Seán Lemass

Seán Lemass

Seán Francis Lemass (born July 15, 1899 in Dublin , † May 11, 1971 ibid) was an Irish politician and founding member of the Fianna Fáil party . For the constituency of Dublin South, he moved into the Irish Parliament in 1924 (then still for Sinn Féin ) . He then defended his mandate as Teachta Dála without interruption until 1969. He was Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister for Utilities, Vice Prime Minister and between 1959 and 1966 the office of Prime Minister ( Taoiseach ) of the Republic of Ireland.

youth

Seán Lemass began to be involved in the Irish independence movement very early on and in 1915 he joined the Irish Volunteers . In 1916 he took an active part in the Easter Rising and was arrested. However, his youth led to his early release from prison.

He remained connected to the Irish Volunteers, who then re-formed as the IRA . During the Irish War of Independence he was part of the IRA's Dublin Brigade , led by Michael Collins . In 1920, Collins managed to get information about British agents in Dublin (the Cairo Gang) and ordered their liquidation. This series of attacks, in which Lemass was also involved, took place on November 21st. British troops then carried out a bloodbath of civilians in Dublin; the day would go down in Irish history as the first Bloody Sunday . Lemass was then arrested again in 1921 and interned until 1923.

Political career

The following year he moved to the Dáil Éireann for Sinn Féin . Éamon de Valera tried at that time to persuade Sinn Féin to recognize both the Irish Free State and the Irish Parliament. However, these hopes failed, in 1926 de Valera and Lemass left the party. You were among the activists who constituted the Fianna Fáil party. They too were opposed to the partition of Ireland, but took a more pragmatic point of view than many of the irreconcilable Republicans who viewed the secession of Northern Ireland as treason.

Fianna Fáil won the national elections as early as 1932. Seán Francis Lemass was then Minister of the Economy. He set out to build the Irish economy against adversities such as import duties and a lack of commitment from the Treasury.

His efforts to strengthen the national economy resulted in imported motor vehicles being taxed more heavily than domestic ones. In addition, the annual number of imported vehicles was limited. As a result, several dozen companies started from 1933 with the assembly of automobiles from supplied parts. It was not until 1984 that assembly at some manufacturers ended.

During the Second World War Ireland was officially neutral and then economically on its own. To accommodate this situation, the Ministry of Supply was created, with Lemass at its head. He mastered the difficult situation during the war years with confidence, whereupon de Valera appointed him Deputy Prime Minister ( Tánaiste ) in 1945 .

But the two statesmen had fundamentally different views about the future of the country. While de Valera continued to view Ireland as a traditional and agriculturally oriented country, Lemass planned to expand domestic industry and modernize the country.

In the office of the Prime Minister

In 1959 de Valera announced his resignation from the office of prime minister and party chairman. For many, Fianna Fáil was unimaginable without him; de Valera had dominated Irish politics too much. Lemass took over these offices in his place and succeeded not only in managing the affairs of state, but also in carrying out the overdue generation change. Although only prime minister of a minority government , his term as Taoiseach is considered one of the most productive in Irish history. Trade barriers and protectionism were removed and Ireland joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1960 ; only joining the EC did not succeed in 1961. The economy was sustainably promoted through tax breaks and state subsidies.

Political change was also reflected in relations with Northern Ireland . After years of hostile rhetoric on both sides, a rapprochement between Dublin and Belfast succeeded , and in 1965 Lemass established contacts with the then Northern Irish Prime Minister Terence O'Neill . This period of optimism did not last long, however, and the Northern Ireland conflict began to escalate.

In 1966, Seán Lemass resigned from office, gave up his seat in parliament three years later and withdrew from active politics. The crowning glory of his life's work, joining the European Community in 1973, was not to be seen again. he died on May 11, 1971 in Dublin.

literature

• Brian Girvin and Gary Murphy (eds.): The Lemass Era: Politics and Society in the Ireland of Seán Lemass , Dublin, 2005
• John Horgan: Seán Lemass: The Enigmatic Patriot , Dublin, 1997

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bob Montgomery: Motor Assembly in Ireland . Dreoilín Specialist Publications, Foxrock 2018, ISBN 978-1-902773-35-3 (English).