Shielded from the power of the press

THE file entitled "Taoiseach press conferences and television interviews" demonstrates how sheltered the leader of government was 30 years ago from live questioning at press conferences and in television interviews.

Sean Lemass's handlers steered him towards benevolent interlocutors and kept him away from some potentially hostile encounters. A Catholic Herald interview of January 1966 was based on a list of previously submitted questions to which the relevant government departments supplied answers, many of them going through several drafts, as in preparation for a reply to a Dail question.

The file reveals that Lemass was most likely to accept interviews from foreign correspondents probably because their questioning suited the government's purpose in selling the image of the modern Ireland of the 1960s.

He declined a challenge from Francis Russell - the nom deplume of the accountant, Russell Murphy - to accept what was promised to be a "non controversial" interview for his programme, Favourite Records of Famous People. Despite a promise that, after the recording, "if there is anything about which the guest is not happy, it can be scrubbed out," Lemass politely declined, "owing to pressure of public business".

The most controversial material on this file concerns the Guardian writer, Peter Lennon, then based in Paris, who in April 1966 wrote requesting an interview or background briefing from Lemass.

Despite advice from the Government Information Bureau to decline, Lemass agreed to the briefing. But a delay in communicating this decision to Lennon resulted in an angry three page letter from him announcing the agenda of his proposed meeting.

If Lennon believed that he was making Lemass an offer he could not refuse, he was mistaken. On receipt of this letter, the earlier decision to grant a briefing was reversed, Lemass accepting the GIB's advice "that you do not offer to see him in any circumstances".

Lennon was informed, with the promise that the Director of the Government Information Bureau "will communicate with you direct on this matter".