Seán MacEntee: A Political Life

Description

This is the first biographical work of one of the chief policymakers to have served the independent Irish state. Seán MacEntee was in many ways a unique political personality. He was the most senior politician in the independent Irish state to have been born in what became Northern Ireland.  Moreover, he was a fiercely independent thinker who left a voluminous collection of private papers.  This capacious collection reflects MacEntee’s insatiable interest in all aspects of government policy, not merely those for which he bore ultimate responsibility. The collection complements the official government files in the National Archives which, when viewed in toto, convey the full force of ministerial and departmental thinking and provide a comprehensive record of public policy-making from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Table of Contents

1. Belfast Child
2. Soldier of Destiny
3. Guarding the Nation’s Purse Strings
4. Emergency Politics
5. Planning in the Custom House
6. Indian Summer?
7. The Lemass Dispensation

About the Author

Tom Feeney is IRCHSS Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Centre for the History of Medicine, School of History and Archives, University College, Dublin. He has a PhD from UCD and has written press and journal articles and conference papers on Seán MacEntee and modern Irish history.