebound in the government's popularity: in the preceding five years, unemployment had fallen by a third; emigration had reduced considerably and the population grew for the first time since the famine. Agriculture was the only sector which failed to respond to the programme.

Professor Tom Garvin has found that the protectionist policies were first suggested to de Valera by Lemass in a paper written in 1929–30, and then adopted following the change of government in 1932. He considers the proposition that Lemass moved the economy away from free trade in the 1930s, and back into it in the 1960s; a costly mistake that affected many thousands of (non-voting) emigrants.[16]

The programme paved the way for free trade. In 1960, Ireland signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a worldwide agreement to reduce tariffs. In 1961, Ireland applied unsuccessfully for membership of the European Economic Community. Ireland's failure to join was said to be Lemass's biggest regret and disappointment as Taoiseach. Ireland eventually joined in 1973, two years after Lemass's death. The 1965 Merger Treaties paved the way for the signing of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement between Lemass's government and Harold Wilson's Labour government.

A Second Programme was launched in 1963, with even more ambitious targets. In particular, the policy focused on expenditures for education, with a doubling of expenditures planned, and high production goals for the dairy industry. Agriculture, which had disappointing results in the First Programme, was understated in the second – a clear break in the Lemass policies from de Valera's longstanding courting of rural voters.

The Second Programme was discontinued in 1967, after Lemass had left office and the programme's goals proved far from completion.

As a result of the economic expansion there was an increase in industrialisation and urbanisation. An increase in prosperity also led to a move away from insularity and conservatism in Irish life. This was facilitated in no small part by the establishment of the state television service, Raidió Teilifís Éireann on 31 December 1961. Television programmes, such as The Late Late Show and imported American and British ones, had a profound effect on a change in attitude. Subjects such as contraception, the Catholic Church and divorce were being discussed openly in a way which previous generations would never have imagined. The pontificate of Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council also had a profound effect on the changing attititudes of Irish Catholics.

In 1963, Ireland saw the first visit of a sitting US President to Ireland, President John F. Kennedy, the great-grandson of an Irish emigrant, came on an official visit. His visit seemed to symbolise a new age for the post Famine Irish. During his visit Kennedy visited distant relatives in County Wexford, as well as visiting Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Kennedy later said that his four-day visit to Ireland was one of his most enjoyable. Kennedy later personally invited Lemass back to Washington in October of the same year. One month later the young President Kennedy would be assassinated.

In 1965, a new report called "Investment in Education" was published. After over forty years of independence the report painted a depressing picture of a system where no changes had taken place. Lemass appointed several young and intelligent men to the post of Minister for Education, including Patrick Hillery and George Colley. Under these people a slow process of change eventually began to take place.

The most innovative change in education came in 1966 when Donogh O'Malley was appointed Minister. Shortly after taking over O'Malley announced that from 1969 all schools up to Intermediate level[note 5] would be free and free buses would provide transport for the students. This plan had the backing of Lemass; O'Malley, however, never discussed this hugely innovative and expensive plan with any other cabinet ministers, least of all the Minister for Finance Jack Lynch. However, the plan was not expensive in the long term and has continued ever since. O'Malley had died by the time his brainchild came to maturity.

Various improvements in welfare provision were also carried out during the Lemass era. In 1960, old-age pension insurance was introduced for all manual workers and for salaried employees under a certain earnings ceiling, and in 1963, child allowances were extended to the first child.[17]

The failure of the IRA border campaign in the 1950s and the accession of Lemass as Taoiseach heralded a new policy towards Northern Ireland. Although he was of the staunch republican tradition that rejected partition, he saw clearly that it was unlikely to end in the foreseeable future and that consequently the Republic was better served by disposing of the matter.[18] The new Taoiseach played down the nationalist and anti-partition rhetoric that had done little to further the situation over the previous forty years. Still, as long as the hardline Basil Brooke was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland there was little hope of a rapprochement.

However, in 1963, Terence O'Neill, a younger man with a more pragmatic outlook, succeeded Brooke as Prime Minister. He had years before told Tony Grey of The Irish Times that if he ever succeeded Brooke, he hoped to meet with Lemass.[19] A friendship had developed between O'Neill's secretary, Jim Malley, and the Irish civil servant, T. K. Whitaker. A series of behind-the-scenes negotiations resulted in O'Neill issuing an invitation to Lemass to visit him at Stormont in Belfast.[20]

On 14 January 1965, Lemass travelled to Belfast in the utmost secrecy. The media and even his own cabinet had not been informed until the very last minute. The meeting got a mixed reaction in the North. In the Republic, however, it was seen as a clear indication that the "Irish Cold War" had ended, or at least that a thaw had set in. Lemass returned the invitation on 9 February of the same year by inviting O'Neill to Dublin, but he did not want to be seen to be anti-British. The Irish government encouraged overseas developments with the United States, so that they could share in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Easter Rising. The two leaders discussed cooperation between the two states on general economic matters; local services such as road systems and sewage facilities; agriculture, including exempting Northern Ireland from Britain's quota on butter imports from the Republic; customs; and all-Ireland representation in international sporting events.[18] While in 1966 people began to take notice of Ian Paisley's more hard-line speeches, O'Neill was by Ulster standards a 'liberal' (Roy Hattersley MP), and Harold Wilson's government decided that there had to be radical change as a consequence of the diplomatic rapprochement with Lemass. The 50th Anniversary of the Easter Rising was celebrated by Insurrection a TV mini-series commissioned by RTÉ that was later broadcast on the BBC.

The meetings heralded a new (but short-lived) era of optimism, although for the most part it was manifested in the Republic. Hardline Northern unionists led by Ian Paisley continued to oppose any dealings with the Republic, and even moderate unionists felt the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Easter Rising in 1966 were insulting to them. The rise of the civil rights campaign and the unionists' refusal to acknowledge it ended the optimism with violence in 1969, after Lemass's term in office had finished.

The Lemass era saw some significant developments in Irish foreign policy. Frank Aiken served as Minister for External Affairs during the whole of Lemass's tenure as Taoiseach. At the United Nations Aiken took an independent stance and backed the admission of China to the organisation, in spite of huge protests from the United States. Admitted only in 1955, Ireland played a large role at the UN, serving on the Security Council in 1962, condemning Chinese aggression in Tibet and advocating nuclear arms limitation. One of the main areas of foreign policy which emerged during the Lemass years was a debate over Ireland's neutrality, a debate that has never been formally resolved, with the de facto policy being to avoid joining military engagements or alliances without neutrality as it's traditionally understood.

Lemass was always sceptical about remaining neutral, particularly if Ireland were to join the European Economic Community. Aiken was much more in favour of a neutral, independent stance. In 1960, Irish troops embarked on their first peace-keeping mission in the First Republic of the Congo. Nine soldiers were killed during this mission.

While Aiken was at the UN, Lemass played a major role in pressing for Ireland's membership of the EEC which in many ways became the chief foreign policy consideration during the 1960s.[21]

In 1966, Ireland celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Éamon de Valera came within 1% of defeat in that year's Irish presidential election, less than two months after the celebrations in which he played such a central part. On 10 November 1966, Lemass officially announced to the Dáil his decision to retire as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach with his usual penchant for efficiency, "I have resigned." Lemass retired to the backbenches, and remained a TD until 1969.

On the day of Lemass's retirement, Jack Lynch became the new leader and became the first Taoiseach that had not come through the Irish War of Independence.

During the last few years of his leadership Lemass's health began to deteriorate. He had been a heavy pipe smoker all his life, smoking almost a pound of tobacco a week in later life. At the time of his retirement it was suspected that Lemass had cancer, but this assumption was later disproved. In February 1971, while attending a rugby game at Lansdowne Road, he became unwell; he was rushed to hospital and was told by his doctor that one of his lungs was about to collapse.

On Tuesday, 11 May 1971, Seán Lemass died in the Mater Hospital in Dublin, aged 71.[22] He was afforded a state funeral and was buried in Deansgrange Cemetery.[23]

• 'Fianna Fáil is a slightly constitutional party...but before anything we are a republican party.' (1928)[25]
• 'A rising tide lifts all boats.' (1964, attributed to John F. Kennedy).[26]
• 'The historical task of this generation, as I see it, is to consolidate the economic foundations of our political independence.' (1959)
• 'First and foremost we wish to see the re-unification of Ireland restored. By every test Ireland is one nation with a fundamental right to have its essential unity expressed in its political institutions.' (1960)
• 'The country is, I think, like an aeroplane at the take-off stage. It has become airborne; that is the stage of maximum risk and any failure of power could lead to a crash. It will be a long time before we can throttle back to level flight.' (1961)
• 'A defeatist attitude now would surely lead to defeat...We can't opt out of the future.' (1965)
• 'I regret that time would not stand still for me so that I could go on indefinitely.' (1966)
• 'RTE was set up by legislation as an instrument of public policy, and, as such is responsible to the government.' (1966)