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Eamon de Valera, the most dominant Irish political figure of the 20th century, dies at the age of 92.
Eamon de Valera was born in New York City in 1882, the son of a Spanish father and Irish mother. When his father died two years later, he was sent to live with his mother’s family in County Limerick, Ireland. He attended the Royal University in Dublin and became an important figure in the Irish-language revival movement.
In 1913, he joined the Irish Volunteers, a militant group that advocated Ireland’s independence from Britain, and in 1916 participated in the Easter Rising against the British in Dublin. He was the last Irish rebel leader to surrender and was saved from execution because of his American birth. Imprisoned, he was released in 1917 under a general amnesty and became president of the nationalist Sinn FÉin Party. In May 1918, he was deported to England and imprisoned again, and in December Sinn Fein won an Irish national election, making him the unofficial leader of Ireland.
In February 1919, he escaped from jail and fled to the United States, where he raised funds for the Irish Republican movement. When he returned to Ireland in 1920, Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were engaged in a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces. In 1921, a truce was declared, and in 1922 Arthur Griffith and other former Sinn Fein leaders broke with de Valera and signed a treaty with Britain, which called for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining part of the United Kingdom. In the period of civil war that followed, de Valera supported the Republicans against the Irish Free State (the new government of the autonomous south) and was imprisoned by William Cosgrave’s Irish Free State ministry.
In 1924, he was released and two years later left Sinn Fein, which had become the unofficial political wing of the underground movement for northern independence. He formed Fianna FÁil, and in 1932 the party gained control of the DÁil Éireann (the Irish assembly), and de Valera became taoiseach, or Irish prime minister. For the next 16 years, de Valera pursued a policy of political separation from Great Britain, including the introduction of a new constitution in 1937, which declared Ireland a fully sovereign state. During World War II, he maintained a policy of neutrality but repressed anti-British intrigues within the IRA.
In 1948, he narrowly lost reelection because of negative public reaction to his party’s long monopoly of power. Out of office, he toured the world advocating the unification and independence of Ireland. His successor as taoiseach, John Costello, officially made Ireland an independent republic in 1949 but nonetheless lost the prime minister’s office to de Valera in the 1951 election. The relative Irish economic prosperity of the 1940s declined in the 1950s, and Costello began a second ministry in 1954, only to be replaced again by de Valera in 1957. In 1959, de Valera resigned as prime minister and was elected Irish president–a largely ceremonial post. On June 24, 1973, de Valera, then the world’s oldest statesman, retired from Irish politics at the age of 90. He died two years later.
Eamon de Valera was born in New York City in 1882, the son of a Spanish father and Irish mother. When his father died two years later, he was sent to live with his mother’s family in County Limerick, Ireland. He attended the Royal University in Dublin and became an important figure in the Irish-language revival movement.
In 1913, he joined the Irish Volunteers, a militant group that advocated Ireland’s independence from Britain, and in 1916 participated in the Easter Rising against the British in Dublin. He was the last Irish rebel leader to surrender and was saved from execution because of his American birth. Imprisoned, he was released in 1917 under a general amnesty and became president of the nationalist Sinn FÉin Party. In May 1918, he was deported to England and imprisoned again, and in December Sinn Fein won an Irish national election, making him the unofficial leader of Ireland.
In February 1919, he escaped from jail and fled to the United States, where he raised funds for the Irish Republican movement. When he returned to Ireland in 1920, Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were engaged in a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces. In 1921, a truce was declared, and in 1922 Arthur Griffith and other former Sinn Fein leaders broke with de Valera and signed a treaty with Britain, which called for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining part of the United Kingdom. In the period of civil war that followed, de Valera supported the Republicans against the Irish Free State (the new government of the autonomous south) and was imprisoned by William Cosgrave’s Irish Free State ministry.
In 1924, he was released and two years later left Sinn Fein, which had become the unofficial political wing of the underground movement for northern independence. He formed Fianna FÁil, and in 1932 the party gained control of the DÁil Éireann (the Irish assembly), and de Valera became taoiseach, or Irish prime minister. For the next 16 years, de Valera pursued a policy of political separation from Great Britain, including the introduction of a new constitution in 1937, which declared Ireland a fully sovereign state. During World War II, he maintained a policy of neutrality but repressed anti-British intrigues within the IRA.
In 1948, he narrowly lost reelection because of negative public reaction to his party’s long monopoly of power. Out of office, he toured the world advocating the unification and independence of Ireland. His successor as taoiseach, John Costello, officially made Ireland an independent republic in 1949 but nonetheless lost the prime minister’s office to de Valera in the 1951 election. The relative Irish economic prosperity of the 1940s declined in the 1950s, and Costello began a second ministry in 1954, only to be replaced again by de Valera in 1957. In 1959, de Valera resigned as prime minister and was elected Irish president–a largely ceremonial post. On June 24, 1973, de Valera, then the world’s oldest statesman, retired from Irish politics at the age of 90. He died two years later.
Eamon de Valera dies - Aug 29, 1975 - HISTORY.com
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Movietone record the 'Lying-in-State' and funeral of ex-President Eamon de Valera. De Valera is a name that will be forever linked with the emergence of th...
Thank you my friend TSgt Joe C. for making us aware that on August 29, 1975 the most dominant Irish political figure of the 20th century, Eamon de Valera, died at the age of 92.
Image: cropped rock of Cashel Ireland; Éamonn de Valera
Background from stairnaheireann.net/2015/08/29/1975-death-of-eamon-de-valera-2/
"1975 – DEATH OF ÉAMON DE VALERA.
Stair na hÉireannIrish HistoryÉamon De Valera, Dáil Eireann, Death, Dublin, England, Fianna Fáil, Glasnevin Cemetery, History of Ireland, IRA, Ireland, Irish Civil War, Irish History, Irish War of Independence, Michael Collins, New York, Sinn Fein, Taoiseach, Treaty Negotiations, Winston Churchill, WWII
Death of Éamonn de Valera, a man who probably more than anyway shaped the culture of Ireland (good and bad) for almost fifty years. He was a man loved by his supporters but distrusted and hated by those who blamed him for the Irish civil war. (The latter sentence could equally apply to Michael Collins from the opposite side of the political divide.)
Although born in New York, “Dev” had an almost mystical and spiritual belief about an Ireland that he wanted to exist.
De Valera is famous for something he never said, an Ireland of “maidens dancing at the crossroads,” but in 1943 he did envisage “The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, 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 the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age.”
De Valera was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising and it is believed he only avoided execution because of his American citisenship and/or the general revulsion about the execution of the 1916 leaders. He was an immensely astute (manipulative) politician and a natural leader of the Sinn Féin TDs elected in the 1918 election.
His standing amongst his fellow TDs is evidenced by his being elected President of the first Dáil Éireann by a unanimous vote. During the War of Independence, he spent many months in the United States drumming support and finance for the Irish cause.
It is not clear why he did not get directly involved in the Treaty negotiations in London. Instead, he sent Michael Collins to negotiate on behalf of the Irish people. The signing of the Treaty on 6 Dec provided legislative autonomy for twenty-six counties of Ireland, but resulted in the partition of Ireland and the foundation of the state of Northern Ireland. De Valera refused to accept the January 1923 vote of Dáil Éireann approving the Treaty. Soon Ireland was again in a bloody conflict, but this time it was Irishman against Irishman in a vicious conflict laced with atrocity after atrocity on both sides.
De Valera and the anti-Treaty-ites were forced to call a halt to their campaign in May 1923. (It Is worth noting that the various campaigns conducted by the IRA throughout the rest of the 20th century derive from their lack of acceptance of this surrender or of the Treaty vote. The IRA never accepted the legitimacy of either government in the North or the Republic.)
Disillusioned with Sinn Féin and its abstentionist policies, de Valera founded Fianna Fáil in 1926. In order to take his seat in the Dáil in 1927, he accepted the oath of allegiance (to the English crown) stating it to be but an empty formula. Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932 and dominated the Irish political landscape for most of the century.
As Taoiseach, he kept Ireland neutral during WWII, much to the chagrin of Churchill who desperately desired Ireland’s ports. The antipathy between the two men led to a number of verbal spats with de Valera acquitting himself extremely well in the eyes of his countrymen. De Valera also responded superbly to Lloyd George protestations prior to the Treaty negotiations of 1921
The “brilliant but austere de Valera” (in the words of JFK) brought international opprobrium on Ireland when he visited the German ambassador in Dublin to offer condolences on the death of Hitler.
In 1959, after thirty-three years at the head of Fianna Fáil, Éamon de Valera resigned as leader and Taoiseach and was elected President of Ireland (succeeding Sean T. O’Kelly), a position he held until 1973.
Éamon de Valera died in Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, Co Dublin on 29 August 1975 aged 92. His wife, Sinéad de Valera, four years his senior, had died the previous January, on the eve of their 65th wedding anniversary. His body lay in state at Dublin Castle and was given a full state funeral on 3 September at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, which was broadcast on national television. He is buried in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery with his wife and children."
De Valera Funeral - 1975
Movietone record the 'Lying-in-State' and funeral of ex-President Eamon de Valera. ® De Valera is a name that will be forever linked with the emergence of the Irish Republic. ® The people of Ireland paid their last respects as the body of their ex-leader lay in St. Patrick's Hall. A Requiem Mass was celebrated in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral and then the coffin was bourne on a gun carriage to its final resting place, GLASNEVIN CEMETERY.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fukfcdAXrA8
FYI Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSgt Brian Brakke
Image: cropped rock of Cashel Ireland; Éamonn de Valera
Background from stairnaheireann.net/2015/08/29/1975-death-of-eamon-de-valera-2/
"1975 – DEATH OF ÉAMON DE VALERA.
Stair na hÉireannIrish HistoryÉamon De Valera, Dáil Eireann, Death, Dublin, England, Fianna Fáil, Glasnevin Cemetery, History of Ireland, IRA, Ireland, Irish Civil War, Irish History, Irish War of Independence, Michael Collins, New York, Sinn Fein, Taoiseach, Treaty Negotiations, Winston Churchill, WWII
Death of Éamonn de Valera, a man who probably more than anyway shaped the culture of Ireland (good and bad) for almost fifty years. He was a man loved by his supporters but distrusted and hated by those who blamed him for the Irish civil war. (The latter sentence could equally apply to Michael Collins from the opposite side of the political divide.)
Although born in New York, “Dev” had an almost mystical and spiritual belief about an Ireland that he wanted to exist.
De Valera is famous for something he never said, an Ireland of “maidens dancing at the crossroads,” but in 1943 he did envisage “The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, 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 the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age.”
De Valera was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising and it is believed he only avoided execution because of his American citisenship and/or the general revulsion about the execution of the 1916 leaders. He was an immensely astute (manipulative) politician and a natural leader of the Sinn Féin TDs elected in the 1918 election.
His standing amongst his fellow TDs is evidenced by his being elected President of the first Dáil Éireann by a unanimous vote. During the War of Independence, he spent many months in the United States drumming support and finance for the Irish cause.
It is not clear why he did not get directly involved in the Treaty negotiations in London. Instead, he sent Michael Collins to negotiate on behalf of the Irish people. The signing of the Treaty on 6 Dec provided legislative autonomy for twenty-six counties of Ireland, but resulted in the partition of Ireland and the foundation of the state of Northern Ireland. De Valera refused to accept the January 1923 vote of Dáil Éireann approving the Treaty. Soon Ireland was again in a bloody conflict, but this time it was Irishman against Irishman in a vicious conflict laced with atrocity after atrocity on both sides.
De Valera and the anti-Treaty-ites were forced to call a halt to their campaign in May 1923. (It Is worth noting that the various campaigns conducted by the IRA throughout the rest of the 20th century derive from their lack of acceptance of this surrender or of the Treaty vote. The IRA never accepted the legitimacy of either government in the North or the Republic.)
Disillusioned with Sinn Féin and its abstentionist policies, de Valera founded Fianna Fáil in 1926. In order to take his seat in the Dáil in 1927, he accepted the oath of allegiance (to the English crown) stating it to be but an empty formula. Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932 and dominated the Irish political landscape for most of the century.
As Taoiseach, he kept Ireland neutral during WWII, much to the chagrin of Churchill who desperately desired Ireland’s ports. The antipathy between the two men led to a number of verbal spats with de Valera acquitting himself extremely well in the eyes of his countrymen. De Valera also responded superbly to Lloyd George protestations prior to the Treaty negotiations of 1921
The “brilliant but austere de Valera” (in the words of JFK) brought international opprobrium on Ireland when he visited the German ambassador in Dublin to offer condolences on the death of Hitler.
In 1959, after thirty-three years at the head of Fianna Fáil, Éamon de Valera resigned as leader and Taoiseach and was elected President of Ireland (succeeding Sean T. O’Kelly), a position he held until 1973.
Éamon de Valera died in Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, Co Dublin on 29 August 1975 aged 92. His wife, Sinéad de Valera, four years his senior, had died the previous January, on the eve of their 65th wedding anniversary. His body lay in state at Dublin Castle and was given a full state funeral on 3 September at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, which was broadcast on national television. He is buried in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery with his wife and children."
De Valera Funeral - 1975
Movietone record the 'Lying-in-State' and funeral of ex-President Eamon de Valera. ® De Valera is a name that will be forever linked with the emergence of the Irish Republic. ® The people of Ireland paid their last respects as the body of their ex-leader lay in St. Patrick's Hall. A Requiem Mass was celebrated in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral and then the coffin was bourne on a gun carriage to its final resting place, GLASNEVIN CEMETERY.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fukfcdAXrA8
FYI Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSgt Brian Brakke
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