Editing Jack Lynch (section)

===Lemass resignation===
Lemass retired in 1966 after 7 years in the position and a leadership race (the first contested race in the history of the party) threatened to tear Fianna Fáil apart. Lynch, and another favourite of Lemass's, [[Patrick Hillery]], ruled themselves out of the [[1966 Fianna Fáil leadership election|leadership election]] from the very beginning. However, other candidates such as [[Charles Haughey]], [[George Colley]] and [[Neil Blaney]] threw their hats into the ring immediately. None of the candidates that were being offered to the party seemed particularly appealing and Lemass' made one last attempt to coax either Hillery or Lynch to join the race as a compromise candidate. Hillery remained adamant that he did not want the leadership and eventually Lynch allowed his name to go forward. Upon hearing this Haughey and Blaney, the latter having never really entered the race in the first place, withdrew and announced their support for Lynch. Colley refused to withdraw and when it was put to a ballot Lynch comfortably defeated him by 52 votes to 19. Lynch was thus elected [[Taoiseach]] and leader of Fianna Fáil on 10 November 1966.

The Lynch succession, however, was not a smooth one. Three men had openly expressed ambitions to be Taoiseach, Haughey, Blaney and Colley. Three other cabinet ministers had also contemplated running, these were [[Brian Lenihan Snr|Brian Lenihan]], [[Kevin Boland]] and [[Donogh O'Malley]].