Editing Seán Lemass (section)

===Northern Ireland===
The failure of the IRA [[Border Campaign (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.<ref name="judginglemass"/> The new Taoiseach played down the [[Irish nationalism|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, 1st Viscount Brookeborough|Basil Brooke]] was [[Prime Minister of Northern Ireland]] there was little hope of a ''rapprochement''.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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.<ref>{{cite book|last=O Sullivan |first=Michael |title=Seán Lemass: A Biography |publisher=Blackwater Press|year=1994 |page=178 |isbn=978-0-86121-583-6}}</ref> 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, Belfast|Stormont]] in [[Belfast]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kennedy|first=Michael J.|title=Division and consensus: the politics of cross-border relations in Ireland, 1925–1969|publisher=Institute of Public Administration|year=2000|pages=232–|isbn=978-1-902448-30-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=asK9EjEpcYAC&q=tk+whitaker&pg=PA232|access-date=21 November 2020|archive-date=11 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211223006/https://books.google.com/books?id=asK9EjEpcYAC&q=tk+whitaker&pg=PA232|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 of Ireland|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.<ref name="judginglemass" /> 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 {{lang|fr|rapprochement}} with Lemass.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} The 50th Anniversary of the Easter Rising was celebrated by [[Insurrection (TV series)|Insurrection]], a TV mini-series commissioned by [[RTÉ]] that was later broadcast on the [[BBC]].{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

The meetings heralded a new (but short-lived) era of optimism, although, for the most part, it was manifested in the Republic. Hardline Northern [[Unionism in Ireland|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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}