The overflight concession continued to operate under Charles Haughey, despite the vociferous opposition by his supporters to the arrangement when Mr Lynch was in power. As far as I know, it continued to operate under Albert Reynolds and remains in force down to the present time.
The circumstances of Mr Lynch's departure as leader were sad and disillusioning. He deserved better of a party he had brought to such extraordinary electoral success. Not only did he not succeed in having his choice of successor endorsed by the party, who chose instead Mr Lynch's old enemy, Mr Haughey, but in the succeeding years Fianna Fail adopted a Stalin-type purge to erase Mr Lynch's name from the records. His name was not mentioned at Fianna Fail's Ardfheis and his photo was not carried in the ardfheis booklet. Mr Lynch's problem may have arisen from the fact that he was always something of an outsider in the eyes of die-hard republicans. He had no national record and none of his family could claim to have had a national record, unlike Neil Blaney, whose family could point to a long republican association in Donegal, or Mr Haughey, whose record was less obvious but who had no difficulty in putting on the required mantle in 1969.
Mr Lynch took over the leadership of Fianna Fail with some reluctance in 1966 when Sean Lemass surprised everybody by announcing his resignation. The announcement was followed by a strong campaign to win the succession stakes by George Colley and Mr Haughey. The campaign manager for Mr Colley was Jim Gibbons, while Donogh O'Malley led Mr Haughey's campaign.
There was little doubt among observers that Mr Colley was likely to win the contest. Mr O'Malley had already advised Mr Haughey that he was likely to be defeated when Kevin Boland nominated Mr Blaney for the post.
At this stage, Mr Lemass, fearing a dangerous split in the party, called in Mr Lynch, who had earlier indicated that he did not wish to be considered, and asked him to reconsider his position in the interests of party unity. Mr Lynch decided to stand, Mr Haughey and Mr Blaney withdrew their names, leaving only Mr Colley in the contest against Mr Lynch, who easily won the vote. He became what many people saw as a reluctant leader. Ironically, Mr Colley, who allowed his name to stand in the leadership contest with Mr Lynch, was the only one of the three contenders who remained constantly loyal to Mr Lynch in the succeeding years.
Mr Lynch's control over the party remained very much in doubt until the arms crisis occurred in 1969, despite his winning an overall majority in the general election of that year, a feat which had eluded Mr Lemass. A challenge to his authority arose immediately after the election, however, when he attempted to move Mr Blaney from his job as Minister for the Environment to a new post. Mr Blaney resisted the move to the extent of thumping the table, it was suggested, and Mr Lynch did not insist.
Mr Lynch's failure to assert his authority on this occasion was bound to lead to further trouble down the line, especially as unrest began to be manifested in Northern Ireland with civil rights protests being opposed by unionist mobs.
Mr Blaney threw down the challenge with a speech in Co Donegal suggesting that Mr de Valera, in founding Fianna Fail, had never ruled out the possibility of force being used to end Partition, provided that force came from within the Six Counties and did not have its origins within the Twenty-Six Counties.
Mr Lynch's rebuttal of Mr Blaney's claim was weak. He said publicly that he had spoken to Mr Blaney and rebuked him for his Donegal speech but Mr Blaney claimed the rebuke consisted of a chat on the stairs at Leinster House as they were both ascending the steps to enter the Dail chamber.
In any case, the rebuke was ineffective and a couple of weeks later, Mr Blaney expressed exactly the same sentiments at meeting in Kerry. There was no public reaction from Mr Lynch.
The public perception of Mr Lynch at this time was of a "caretaker" Taoiseach, with a number of people waiting their chances to take over. In the forefront was Mr Haughey, who as Minister for Finance controlled the most important area of Government and appeared to act independently of his Cabinet colleagues and of the Taoiseach. Many people in Fianna Fail felt, indeed, that Mr Haughey was, effectively, running the country. There were signs, however, that he may have been worried by Mr Blaney's seizing the republican ground in the party with his speeches in Donegal and Kerry.
While most observers did not give Mr Blaney much hope of success in a contest with Mr Colley and Mr Haughey for the leadership in 1966, Mr Blaney had no such doubts. He claimed to have been surprised by the extent of the backing he received in the party after Kevin Boland proposed him and indicated to me that he would be a very serious contender when a vacancy arose again.
That vacancy was mistakenly believed to be imminent when Mr Lynch collapsed while attending a function in Ballinasloe in mid-1969. The rumour was that he had suffered a heart attack when, in fact, all that had occurred was that he got weak after smoking a pipe that disagreed with him. He was sitting down to dinner when he reached into his pocket for his pipe and tobacco pouch. Unfortunately, he had left the pouch behind him in his State car. While his driver went to fetch the missing pouch, the Archbishop of Tuam, who was sitting beside Mr Lynch, offered him tobacco from his own pouch. After taking a couple of puffs, Mr Lynch complained of feeling unwell and was forced to leave table. He recovered quite quickly once he was assisted out to the fresh air.
The story did not suffer in the telling in the following weeks, with the result that it was generally believed that Mr Lynch would soon step down from the leadership. The succession stakes were in full swing again, with Mr Haughey and Mr Blaney regarded as the front-runners. For some strange reason, Mr Colley was not seen as a prominent contender. If the contest was to be between Mr Blaney and Mr Haughey, republican sympathies were going to play a major role. Into this situation came the first outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland.