De Valera Rises to Power
Éamon de Valera dominated twentieth-century Irish politics. He led Sinn Féin (1917–26), the Irish provisional government (1919–22), the anti-treaty forces (1922–25), and then Fianna Fáil (for the next fifty years). He served for sixteen years as Taoiseach (prime minister) and nineteen years as president. He retired from politics at the age of ninety-one and died two years later, in 1975. Throughout, de Valera was known as a fervent patriot, a devout Catholic, and an incorruptible servant of his people.
An Interesting Character
De Valera was born in New York in 1882 to an Irish mother and a Spanish father — hence his unusual name. This made him an American, which he used to his advantage throughout his political career. When he was three, his father died and his mother sent him to Ireland to be raised by his grandmother in Bruree, County Limerick. He studied mathematics in Dublin and became a teacher. He also came to love the Irish language and became involved with the Gaelic League, which led to his extreme Nationalism.
De Valera was an intellectual and he looked the part — tall, thin, and bespectacled. He didn't stand out from the crowd until he ended up in prison after the Easter Rebellion; subsequently, his eloquent letters and well-thought-out arguments for Irish independence began to inspire a generation of young men, and they soon chose him as their leader.
Fianna Fáil Enters the Political Mainstream
In 1927 Fianna Fáil politicians agreed to take the Oath of Fidelity after an IRA assassination of a top Free State administrator threatened to renew factional violence. De Valera decided that the time had come to work within the constitutional framework in order to achieve his party's goals. This strategy became increasingly effective after the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which gave imperial dominions — Canada, India, South Africa, and the Irish Free State — the right to disregard parliamentary actions that they did not believe should apply to them. Pushed to its logical conclusion, the Statute of Westminster effectively allowed dominions to make themselves independent in all but name. This was the chance de Valera had been waiting for.
The Irish people have treasured de Valera's memory. In his childhood home of Bruree there is a museum devoted to him, which contains items from his schooldays — letters, glasses, a medal, a lock of hair, and a desk carved with his initials. You can also visit the cottage where his grandmother raised him.
