Jack Lynch, A Biography: The Life and Times of Irish Taoiseach Jack Lynch (1917–1999)

Jack Lynch is one of the most important and perhaps most underrated Irish political leaders of the twentieth century. A sportsman who won six All-Ireland medals in a row with Cork, he was also a civil servant and a barrister before being elected to Dáil Éireann in 1948. During his thirty-one years as a parliamentarian, he held the ministries of Education, Industry and Commerce, and Finance before succeeding Seán Lemass as Taoiseach in 1966. Lynch held office during the critical years of the late 1960s and early 1970s when Northern Ireland disintegrated and civil unrest swept through Belfast, Derry and other towns. This precipitated one of the worst crises in the history of the Irish state.

Jack Lynch upheld the parliamentary democratic tradition at great personal and political cost, even to the point of fracturing the unity of his government and his party. If you want to know what happened during those terrible years, read this book.

Jack Lynch, A Biography: Table of Contents

1. From Shandon to Dáil Éireann
   Poverty and society in the Shandon area
   Daniel and Nora Lynch
   Politics and the Lynch family
   Early childhood, education and signs of sporting promise
   Death of Nora Lynch
   North Monastery and sporting stardom
   Leaving Certificate, 1936: From first job to study of law
   Meeting with Máirín O’Connor
   High honours and the end of a distinguished career


2. Journeyman Politician: Backbench TD and Parliamentary Secretary, 1948–57
   Backbench TD
   General election and promotion to parliamentary secretary, 1951–4
   Opposition again: The 1954 general election and three years on the back benches


3. Minister for Education, 1957–94


4. Minister for Industry and Commerce, 1959–65
   Lynch and the legislative backlog
   Lynch and the industrial unrest of the 1960s
   Tourism and mining
   Attracting industry to Cork
   General election, the road to free trade and membership of the EEC


5. Minister for Finance, 1965–6
   Closing in on speculators
   Final months in Finance


6. Neither a ‘Caretaker’ nor a ‘Reluctant’ Taoiseach, 1966–9
   Why Haughey was promoted
   Taca and controlling Fianna Fáil
   Foreign policy, membership of the EEC and Anglo-Irish relations
   Irish foreign policy and Viet Nam
   Visit to Terence O’Neill
   Conflict in Northern Ireland
   The 1969 general election


7. The Northern ‘Troubles’ and the Irish State
   Hillery’s visit to London, 1 August 1969
   Government meeting as Northern crisis worsens
   Lynch’s television address
   The Government’s follow-up action
   Whitaker called on for advice
   Hillery in London again
   Government meeting of 16 August 1969
   Press and propaganda strategy and Operation ‘Silk Purse’
   Hillery at the United Nations
   The IRA and the Lynch policy of ‘no fraternisation’
   Public diplomacy and Northern Ireland
   Whitaker and the shaping of policy on Northern Ireland
   Regaining the policy initiative
   The Voice of the North
   Military intelligence and Northern Ireland
   Open challenge from Neil Blaney: ‘Fianna Fáil never ruled out the use of force’
   The Fianna Fáil ard-fheis, 1970
   Conspiracy to import arms
   The Dundalk arms shipment
   The murder of Garda Fallon and gun-running
   Captain Kelly and the ‘gun-running’ plan
   ‘We stand on the brink of a great achievement’
   The Arms Trial
   Keeping a dignified silence
   ‘You can have Boland but you cannot have Fianna Fáil’: The 1971 ard-fheis


8. Ireland and Europe: Negotiating Membership of the EEC


9. Constitutional Politics and Revolutionary Challenge, 1971–3
   Internment
   Intervention by Máirín Lynch
   Sunday, Bloody Sunday
   The IRA discusses assassinating the Minister for Justice
   Whitaker opens lines of communication with Unionism
   Summer peace overtures end in failure
   Whitaker and the parallel track to the Unionists and the British
   Anglo-Irish relations in the autumn of 1972


10. Opposition and Return to Power, 1973–9
    Aiken resigns over Haughey nomination
    Victory for the National Coalition
    Lynch, the National Coalition and Sunningdale, 1973
    Life in opposition
    The Littlejohn affair: ‘Stinking to high Heaven’
    Reviving Fianna Fáil
    The road back to power
    Fianna Fáil returns to power


11. ‘Happy is the man who finds wisdom’: Retirement and Final Years, 1980–99
    Staying out of politics
    Death and funeral
    O’Malley’s graveside oration
    In appreciation of a public life
    Death of Má:irín Lynch


12. Jack Lynch’s Place in Irish History