Life
1899-1971 [Seán Francis Lemass]; b. Ballybrack, Co. Dublin, 15
July; son of Capel St. draper; ed. O’Connell Schools, Dublin; 1st
class exhibition, Junior Grade Intermed.; joined Irish Volunteers, 1914;
served under de Valera; present in GPO in 1916; interned in Ballykinlar,
1920; Republican in Civil War; sufered death of his br. Noel; interned
Curragh Camp and Mountjoy, Dec. 1922-Dec. 1923; helped organised Republican
jail-break from Mountjoy in 1925; Dublin city TD, 1925-1969; founder-member
of Fianna Fáil, the party whose formation from the elements of
Sinn Féin he proposed to de Valera for purposes of entering the
Dáil, 1926; called Fianna Fáil a ‘slightly constitutional
party’ in Dáil debate during 1928; Min. of Industry and Commerce,
Mar. 1932; also Min. of Supplies 1941-45; Taoiseach, succeeding de Valera,
23rd June 1959; promoted state boards and national industries; Fianna
Fáil wins general election, 1965; re-established free trade with
Britain, 1965; visited Belfast, 1965; hon. degrees and international honours.
incl. Order of Gregory the Great (Pian Order), Order of Merit of FD Roosevelt;
resigned as Taoiseach, Nov. 1966; d. 11 May. DIB DIH
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Works
The role of the State Sponsored Bodies, with comments by C. S.
Andrews and J. P. Beddy (Dublin: IPA 1959), 28pp.
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Criticism
Michael Farrell, Sean Lemass (1983).
Michael O’Sullivan, Seán Lemass: A Biography (Blackwater Press 1994).
John Horgan, Sean Lemass: The Enigmatic Patriot (Dublin: Gll & Macmillan 1997), 424pp.
George D. Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland (London: Routledge
1982; 1991 Edn.), espec. Chap. 11
John Waters, review of Michael O’Sullivan, Seán Lemass: A Biography (Blackwater Press 1994), in The Irish Times, 17 Dec. 1995.
Conor McCarthy, Modernisation: Crisis and Culture in Ireland 1969-1992 (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2000).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)