Eamon de Valera (1882-1975)

Life
[orig. reg. as George De Valero; shortly revised to Edward de Valera]; b. 14 Oct. 1882, in
Manhattan, New York; son of Catherine (Kate) Coll [later Mrs Wheelwright], Knockmore,
Bruree, and Vivion Juan de Valera, the couple having supposedly been married in St Patricks,
Greenville, NY [no record existing]; registered as George, and christened as Edward (after a
maternal uncle); sent by his mother , [supposedly] widowed, to be raised in Clare; enrolled in
Bruree National School as Edward Coll, after the paternal uncle chiefly concerned in raising
him; learnt patriotism from Land League priest Fr. Eugene Sheehy; learnt of his mothers
[re]marriage to Charles E. Wheelwright, an Englishman and groom to a Rochester family, NY;
ed. CBS, Charleville (Rath Luirc), and Holy Ghost Fathers, Blackrock, Co. Dublin; Professor of
Maths, Rockwell, 1903; undistinguished mathematics grad. Royal University, 1904; taught at
Belvedere; Prof. of Maths, Carysfort TTC, 1906; part-time app. at Maynooth and various
Dublin colleges; third rejection for priesthood (reasons unknown); joins Gaelic League ArdCraobh, 1908; meets Janie [Sinad] Flanagan [N Fhlannagin], his Irish teacher, and m. N
Fhlannagin, 1910; settles at 23 Morehampton Terrace;
attends Volunteer meeting, Rotunda 25 Nov. 1913; captain of Donnybrook Company; Comm.
3rd Batt.; received orders as Captain of Company E of the Dublin Brigade to meet Asgard the,
disembarking guns at Howth, July 1914 [var. June; vide Mary C. Bromage, 1956]; Adj. of
Dublin Brigade; joins IRB; acted as Commandant of Bolands Mill garrison in the Rising [if the
people had only come out, even with knives and forks ], and the last unit to surrender (now
believed to have suffered nervous breakdown); imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol [Convict 95
of ballad fame] and not tried till 8 May, purportedly in view of his American nationality, and
reprieved in view of growing international objections to executions; held in Dartmoor,
Maidstone, and Lewes prisons; released June 1917; advocates re-organisation of Sinn Fin on
constituency basis; contests and won East Clare against IPP Patrick Lynch; President of new
Sinn Fin at convention, Oct. 1917; arrested May 1918 in Sinn Fin anti-conscription
campaign; 73 Sinn Fin seats won with 45 candidates in prison at General Election, Dec.
1918; Govt. of Republic established by Dil ireann, meeting in Mansion House, 21 Jan 1919;
escapes Lincoln Jail, elected President of the Irish Republic, 1 April 1919; appointed Irish
government; travels to America, June 1919 returning 29 Dec. 1920 [18 months]; announces
at press conference that Ulster Protestants who did not accept the Republic should go back
to Britain (and heard by St. John Ervine); met Devoy, but selects Edward L. Doheny,
millionaire nephew of Michael Doheny, to lead American Committee for Relief in Ireland; made
honorary chief by Chippewa tribe; chiefly stayed at the Waldorf Astoria; of purported $5
million collected, much remained in De Valeras keeping occasioning controversy at home and
in America; King George announces policy of conciliation to end Anglo-Irish war, 22 Jan.
1921; visited by Lord Derby, April 1921; meeting with Sir James Craig in Dublin, May 1921;
Chancellor of NUI; elected MP, Co. Down under the provisions of the Govt. of Ireland Act,
being one of 12 nationalist, of which 6 Sinn Fin, candidates to win seats, all of which were
left vacant; deemed to be elected to Co. Down seat in Dil ireann in southern elections
ensuing 5 days after; Truce between IRA and British forces in Ireland, 11 July 1921;
authorises negotiations by plenipotentiaries in London, viz., Griffith, Collins, MacNeill,
Childers, et al. - the lastnamed sometimes being considered his particular agent at the talks;
sides with Cathal Brugha and Austin Stack against the Treaty;
re-elected President of Dil on reconvening, Aug. 1921; authors an alternative to Treaty
(Document No. 2) based on concept of External Association with the Commonwealth,
developed in an attempt to accommodate separate Irish stateship with monarchical status but
without prejudice to Republican unity, proposed at private Dil session, 14 Dec. 1921; Dil
debate on Treaty, at UCD, 14-22 Dec. 1921, adjourning for Christmas recess, and resuming 4-

7th Jan.; de Valera formally gave notice that he would move the Document as an amendment
to the Treaty, 4 Jan., 1922; I stand as a symbol for the Republic [] I didnt go to London
because I wished to keep that symbol of the Republic pure even from insinuation, or even a
word across the table that would give away the Republic (Treaty Debate, 4 Jan.); makes final
speech in the debate, 6 Jan. repudiating attacks on his Irishness (I was reared in a labourers
cottage here in Ireland) and pronouncing the Dil effectually extinct (this body has become
completely, irrevocably split); Treaty terms approved by 7 votes in house of 122 TDs (64 for,
57 against), resulting in majority ratification, 7 Jan. 1922 with de Valera and his followers
retiring; Provisional Govt. established with Griffith as President; occupation of Four Courts by
Rory OConnor and others, 13 April 1922;
Four Courts bombarded by Free State forces, bombardment inaugurating Civil War, 28 June
1922; speaks out for war ( wade through rivers of blood); de Valera enters election pact
with Collins, May 1922; called on by Republicans to form emergency government; announced
reorganisation of Sinn Fin, Jan. 1922; wrote to Liam Lynch, we can best serve the nation at
this moment by trying to get the constitutional way adopted, 7 Feb. 1923; arrested at
election meeting, Ennis, Co. Clare, amidst gunfire and confusion, 15 August; imprisoned at
Arbour Hill, and much strengthened in his political resolve by the experience; returned for
[East] Clare, 27 Aug. 1923; issues orders to Rearguard of the Republic terminating hostilities
(Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the
Republic); seeks to modify abstentionist policy, Dec. 1925; addresses Republicans at Wolfe
Tones grave, Bodenstown, 25 June 1925; announces preparedness to enter Dil Eireann if
there were no oath, Jan. 1926; forms Fianna Fil party, April 1926, presiding over the party to
1959; compares Republicans who accept oath to French monarchists who acquiesced in the
de facto controlling power of their parliamentary opponents through prescription and the
lapse of time; Fianna Fil wins 44 seats in June 1927, and enters Dil; de Valera prevaricates
over oath, which he signs as a formality [var. an empty formula];
supported the Mayo County Council in their refusal to appoint a Protestant librarian, Miss
Dunbar Harrison (TCD), in Castlebar, 1930, arguing that the post concerned Catholic
education; fnd. the Irish Press, 1931, ed. Frank Gallagher; won 72 seats in Gen. Election,
defeating Cumann na nGaedhael, and forms first Fianna Fail Govt., Feb. 1932; serves as
President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State and Min. for External Affairs; sets
free republican prisoners and removes Cosgraves security legislation; maintains secret
contact with IRA army council; officiates at Eucharistic Congress, attended by a million
Catholics, effectively healing the rift between Fianna Fil and the Catholic Church; President of
the Council of the League of Nations, Geneva, 1932; conducts Economic War with Britain,
withholding land annuities of 5 million in respect from the British Exchequer, 1932-38,
causing damaging reprisals at British customs posts; elected RIA, 1933; James MacNeills post
as Gov. Gen. terminated on his advice, and Domhnall Ua Buchalla appt. Senascal; becomes
MP for South Down when Fianna Fil wins 77 seats in general election, 24 Jan. 1933;
remained in power, 1933-37; establishes voluntary militia; supports with Cardinal McRory and
others Fr. Peter Conefreys campaign and meeting against Jazz at Mohill, Jan. 1934, and
supports Public Dance Halls Act, 1935; declares IRA illegal, 1936; new Constitution
underwriting special position of Catholic Church as the guardian of the faith professed by the
great majority of the citizens (Art. 44), architected by de Valera himself in extensive
correspondence with Archbishop McQuaid and Edward Cahill, SJ, and substantially composed
by John Hearne, barrister and Legal Adviser to the Dept. of External Affair; and narrowly
ratified by the Dil, 1937;
Taoiseach and Min. for External Affairs; Anglo-Irish agreement securing Treaty ports, 1938;
19th President of Assembly of League, Sept. 1938; declares for neutrality in the event of a
Second World War, 19 Feb., 1939; made celebrated St Patricks Day Radio ireann broadcast
in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Gaelic league while articulating his pastoral
version of the national dream; denounced the earliest newspaper reports of Holocaust
atrocities by the Nazis in Bergen-Belsen as anti-national propaganda on the part of British
interests; visited German Ambassador (Herr Edouard Hempel) and signed the book of
condolences at Germany Embassy, Dublin, on death of Adolf Hitler; ousted from Government
by John A. Costello and Coalition, 1948; went on tour of USA, promoting anti-partition
politics; visited India, 1948; out of government when Costello declared the Republic, 1948
(estab. March 1949); reprehends the declaration as an obstacle to unity (viz., external

association); returns to government, 1951; retina trouble occurring from 1930s ending with
peripheral vision only in 1952; defeated 1954; returns to power, Taoiseach, 1957; elected
President of Ireland, 17 June 195[9]; awarded DSc. by TCD, 11 March 1960, and in 1963 he
turned the sod to start the building of TCDs New Library, designed by Koralek; speaks at
opening of RT (like atomic energy, it can be used for incalculable good but it can also do
irreparable harm), 1962; re-elected 1966, defeating Tom OHiggins by 10,000; visited by
Jacqueline Kennedy, then staying with her children at Woodstown Hse., Co. Waterford, June
1967; received Order of Christ from Pope John XXIII; FRS, 1968; addresses Joint Session of
Congress, Washington, 1964; retires, June 1973; d. 11.55 p.m. on 29 Aug. 1975, in Linden
Convalescent Home, Blackrock; bur. Glasnevin; bequeathed 2,800 in his will but bestowed
ownership of The Irish Press to his descendants; an obituary notice by J. L. Synge (nephew of
J.M. Synge) appeared in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society; his papers
were deposited in the Franciscan Library, Killiney; the entry in the RIA Dictionary Irish
Biography is by Ronan Fanning. DIB DIH FDA OCIL
[ top ]

Eamon de Valera attends premier of George Morrison's film

(1959)

Works
Maurice Moynihan, ed., Speeches and Statements of Eamon de Valera 1917-73 (Dublin: Gill &
Macmillan 1980).
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Criticism
M. J. MacManus, Eamon de Valera, A Biography (Dublin Talbot [1944]; reps. to 1947,
&c.), 378pp, ded. for Sen OSullivan; index [with add. epilogue relating de Valeras
riposte to Churchills hour of need speech];
Frank Pakenham [Lord Longford], Peace by Ordeal: The Negotiation of the Anglo-Irish
Treaty, 1921 (1935; rep. 1972, 1993);
M[ary] C. Bromage, de Valera and the March of a Nation (NY: Noonday Press
1956;1967) [see full text, online];
Toms Neill & Pdraig Fiannachta, De Valera (Dublin: Cl Morainn 1968, 1970), ix,
285pp., ill. [32 pls.];
Lord Longford [Frank Pakenham] & Thomas P. ONeill, Eamon de Valera (London:
Hutchinson 1970; rep. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1971) [see extract; reviewed by
Padraig Snodaigh, ire-Ireland, Spring 1971, pp.136-38];
Patrick Keatinge, The Formative Years of the Irish Diplomatic Service, in ire-Ireland,
6, 3 (Autumn 1971), pp.57-71;
Denis Johnston, Did you know Yeats? And Did You Lunch with Shaw?, in Des Hickey &
Gus Smith, eds., A Paler Shade of Green (London: Leslie Frewin 1972), pp.60-72 [see
extract];
Richard Kain, Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce (Oklahoma UP

1962; Newton Abbot: David Charles 1972) [see extract];

David Thompson, England in the Twentieth Century [2nd edn., rev. by Geoffrey Warner;
Pelican History of England 1914-1979 ser.] (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1981) [see
extract];
T. Ryle Dwyer, Eamon de Valera (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan 1980);
Gearid Tuathaigh & J. J. Lee, The Age of de Valera (Dublin 1982);
John Bowman, de Valera and the Ulster Question (OUP 1982) [see extract];
D. George Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland (London: Routledge 1982; new edn. 1991)
[see extract];
Norman McQueen, Eamon de Valera and the League of Nations, 1919-1946, in ireIreland, 17, 4 (1982), pp.110-27;
Sean P. Farragher, Dev and His Alma Mater: Eamon De Valeras Lifelong Association with
Blackrock College 1898-1975 (Dublin: Paradete Press 1984);
J. P. OCarroll & J. A. Murphy, eds., de Valera and His Times (Cork UP 1986) [incl.
Gearoid Crualaoich, The Primacy of Form: A Folk Ideology in de Valeras Politics,
pp.47-61];
Colm Toibn, Walking along the Border (London: Macdonald 1987), p.67 [see extract];
Brian Farrell, ed., de Valeras Constitution and Ours (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1989);
Basil Chubb, The Politics of the Irish Constitution (Dublin: Institute of Public
Administration 1991) [see extract];
Joseph Lee, The Irish Constitution of 1937, in Sen Hutton & Paul Stewart, eds.,
Irelands Histories, Aspects of State, Society, and Ideology (Routledge 1991), p.80ff.
[see extract];
T. Ryle Dwyer, de Valera: The Man and The Myths (Swords: Poolbeg Press 1991)
[q.pp.];
Brian Kennedy, Interview with Sean OFaolain, Cork Review (1991), p.4-6 [see
extract];
Tim Pat Coogan, de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow (London: Hutchinson 1993; rep.
Arrow 1995) [see extract];
Roy Foster, Paddy and Mr Punch (London: Penguin/Allen Lane 1993) [see extract];
Pauric Travers, Eamon de Valera (Dundalk: Dundalgan 1994), 64pp.; Fintan OToole,
Broken Dreams, Irish Times (26 Aug. 1995) [see extract];
T. Ryle Dwyer, Big Fellow, Long Fellow: A Joint Biography of Collins and de Valera
(Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1998);
T. P. Coogan, review of T. Ryle Dwyer, Big Fellow, Long Fellow, in The Irish Times (19
Dec. 1998) [see extract];
Robert Brennan, Ireland Standing Firm [and] Eamon de Valera: A Memoir (Dublin: UCD
Press 2002), pp.182 [Brennan was Irish Minister in Washington];
Mark OBrien, De Valera, Fianna Fil and the Irish Press (Dublin: IAP 2001), 304pp.;
Gabriel Doherty & Dermot Keogh, eds., De Valeras Irelands (Cork: Mercier Press 2003),
192pp.;
Dire Keogh, Our boys, De Valeras Ireland and the European crisis, 1932-39, in
Divided Worlds: Studies in Childrens Literature, ed. Mary Shine Thompson & Valerie
Coghlan, eds., [Irish Society for the Study of Childrens Literature, 3] (Dublin: Four
Courts Press 2007) [q.pp.];
Diarmaid Ferriter, Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Legacy of Eamon de Valera (RIA
[with RT] 2008), 408pp., ill.
David Hannigan, De Valera in America and the Rebel Presidents 1919 Campaign
(Dublin: OBrien Press 2008), 317pp., ill.(+ 8pp. photos).
Anthony J. Jordan, Eamon de Valera 1882-1975 - Irish, Catholic, Visionary (Westport
Books 2010), 328pp.
Ronan Fanning, Eamon de Valera, in the Dictionary of Irish Biography (Royal
Irish Academy 2004) - at 14,000 words, the longest entry.
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General studies

F. X. Martin [foreword,] The Howth Gun-Running and the Kilcoole Gun-Running 1914
(Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1964);
Michael Laffan, The Partition of Ireland: 1911-1925 [Life and Times Ser.] Dundalk:

Historical Assoc. of Ireland Press/Dundalgan Press 1983), 138pp.

J. J. Lee, Ireland 1912-1985 (Cambridge UP 1989);
Michael Laffan, The Resurrection of Ireland: the Sinn Fin Party, 1916-1923 (Cambridge
UP 1999), xvii, 512pp. [the cover features cartoon of Griffith and De Valera],
Francis M. Carroll, Money for Ireland: Finance, Diplomacy, Politics and the First Dil
ireann Loans 1919-1936 (NY: Praeger/Eurospan 2003) 200pp.;
Terry de Valera, A Memoir (Currach Press 2004), 368pp.
Dermot Keogh & Andrew McCarthy, The Making the Irish Constitution, 1937 (Cork:
Mercier Press 2008).
Dev on Stage: Tom McIntyres burlesque novel The Charollais (1969) figures de
Valera as Dee La Veera; Gerry Gallivans play Dev (Dublin: Co-Op Books 1978,
76pp.) was first performed at Project Arts Centre in 1977.
[ top ]

Commentary
Lord Longford & Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, eds., The History Makers, Leaders and
Statesmen of the 20th Century; chronologies [by] Christine Nicholls (London: Sidgwick &
Jackson 1973), 448pp, ills. [Contents incl. Clemenceau to Nasser, the essay on Lloyd George
being by APJ Taylor]. DE VALERA, by Wheeler-Bennett, pp.270-87, ed. b. 14 Oct.; Blackrock
Intermediate College; UCD; NUI, and TCD [sic; other errs. incl. Dail Eirann [sic]; fnd. Fianna
Fail, 1926; won general election, 1932; establish republic in 1936 [sic err] Constitution, on
abdication of King Ed. VIII; author regards his father Vivion de Valera as Spanish from Basque
country, or Cuba, or South America; m. Janie Flanagan, among his Gaelic League teachers,
1910; author calls Pearse a mystic, a poet, a schoolmaster - and perhaps almost a saint with a passionate idealism dedicated to Ireland and her people [276]. (Cont.)
Longford & Wheeler-Bennett (The History Makers [.... &c.] 1973) - cont.
Churchill is quoted as saying that the shot at Sarajevo cut through the clamour of
the haggard, squalid, tragic Irish quarrel which threatened to divide the British
nation into two hostile camps [no ref.]; author speaks of rumours of Germany
aiming to support the forces of Sinn Fin in 1916; de Valera at East Clare
election: There are only two courses Irishmen can follow with a certain amount
of logic [] the Unionists of the North are consistent in their desire to remain part
of the British Empire; the only other position is the Sinn Fin position, completely
independent and separate from England. How can they have conciliation? (Irish
Times, 6 July, 1917).
Longford & Wheeler-Bennett (The History Makers [.... &c.] 1973) - cont.: de
Valera imprisoned in Lincoln Jail, May 1918; escapes; undertakes American tour,
not received by President Wilson in USA, but raised 6,000,000 [note that Am.
Fed. of Labour recognised Irish Republic on 17 June 1919]; arrested 22 June
1921 during raid by Royal Worcestershire Regt. on Dublin house; [author speaks
here of his own sheer intellectual inability as well as space in not detailing the
treaty handled brilliantly by Longford in Peace by Ordeal].
Longford & Wheeler-Bennett (The History Makers [.... &c.] 1973) - cont.: de
Valera did not admit inconsistency of Republic with Monarchy; external
association versus Hungarian solution; Dil session that ratified the Treaty sat in
UCD buildings, 14 Dec. to 7 Jan. 1922; 64/57 against; new constitution []
established a Republic of Ireland [sic]; Anglo-Irish Agreement with Chamberlain,
22 April 1938; [note that at the final meeting, Chamberlain handed to de Valera
the field-glasses which had been taken from him at his capture by Capt. Hintzer
at Bolands Mill 22 years earlier]; anti-Partition remained an act of faith [] to
British representatives it was a permanent Banquos ghost at every meeting;
people of Ireland regarded themselves as automatically neutral in 1939.
Longford & Wheeler-Bennett (The History Makers [.... &c.] 1973) - cont.:
Author ends by citing a moderate analysis of de Valeras his standing as being
less an international giant than a great Irishman who has made a unique

contribution to the liberty of his fellow-countrymen; ends: a strange amalgam of

dark mysticism, real-politik, and statesmanship; when one is in the presence his
eyes, though sightless, seem nevertheless to penetrate to ones very soul and
there is the tragedy of all Ireland in his voice. [Cont.]
Longford & Wheeler-Bennett (The History Makers [.... &c.] 1973) - cont. : De
Valera was entered on the register of births in New York as George, christened as
Edward; used Eamon; Kate de Valera [ne Coll] remained in USA till her death in
1932; married Charles Wheelwright, and Englishman and a Protestant, in
Rochester; two children, a dg. who died, and a son who became a Redemptorist
priest; ed. details include Bruree, CBS Rathluirc, and Royal University BA; postgrad. work UCD and TCD; Scottish Borderers involved in Arran Quay shootings, 2
July 1914; in America de Valera responded to queries with, I am an Irish citizen
[] I ceased to be an American citizen when I became a soldier of the Irish
Republic; Constitution of 1937 endorsed by plebiscite of 1 July 1937; on the
death of an Irish ambassador in Berlin during the War, Ireland could only be
represented by a charg daffaires due to complications in the royal of the king in
the external relations Act.
Bibliography: Lord Longford and Thomas ONeill, Eamon de Valera
(London 1970); Mary C. Bromage, de Valera and the March of a
Nation (London 1956); Denis Gwynn, de Valera (NY 1933); David T.
Dwane, The Early Life of Eamon de Valera (Dublin 1922); M. J.
MacManus, Eamon de Valera (Dublin 1947); Sean OFaolin, de
Valera (London 1939); also Louis N. Le Roux, Patrick H. Pearse
(Dublin n.d.); Hedley McCoy, Patrick Pearse (Cork 1966); Sen
Luing, Art Griofa (Dublin 1953); Padraic Colum, Arthur Griffith
(1959); Sir James Ferguson, The Curragh Incident (London 1964); A.
P. Ryan, Mutiny at the Curragh (London 1956); P S OHegarty, The
Victory of Sinn Fin (Dublin 1924); C. Desmond Greaves, The Life
and Times of James Connolly (London 1961); R. B. McDowell, The
Irish Convention 1917-18 (London [line lost]); Documents relative to
the Sinn Fin Movement (Cmd. 1108 of 1921); Patrick McCortan
[sic], With de Valera in America (NY 1957); Wheeler-Bennett, John
Anderson, Viscount Waverley (London 1962); Longford, Peace by
Ordeal (Lon; rev. 1962); Bennett-Wheeler, King George VI, his Life
and Reign (London 1953).
[ top ]
Lord Longford & Thomas ONeill, de Valera (1970): His [de Valeras] view would be that
the Northern Unionists were, at bottom, proud of being Irish; that the history, tradition and
culture of the historic Irish nation could not fail to attract them; that the language was a mine
of this tradition and culture (p.297; quoted in Basil Chubb, The Irish Constitution, 1991,
p.30.)
Sean OCasey: He [de Valera] was outside everything except himself.
There seemed to be no sound of Irish wind, water, folk chant or birdsong in
the dry, dull voice [...] de Valeras voice was neither cold nor hot - it was
simply lukewarm and very dreary. (Quoted in J. Ardle McArdle, review of
Diarmaid Ferriter, Judging Dev: A Reassessment [...], RIA 2008, in Books
Ireland, Oct. 2008, p.226.)
Denis Johnston, I have always found Dev extremely easy to talk to because you never
have to act in front of him. (See Did you know Yeats? And did you lunch with Shaw?, in A
Paler Shade of Green, ed. Des Hickey & Gus Smith, London: Leslie Frewin 1972, pp.60-72;
p.68.)
[ top ]
Richard Kain, Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce (Oklahoma UP
1962; Newton Abbot: David Charles 1972): A remarkable feature of modern Irish history is

the growing stature of Eamon de Valera during the 1930s and 1940s. Few national leaders
have survived so much hatred and ridicule. His lean figure and unsmiling face made him a
target for cartoonists. His policies have been met with [147] derision. When he attacked the
Treaty he was accused of word-splitting, and in the Civil War that followed he seemed guilty
of fomenting anarchy. These were the wilderness years. Once hunted by the British, he was
now pursued and imprisoned by the Irish of both North Ireland and the Free State. In fact he
was a virtual outlaw, rejected by the IRA. and Sinn Fein alike. At this time, as Sen OFaolin
once observed, he, with his unkempt look, long overcoat, crushed felt hat, and worn brief
case, might have been mistaken for any of the thousands of disheveled idealists and misfits
who drifted throughout mid-European capitals. But his five and one-half years of political
exile, fourteen months of them in prison, were finally ended. In August, 1927, he led his
newly formed Fianna Fail party back into the Dail, at the cost of signing the hated oath of
allegiance to the English crown. When he explained that he considered a compulsory oath not
binding, he was mocked as an opportunist. On his assumption of leadership in 1932, many
feared the possibility of a native fascism, and expected that he would retaliate upon his
former enemies. His maintenance of neutrality during World War II, popular though it was in
Ireland, was cynically attacked in England and America. [Cont.]
Richard Kain (Dublin in the Age of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce,1972) cont.: None of the labels has stuck, and few of the fears have materialized. With
a dignity that confutes his mockers, de Valera has emerged as a Lincoln who
survived the dramatic years of crisis and who has undertaken the drab duties of
national recovery. As an obscure mathematics teacher he surprised everyone by
becoming one of the most capable commanders in the 1916 Rising. The only
leader to survive, he has remained in office ever since, with the exception of his
abstention of 1922-27 and the two interludes [148] of 1948-51 and 1954-57. But
for millions the world over, de Valera, whether in or out of office, represents the
Republic of Ireland. [] As head of the Council of the League of Nations in 1932,
de Valera confounded experienced diplomats with his clear demands for
disarmament. His opinion of Field Marshal Wilsons assassination in 1922 had
been direct and honest: I do not approve, but I must not pretend to
misunderstand. It took courage, or obstinacy if you will, to maintain neutrality in
World War II, for it meant closing Irish ports to Americans as well as to British.
Yet when Winston Churchill, in his victory broadcast, indulged in selfcongratulations on his restraint and poise in not forcing Ireland to concur, and
referred to the shamefulness of Irish policy, de Valera made a dignified answer.
Knowing, he said, the kind of reply that was expected, indeed the kind of reply
that he himself might have made years before, I shall strive not to be guilty of
adding any fuel to the flames of hatred and passion, which, if continued to be fed,
promise to burn up whatever is left by the war of decent human feelings in
Europe. In the searing light of Churchills rhetoric, these words seem colorless,
but they are words of wisdom. Irelands tempestuous struggles have ceased, and
the dramatic gesture is no longer in fashion, but in the annals of history this
clerical idealist will take his place beside his more vivid predecessors. Unlike
them, he has not given his countrymen the customary memorable phrases and
grand deeds. In fact it might be said that he has brought them little but that
rarest of all features of Irish political life-success. [150] (pp.147-50; for longer
extract [exclusive of this], see under RICORSO Library, Critics, attached.)
[ top ]
Robert Kee, The Green Flag (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1972): In a letter to a friend in
February 1918, Eamon de Valera wrote that for seven centuries England had held Ireland as
Germany holds Belgium today, by the right of the sword. This is the classical language of
Irish separatism and can be very misleading. [...] Though the sword indeed played its
dreadful part there as savagely as in any other country of Europe, to see Irish history in the
plain, uncompromisingly nationalistic terms of Mr de Valeras statement is to miss, together
with the truth, much of the poignancy and drama of the strange relationship that persisted
between the two islands for so long. It is also the surest way to become bewildered and
confused by the very events in which Mr de Valera was then embroiled, as certain obvious
facts about these events make plain enough.

[ top ]
David Thompson, England in the Twentieth Century [2nd ed., rev. by Geoffrey
Warner], Pelican History of England 1914-1979 (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1981),
Chamberlain accepted de Valeras Constitution declaring Eire to be a sovereign
independent democratic state and surrendered ports, April 1938; accepted 10
million in payment of outstanding annuities; de Valera wrote to him, You did
more than any former British statesman to make a true friendship between the
peoples of our two countries possible; Warner calls this a testimony from an
unexpected source [178], and earlier refers to de Valeras austere and aloof
personally which aroused little warmth in the US [71].
[ top ]
John Bowman, de Valera and the Ulster Question, 1917-1973 (Oxford: Clarendon 1982):
De Valera believed that the Ulsterman was an Irishman and that partition was a British
creation. He also believed that the territorial unity of Ireland took precedence over the wishes
and beliefs of the Northern Unionist. De Valera quoted approvingly Mussolinis speech, There
is something about the boundaries that seem to be drawn by the hand of the Almighty which
is very different from the boundaries that are drawn by ink upon a map. Frontiers traced by
inks on other inks can be modified. It is quite another think when the frontiers were traced by
Providence. p.302; J. H. Whyte , Interpreting Northern Ireland, OUP 1991, p.131.) Note
further, Bowman writes that de Valera sometimes [] went so far as to say that he would
abandon the goal of a united Ireland if that necessitated abandoning the language (de Valera
and the Ulster Question,1982; quoted in Basil Chubb, de Valera and the Constitution, [chap.]
The Irish Constitution, 1991, p.29.)
[ top ]
D. George Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland (London: Routledge 1982; new edn.
1991), comments upon the historiography of A. M. Sullivan in The Story of
Ireland (1867) and its share in the kind of literature that his, and succeeding
generation of Irish nationalists were reared on [of which] Eamon de Valera was
perhaps its most celebrated exponent. (p.249; see further under Sullivan, supra];
Further, But he had learned much after the harrowing and frustrating years of
1922 to 1926; and now he was prepared to break with Sinn Fin, stop wasting
time, and take up the suggestion of one of his ablest lieutenants, Sean Lemass,
to found a new party, Fianna Fil. Lemasss advice soon proved sound and
realistic. In the 1927 general election de Valeras new party won 44 seats, while
Sinn Fin was reduced to five; and the resolutions passed at a Sinn Fin
republican government meeting in April 1928 must have removed any lingering
doubts. In one fell swoop the government condemned those deputies who had
reneged on the republic in 1922 and 1927, repudiated all acts of the government
of Northern Ireland, denied the right of the king of England to confer the title
earl of Ulster on his son, called on the race to renew its allegiance to the
Government of the republic, and ended with a rhetorical flourish, congratulating
the peoples of Egypt, Arabia and India on their determination to assert their
absolute independence of the arch-enemy of human liberty. It was magnificent,
but it was also rigidly orthodox, and it was, as de Valera had earlier
acknowledged, not politics. (Ibid., p.344.)
[ top ]
Colm Toibn, Walking along the Border (London: Macdonald 1987), writes: There was no
sense of habitation anywhere, the population of Leitrim having decreased from 150,000 to
27,000 between 1841 and 1986 because of emigration, famine, and now forestry. I
understood why the forests had become an emotional issue. I though of de Valeras famous
St. Patricks Day speech broadcast in 1943, when he wished for a land whose countryside
would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the
soul of industry, with the rompings of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths and the
laughter of comely maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old
age. It would, in a word, be the home of a people living the life that God desires that man

should live. / Toibn remarks: Forty later the road between Rossinver and Kiltyclogher, the
heart of rural Ireland, was a convincing testament to the failure of de Valeras vision, which
seemed now like a joke from a bitter satirical sketch. He wasnt a drinking man, but it is likely
that even he would have taken a dim view of the plight of the publicans of Kiltyclogher, right
there on the border with Fermanagh []. I drank to de Valeras poor old ghost. (p.67).
[ top ]
Basil Chubb discusses de Valeras authorship of the 1937 Irish Constitution in
The Politics of the Irish Constitution (1991), viz., During the Treaty debates and
after, Dil deputies and later IRA members had more interest in the status of the
new Ireland [in relation to what de Valera called the big question of the Crown]
than its size [15]; republic debate, de Valera read out the dictionary definition
in answer to a question posed by Deputy Dillon, but said that he had deliberately
avoided declaring Ireland a republic in his constitution because he was trying to
keep open a bridge over which the Northern Unionists might one day walk. He
said that this avoidance of the nomenclature puts the question of our
international relations in their proper place and that is outside the Constitution
[24]; de Valeras] strategy for handing the Northern problem was to relegate it to
the back burner while he grappled with what he called the big question [79].
Further, Chubb notes that Pope Puis XII congratulated de Valera on the fact that
the human rights formulations in Bunreacht na hEireann were grounded on the
bedrock of the natural law. (Ireland: The Weekly Bulletin of the Dept. of External
Affairs, No. 421, 13 Oct. 1958; Chubb, op. cit.,p.71]
[ top ]
Joseph Lee, The Irish Constitution of 1937, in Irelands Histories, Aspects of State, Society,
and Ideology, ed. Sen Hutton & Paul Stewart (London: Routledge 1991), p.80ff.: Eamon de
Valera, under whose close supervision the Constitution was drafted, was a strong believer in
the rule of law, and in protecting the rights of the citizens against the intrusive and arbitrary
potential of state power. Indeed, had he sought an autocratic state, the Constitution of 1922,
which his new Constitution superseded, allowed him immense scope for arbitrary behaviour.
[80] de Valera accepted an essentially liberal concept of individual rights [] He was, in this
respect, if not a disciple, of Daniel OConnell. [81] de Valeras own preferred social order
blended Aquinas with Jefferson, his ideal being a democracy of small property owners, with
the family as the basic unit of a Christian society which, governed by the precepts of natural
law, derived its legitimacy from allegiance to the Most Holy Trinity [] &c., as the preamble
portentiously puts it. [81]. Lee goes on to question the meaning of the phrase the Irish
nation [88] but generally endorses the constitution as an expression of the political
consensus of Irish people, and defends in particular Arts. 2 & 3. [89]
[Cf. Irish Constitution/Bunreacht na hEireann (1937): The State recognises the
Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society (...)]
[ top ]
T. Ryle Dwyer, de Valera: The Man and The Myths (Swords: Poolbeg 1991), quotes de
Valera on his paternity, My father and mother were married in a Catholic church on Sept 9th
1881. I was born in October 1882; christened George Edward in New York; his Spanish father
died and his mother remarried, having sent him home to the half-acre farm in Bruree, Co.
Limerick, where he was raised surrounded by lurid speculation about his legitimacy;
registered at school under the name of his uncle Pat, as Edward Coll. Quotes, any
government that desires to hold power in Ireland should put publicity before all. [T]hose
Unionists who were not willing to accept the 1937 Constitution should be transferred to Britain
and replaced by Roman Catholics of Irish extraction from Britain. Also, notes that the
execution of two men executed in 1940 marked an irrevocable break with the IRA; de Valera
came to power with the defeat of W. T. Cosgrave in 1932, and resigned in favour of Sen
Lemass in 1959. [cited in review of Dwyer, de Valera: The Man and The Myths in Books
Ireland,Oct 1992, q.p.].
T. Ryle Dwyer, Eamon de Valera (1980): [] de Valera thought, Irishmen living

in England should replace intransigent Unionists in Ulster (p.112; quoted in J. H.

Whyte , Interpreting Northern Ireland, OUP 1991, p.131.) Whyte adds that there
was no evidence that Irishmen living in Britain wished to return to Ireland,
anymore than that Ulster unionists wished to go to Britain. (Quoted in Whyte, op.
cit., idem.)
[ top ]
Sen OFaolin (1) OFaolin remarked: He had no real interest in art. I dont think he could
spell the word. I dont mean to be critical of him. You see he didnt need to know anything
about art. He only went to the Abbey once. He was from a rural generation. He had no time
for art because he didnt need it. (Interview with Brian Kennedy, Cork Review, 1991, p.4-6).
Sen OFaolin (2): John Montague, reviewing Julia OFaolain, Trespassers: A
Memoir, in The Irish Times (25 May 2013), tells of the return of the OFaolins to
Ireland in 1933: [...] the atmosphere had darkened; while Sens adoring first
book on de Valera extols him as tall as a spear, commanding, enigmatic, the
second deplores his influence, which has led to the inhuman treatment of
unmarried mothers ... the unimaginative control of juvenile houses of detention
... stupid censorship ... the fanatical ways in which such innocent amusements as
dancing ... are controlled. / No wonder the OFaolins became partisan, and no
wonder Seans wife, Eileen, saved the family bacon with her fairy tales, [..]
almost as popular as Patricia Lynch [...] charming, but their popularity at a time
when adult books were being suppressed was a bit disturbing, as if southern
Ireland wished to be lulled to sleep. [Presumably quoting De Valera, 1939.]
Tim Pat Coogan, de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow (London: Hutchinson 1993), Chap.
1: The Harsh Reality of the Nursery, questions facts about de Valeras biography as given by
himself, arriving that the conclusion that he was probably the son of Aitkinson, his mothers
Clare employer before she left Ireland, rather than the Puerto Rican sculptor. He writes that if
de Valera knew or suspected that there was a doubt about his parents marriage, the
knowledge must have been a burden to him. It must have had a marked effect on his
character, if even a portion of what the psychiatrists tell us about the influences of childhood
be true. The death of, or abandonment by, his father, rejection by his mother and growing up
in poverty a continent away from her were the sort of experiences which either broke or
toughened a man. Did they also dehumanise him? Many would say they did. De Valera once
told the Dil that as far as he knew he had no Jewish blood; Coogan also raises the questions
of his alleged breakdown under fire at Jacobs Mill; the financing of the Irish Press; and his
refusal to listen to warnings about Arts. 2 & 3.
Tim Pat Coogan, review of T. Ryle Dwyer, Big Fellow, Long Fellow: A Joint
Biography of Collins and de Valera (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1998), in Irish Times
(19 Dec. 1998), [q.p.]; Coogan dwells considerably on the question of de Valeras
illegitimacy, discounting the rumour that his mother Kate was pregnant when she
sailed to New York, but noting that he (Coogan) failed to find a record of marriage
at St Patricks, Greenville, where Longford and ONeill state his parents were
married; comments that de Valera reinvented himself as having two parents,
and, particularily from 1916 onwards, soothed the uncertainties within himself by
a singleminded drive for power that would brook no rival for power, either when
he was splitting the Irish in America, or the nation back in Ireland; notes absence
of footnotes and damage done by compression.
[ top ]
R. F. Foster, Connections in Irish History and English History (London: Allen Lane/Penguin
1993; rep. 1995): the Manchester Guardian was told by de Valera in 1928 that he hoped to
free Ireland from the domination of the grosser appetites and induce a mood of spiritual
exaltation for a return to Spartan standards (Round Table report). (p.94.) Foster goes on to
cite Joseph Lee, if Irish values be deemed spiritual, then spiritualism must be redefined as
covetousness tempered by sloth. (Idem.)
Fintan OToole, Broken Dreams, Irish Times (26 Aug. 1995), [q.p.] writes on

the failures of Dev; quotes Thomas McCarthy [My father recited prayers of
memory, of monster meetings, blazing tar-barrells outside Free State homes, the
Broy Harriers pushing through the crowd, Blueshirts. And, after the war, de
Valeras words making Churchills imperial palette blur], and poem [one decade
of darkness. / A mindstifling boredom]; also a story by Tom MacIntyre (Aspects
of the Rising, 1966), in which a prostitute launches stream of invective at Aras an
Uachtarain [you craw-thumpin get of a Spaniard]; and lines by Paul Durcan [I
see him in the heat-haze of the day / Blindly stalking us down; / And, levelling his
ancient rifle, he says, Stop Making Love outside Aras an Uachtarain; also
mentions Rocky de Valera, Ferdia MacAnnas band in the 1970s , as index of the
reduction of de Valera to joke-status.
[ top ]

J. F. Kennedy, Prelude to Leadership: The European Diary of John F. Kennedy (Washington

1995), contains nine typed pages on Ireland incl. remarks on De Valera: I left England
yesterday to come to Ireland. World attention has been turned again to Mr de Valera due to
his recent remark in the Irish Dil that Ireland was a Republic. Stayed with Ambassador
David Gray, and recorded his opinion: Mr Grays opinion of de Valera is that he was sincere,
incorruptible, also a paranoiac and a lunatic. His premise is that the partition of Ireland is
indefensible, and once this thesis is accepted, all else in his policy is consistent. He believed
that Germany was going to win. He kept strict neutrality even towards the simplest United
States demands. Further, He has fought politically in the Dil the same battle he fought
militarily in the field - a battle to end partition, a battle against Britain. Doubted agricultural
self-sufficiency: not a profitable product for misty, rainy Ireland. Rebukes Churchill:
Churchills speech at the end of the war, in which he attacked de Valera, was extraordinarily
indiscreet - made things much more difficult for Gray and pulled de Valera out of a hole. (See
The Irish Times, 20 July 2002, p.8.) See further on Gray, in Notes, infra.
[ top ]
John McDonagh, Blitzophrenia: Brendan Kennellys Post-Colonial Vision, in
Irish University Review (Autumn/Winter 2003): One of the most enduring
external plastic pictures of Ireland was portrayed by Eamon de Valera after the
end of the Second World War, when in response to Winston Churchills thinly
veiled criticism of the Free States official neutrality, he declared that despite
being clubbed into insensitivity over several hundred years Ireland stood
alone against aggression and emerged as a small nation that could never be got
to accept defeat and has never surrendered her Soul. (Quoted in Theodore
Hoppen, Ireland Since 1800: Conflict and Conformity, 1989, p.186). This
particular interpretation of history is, in K. Theodore Hoppens words, at once the
strength and the tragedy of nationalist Irelands imprisonment within a special
version of the past and was a reading that could be found in the writings of both
Joyce and Yeats (Ibid., p.185). Furthermore, it validates any action taken by the
Free State government to define and preserve models of nationhood through its
social, cultural, and political policies. Consequently, draconian censorship laws
were introduced in the 1920s to [328] protect the cherished, perceived soul of
the nation from neo-colonial influences. Gradually, a politically dominated image
of the nation emerged that equated conservative political policies with strict
Catholf social and cultural mores [].
[ top ]

Quotations
Physical force: Our movement is constitutional in that sense. Constitutional nationalism
does not align itself with the British Constitution; it aligns itself with the will of the Irish
people. (Irish Independent, 29 Oct. 1917; quoted in C. Smyth, Irelands Physical Force
Tradition Today Lurgan, 1989, p.8; cited in Anthony Alcock, Understanding Ulster, Lurgan
1994, p.29.)

Civil War (order to disarm): Soldiers of Liberty! Legion of the Rearguard! The
Republic can no longer be defended successfully by your arms. Further sacrifices
on your part would now be in vain, and the continuance of the struggle in arms
unwise in the national interest. Military victory must be allowed to rest for the
moment with those who have destroyed the Republic. (Quoted in Macardle, The
Irish Republic, p.371; cited in Peter Costello, The Heart Grown Brutal, 1977,
p.238).
Clare election (1923): [T]oday the aims of the Irish Republicans, in Ireland and out of
Ireland, could be expressed in Wolfe tones words, to assert the independence of our country,
to unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of past dissensions, and to
substitute the common name of Irishmen in place of all sectional denominations. That is what
Irish Republicans stand for; that is our goal; and our means are every available means by
which determined men can win their freedom. / These aims preclude, very definitely, first of
all any possible assent by us to the dismemberment of our country. You cannot have a
sovereign Ireland if you have Ireland cut in two. [] There are no two Irelands, there are no
Northern or Southern Irelands for us. Every Irishman, be he Sir James Craig or the bravest
and most extreme man here in the South - they are for us all comprised in the common name
of Irishmen, and we will never own that there are two motherlands for us./The sovereignty of
Ireland, then, cannot possibly be given away by Irish Republicans. (Quoted in Seamus Deane,
gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 1991, Vol. 3, p.743ff.)
National Territory: We deny that any part of our people can give away the
sovereignty or alienate any part of this nation or territory. If this generation
should be base enough to consent to give them away, the right to win them back
remains unimpaired for those to whom the future will bring the opportunity. (10
Dec. 1925; cited in Conor Cruise OBrien, Ancestral Voices, Religion and
Nationalism in Ireland,Poolbeg 1994, p.129.) Further, The only policy for
abolishing partition that I can see is for us, in this part of Ireland to use such
freedom as we can secure to get for the people in this part of Ireland such
conditions as will make the people in the other part of Ireland wish to belong to
this part. (1 March 1933; OBrien, op. cit., 1994, p.130.)
[ top ]
Turned backs: (on 2nd Reading of Juries Protection Bill, 1st May 1929): Because they
[Cosgrave Govt.] turned their backs on what they stood for a few years ago they will not
allow their prejudice to let them know that there are men who did not turn their backs on
these principles, and who are struggling, rightly or wrongly, either supported by the majority
of the Irish people or not supported, to secure this objective. [the Republic]. (Dil Debates,
XXIX, 1576; quoted in Donal OSullivan, The Irish Free State and the Senate (London: Faber
& Faber 1940, p.258.)
Irish genius: The Irish genius has always sressed spiritual values [...] That is the
characteristic that fits the Irish people in a special manner for the task of helping
to save western civilisation (Radio broadcast of 1933; quoted in Julia OFaolain,
Your mother doesnt realise that she couldnt survive without me, extract from
Trespassers, reflecting on her parents marriage. (Irish Times, Weekend Review, 9
March 2013, p.10.)
[ top ]
Radio ireann (Inaugural broadcast, Athlone; 6th Feb. 1933): Anglo-Irish literature, though
far less characteristic of the nation than that produced in the Irish language includes much
that is of lasting worth. Ireland has produced in Dean Swift perhaps the greatest satirist in
the English language; in Edmund Burke probably the greatest writer in politics; in William
Carleton, a novelist of the first rank; in Oliver Goldsmith a poet of rare merit. Henry Grattan
was one of the most eloquent oration of his time - the golden age of oratory in the English
language. Theobold Wolfe Tone has left us one of the most delightful autobiographies in
literature. Several recent, or still living, Irish novelists and poets have produced work which is
likely to stand the test of time. (Quoted in Anthony Cronin, Heritage Now: Irish Literature in
English, 1982, p.[7].)

Telefs ireann: in his address on the opening of RT, de Valera said: like
atomic energy, it can be used for incalculable good but it can also do irreparable
harm. (See Martin McLoone, Irish Film, London: British Film Inst. 2000, p.207;
quoted in Bryan Gaynor, UU Diss., UUC 2009.)
[ top ]
St Patricks Day (Broadcast of 17 March 1943: One hundred years ago the Young
Irelanders, by holding up the vision of such an Ireland before the people, inspired our nation
and moved it spiritually as it had hardly been moved since the golden age of Irish civilisation.
Fifty years of the Gaelic League similarly inspired and moved the people of their day, as did
the later leaders of the Volunteers. We of this time, if we have the will and the active
enthusiasm, have the opportunity to inspire and move our generation in like manner
[intervening paras. concern Thomas Davis and spiritual resources]; further: many have
got more than is required and are free, if they choose, to devote themselves more completely
to cultivating the things of the mind, and in particular those which mark us out as a distinct
nation. / The first of these is the national language. It is for us what no other language can
be. It is our very own. It is more than a symbol; it is an essential part of our nationhood. It
has been moulded by the thought of a hundred generations of our forebears. In it is stored
the accumulated experience of a people, our people, who even before Christianity was
brought to them were already cultured and living in a well-ordered society. The Irish language
spoken in Ireland today is the direct descendant without break of the language our ancestors
spoke in those far-off days. / As a vehicle of three thousand years of our history, the language
for us is precious beyond measure. As the bearer to us of a philosophy, an outlook on life
deeply Christian and rich in practical wisdom, the language today is worth far too much to
dream of letting it go. To part with it would be to abandon a great part of ourselves. in
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 1991, Vol. 3, p.749f.)
[Cont.]
St Patricks Day (Broadcast of 17 March 1943) - cont.: [] With the language
gone we could never aspire again to being more than half a nation. / For my part,
I believe that this outstanding mark of our nationhood can be preserved and
made forever safe by this generationit cannot be saved without understanding
and co-operation and sacrifice. They are not slight. The task of restoring the
language as the everyday speech of our people is a task as great as any nation
ever undertook [] The State and public institutions can do much to assist []
The individual citizen must desire actively to restore the language and be
prepared to take the pains to learn it and to use it, else real progress cannot be
made. [] Let us devote this year to the restoration of the language. [] Time is
running against us in this matter of the language. We cannot afford to postpone
our effort. We should remember also that the more we preserve and develop our
individuality and our characteristics as a distinct nation, the more secure will be
our freedom and the more valuable our contribution to humanity when this war is
over. [Conclusion in Irish: Bail Dhia oraibh again bail go gcuire S ar an obair
at romhainn / God bless you and bless the work ahead of you.] (in Seamus
Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 1991, Vol. 3, p.749f.)
[Cf. Patrick Pearse, on the Irish Language as national essence and repository]
St Patricks Day (Broadcast of 17 March 1943) - cont.: The Ireland [which] we
dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a
basis of right living, of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort and
devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit; a land whose countryside would
be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with
sounds of industry, the romping sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths,
the laughter of comely maidens; whose firesides would be the forums of the
wisdom of serene old age. [It would, in a word, be the home of a people living
the life that God desires men should live.] (Quoted in Terence Brown, Ireland, A
Social and Cultural History, 1981, p.146; also in D. J. Doherty & J. E. Hickey, A
Chronology of Irish History Since 1500 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1989), p.125;
also C. L. Dallat, The rise of the novel as a critique of de Valeras Ireland, in
Times Literary Supplement, 27 Sept. 1996, p.21.

St Patricks Day (Broadcast of 17 March 1943) - cont.: Since the coming of St.
Patrick, fifteen hundred years ago, Ireland has been a Christian and a Catholic
nation. All the ruthless attempts made down through the centuries to force her
from this allegiance have not shaken her faith. She remains a Catholic nation.
(Quoted in J. H. Whyte, State and Church, 2nd edn. 1980, p.48; cited in Basil
Chubb, The Politics of the Irish Constitution, 1991, p.27.) For commentary see
also David Cairns & Shaun Richards, Writing Ireland, colonialism, nationalism and
culture, Manchester 1988, p.133).
[ top ]
Devs nationality: Go and read the Cork Examiner. The proprietor and editor sent me a
letter apologising privately and saying that a certain thing was let through without his
knowledge, showing what is happening at some of those meetings where this question of
Communism is being discussed. There is not, as far as I know, a single drop of Jewish blood
in my veins. I am not one of those who try to attack the Jews or want to make any use of the
popular dislike of them. I know that originally they were Gods people; that they turned
against Him and that the punishment which their turning against God brought upon them
made even Christ Himself weep. In disclaiming that there is no Jewish blood in me I do not
want it to be interpreted as an attack upon the Jews. But as there has been, and even from
that bench over there, this dirty innuendo and suggestion carded, as I have said, formally to
Gods Altar, I say that on both sides of me I come from Catholic stock. My father and mother
were married in a Catholic Church, on September 19th, 1881. I was born in October, 1882. I
was baptised in a Catholic Church. I was brought up here in a Catholic home. I have lived
amongst the Irish people and loved them and loved every blade of grass that grew in this
land. I do not care who says, or who tries to pretend that I am not Irish. I say I have been
known to be Irish and that I have given everything in me to the Irish nation. (Dil Debates, 2
March, 1934; quote in Piaras Mac inr, paper on on limits of multiculturalism at Identity and
Cultural Diversity in Irish Writing Conference, Mirtn U Chadhain Th., TCD, 23 Aug. 2003
[hand-out].)
[ top ]
Devs Allegiance: I have one allegiance only to the people of Ireland, and that
is to do the best we can for the people of Ireland as we conceive it [] I would
not like therefore, that anyone should propose me for election as president who
would think I had my mind definitely made up on any situation that might arise. I
keep myself free to consider each question as it arises - I never bind myself in
any other way. (Speeches, ed. Moynihan, 1980, p.70.) [See Joseph Lee, Ireland
1912-1985, Politics and Society, Cambridge UP, 1989, p.48].
Statement of principle: [T]he question of going in or remaining out [of Free
State Dil] would be a matter purely of tactics and expediency [] I have always
been afraid of our people seeing principles where they really do not exist. (Draft
letter to Mary MacSwiney; cited in D. George Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, 1982,
p.343.)
National sovereignty (address to the League of Nations): Make no mistake, if
on any pretext whatever we were to permit the sovereignty of even the weakest
state among us to be unjustly taken away, the whole foundation of the League of
Nations would crumble into dust. ( Quoted in Conor OClery America [column],
The Irish Times, Sept. 21 2002, p.13.)
[ top ]
Amending the Constitution (Speech of April 1933 at Arbour Hill): Let it be made clar that
we yield no willing assent to any form or symbol that is out of keeping with Irelandsright as a
sovereign nation. Let us remove these forms one by one, so that this State that we control
may be a Republic in fact and that, when the times comes, the proclaiming of the Republic
may involve no more than a ceremony, the form confirmation of a status already attained.
Draft Articles (corresponding to article 44.1.2. of Bunreacht na hEireann): The

State acknowledges that the true religion is that established by our Divine Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, which he committed to his Church to protect and propagate,
as the guardian and interpreter of true morality. It acknowledges, moreover, that
the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church. (The Constitution of Ireland, ed.
Keogh & Litton, 1988, p.59; quoted in Basil Chubb, The Politics of the Irish
Constitution, Dublin: IPA 1991, p.28.)
Irish Language: With the language gone we could never aspire again to being
more than half a nation. quoted in D. George Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland,
London: Routledge 1982, p.22; along with a Republican song: God save the
southern part of Ireland / Three quarters of a nation once again.
Christian Bros.: Ireland owes more than it will probably ever realise to the
Christian Brothers. I am an individual who owes practically everything to the
Christian Brothers. (Quoted in Fintan OToole, Blessed Among Brothers, The Irish
Times, Weekend feature, 5 Oct. 1996.)
[ top ]
John Bull: Nothing would please John Bull better than that they should put it into their
minds that physical force in any shape or form was morally wrong []. As to the word
constitutional, they had no Constitution of Ireland. The English Constitution was not theirs
and they were out against it. What he understood as Constitutionalism was that they should
act in accordance with the will of the Irish people and the moral law. Their movement was
constitutional in that sense. (Irish Independent, 29 Oct. 1917; cited in Robert Key, The Green
Flag, 1972, p.611.)
Use of arms: There is no way today in which the arms of any section of the people can be
used from the point of view of general national defence except under the control of the duly
elected government. (Q. Source; and cf. Michael Collins.)
[ top ]
Garda Siochana: as far as we are able to know [] these officers have loyally served us. We
came into office and we got service [] because these men realised that we are not a
partisan government. (The Way to Peace, Dublin 1934; cited in Boyce, op. cit., 1982, p.345.)
Mayo librarian: the refusal by County Council to appoint Letitia Dunbar-Harrison (BA, TCD)
to a librarianship in Co. Mayo in 1930 elicited from De Valera a prevaricating response in the
Dail in the course of which he supported the right of the Catholic majority to choose an
appointee who shared their culture and religion. The case is dealt with in considerable and
somewhat facetious detail, in Joseph Lee, Ireland 1912-1985, Politics and Society (Cambridge
UP 1989), pp.161-68; see also Pat Walsh, The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian (Cork:
Mercier Press 2009).
[ top ]

References
Cathach Bks (Catalogue No. 12) lists Peace and War: Speeches on International Affairs
[n.d]; Mary C. Dromage, de Valera and the March of a Nation (Lon. 1956); Irelands Stand:
Being a selection of the speeches of Eamon de Valera during the war 1939-45 (Dublin 1946);
David T. Dwane, Early Life of Eamon de Valera (Dublin 1927) [port.]; M. J. MacManus, A
Biography [1st ed.] (Dublin 1944). [
Hyland Catalogue, No 220 (Jan. 1996) lists Peace and War: Speeches on
International Affairs (1944) [rep.]. Hyland No. 224 notes that there is a portrait
of de Valera by Elizabeth Rivers, in London Mercury No. 222.
[ top ]

Notes
Birth cert.: Eamon de Valera was born in New York City on 14 October 1882. About one

month later, Dr. Charles Murray reported the birth to the Citys Health Department. The
Doctor recorded de Valeras first name as George. In 1910, de Valeras mother Catherine
applied to the Health Department to amend her sons birth certificate. She filled-out a new
birth certificate indicating her sons name first name was Edward. Her application was
approved and a new certificate was pasted over the original certificate. Both are on file in the
New York City Municipal Archives. (Notable New Yorkers - de Valera page, quoted in
Wikipedia, under Eamon de Valera, n.1 [online; accessed 05.11.2009.] Note that the
cancelled certificate gives his fathers name as Vivion de Valero [sic] with profession of artist,
while his mother is cited as Kate De Valero - the childs name being amended to Edward de
Valera [sic], the fathers to Vivion de Valera, and the mothers to Kate (or Catherine) de Valera
[ne Coll] in the revised cert. (See Notable New Yorkers [online].)

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W. B. Yeats wrote, Am I a great Lord Chancellor [] Or am I de Valera, / Or the
King of Greece, / Or the man that made the motors? / Ach, call me what you
please! / Heres a Monenegrin lute [] [The Statesmans Holiday, Collected
Poems, Macmillan, 1933 / , p.389].
W. B. Yeats voted for de Valera in 1932, and met him to ensure that the Abbey
subsidy continued; struck by de Valeras honesty and simplicity; wrote to Olivia
Shakespear that It was a curious experience; each recognised the others point
of view so completely. (27 Feb. [1934]; Wade, ed., Letters, p.820, cited in A. N.
Jeffares, W. B. Yeats: A New Biography, 1988, p.314).
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Oliver St. John Gogarty: Gogarty described de Valeras appearance as a cross between a
corpse and a cormorant. [Q. source.]
Fr. OFlanagan, brother-in-law of Eamon de Valera, Vice-President of Sinn Fin, attempted
negotiation with Lloyd George without consent of the Republican cabinet, and fell out of
favour. (See Hilary Pyle, Estella Solomons, Patriot Portraits,1966; incls. a portrait of
OFlanagan.]
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Irelands reputation: de Valera, as incoming Prime Minister [recte Taoiseach],
informed the Dil in April 1933 that he had told the Abbey directors that certain
plays (meaning Synge and OCaseys) would damage the good name of Ireland.

(See Frank Tuohy, Yeats, 1976, p.194.)

Anthony Cronin begins Heritage Now: Irish Literature in the English Language
(Dingle: Brandon 1982) with an essay to which is prefixed a paragraph-length
epigraph from a speech of Eamon de Valera according a grudging place to AngloIrish Literature in 1933.
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Republican rear: In ordering the IRA to lay down arms in 1923, de Valera addressed his
command to the Rearguard of the Republic; see also Francis Carty, Legion of the Rearguard
(London 1934) [accounts of Collins, Brugha, de Valera, &c.].
Jonathan Bardon, History of Ulster (1992), recounts Sir James Craigs journey
to Dublin to meet de Valera, together with his recollection: after half an hour, de
Valera had reached the era of Brian Boru. After another half hour he had
advanced to the period of some king a century or two later. By this time I was
getting tired. fortunately, a fine Kerry Blue entered the room .. [Bardon, 480].
Further, de Valera reported on his side, I must say I liked him (Bowman, de
Valera and the Ulster Question 1917-1973,Oxford, 1982, p.47; cited in Bardon,
op. cit., [q.p.].)
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Michael D. Higgins [Senator, Dil Eireann], The Betrayal, poems (1990), title poem, ded.
for my father, contains lines on de Valera, It was 1964, just after optical benefit / Was
rejected by de Valera for the poorer classes / In his Republic, who could not afford, / As he
did / to travel to Zurich / For their regular test and their / Rimless glasses. Further: you []
debated / Whether de Valera was lucky or brilliant / In getting the British to remember / That
he was an American. [See also remarks under Reprieved, infra.]
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Nelson Pillar, OConnell St., Dublin, blown up by the IRA, reputedly elicited from de Valera
the remark that Nelson left Dublin by air. (Cited in Thomas Flanagan, Dublin, Ghost and
Voices, in The Sophisticated Traveler (n.d.; ?Autumn 1995), pp.16-34.
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Abbey launch: The Abbey Theatre, designed by Michael Scott, was officially
opened in Dublin by Eamon de Valera on 18 July 1966. (See Highlights of Recent
Years, in The Irish Times, 13 Jan. 2004.)
Special Position: Article 44 of the Irish Constitution [Bunreacht na hEireann],
authored by de Valera himself, recognises the special position of the Holy
Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church as the guardian of the Faith professed by
the great majority of the Citizens.
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Reprieved (1): De Valeras mother Kate Coll worked as a domestic servant in the Atkinson
castle in Co. Clare up to the time of her sudden departure for New York. Her son (born soon
afterwards) was sent back to Bruree at a young age. The expenses of his education at
Blackrock College were covered by the Atkinsons, who also paid his election costs in 1918.
There is a family tradition that John Atkinson, the former Lord Chancellor (to 1905) secured
de Valeras reprieve by personal intercession with the powers that be in 1916. The family was
especially offended when Brits Out was recently painted on their gateposts. (BS posting to
Irish Studies List, Virginia Tech., Monday, 10 Feb 1997.)
Reprieved (2): Lucille Redmond, reviewing Run ODonnelly, ed., The Impact of
the 1916 Rising among the Nations, writes: Bernadette Whelan examines how
the administration of Woodrow Wilson (himself from a Northern Protestant
background) behaved, and finally kills off the legend that de Valera was saved

because he was American. It turns out that he was saved because no one really
knew who he was. (See in Books Ireland, March 2009, p.55.) [See also under
Michael D. Higgins, supra.]
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Letters sold: A collection of 17 letters from de Valera to his wife between 1911 and 1920,
sold by auction at Sale at Tara Towers Hotel; the letters incl. some written while at Mountjoy,
with news of the commutation of his sentence. Others date from his time at Tawin Gaelic
College, of the Galway shore; I need a kiss urgently I want to press my wife to my heart,
but we are 150 miles apart. Darling, do you think of me at all? - can you sleep without those
long limbs wrapped around you? - those same limbs are longing to be wrapped around you
again - two weeks - fourteen days - how can I endure it? You do not know how sorrowful I am
... The letters includes account of E. R. Dix and Roger Casement visiting Tawin College to
judge a cooking prize established by them the former wiring into [i.e., eating] a bit of
everything in the way of food. 6 children with Sinad. (Report in The Irish Times, 25 Nov.
2000.)
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Stolen Letters: Irish Emigrant (Galway) reports that 18 letters written by Eamon
de Valera to his young wife Sinad between 1911 and 1920 and held by a family
in England were due to be auctioned in Dublin early in December 2000 when the
gardai seized them as having been stolen from the de Valeras at Cross Ave.
(Blackrock) in a burglary about 25 years ago. The unnamed vendors appear to be
an innocent party in the matter. (http://www.emigrant.ie; 18th Dec. 2000.)
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Dev in America: At the convention for the election of the Republican presidential candidate,
De Valera led a torchlit procession of Irish separatists and overshadowed the quieter
diplomacy of Judge Cohalan, causing Bishop Gallagher to pass this judgement: if President de
Valera had remained away from Chicago and allowed Americans to run their own affairs, the
Independence plank would have been in the platforms of both parties, and fear of American
public opinion would have stayed the murderous hand of England. (Quoted in J. Ardle
McArdle, review of Michael Doorley, Irish-American Diaspora Nationalism: The Friends of Irish
Freedom 1916-1935, in Books Ireland, Feb. 2006, p.19.)
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David Gray, the US minister in Dublin from 1940, was 75 at the time of appointment;
husband of Maud, an aunt of Eleanor Roosevelt; sought to prevent long-term Irish
reunification; ineptly disrupted theretofore successful relations between Joseph Walshe, the
permanent secretary of the Irish Dept. of Foreign Affairs, and the OSS in Ireland; Gray was
guided by communications with the Roosevelts and with Alfred Lord Balfour supposedly
received through a psychic medium (a lady from Cork); not recalled by FDR to avoid upsetting
Eleanor. (See Barry McLoughlin, review of Aengus Nolan, Joseph Walshe: Irish Foreign Policy
1922-1946, Mercier 2007; in Books Ireland, Summer 2008.)
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John Hearne (1893-1969): Hearne is the recipient of an inscription made by de Valera on a
copy of the Constitution now in the National Library of Ireland, as follows: To Mr John Hearne,
Barrister at Law, Legal Adviser to the Department of External Affairs, Architect in Chief and
Draftsman of this Constitution, as a Souvenir of the successful issue of his work and in
testimony to the fundamental part he took in framing this first Free Constitution of the Irish
People. See Brian Kennedy, The Special Position of John Hearne, in The Irish Times, 8 April
1987; cutting slipped into a copy of Toms Neill & Pdraig Fiannachta, De Valera (Dublin:
Cl Morainn 1968), acquired by BS at Blackrock Market, May 2009. The author asserts and
partly demonstrates that Hearne, who attended the Imperial Conference as technical adviser
to the delegation led by Kevin OHiggins, and was, like de Valera, a devout Catholic, with an
additional interest in Catholic theology, was indeed the author - subject to the constraint that

de Valera wished the Constitution should uphold the rights of the individual and that it should
be a popular document that the man in the street could read - here quoting Maurice Moynihan
[q. source]. Also cites, inter. al., C. S. Todd and Dermot Keogh; see further under Anthony
Cronin, supra.]
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Lloyd George: The British PM complained that talking with de Valera was like
trying to pick up mercury with a fork, to which de Valera responded, why didnt
he use a spoon? (Cited in Tony Canavan, review of Conor OClery, Ireland in
Quotations: A History of the Twentieth Century, 1999; in Books Ireland, Dec.
1999, p.358.)
John Dillon: Dillon, in opposition, reputedly declared of de Valera: when my
people went into Irish politics, his were still selling budgerigars in Barcelona.
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Herr Hempel: Diarmaid Ferriter notes that de Valeras condolences to Herr Hempel and more generally - the Irish lack of contemporary response to the seriousness of the Jewish
Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis was conditioned by the neutrality policy of the day and
especially by the news blackout dictated by the government, quoting Clair Wills: the crucial
factor which lamed the humanitarian response was the inability to contemplate, let alone
comprehend, the true meaning and scale of the Jewish persecution until it was too late [...] a
reporting of the war denuded of all commentary, stripped of all specific reference to atrocity,
produced its own kind of falsehood. (See Complexity of era defined Irish neutrality in war, in
The Irish Times, 4 Feb. 2012, Opinion column; a response to Minister Alan Shatters speech
accusing Ireland of a tarnished legacy that delimits Irelands moral authority to be critical of
the Israel today (i.e., in ts treatment of Palestinians).
Response: see letter by Prof. Geoffrey Roberts (History School, Univ. Coll., Cork
[UCC]): argues that Irish neutrality cannot be construed as purely pragmatic,
citing a speech of Robert Brennan, Irish ambassador to the USA, in 1942, in
which he compared neutral Ireland to the medieval Ireland of saints and scholars
who kept the light of civilisation burning during the dark ages, and speculated
that after the Second World War, Ireland might be called once again to a mission
of enlightenment. Roberts remarks that Brennans comments reveal that the Irish
political elite - and a good part of the population, too - considered neutrality to be
morally superior to the position of all participants in the war, including the antifascist Allied coalition. Such was the hubris that led amon de Valera to deliver
his condolences on the death of Hitler. Further argues that Ireland would have
entered the war with America if the position had been pragmatic and identifies of
the historians responsibility to represent past reality in its full complexity. (Irish
Times, Lettters, 8 Feb. 1012, p.17.)
See also Paul Bew, What did Churchill really think about Ireland?, in The Irish
Times (8 Feb. 2012), citing his willingness to speak before nationalists at the
Ulster Hall on 8th Feb. 1912 - apparently spurred by his exasperation at the
Unionists rejection of reasonable offers, while holding that his support for the
Home Rule Bill of 1912 was always qualified by a view that substantial partitionist
concession should be made to Ulster unionism. Quotes Churchill speech: History
and poetry, justive and good sense, alike demand that this race, gifted, virtuous
and brave, which has lived so long and endured so much should not, in view of
her passionate desire, be shut out of the family of nations and should not be lost
forever among indiscriminate multitudes of men. Paul holds that Churchill viewed
a new relationship between Great Britain and Ireland as fostering the federation
of English speaking peoples all over the world - and that he his hopes were
blighted by the electoral rise of de Valera and the dominance of Anglophobic
separatism in Irish politics. In April 1940, Churchill told the incoming American
ambassador David Gray (Roosevelts cousin) that he would not be party to any
overriding of the Ulster Unionists wishes in an attempt to get Ireland onside in
the crisis; as late as 1948, Harold Nicolson and Sir John Maffey (UK Ambassador

to Ireland) told Sean MacBride in the Kildare St. Club that Churchill s apparent
sympathy with Irish unity was based on his expectation of closer links with
Britain. (p.16; includes part of undate photo of Churchill and de Valera.)
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Terence de Valera (usu. Terry), a younger son and the father of Sle de Valera, published
a memoir in 2004.
Portraits: Among many others, chiefly photo-ports., there is a portrait by Sen OSullivan,
1931 [NGI]; the standard biography, arl of Longford and Thomas P. ONeill, Eamon de Valera
(1970), has been superseded by the more critical account in T. P. Coogan, The Long Fellow
(1993).
Namesake: A Full View of Popery, in a satyrical account of the lives of the popes, &c. To this
is added, a Confutation of the Mass. By a learned Spanish convert [C. de Valera], now trans
[by J. Savage] (1704). The same is author of works on Hertfordshire and Somerset and
Romance and classical translations.
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