(Photograph by courtesy of Seán D Lemass)
1899-1971. From Dublin, Taoiseach. On Sunday 5 Nov 1961 he had an audience with Pope John XX111 on the occasion of the Pope’s 80th birthday. At fifteen years of age Lemass joined the Volunteers. He fought in the GPO in the Easter Rising of 1916 and was in the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence. He was arrested in 1920 and interned for a year at Ballykinlar, County Down. Lemass was in the Four Courts as second in command at the start of the Civil War. Captured, he escaped only to be captured once more. From December 1922 to December 1923 Lemass was interned. The future Taoiseach made use of his time in prison, researching, among other topics, economics. This was to prove beneficial in later years. Lemass was first elected as a TD in 1924 and was elected at each election until his retirement in 1969. He was a co-founder of Fianna Fáil in 1926, and served as Minister for Industry & Commerce (1932-1939, 1941-1948, 1951-1954 & 1957-1959) and Minister for Supplies (1939-1945). Lemass was appointed Tánaiste on three occasions (1945-1948, 1951-1954 and 1957-1959). He served as Taoiseach 1959-1966. He is remembered for his tireless work to develop Irish industry and for forging new links between Northern and Southern Ireland. Lemass is regarded as one of, if not, the most influential ministers and Taoisigh of the 20th Century and the architect of modern Ireland. For his Gregory in 1948 see John Cooney “John Charles McQuaid” the 1948 decorations conferred on John Leydon and Freddie Boland were “for their aid work on behalf of refugees in Europe. Industry and Commerce had sanctioned the export of supplies for charitable purposes and Boland had secured Government agreement that monies from the European Relief Vote would be allocated to cover the cost of transporting aid being sent by McQuaid to seminaries in Italy in response to an appeal by Cardinal Pizzardo”. He died on 11 May and was, like other papal knights, buried in Deansgrange Cemetery.[References: “Sean Lemass -- Democratic Dictator” by Bryce Evans, The Collins Press, 2011; “Sean Lemass” by Brian Farrell Gill & MacMillan 1983]
