Noel Lemass, Jnr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Noel Lemass, Jnr (14 February 1929 - 13 April 1976) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician.

Noel T. Lemass was born in Dublin in 1929, the only son of Seán Lemass and his wife Kathleen. Noel Lemass, Jnr was named after his father's brother, a victim of the Civil War in the early 1920s. Lemass was educated at Catholic University School, Leeson Street in Dublin and later at Newbridge College in County Kildare. He didn't attend university, against his father's wishes, instead undertaking business training and later becoming an executive member and branch secretary of the "Irish Commercial Traveller's Association."

Lemass followed his father into politics in 1955 when he was elected to Dublin City Council, and was elected to Dáil Éireann in a by-election in Dublin South West the following year. Lemass had to wait until his father retired as Taoiseach for political preferment. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance, serving from 1969 until 1973. In his first year at the Department he served under his brother-in-law, Charles Haughey, and later under George Colley.

Lemass's political career, a career in which he was invariably judged in comparison to his father, was cut short when he died suddenly in 1976. His wife, Eileen Lemass, entered politics following her his death.