Éamon de Valera (14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an Irish statesman. He served as the president of Ireland from 1959 to 1973, and three terms as head of government. He had a leading role in introducing the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, and was a dominant figure in Irish political circles from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, when he served terms as both the head of government and head of state.
Born in New York City, de Valera was a Commandant of the Irish Volunteers (3rd Battalion) at Boland's Mill during the Easter Rising in 1916. He was arrested and sentenced to death, but released for a variety of reasons, including his American citizenship and the public response to the British execution of leaders of the Rising. He returned to Ireland after being jailed in England and became one of the leading political figures of the War of Independence. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, de Valera served as the political leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin until 1926, when he, along with many supporters, left the party to set up Fianna Fáil, a new political party – of which he became the founding leader – which abandoned the policy of abstentionism from Dáil Éireann in favour of working to republicanise the Irish Free State from within.Macardle, p. 233
De Valera went on to be at the forefront of Irish politics until the turn of the 1960s. He took over as president of the Executive Council from W. T. Cosgrave in 1932 and later, with the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, became Taoiseach. With a total of 21 years in office, he is the longest-serving Irish head of government by total days served in the post. He resigned in 1959 upon his election as President of Ireland. By then, he had led Fianna Fáil for 33 years and he, along with older founding members, began to take a less prominent role relative to newer ministers such as Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney. De Valera served as the head of state from 1959 to 1973, two full terms in office.
De Valera's political beliefs evolved from militant Irish republicanism to strong social, cultural and fiscal conservatism.Ferriter, Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Eamon De Valera (2007), . He has been characterised as having a stern and unbending demeanour, and also a devious personality. His roles in the Civil War have also been interpreted as making him a divisive figure in Irish history. Biographer Tim Pat Coogan sees his time in power as being characterised by economic and cultural stagnation, while Diarmaid Ferriter argues that the stereotype of de Valera as an austere, cold, and even backward figure was largely manufactured in the 1960s and is misguided.
Early life Éamon de Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in New York City; his name was initially registered as George de Valero. He was the son of Catherine Coll, who was originally from Bruree, County Limerick, and Juan Vivion de Valera, described on the birth certificate as a Spanish artist born in 1853. Some researchers have placed his father's place of birth in Cuba, while others have suggested other locations; according to Antonio Rivero Taravillo, he was born in Seville, while Ronan Fanning has him born in the Basque Country.
Birth circumstances and name changes He was born at the Nursery and Child's Hospital in Lenox Hill, Manhattan, a home for destitute orphans and abandoned children. His parents were reportedly married on 18 September 1881 at St Patrick's Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, but archivists have not located any marriage certificate or any birth, baptismal, or death certificate information for anyone called Juan Vivion de Valera (nor for "de Valeros", an alternative form). On de Valera's original birth certificate, his name is given as George de Valero and his father is listed as Vivion de Valero. Although he was known as Edward de Valera before 1901, an amended birth certificate was issued, when de Valera was an adult, in which his first name was updated to Edward and his father's surname given as "de Valera". As a child, he was known as "Eddie" or "Eddy". An article, published in 2024 in the Journal of the Westmeath Archaeological and History Society, suggested that de Valera's baptismal record and birth certificate were forged by Irish nationalists in New York City in 1916 as part of an effort to spare him from execution.
Rearing in Ireland According to Coll, Juan Vivion died in 1885 leaving Coll and her child in poor circumstances. Éamon was taken to Ireland by his uncle Ned at the age of two. When his mother remarried in the mid-1880s, he was not brought back to live with her, but was reared by his grandmother, Elizabeth Coll, her son Patrick and her daughter Hannie, in Bruree, County Limerick. He was educated locally at Bruree National School, County Limerick, and C.B.S. Charleville, County Cork.
Aged sixteen, he won a scholarship. He was not successful in enrolling at two colleges in Limerick, but was accepted at Blackrock College, Dublin, at the instigation of his local curate.Jordan, Anthony J. Eamon de Valera 1882–1975. Irish; Catholic; Visionary (Westport Books, 2010) Blackrock College has since named one of their six student houses after him. He played rugby at Blackrock and Rockwell College, then for Munster around 1905. He remained a lifelong devotee of rugby, attending international matches even towards the end of his life when he was nearly blind.
At the end of his first year at Blackrock College, he was student of the year. He also won further scholarships and exhibitions in 1903.
Teaching career De Valera was appointed teacher of mathematics at Rockwell College, County Tipperary, and it was here that de Valera was first given the nickname "Dev" by a teaching colleague, Tom O'Donnell.
In 1904, he graduated with a bachelors degree in mathematics from the Royal University of Ireland. He then pursued graduate studies for a year at Trinity College Dublin but, owing to the necessity of earning a living, did not proceed further and returned to teaching, this time at Belvedere College. In 1906, he secured a post as a teacher of mathematics at Carysfort Teachers' Training College for women in Blackrock, Dublin. His applications for professorships in colleges of the National University of Ireland were unsuccessful, but he obtained a part-time appointment at St Patrick's College, Maynooth and also taught mathematics at various Dublin schools, including Castleknock College (1910–1911; under the name Edward de Valera) and Belvedere College.
His interest in mathematics and science continued later in life, and he was involved in the foundation of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1940, to which he invited scientists such as Erwin Schrödinger. He also reportedly worked mathematical problems to pass the time while jailed and awaiting possible execution in 1916.
Religion and marriage There were occasions when de Valera seriously contemplated the religious life like his half-brother, Fr. Thomas Wheelwright, but ultimately he did not pursue this vocation. As late as 1906, when he was 24 years old, he approached the President of Clonliffe Seminary in Dublin for advice on his vocation. De Valera was throughout his life portrayed as a deeply religious man, and asked to be buried in a religious habit. His biographer, Tim Pat Coogan, speculated that questions surrounding de Valera's legitimacy may have been a deciding factor in his not entering religious life. Being illegitimate would have ordinarily been a bar to receiving priestly orders as a secular priest, but not to becoming a priest or religious in some religious orders.
As a young Gaeilgeoir (Irish speaker), de Valera became an activist for the Irish language. In 1908, he joined the Árdchraobh of Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League), where he met Sinéad Flanagan, a teacher by profession and four years his senior. They were married on 8 January 1910 at St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin. The couple had five sons: Vivion, Éamon, Brian, Rúaidhrí, and Terence; and two daughters: Máirín and Emer. Brian de Valera predeceased his parents.
Politics and revolution Early political activity While he was already involved in the Gaelic revival, de Valera's involvement in the political revolution began on 25 November 1913, when he joined the Irish Volunteers. The organisation was formed to oppose the Ulster Volunteers and ensure the enactment of the Irish Parliamentary Party's Third Home Rule Act won by its leader John Redmond. After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, de Valera rose through the ranks and it was not long before he was elected captain of the Donnybrook branch. As preparations were pushed ahead for an armed revolt, and he was promoted to Commandant of the 3rd Battalion and appointed Adjutant of the Dublin Brigade. He took part in the Howth gun-running. He was sworn by Thomas MacDonagh into the oath-bound Irish Republican Brotherhood, which secretly controlled the central executive of the Volunteers. He opposed secret societies, but this was the only way he could be guaranteed full information on plans for the Rising.
1916 Easter Rising
On 24 April 1916, the Easter Rising began. Forces commanded by de Valera occupied Boland's Mill on Grand Canal Street in Dublin. His chief task was to cover the southeastern approaches to the city. After a week of fighting, the order came from Pádraig Pearse to surrender. De Valera was court-martialled, convicted, and sentenced to death, but the sentence was immediately commuted to penal servitude for life.
De Valera was one of a number of rebel leaders whose death sentences were commuted. It has been argued that his life was saved by four facts. First, he was one of the last to surrender and he was held in a different prison from other leaders, thus his execution was delayed by practicalities. Second, the US Consulate in Dublin made representations before his trial (i.e., was he actually a United States citizen and if so, how would the United States react to the execution of one of its citizens?) while the full legal and political situation was clarified. The UK was trying to bring the US into the war in Europe at the time, and the Irish American vote was important in US politics. Third, De Valera had no Fenian family or personal background and his MI5 file in 1916 was very slim, detailing only his open membership in the Irish Volunteers. Thus, when Lt-Gen Sir John Maxwell reviewed his case, he remarked: "Who is he? I haven't heard of him before. I wonder would he be likely to make trouble in the future?" On being told that de Valera was unimportant, he then commuted the court-martial's death sentence to life imprisonment.Barton, Brian. From Behind a Closed Door, Secret Court Martial Records of 1916, The History Press Fourth, by the time de Valera was court-martialled on 8 May, political pressure was being brought to bear on Maxwell to halt the executions; Maxwell had already told British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith that only two more were to be executed, Seán Mac Diarmada and James Connolly, although they were court-martialled the day after de Valera. His late trial, representations made by the American Consulate, his lack of Fenian background and political pressure all combined to save his life, though had he been tried a week earlier he would probably have been shot.