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Eamon de Valera (1882-1975)Irish president. Born on 14 October 1882, in New York, he was sent to Ireland to be brought up by his maternal grandmother after the death of his father. Educated at University College Dublin, he began a career as a mathematics teacher. In 1913, he joined the Irish Volunteers, a secret nationalist army, and commanded a battalion during the Easter Rising of 1916. He was captured, sentenced to death but was reprieved because of his American nationality. Released from prison in 1917, he was elected president of Sinn Fein (Ourselves Alone), arrested again, then escaped. During the Irish war of independence, he raised more than £1 million in the United States. In 1921, he joined in the peace negotiations but rejected the settlement that partitioned Ireland. In the resulting bloody civil war, he led the opponents of the settlement, then called a halt to bloodshed in 1923. Three years later, he founded the Fianna Fáil party, leading it to power on 9 March 1932 and becoming the first president of the Irish Free State. The first Irish government, and its 1937 constitution, removed all references to the British crown and abolished the oath of loyalty. When World War II started, de Valera insisted on Irish neutrality despite the anger of British prime minister Winston Churchill, who denounced him in a 1945 radio broadcast. De Valera's powerful response drew much praise in Ireland and confirmed his status as the father of the new nation. After the war, however, the country's economic problems led to his defeat in 1948, although he was re-elected in 1951, and again in 1957. As president from 1959 to 1973, De Valera eventually became the oldest serving head of state in the world. Many consider that his long time in power was responsible for Ireland's conservative social agenda and extremely close ties with the Catholic Church. He died in Dublin on 29 August 1975, aged 92. |
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