âCalculating man of affairsâ
He was no post-nationalist: in 1983, Brian Farrell argued that for Lemass âthe starting point was a fervent nationalism, rarely expressed, masked by the image of the calculating man of affairs, but always centralâ. In relation to partition, the consensus is that Lemass threw overboard the irredentism of previous governments, but it was also the case that he banged the anti-partition drum when it suited him, either to appease grassroots or to gain leverage in Anglo-Irish trade talks. Yet, ultimately, his use of a more conciliatory language was significant. He wanted a definite shift in stance in relation to cross-border economic, social and political exchanges, discouraging use of the term âsix countiesâ and also grudgingly conceding the legitimacy of the government of Northern Ireland while suggesting, unlike his predecessor, that âthe solution to the partition problem is one to be found in Ireland by Irishmenâ.