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Like Seán Lemass, Jack Lynch is heralded by Fianna Fáil and haughty liberal politicos as one of Ireland’s great modernisers. Lemass had begun Ireland’s path to modernity with T. K. Whitaker’s First Programme for Economic Expansion in 1958. Lynch trod Ireland’s first steps towards ‘ever closer union’ by joining the European Economic Community in 1973. Despite the mythic status these Taoisigh have been elevated to in Fianna Fáil’s parliamentary history, their achievements have been frequently distorted for political purposes.
Far from Lemass’ reputation as a liberaliser, he was openly a conservative; and while Jack Lynch is credited for Ireland’s entry into the EEC, some of his comments might be characterised by the Fianna Fáil of today as eurosceptic in their contents.
Fianna Fáil’s contemporary attachment to Lemass and Lynch most likely originates from the era of liberalisation led by the party’s myopic leader Micheál Martin. Certainly because of their advocacy for Irish membership of the EEC, but also perhaps because Fianna Fáil has become afraid of the conservative legacy left by its founder Éamon de Valera. One may also speculate that this emotional affinity for Lynch and Lemass is because they are the only Fianna Fáil Taoisigh in living memory who have not been accused of robbing the country.
Regardless, Ireland’s celebration of 50 years in the European community in 2023 has demonstrated how strikingly divorced from their own political histories Irish public officials have become.
Ireland had originally tied its EEC membership bid to that of the United Kingdom for the sake of the country’s economic interests. However, French President Charles de Gaulle twice vetoed British, and consequently Irish, membership of the bloc. This scepticism towards Britain’s place in European institutions was borne out of French leaders’ fear that Britain sought to join as a kind of Trojan horse for Anglo-American interests. Fortunately for Ireland, de Gaulle’s successor Georges Pompidou chose not to continue this strategy, and on 22 January 1972 Jack Lynch signed Ireland’s Treaty of Accession in Brussels.
Ireland’s subsequent 10 May 1972 referendum to ratify its EEC membership passed overwhelmingly, with 83.1% of votes in favour of this new opportunity for the Irish economy.
The October 19–20 1972 Paris Summit charted the future development of European institutions, with leaders agreeing to deeper economic integration in the form of monetary policies, trade negotiations, and regional development aid.
However, at this ambitious summit organised by President Pompidou, Taoiseach Jack Lynch’s speech included a vital warning. Lynch stated amidst the visionary European project there was ‘a wider question… of the democratic content of the Communities and of the need to involve the people as closely as possible with the decisions, policies and workings of the Communities.’
He further stated that European leaders ‘should recognise the danger of our peoples growing apart from the Community, of their regarding the Community, as it embarks upon major new areas of activity, as some form of monolithic structure increasingly divorced from the type of democratic control as it is known in’ member state countries.
Though Lynch’s warning is one of precaution, its weight is apparent to any contemporary political observer of sound mind in the European Union. Lynch’s vision for the ‘active pursuit of closer and more rational economic and trading relations with the other nations’ is today replaced by infantile communiqués which describe international meetings as ‘high-level’ and officials as ‘high-profile’ in case the public weren’t aware of their importance.
One need not look any further than the ‘High Representative’ of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, whose repeated public gaffes discussing how Europe might defeat China or the United States betray the delicate balancing act maintained by the continent’s diplomats.
This pressure for European countries to work together to achieve their common interests was a central component of Lynch’s advocacy for Ireland to join the European Monetary Union in 1978. In a December 21 speech to Dáil Éireann, Lynch remarked that ‘within the last few days we have had further evidence of just how fragile is the economic balance of recent years. Oil prices are once again rising. Currency instabilities can again contribute to the combination of recession and inflation from which Europe is now hesitantly emerging. Does this House really think that our position in this world would be better outside the monetary system which the countries of the Community are putting together, with so much thought and so much effort?’
Evidently, Ireland’s economic interests in European integration were consistently at the forefront of Fianna Fáil leaders’ minds. However those economic interests are now actively hindered by the EU’s regulatory frenzies and the ideological fanaticism of its bureaucratic appointees.
Lynch ultimately envisioned a Europe that was ‘imaginative yet realistic.’ Today that could not be farther from the truth. Equally sore is that his own political party has become uncritical and servile towards European policymaking. In a world where Lynch’s warnings about the European Union have come to fruition, it is doubly bizarre to see Fianna Fáil slavishly defend the monolithic structures which the European Commission has come to wield with an iron fist censoring eurosceptic political views, cancelling unsatisfactory election results, and plotting to socially engineer the European public via social media.
In a bygone era Fianna Fáil was a socially conservative political party which stood for economic development and defended Ireland’s tight-knit social structure. Today, it has become a faceless vehicle whose only purpose is the acquisition of power and the careers of its members. That is not public service, it is self-service. In pursuit of power at any cost, the party has abandoned its pro-life political stance, and found itself defending the uncomfortable status quo of the European Union which one former Commission official has alleged is staffed by twisted sexual deviants at the highest levels of its transnational bureaucracy.
If we compare Lynch’s warning against the formation of an anti-democratic monolith with Micheál Martin’s controversial 2017 remarks that his party wants ‘nothing to do with a backward-looking idea of sovereignty’ the transformation of Fianna Fáil is evident.
This metamorphosis, despite the best hopes of the party’s cowardly conservative backbenchers, is irreversible. Fianna Fáil will forever be remembered not for the achievements of de Valera, Lemass or Lynch, but for the over-stayed welcome and unexciting leadership of Micheál Martin.
With Ireland’s ill-fated EU Presidency set to begin on July 1, spearheaded by Fianna Fáil heavyweight dilettantes like Michael McGrath and Thomas Byrne, the party will doubtlessly enter crisis once more. It is almost guaranteed that Lynch and Lemass will be at the forefront of the party’s ideological mishmash during this affair as in its search for identity it dons the misshapen skinsuits of the party’s history.
Irrespective of the means by which they attempt to obfuscate from their disastrous record it will be endlessly entertaining to watch how far the Fianna Failures will go in their quest for glory at the expense of the State.
Come the otherside of Ireland’s Council Presidency the party may even have a new leader, who will perhaps bring hopes of renewal to the party. However these false hopes will be momentary and Fianna Fáil will almost inevitably find itself slouching towards Brussels once more.
Fianna Fáil has become a party devoid of ideology, which compromised on every principle it once held, and which has not heeded the warning its very own leader delivered amidst Ireland’s accession to the EEC. Such hubris does not go unpunished and rightfully so the political fortunes of the Warriors of Destiny may be at their end, not with a bang but a whimper.