Lemass inspires accolades and controversy

THE late Fianna Fail Taoiseach, Sean Lemass, received the ultimate accolade from a Fine Gael politician yesterday when the Seanad leader, Mr Maurice Manning, said no Taoiseach has a more secure reputation. "It is certain that history will always be kind to him," he said.

Lemass is central to the theme of this year's school, "Ireland at the Heart of Europe - From Lemass to the 1996 Presidency".

The former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald, who was in the audience, said Lemass was an effective Taoiseach who came to power at the right time. He said: "I voted for him in 1961." But he added that Lemass had let the wrong people become powerful.

The deputy leader of Fianna Fail, Ms Mary O'Rourke, interpreted this as "a vendetta against Charlie Haughey. Charlie has his warts but every politician has warts", she said, adding that the former Taoiseach had great achievements as well.

The British ambassador, Mrs Veronica Sutherland, paid tribute to Lemass's determination to further the cause of reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

Dr John Horgan, senior Lecturer in journalism at DCU, who is writing a biography of Lemass, spoke of the risk of stereotyping him. "You don't get to be Taoiseach by being bluff, uncompromising or uncomplicated." He believed Lemass came to power too late and that his vision was "too powerful and two strong a medicine" even for the 1960s.

Ms O'Rourke rejected Dr Horgan's suggestion that Lemass had a certain ambivalence to power and that in 1959 he tried to persuade de Valera to stay on. "Sure, he had to say that - `you shouldn't move on, chief'. He had to be polite."

She said he was a "pragmatist and a doer", and his Oxford address in 1959 was a draft of the Framework Document and the Downing Street declaration.

Mr Stephen King, personal adviser to the deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party, Mr John Taylor, praised Lemass for his cross-border efforts. He rejected a suggestion that unionists saw every move towards cross-border initiatives as "Trojan horses", and said he believed the fault lay on the Republic's side.

Mr Stephen Collins, political correspondent of the Sunday Tribune, said Lemass's "botched succession" when he retired plunged Fianna Fail into a crisis which continued for 30 years.