Jack Lynch and Partition: Influences, attitudes and public statements August 1969-October 1971

In October 1971, following a spate of public and private arguments between Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch and his British counterpart Edward Heath, the Irish Government’s Information Bureau published a booklet of Lynch’s collected statements on ‘Irish Unity, Northern Ireland and Anglo Irish Relations’. This booklet was designed to set the record straight regarding Lynch’s unwavering stance on these issues. Its purpose was to answer his critics at home and within his own party, and to justify the widely criticised participation of the Irish Government in the ‘Tripartite Talks’ with Britain and the Ulster Unionists at a time when the SDLP were boycotting talks in protest at the internment without trial of republican suspects. This paper will seek to analyse these edited speeches and statements in an attempt to critically evaluate Lynch’s position in 1971. It will also look to other archival sources for evidence of influences upon his thought and its outcomes – the published public statements. Taking a deconstructive and critical approach, this paper will attempt to look beyond the mythology of Lynch as ‘Hero in Crisis’ and place his ideas more firmly in a constitutional republican framework that was both opposed to and sought to eliminate the Partition of Ireland.