The Taoiseach launches Gary Murphy's new book entitled 'The Lemass Era: Politics and Society in the Ireland of Sean Lemass'
Tuesday 29 November

The Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, T.D. pictured with Gary Murphy at the launch of his book 'The Lemass Era: Politics and Society in the Ireland of Sean Lemass'

The Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, T.D. launched Gary Murphy's new book “The Lemass Era: Politics and Society in the Ireland of Sean Lemass", co-edited with Brian Girvin and published by UCD press, in Newman House, St. Stephens Green, on Thursday, 24 November 2005.

This book focuses on the impact of Seán Lemass on Irish politics between 1945 and 1973. It suggests that Lemass was the pivotal figure in the transition from the conservatism of de Valera’s Ireland to the more open, progressive and modern society that takes form during the 1960s. He became Taoiseach at the age of 60, but showed a capacity for new thinking and hard work that would have been impressive in a younger person. The essays in this book demonstrate his importance at the centre of the policy making process, reinforcing the crucial difference that an individual can make to a political system. His actions broke the dead hand of conservative nationalism on Irish society and offered the opportunity for alternative avenues of development. If de Valera characterised the main features of the first half of the twentieth century, then Lemass is the most formidable influence over the second half. In many ways Lemass’s influence is greater than that of de Valera, as it is his vision that has prevailed in the modernisation of Irish society and its economic success since the 1960s.