[2] Lemass's legacy is tied to his efforts in facilitating industrial growth, bringing foreign direct investment into the country, and forging permanent links between Ireland and the European community.

The family operated a hatter and outfitter business and lived at the premises in Capel Street (in Dublin city centre) where Lemass grew up.

[10] His older brother, Noel, an anti-Treaty officer, was abducted in June 1923 and murdered the following October, when he was 25; the Lemass family believed he was killed by pro-treaty soldier, Emmet Dalton.

The names[note 1] of those who carried out Collins' orders on the morning of 21 November 1920 were not disclosed until author Tim Pat Coogan mentioned them in his book on the history of the IRA, published in 1970.

He became a training officer for a period in Beggars Bush Barracks before the IRA split and was involved in the Belfast Boycott operations (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)).

The occupation of the Four Courts eventually resulted in the outbreak of the Civil War, when, under British pressure, the Free State side shelled the building on 28 June 1922.

Lemass and O'Malley returned to Dublin along with Thomas Derrig as a member of the IRA Eastern Command Headquarters but were later captured in December 1922 and interned in the Curragh Camp.

On 11 August 1927, having signed the Oath of Allegiance in front of a representative of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State, the TDs from what Lemass described as "a slightly constitutional party" entered the Dáil.

Against the background of the Great Depression, he and de Valera engaged in the Anglo-Irish Trade War which lasted from 1933 until 1938, causing severe damage and hardship to the Irish economy and the cattle industry.

[5] Subsequently, Irish economic historians have found that many of his decisions on tariffs and licences were made on an ad-hoc basis, with little coherent policy and forward planning.

[note 4] The state had to achieve an unprecedented degree of self-sufficiency and it was Lemass's role to ensure this; he had the difficult task of organising what little resources existed.

When Seán T. O'Kelly was elected president of Ireland in 1945, de Valera chose Lemass over older cabinet colleagues to succeed him as Tánaiste.

Younger men such as Brian Lenihan, Charles Haughey, Patrick Hillery and Donogh O'Malley were all given their first cabinet portfolios by Lemass, and ministers who joined under de Valera, such as Jack Lynch, Neil Blaney and Kevin Boland were promoted by the new Taoiseach.

[20] During the Lemass era, the 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.

[citation needed] Lemass summed up his economic philosophy by copying an often-quoted phrase: "A rising tide lifts all boats".

[22] 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.

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 famine.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

Lemass appointed several young and intelligent men to the post of Minister for Education, including Patrick Hillery and George Colley.

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.

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.

[7] 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 rapprochement with Lemass.

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.

Admitted only in 1955, Ireland played a large role at the UN, serving on the Security Council in 1962, condemning Chinese aggression in Tibet and advocating nuclear arms limitation.

[citation needed] 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.

On 10 November 1966, Lemass announced to the Dáil his decision to retire as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach with his usual penchant for efficiency, "I have resigned".

Some historians have questioned whether Lemass came to the premiership too late, arguing that had he replaced de Valera as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach in 1951 he could have begun the process of reform of Irish society and the industrialisation of Ireland a decade earlier than 1959 when he eventually achieved the top governmental job.

Lemass's coolness towards the revival of the Irish language and intellectual agnosticism also contrasted with de Valera's passionate Gaelicism and commitment to traditional Catholicism.