This collection of essays, subtitled Politics and Society in the Ireland of Seán Lemass, brings together eleven essays on aspects of the Lemass era. Usefully, the book defines the Lemass era as beginning in 1945. Hence, rather than focusing on Lemass as the visionary Taoiseach (1959–66) responsible for laying the foundations of economic growth and the modernization of Irish society, many of the essays touch on the less-considered role of Lemass as a key member of the conservative Fianna Fáil governments of the 1940s and 1950s, a period of economic stagnation and national malaise.
Niamh Puirséil's opening essay provides a useful overview of the politics of the era, assessing the performance of the two interparty governments as well as that of Fianna Fáil. The end of the Emergency heralded a decade of political as well as economic instability, but Fianna Fáil's loosening grip on the Irish electorate, further weakened by the emergence of Clann na Poblachta, did give Lemass the opportunity to press for a more modern and pragmatic political agenda. Purséil's article emphasizes just how much resistance there was within the party to demands for radical shift from economic protectionism. Like all successful politicians, Lemass was also a lucky one: the very severity of the conditions of the 1950s helped to create an acceptance of the need for a change in direction. He was also fortunate that the opposition failed to create a credible alternative government to Fianna Fáil, allowing the soldiers of destiny to restore their traditional hegemony.
Gary Murphy's article traces the transition from economic nationalism to free trade, making a strong case that Lemass's economic policies represented the most important development of the period. These included a shift to a more corporatist agenda in policy formulation; the greater importance attached to economic planning; and the incremental reduction of protectionism, which led to the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement, and ultimately membership of the European Economic Community (EEC). Murphy observes that Irish farmers represented “the most overtly selfish and sectional group” that Lemass had to contend with, in contrast to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which proved “able to take a dispassionate and long-term view of the country's economic prospects” (46). We are also reminded that despite the successes of the early 1960s, the second half of the decade saw a level of industrial arrest which may have contributed to Lemass's decision to resign.
Enda Delaney's stimulating essay on emigration considers one of the bleakest aspects of this period. Nearly 700,000 citizens emigrated from Ireland between 1945 and the early 1970s, an exodus that represented a source of embarrassment for politicians by exposing the contrast between the rhetoric and reality of Irish independence. The state's parsimonious response to those who left was little short of shoddy: successive governments refused to accept any responsibility for the cost of establishing welfare services in Britain, which were seen as a concern of the Catholic Church. However, such grim realities at least forced a maturing of political discourse: emigration was no longer routinely denounced as unpatriotic or evil by politicians who began to concede that, for some, the decision to leave the country represented a rational choice in pursuit of an improved standard of living. Making much the same point as Purséil, Delaney observes that even the most conservative elements within the state's elite recognized that mass emigration, by raising questions about the very viability of the state, helped create the context for a radical change in direction.
Although the essays in this collection consider a wide range of subjects, they work well together, allowing a number of themes to emerge. Economics can clearly be seen as the driving force of political and social change. The desire to access Marshall Plan funds, as Peter Murray demonstrates, compelled the government to embrace planning and pursue greater participation in international structures such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Maurice Fitzgerald demonstrates how the prioritization of trade liberalization impacted on Irish foreign policy, which became less Anglophobic and more oriented toward the EEC, United Nations, and the United States. Although Irish diplomats (particularly under Frank Aiken) made much of Ireland's neutrality and its support for decolonization, disarmament, and peace keeping, pragmatic economic considerations quietly became the impetus behind Irish foreign policy. This tension between the state's idealistic (and arguably merely rhetorical) neutrality and what Fitzgerald describes as “the mainstreaming of foreign policy” remains a feature of Irish policy on issues such as American involvement in Iraq. The requirements of mainstreaming also forced a shift of attitude on partition, as Irish politicians embraced a more conciliatory approach on the north (albeit one ignored by de Valera and Aiken).
This theme is further developed by Michael Kennedy's fine essay on cross-border cooperation, which provides a much-needed corrective to the image of Lemass as a forerunner of the peace process. As Kennedy points out, where Lemass differed most from his colleagues was not in his opposition to partition but in how he thought it should be approached. Here again, we see the recurring importance of economic issues: Brookeborough's Unionist government was much perturbed by the fact that Anglo-Irish free trade would inevitably stimulate greater cross-border cooperation: Dublin's departure from the old certainties of economic nationalism proved more troubling to Belfast than its traditional antipartitionist rhetoric.
Like many of the authors in this volume, Brian Girvin offers a more nuanced depiction of Lemass than the popular modernizing image. He may have been privately skeptical about the influence of the Catholic Church, but he remained deferential to its demands and maintained the consensus between church and state. Girvin's discussion of the intolerant and often oppressive nature of Catholic society makes for uncomfortable reading: although he is rightly critical of the Catholic Church, like Delaney, he makes the point that the state also abdicated its responsibilities for the welfare of some of its most vulnerable citizens. Other essays in this highly stimulating collection, which includes a foreword by John Horgan, concern educational expansion (John Walsh), film policy (Roddy Flynn), and the introduction of Irish television (Robert Savage).
