Shortly following the 1963 tour of Ireland by John F. Kennedy, Time magazine observed a renewed vigour in the country, subsequently described as “A fresh breath in the old heartland.” The driving force behind this change was Seán Lemass, a dynamic leader nicknamed “an elderly man in a rush.”
In the middle of the year, the magazine highlighted the 63-year-old Prime Minister on its front page, with a mythical elf unveiling a spectacular factory from behind a green curtain adorned with shamrock motifs. Under Lemass’ adept leadership, Ireland discarded its sombre disposition, embracing a newfound optimism. Despite the persistence of serious stout consumption and debates, Time noted that, for the first time in many years, the majority of Irish citizens anticipated a prosperous future. The U.S. President told the Irish parliament during his speech that the world was in dire need of the Irish recipe of “hope, confidence, and imagination”. Kennedy reminisced that, had his great-grandfather not migrated to America, he might have been addressing the parliament as one of them. The President mentioned that, had Ireland’s President, Éamon de Valera, never left his Brooklyn birthplace, he could possibly be sitting in the White House. As Time phrased it, “the prodigal son’s return” symbolised to the Irish people the great progress they had made.
According to Time’s profile of Lemass, signs of hopefulness were apparent throughout the country – modern factories and office buildings, Fords and Volkswagens plying the streets, and television antennas dotting the skyline. Lemass was the embodiment of Ireland’s evolving “we can” attitude.
His predecessor, de Valera, was celebrated for his “martyr’s countenance” and “mystic intellect”, attributes adored by the Irish. In contrast, Time’s correspondent wrote, Lemass was a “reserved, pragmatic schemer”, doggedly working as a minister in his efforts to shatter the endless loop of economic paralysis and population decline. The outflow of emigration had slowed, and many expatriates had returned home to secure jobs. “Today,” Time’s author concluded, “the Irish are beginning to become self-reliant.”
Seán Lemass, colloquially known as the “elderly man in a rush,” was a focal point of the article written by John Mulqueen.
Frank McNally unravels the story of how a tiny Dublin thoroughfare became a catalyst for media discourse about the city’s trajectory. In a separate article, McNally discusses the impact of an unearthed 1965 national anthem recording, while in another, he elaborates on the understated prestige of the French honour ribbon.
The pivotal time in Ireland’s history saw the small yet increasingly open-minded nation cementing an extraordinary global stature that commanded an exceptional amount of respect, especially in the United Nations. As Sean Lemass took the reins in 1959, he cast aside the protective policies cherished by his predecessor, de Valera. Instead, foreign investors were embraced, and the Industrial Development Authority representatives, fondly referred to as “blarney-blessed salesmen” by an equally blarney-blessed Times writer, traveled internationally to convince businesses to invest in the Emerald Isle.
Lemass was particularly disillusioned when Charles de Gaulle rejected Britain’s application to join the European Economic Community (EEC), which subsequently jeopardized Ireland’s own application. In anticipation of a triumphant future attempt at EEC membership, which Lemass presumed would not occur before 1970, he pledged Ireland’s fidelity to NATO policies, as the six EEC member countries were also part of the military coalition. Lemass justified this stance during the Cuban Missile Crisis, asserting before the Dáil that the people of Ireland, comprising 99% of the populace, stood against the Soviet Union’s “communist empire”, demonstrating that Ireland no longer held a politically neutral position and was innately aligned with the West.
Furthermore, this new era also saw the abandonment of de Valera’s impassioned anti-partitioning speeches. Lemass proposed a vision that the potential inclusion of Britain and Ireland into the EEC would lead to the dismantling of tariff barriers, instigating an economic collaboration between the North and South that would hasten reunification. Lemass championed the ideology that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. However, the challenging issue of housing persisted within his jurisdiction, unrelenting in the face of progress. Outside of his influence lay the troubled state of sectarian Northern Ireland.
After their unsuccessful “border campaign”, the leadership of the beleaguered IRA began to pivot towards socialism, secularism, and anti-sectarianism. These changes were heavily influenced by republican ideologies, particularly those of Theobald Wolfe Tone, who preached that the way to bring about significant change in Ireland was to overcome sectarianism. Demonstrating this shift, during a lecture series in September 1963 commemorating the 200th anniversary of Tone’s birth, IRA chief of staff, Cathal Goulding, had Hubert Butler, a Protestant, address the ideology of Tone at the Mansion House. Butler spoke of Tone’s “enduring ideal”, the collective identify of the Irish people
The 1960s proved to be a time of significant social changes. The advent of television broadcasted world happenings into people’s homes, discussing subjects publicly that were once considered forbidden. Questioning the authority of the Catholic Church did not carry the same social and political consequences as before. Audiences were exposed to global issues including the American-Vietnamese war and the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Later, progressive republicans organized protest movements addressing topics like public housing and civil rights in Northern Ireland.
But the crucial question was– who would back the fight for national freedom? Citing Tone, the answer pointed to “the men of no property”.
However, the violence that broke out between Catholics and Protestants in Derry and Belfast in August 1969, accompanied with the arrival of British soldiers, marked the end of the civil rights movement in the North and the beginning of the Troubles.
Yet, it’s worth noting that not everyone agreed upon Lemass’s “rising tide” theory.