However, the effort was unsuccessful and in March 1926 de Valera, along with Lemass, resigned from the party.

In November 1966, Seán Lemass resigned suddenly as Taoiseach.

In 1966 Lemass resigned as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader.

* Taoiseach Seán Lemass ( Republic of Ireland )

* Taoiseach Seán Lemass ( Ireland )

** Sean Lemass becomes the third Taoiseach of Ireland.

* November 10 – Seán Lemass retires as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland to be replaced in the role by fellow Fianna Fáil member Jack Lynch.

* May 11 – Seán Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland ( b. 1899 )

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.

Less than a decade later, he became Chief Justice, when selected by then Taoiseach, Seán Lemass.

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.

On 18 September 1951, he married Maureen Lemass, the daughter of the Fianna Fáil Minister and future Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, having been close to her since their days at UCD, where they first met.

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

In 1966 the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass retired.

Maureen Lemass would later go on to marry a successor of Lemass as Fianna Fáil leader and a future Taoiseach, Charles Haughey.

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

On 23 June 1959, Seán Lemass was appointed Taoiseach on the nomination of Dáil Éireann.

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.

Although he was of the staunch republican tradition that rejected partition, by the time he became Taoiseach Lemass had sharply moderated his views, recognizing that partition was unlikely to end in the foreseeable future and that the Republic was better served by disposing of the issue.

In November 1966, Lemass announced his decision to retire as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach.

Some historians have questioned whether Lemass came to the premiership too late, arguing that had he replaced de Valera as Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach in 1951 he could have begun the process of reform of Irish society and the industrialisation of the Republic of Ireland a decade earlier than 1959, when he eventually achieved the top governmental job.

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

In 1965 Lemass was once again re-elected Taoiseach.

He was the third leader of Fianna Fáil from 1966 until 1979, succeeding the hugely influential Seán Lemass.

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 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.

He re-emerged in 1966 to launch a verbal attack on Seán Lemass for deciding to step down as party leader and Taoiseach.

During that period the party had seen three different leaders, Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and the current leader of the party, Jack Lynch.

The party also played up heavily on the personality of the party leader with the slogan " Let Lemass Lead On ".

* January 21-Nationalist leader Eddie McAteer visits Taoiseach Seán Lemass in Dublin.

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.

Lemass travelled around the country trying to raise support for Fianna Fáil.

In opposition, Lemass played a crucial role in re-organising and streamlining Fianna Fáil.

By 1965, Frank Aiken was the only de Valera veteran remaining in government, and would become the only founder-member of Fianna Fáil to survive Lemass as a member of the government and the Dáil.

One story exists where Lynch, in spite of tremendous pressure from Seán Lemass and the entire Fianna Fáil party to stand for the leadership, only accepted the nomination after Máirín had agreed.

Lemass retired in 1966 after 7 years in the position and a leadership race ( the first contested race in the history of the party ) threatened to tear Fianna Fáil apart.

But as evidence of Bruton's complexity, he also kept a picture of former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Seán Lemass, which had been hung there by Reynolds, and which Bruton kept because he viewed Lemass as the best and most reforming Taoiseach in the history of the state.

He remained there until the retirement in 1966 of the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, when Fianna Fáil faced the first leadership contest in its history.

In 1965 Fine Gael narrowly lost the general election to Seán Lemass and Fianna Fáil.

Garvin places him with a cross party group including Gerard Sweetman and Daniel Morrissey of Fine Gael as well as Seán Lemass of Fianna Fáil who were pushing a modernising agenda.

Seán Lemass had taken charge of Fianna Fáil in 1959.

In Professor Tom Garvin's review of the 1950s ' News from a New Republic ', he comes in for praise as a moderniser and Garvin places him with a cross party group including Daniel Morrissey of Fine Gael and William Norton of the Labour Party as well as Sean Lemass of Fianna Fáil who were pushing a modernising agenda