In June 1923, after the end of the civil war, Sean Lemass's brother Noel Lemass, an anti-Treaty IRA officer, was abducted in Dublin by a number of men, believed to be connected to the Irish Army or the Police CID unit.

He believed that the existing members of the government owed their positions to Lemass, and so he retained the entire Cabinet, albeit with some members moving to different departments.

The new Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, began the process of retiring de Valera's ministers, many of whom had first become ministers in the de Valera cabinet of 1932.

Under Lemass, party elders such as James Ryan, Seán MacEntee and Paddy Smith retired and a new generation of politicians were introduced to government such as Brian Lenihan, Donogh O ' Malley, Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney.

In May, de Valera, assisted by Gerald Boland and Lemass, began to plan a new party.

Lemass had the two difficult tasks of developing Irish industry behind his new tariff walls, and convincing the conservative Department of Finance to promote state involvement in industry.

While Lemass concentrated on economic matters, de Valera focused primarily on constitutional affairs, leading to the passage of the new Constitution of Ireland in 1937.

De Valera became Taoiseach, while Lemass served in the new Government ( the new name for the cabinet ) again as Minister for Industry and Commerce.

A generation of leaders who had dominated Irish politics for over three decades had moved off the stage of history — although neither Fine Gael or Labour's new leaders initiated major policy changes on the level of Lemass '.

Younger men such as Brian Lenihan, Charles Haughey, Patrick Hillery and Michael Hilliard 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.

The failure of the IRA border campaign in the 1950s and the accession of Lemass as Taoiseach heralded a new policy towards Northern Ireland.

In 1959 de Valera was elected President of Ireland and Seán Lemass became the new Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader.

Lemass also wanted to reward him for his loyalty by naming him Tánaiste, however, the new leader felt obliged to appoint Seán MacEntee, one of the party elders to the position.

The government was able to take control of the economic life of the country under the new Minister of Supply Seán Lemass.

Soon after, the company moved its main processing operations to a new complex at Annerville, five kilometres east of Clonmel, which was opened in 1965 by the then Taoiseach, Seán Lemass.

Lemass reversed his policies in 1959 and the economy started to grow as a new member of the EFTA.

The introduction of new import tariffs helped some Irish industries to expand when Lemass introduced the Control of Manufactures Act, whereby the majority ownership of Irish companies was to be limited to Irish citizens.

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

It was in this department where Lynch worked closely with Lemass and T. K. Whitaker in generating economic growth and implementing the Programme for Economic Expansion.

Poor economic growth and lack of social services led Sean Lemass, who succeeded the veteran Éamon de Valera as leader of Fianna Fáil and as Taoiseach in 1958, to state that if economic performance did not improve, the very future of the independent Irish state was at risk.

Lemass, along with T. K. Whitaker as Secretary for the Department of Finance set specific plans for economic growth, including planned investment in industrial infrastructure and dropping of many protective tariffs and giving tax incentives to foreign manufacturing companies to set up in Ireland.

The economic plans of the Lemass era yielded economic growth of 4 % a year between 1959-1973.

The economic war ended in 1938 with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement between both governments, after a serious of talks in London between the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, de Valera, Ryan and Sean Lemass.

In a clear message that there would be a change in economic policy Ryan, a close ally of Seán Lemass, was appointed Minister for Finance, replacing the conservative Seán MacEntee.

The financial and economic portfolios were dominated by Lemass and other like-minded ministers who wanted to move away from protection to free trade.

The Lemass era is the term given to the period of economic change between 1959 and 1966 in the Republic of Ireland.

In 1965, Terence O ’ Neill also invited and met with Sean Lemass, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, to promote economic cooperation.

In 1926, de Valera, supported by Lemass, sought to convince Sinn Féin to abandon its refusal to accept the existence of the Irish Free State, the legitimacy of the Dáil, and its abstentionist policy of refusing to sit in the Dáil, if elected.

Although the White Paper entitled " Economic Development " was first introduced in 1958 in de Valera's last government, its main recommendations formed the basis for the First Programme for Economic Expansion, which was adopted by Lemass as government policy upon his ascension in 1959.

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.

The Lemass era saw some significant developments in Irish foreign policy.

One of the main areas of foreign policy which emerged during the Lemass years was a debate over Ireland's neutrality.

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.

He and Lemass introduced a protectionist policy from 1932 that is now considered a failure.

Professor Garvin has found that Lemass suggested and enabled protectionism from 1932, and then was unduly credited when he chose to revert to a free trade policy after 1960.

Ironically its architect, Sean Lemass, is now best remembered for dismantling and reversing the policy from 1960, advised by T. K. Whitaker's 1958 report " First Programme for Economic Expansion ".

The Fianna Fáil government under Seán Lemass awarded him the honour of a state funeral, which was attended by the cabinet, the leaders of all the main Irish political parties, and Éamon de Valera, then President of Ireland.

One of the more notable Huguenot descendants in Ireland was Seán Lemass ( 1899 – 1971 ), who served as Taoiseach from 1959 until 1966.

* Sean Francis Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland from 1959 – 1966, was of Huguenot immigrants who settled in Dublin.

Hillery was invited by Lemass to allow his name to go forward for the leadership of the party, however, he declined explaining that he had no interest.

Many historians have suggested that Hillery was Lemass's first choice to succeed him, however others have said that the Lemass pecking order went as follows: Jack Lynch, Hillery and George Colley.

In spite of this Hillery was not interested in the top job in government and, in the end, Lynch succeeded Lemass after a leadership contest with Colley.

It is unclear whether the choice was made by Lemass directly as Taoiseach, or by the cabinet against his wishes.

Seán Francis Lemass ( 15 July 1899 – 11 May 1971 ) was one of the most prominent Irish politicians of the 20th century.

A veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War, Lemass was first elected as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála ( TD ) for the Dublin South constituency in a by-election on 18 November 1924 and was returned at each election until the constituency was abolished in 1948, when he was re-elected for Dublin South – Central until his retirement in 1969.

John Francis Lemass was born in Ballybrack, Co. Dublin before his family moved to Capel Street in Dublin city centre.

He was the second of seven children born to John and Frances Lemass.

One of Lemass ' classmates was the popular Irish comedian Jimmy O ' Dea.

In January 1915 Lemass was persuaded to join the Irish Volunteers.

Seán Lemass was equipped with a shotgun and was positioned on the roof.

Lemass, due to his age, was released from the 1, 783 that were arrested.

Lemass was arrested in December 1920, and interned at Ballykinlar, County Down, which would later become part of Northern Ireland.

In December 1921, after the signing of Anglo-Irish Treaty, Lemass was released.

During the debates of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, Lemass was one of the minority who opposed it along with de Valera.

In the Irish Civil War which followed Lemass was adjutant and second in command to Rory O ' Connor when the group seized the Four Courts, the home of the High Court of Ireland.

Seán Lemass was released from prison on compassionate grounds as a result of this.