Editing Seán Lemass (section)

==Taoiseach (1959–1966)==
On 23 June 1959, Seán Lemass was appointed [[Taoiseach]], on the nomination of [[Dáil Éireann]]. Many had wondered if [[Fianna Fáil]] could survive without de Valera as leader. However, Lemass quickly established his control over the party. Although he was one of the founding members of Fianna Fáil he was still only fifty-nine years old, seventeen years younger than De Valera. 

The change of personnel in Fianna Fáil was also accompanied by a change of personnel in [[Fine Gael]], with [[James Dillon (Fine Gael politician)|James Dillon]] becoming leader upon [[Richard Mulcahy]]'s retirement in 1959, and [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour]], in which [[Brendan Corish]] succeeded [[William Norton]] in 1960. A generation of leaders who had dominated Irish politics for over three decades had moved off the stage of history – although neither Fine Gael nor Labour's new leaders initiated major policy changes on the level of Lemass's.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Lemass also initiated several changes in the cabinet. He is credited with providing a transition phase between the old guard and a new generation of professional politicians. Younger men such as [[Brian Lenihan Snr|Brian Lenihan]], [[Charles Haughey]], [[Patrick Hillery]] and [[Donogh O'Malley]] were all given their first cabinet [[Portfolio (government)|portfolio]]s by Lemass, and ministers who joined under de Valera, such as [[Jack Lynch]], [[Neil Blaney]] and [[Kevin Boland]] were promoted by the new Taoiseach. Similarly, several members of the old guard retired from politics during the Lemass era. By 1965, [[Frank Aiken]] was the only de Valera veteran remaining in government, and would become the only founder-member of Fianna Fáil to survive Lemass as a member of the government and the Dáil.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

{{anchor|Lemass era}}The term ''Lemass era'' is used by author and academic Brian Girvin to describe the period of economic change between 1959 and 1966. It is so termed because Lemass came from a business background, unlike the more academic and religious de Valera, and this was seen as a factor in the economic turnaround at the time.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Girvin|first=Brian|title=The Lemass Era: Politics and Society in the Ireland of Sean Lemass|publisher=University College Dublin Press|year=2005|isbn=1904558291}}</ref> However, factors other than the leadership of Lemass had a role to play in the change in Ireland at the time – a generation of young politicians born after the [[Irish Civil War|Civil War]], the presence of [[T. K. Whitaker]] in the [[Department of Finance (Ireland)|Department of Finance]] and the arrival of television all had a role.<ref name=":0" />

During the Lemass era, the [[Industrial Development Authority|IDA]] greatly refocused its efforts on attracting quality industry, [[RTÉ]] was created, whilst population decline and emigration halted somewhat, and the Programme for Economic Expansion was implemented.<ref name=":0" />

The period also saw the destruction of much of [[Georgian Dublin]] to make way for modern buildings, and the resettlement of inner-city Dublin communities in new developments such as [[Ballymun]] and [[Tallaght]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

===Economic programmes===
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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

====First Programme for Economic Expansion====
[[File:Seán Lemass at Schiphol Airport (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Lemass in 1947]]
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 of Ireland|government]] policy upon his ascension in 1959.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hanna|first=Erika|title= Modern Dublin Urban Change and the Irish Past, 1957–1973|location=Oxford|year=2013|pages=95–105|isbn=978-0-19-968045-0}}</ref>

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&nbsp;million of state capital in investing in an integrated system of national development.<ref>The Irish currency was the [[Irish pound]] (IEP). It was abolished when Ireland adopted the [[Euro]] on 1 January 1999.</ref>

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 [[Great Famine (Ireland)|famine]]. Agriculture was the only sector which failed to respond to the programme.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Garvin|first=Tom|title=Preventing the Future|location=Dublin|year=2004|pages=45–46|isbn=0-7171-3771-6}}</ref>

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 in the [[European Community|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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

====Second Programme for Economic Expansion====
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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The Second Programme was discontinued in 1967 after Lemass had left office and the programme's goals proved far from completion.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

===Social change===
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 (Irish talk show)|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 that 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 attitudes of Irish Catholics.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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 (city)|Cork]], [[Galway]] 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, D.C.|Washington]] in October of the same year. One month later the young President Kennedy would be assassinated.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

In 1965, a report titled "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 (Ireland)|Minister for Education]], including Patrick Hillery and [[George Colley]]. Under these people, a slow process of change eventually began to take place.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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<ref group="note">The [[Intermediate Certificate (Ireland)|Intermediate Certificate]] was an examination taken after three years' study in a secondary school. See [[Junior Certificate]] for the modern equivalent.</ref> 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]].{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GaWtd5zJfB8C&q=growth+to+limits+ireland+old+age+pension+insurance+for+all+manual+wage+earners&pg=PA248|title=Growth to Limits: The Western European Welfare States Since World War II|first=Peter|last=Flora|date=2 November 1986|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|access-date=2 November 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9783110111316|archive-date=29 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429151053/https://books.google.com/books?id=GaWtd5zJfB8C&q=growth+to+limits+ireland+old+age+pension+insurance+for+all+manual+wage+earners&pg=PA248|url-status=live}}</ref> A National Manpower Agency was also established.<ref>Ideologues, Partisans, and Loyalists Ministers and Policymaking in Parliamentary Cabinets By Despina Alexiadou, 2016, P.182</ref>

===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}}

===Foreign policy===
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2012}}
The Lemass era saw some significant developments in Irish foreign policy. [[Frank Aiken]] served as [[Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade|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 [[People's Republic of China|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 [[United Nations Security Council|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{{Clarify|date=April 2009}} over [[Irish neutrality|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.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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 Army|Irish troops]] embarked on their first peace-keeping mission in the First Republic of the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]]. Nine soldiers were killed during this mission.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Michael J.|last=Geary|title=An Inconvenient Wait: Ireland's Quest for Membership of the EEC, 1957–73|location=Dublin|publisher=Institute for Public Administration|date=2009|chapter=Chapters 1–2}}</ref>