Abstract
Lemass was, like de Valera, a 1916 veteran, but he was seventeen years younger, and in many ways seemed to belong to a different generation. An Irish patriot as early as the age of 16, Lemass became a freedom fighter in the streets of Dublin, engaging the Easter Rising and other hostilities and landing in jail again and again. His brother Noel died as a revolutionary. After the establishment of the Irish Free State, he joined Eamon de Valera and the other holdouts, becoming a member of the headquarters staff of the Irish Republican Army in 1922 and sharing in the founding of the new party, Fianna Fail, in 1926. When de Valera became president in 1959, Lemass inherited the office of Prime Minister. To succeed a leader of the stature of de Valera was a daunting challenge. Many felt that Fianna Fail could not flourish without the 'Chief'. But when Seàn Lemass became Taoiseach, he had been a TD for over thirty years, and a minister for more than twenty. He knew what a government was about and had a clear idea about what he wanted it to do: to bring the independent Ireland he has helped to liberate into a fuller recognition of the responsibilities and opportunities of that independence in the circumstances of the modern world. Lemass knew that his accession to power marked a new departure in Irish politics. After de Valera things would never be the same, nor would Lemass wish it otherwise. In 1959, Lemass was in position to set about making major changes.
