Leading out of a crisis - Government can learn from Lemass

FIFTY years ago yesterday, Seán Lemass stepped out of the shadow of Eamon de Valera to succeed him as taoiseach. He inspired renewed hope in the republican ideal that we could, as a people, provide for ourselves.

While de Valera was an idealist interested in the past, Lemass was the essence of modern pragmatism. They actually complemented each other.

At the height of the Second World War, Eamon de Valera spoke of his ideal Ireland as an Irish-speaking island “whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths, the laughter of happy maidens...”