Succeeding Sean Lemass as Taoiseach in 1966, Lynch became the first post-revolutionary leader of Fianna Fail. He held office during the critical years of the late 1960s and early 1970s when Northern Ireland disintegrated, precipitating one of the worst crises in the history of the Irish state. Based on eight years of work in archives in Ireland and abroad, Dermot Keogh's book shows that Lynch was a more complex, determined and adroit political leader than his avuncular, soft-spoken, pipe-smoking image might suggest.The new evidence shows how he kept his nerve during the Kafkaesque months of early 1970 when efforts were made by cabinet ministers to import arms for use in Northern Ireland. He stood firm in defiance of those who wanted the state to become complicit in the use of violence. The debt to his courage and determination in the defence of democracy in Ireland has not yet been acknowledged or discharged. Lynch upheld the parliamentary democratic tradition at great personal and political cost, even to the point of fracturing the unity of his government and his party. He helped rebuild the Fianna Fail Party in opposition after 1973, and return them convincingly to power in 1977 only to be virtually forced out of office two years later. If you want to know what happened during his years as a politician, read this book.

Dermot Keogh is Professor of History and head of department at University College Cork. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and the author of nine previous books including Twentieth-Century Ireland in the New Gill History of Ireland series. He has edited five and co-edited fifteen books.