'Éamon de Valera'
[1][2] (born with the name 'Edward George de Valera', ) (
14 October,
1882 –
29 August,
1975) was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century
Ireland. Co-owner of one of the
Irish Press Newspapers, he served in public office from 1917 to 1973, holding the various Irish prime ministerial and presidential offices. A significant leader of
Ireland's struggle for independence from the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the early 20th century, and the
Republican anti-Treaty opposition in the ensuing
Irish Civil War, de Valera was the author of the
Constitution of Ireland.
At various times a
mathematician,
teacher and a
politician, he served three times as Irish head of government; as
President of Dáil Éireann, as the second
President of the Executive Council and the first
Taoiseach. He ended his political career as
President of Ireland, serving two terms from 1959 until 1973. He was also the Chancellor of the
National University of Ireland from 1922 until 1975.
His family
De Valera was born in the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital in
New York City in 1882 to an Irish mother; he stated that his parents,
Catherine Coll de Valera Wheelwright, an immigrant from Bruree,
County Limerick, and
Juan Vivion de Valera, a
Spanish-
Cuban settler and sculptor, were married in 1881 in New York. However, exhaustive trawls through church and state records by genealogists and by his most recent biographer,
Tim Pat Coogan (1990) have failed to find either a church or civil record of the marriage. Furthermore, no birth, baptismal, marriage or death certificate has ever been found for anyone called Juan Vivion de Valera or de Valeros, an alternative spelling. Consequently, it is now widely believed by academics that de Valera was illegitimate .
There were a number of occasions when de Valera seriously contemplated the religious life like his half-brother, Fr. Thomas Wheelwright. Yet he did not do so, and apparently received little encouragement from the priests whose advice he sought. Éamon de Valera was throughout his life a deeply religious man, who in death asked to be buried in a religious habit.
While 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 only have been a bar to receiving orders as a secular or diocesan
cleric, not as a member of a
religious order.
[3]
In 1885 following his father's death, de Valera was taken to Ireland by his Uncle Ned at the age of two. Even when his mother married a new husband in the mid-1880s, he was not brought back to live with her but reared instead by his grandmother Elizabeth Coll, her son Patrick and her daughter Hannie, in
County Limerick. He was educated locally at Bruree National School,
County Limerick and
Charleville Christian Brothers School,
County Cork. At the age of sixteen, he won a scholarship to
Blackrock College,
County Dublin. It was at
Blackrock College that de Valera began playing rugby. Later during his tenure at Rockwell College, he joined the local rugby team where he played full back on the first team, which reached the final of the Munster Senior Cup.
Always a diligent student, at the end of his first year in
Blackrock College he was Student of the Year. He also won further scholarships and exhibitions and in 1903 was appointed teacher of mathematics at
Rockwell College,
County Tipperary. It was here that de Valera was first given the nickname "Dev" by a teaching colleague, Tom O'Donnell. In 1904, he graduated in mathematics from the
Royal University of Ireland and then went back to
Dublin to teach at
Blackrock College. In 1906, he secured a post as teacher of mathematics at
Carysfort Teachers' Training College for women in
Blackrock, County Dublin. His applications for professorships in colleges of the
National University of Ireland were unsuccessful, but he obtained a part-time appointment at
Maynooth and also lectured in mathematics at various Dublin colleges such as Belvedere college where he taught
Kevin Barry, an Irish republican executed for his part in an ambush of British Soldiers during the
Irish War of Independence.
Since the foundation of the state, a de Valera has nearly always served in
Dáil Éireann. Éamon de Valera served until 1959, his son,
Vivion de Valera, was also a
Teachta Dála (TD).
[4] Éamon Ó Cuív, his grandson, is currently a member of the Dáil and his granddaughter,
Síle de Valera is a former TD. Both have served in ministries in the
Irish Government.
Early political activity
An intelligent young man, he became an active ''gaeilgeoir'' (
Irish language enthusiast). In 1908 he joined the Ardchraobh 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.
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. He rose through the ranks and it was not long before he was elected captain of the
Donnybrook company. Preparations were pushed ahead for an armed revolt, and he was made commandant of the Third Battalion and adjutant of the Dublin Brigade. He was sworn by
Thomas MacDonagh into the oath-bound
Irish Republican Brotherhood, which secretly controlled the central executive of the Volunteers.
Easter Rising
On
24 April,
1916 the rising began. De Valera occupied Boland's Mills, Grand Canal Street in
Dublin, his chief task being to cover the south-eastern 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. It is often thought that he was saved from execution because of his
American citizenship; this is inexact. He was saved by two facts: firstly, he was held in a different prison from other leaders, thus his execution was delayed by practicalities; had he been held with Pádraig Pearse,
James Connolly and others, he probably would have been one of the first executed; and secondly, his American birth delayed his execution, while the full legal situation (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?) was clarified. The fact that
Britain was trying to bring the USA into the war in Europe at the time made the situation even more delicate. Both delays taken together meant that, while he was next-in-line for execution, when the time came for a decision, all executions had been halted in view of the negative public reaction. Timing, location, and questions relating to citizenship saved de Valera's life.
De Valera's supporters and detractors argue about de Valera's bravery during the
Easter Rising. His supporters claim he showed leadership skills and a meticulous ability for planning. His detractors claim he suffered a
nervous breakdown during the Rising. According to accounts from 1916 de Valera was seen running about, giving conflicting orders, refusing to sleep and on one occasion, having forgotten the password, almost getting himself shot in the dark by his own men. According to one account, de Valera, on being forced to sleep by one subordinate who promised to sit beside him and wake him if he was needed, suddenly woke up, his eyes "wild," screaming, "Set fire to the railway! Set fire to the railway!" Later in the Ballykinlar
internment Camp one de Valera loyalist approached another internee, a medical doctor, recounted the story and asked for a medical opinion as to de Valera's condition. He also threatened to sue the doctor, future
Fine Gael TD and minister, Dr. Tom O'Higgins, if he ever repeated the story.
[5]
After imprisonment in
Dartmoor,
Maidstone and
Lewes prisons, de Valera and his comrades were released under an amnesty in June 1917. On
10 July,
1917 he was elected member of the
British House of Commons for
East Clare (the constituency which he represented until 1959) in a by-election caused by the death of the previous incumbent
Willie Redmond who had died fighting in World War I. In the
1918 general election he was elected both for that seat and
Mayo East. From 1917 he was president of
Sinn Féin, the party which had wrongly been credited by the British for the Easter Rising and which the survivors of the Rising took over and then turned into a
republican party. The previous president of Sinn Féin,
Arthur Griffith, had championed an Anglo-Irish "dual monarchy", with an independent Ireland governed separately from Britain, their only link being a shared monarch. That had been the situation with the so-called
Constitution of 1782 under
Henry Grattan, until Ireland was subsumed into the
Kingdom of Great Britain to form the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800.
President of Dáil Éireann
Sinn Féin won a huge majority in the 1918 general election, largely thanks to the executions of the 1916 leaders and the threat of
conscription. They won 73 out of 104 Irish seats, with about 47% of votes cast. However, such was the level of support for the party, many seats were uncontested and so this percentage is lower than it would have been had this not been the case. In January 1919, those Sinn Féin MPs, calling themselves
Teachtaí Dála (TDs), assembled in the
Mansion House in Dublin on
21 January,
1919 and formed an Irish parliament, known as
Dáil Éireann (translatable into English as the ''Assembly of Ireland''). A ministry or
Aireacht was formed, under the leadership of the
Príomh Aire ''(also called
President of Dáil Éireann)''
Cathal Brugha. De Valera had been re-arrested in May 1918 and imprisoned and so could not attend the January session of the Dáil. He escaped from Lincoln Gaol in February 1919. As a result he replaced Brugha as Príomh Aire in the April session of Dáil Éireann. However, the
Dáil Constitution passed by the Dáil in 1919 made clear that the Príomh Aire (or President of Dáil Éireann as it came to be called) was merely
prime minister - the literal translation of Príomh Aire - not a full
head of state.
In the hope of securing international recognition,
Seán T. O'Kelly was sent as envoy to
Paris to present the Irish case to the
Peace Conference convened by the great powers at the end of the
World War I. When it became clear by May 1919 that this mission could not succeed, de Valera decided to visit the United States. The mission had three objectives: to ask for official recognition of the
Irish Republic, to float a loan to finance the work of the Government (and by extension, the
Irish Republican Army), and to secure the support of the American people for the republic. His visit lasted from June 1919 to December 1920 and had mixed success. He met the young Harvard-educated leader from
Puerto Rico,
Pedro Albizu Campos and forged a lasting and useful alliance with him.
De Valera managed to raise a sum of $5,500,000 from American supporters, an amount that far exceeded the hopes of the Dáil.
[6] Of this, $500,000 was devoted to the American presidential campaign in 1920 which helped him gain wider public support there.
[7] In 1921 it was said that $1,466,000 had already been spent, and it is unclear when the net balance arrived in Ireland.
[8] Recognition was not forthcoming in the international sphere. He also had difficulties with various
Irish-American leaders, such as
John Devoy and Judge Colohan, who resented the dominant position he established, preferring to retain their control over Irish affairs in the
United States.
Meanwhile in Ireland, conflict between the
British authorities and the Dáil (declared illegal in September 1919) escalated into the
Irish War of Independence (also called the 'Anglo-Irish War'). ''The Long Fellow'' (or ''An t-Amadán Fada'', another of de Valera's nicknames, given to him because of his great height, meaning the ''Long Fool'') left day to day government, during his eighteen month absence in America, to
Michael Collins (''The Big Fellow''), his twenty-nine year old
Minister for Finance and rival.
President of the Republic
In January 1921, at his first Dáil meeting after his return to a country gripped by the
Anglo-Irish War, de Valera introduced a motion calling on the
IRA to desist from ambushes and other tactics that were allowing the British to successfully portray it as a
terrorist group, and to take on the British forces with conventional military methods. This was strongly opposed, and de Valera relented issuing a statement expressing support for the IRA, and claimed it was fully under the control of the Dáil. This was seen as evidence of how out of touch de Valera was with the realities of the struggle for independence on the ground by his critics. He then, along with Cathal Brugha and
Austin Stack, brought pressure to bear on Michael Collins to undertake a journey to the U.S. himself, on the pretext that only he could take up where de Valera had left off. In reality, these three felt that Collins was overreaching his authority. Collins successfully resisted this move, and stayed in Ireland. In the elections of May 1921 Sinn Féin candidates in 'Southern Ireland' were unopposed, and secured some seats in the north. Following the Truce of
11 July,
1921 which ended the war, de Valera went to see
David Lloyd George in London on
14 July. No agreement was reached, and by then the parliament of Northern Ireland had met.
In August 1921 de Valera had Dáil Éireann change the 1919 Dáil
Constitution to upgrade his office from prime minister or chairman of the cabinet to a full
President of the Republic. Declaring himself now the Irish equivalent of King
George V, he argued that as Irish head of state, in the absence of the British head of state from the negotiations, he ''too'' should not attend the peace conference called the
Treaty Negotiations (October–December 1921) at which British and Irish government leaders agreed to the effective independence of 26 of Ireland's
32 counties as the
Irish Free State, with the other six in the north remaining under British sovereignty as
Protestant-dominated
Northern Ireland (Technically, the counties of Northern Ireland were originally part of the Free State, but with the option of opting out immediately, which they did straight away. Having done so, a
boundary commission came into place to redraw the Irish border.
Nationalists expected its report to recommend that largely nationalist areas become part of the Free State, and many hoped this would make Northern Ireland so small it would not be economically viable. A
Council of Ireland was also provided in the Treaty as a model for an eventual all-Irish parliament. Hence neither the pro- nor anti-Treaty sides made much complaint about
partition in the
Treaty debates. They all expected it would prove short-lived).
The Treaty
The Republic's delegates to the
Treaty Negotiations were accredited by President de Valera and his cabinet as
plenipotentiaries (that is, negotiators with the legal authority to sign a treaty without reference back to the cabinet), but were given secret cabinet instructions by de Valera that required them to return to Dublin before signing the Treaty. However, the Treaty proved controversial in so far as it replaced the Republic by a
dominion of the
British Commonwealth with the King represented by a
Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The Irish Treaty delegates
Arthur Griffith,
Robert Barton, and Michael Collins supported by
Robert Erskine Childers as Secretary General set up their delegation headquarters at 22
Hans Place in
Knightsbridge. It was there, at 11.15am on
5 December,
1921, that the decision was made to recommend the Treaty to the
Dáil Éireann; the Treaty was finally signed by the delegates after further negotiations which closed at 2.20am on
6 December,
1921.
De Valera baulked at the agreement. His opponents claimed that he had refused to join the negotiations because he knew what the outcome would be and did not wish to receive the blame. De Valera claimed that he had not gone to the treaty negotiations because he would be better able to control the extremists at home, and that his absence would allow leverage for the plenipotentiaries to refer back to him and not be pressured into any agreements. Because of the secret instructions given to the plenipotentiaries, he reacted to news of the signing of the Treaty not with anger at its contents (which he refused even to read when offered a newspaper report of its contents), but with anger over the fact that they had not consulted with ''him'', their president, before signing. All of this, of course, was despite the fact that de Valera had refused to go to the treaty negotiations in the first place. His ideal drafts, presented to a secret session of the Dáil during the Treaty Debates and publicised in January 1922, were ingenious compromises but they included dominion status, the 'Treaty Ports', the fact of partition subject to veto by the parliament in Belfast, and some continuing status for the king as head of the Commonwealth. Ireland's share of the imperial debt was to be paid.
[9] De Valera only planned to accept this form of Free State; these ideas were recorded under the External Association Plan.
After the Treaty was narrowly ratified by 64 to 57, de Valera and a large minority of Sinn Féin TDs left Dáil Éireann. He then resigned and Arthur Griffith was elected
President of Dáil Éireann in his place, though respectfully still calling him 'The President'.
[10] In March 1922, de Valera made an angry speech in
Carrick on Suir saying that, if the Treaty was accepted, it might be necessary to "wade through Irish blood" to achieve Irish freedom. In
Thurles, several days later, he repeated this imagery and added that the IRA "would have to wade through, perhaps, the blood of some of the members of the Government, in order to get Irish freedom." De Valera's detractors claim that this was an incitement to civil war. His supporters say that de Valera was lamenting the fact that the British had managed to divide Irish nationalists with the Treaty.
De Valera's major problem with the Treaty was twofold. Firstly, he objected to the Oath of Allegiance the treaty required Irish governments to take to the King. Secondly, he was concerned that Ireland could not have an independent foreign policy as part of the British Commonwealth when the British retained several naval ports (see
Treaty Ports) around Ireland's coast. As a compromise, de Valera proposed "external association" with the British Empire, which would leave Ireland's foreign policy in her own hands and a republican constitution with no mention of the British monarch (he proposed this as early as April, well before the negotiations began). Michael Collins was prepared to accept this formula and the two wings (pro- and anti-Treaty) of
Sinn Féin formed a pact to fight the
Irish Treaty Election, 1922 together and form a coalition government afterwards. However, just two days before the election, the British vetoed this proposal as the Treaty had been signed in good faith. Civil War broke out shortly afterwards in late June 1922.
Civil War
Relations between the new Irish government, which was backed by most of the Dáil and the electorate, and the anti-Treatyites under the nominal leadership of de Valera, now descended into the
Irish Civil War (started
28 June,
1922, ended May 1923), in which the pro-treaty Free State forces defeated the anti-Treaty IRA. Both sides had wanted to avoid civil war, but fighting broke out over the takeover of the
Four Courts building in Dublin by anti-Treaty members of the IRA. These men were not loyal to de Valera and initially were not even supported by the executive of the anti-Treaty IRA. However, Michael Collins was forced to act against them when
Winston Churchill threatened to re-occupy the country with British troops unless action was taken. When fighting broke out in Dublin between the Four Courts garrison and the new Free State army, republicans backed the IRA men in the Four Courts and civil war broke out. De Valera, though he held no military position, backed the
anti-Treaty IRA or "Irregulars" and said that he was re-enlisting in the IRA as an ordinary volunteer. On
8 September,
1922, he met in secret with
Richard Mulcahy in Dublin, to try to halt the fighting. However, according to de Valera, they "could not find a basis" for agreement.
Though nominally head of the anti-Treatyites, de Valera had little influence. He does not seem to have been involved in any fighting and had little or no influence with the military republican leadership - headed by IRA Chief of Staff,
Liam Lynch. De Valera and the anti-Treaty
TDs formed a "
republican government" on
25 October,
1922 from anti-Treaty TDs to "be temporarily the Supreme Executive of the Republic and the State, until such time as the elected Parliament of the Republic can freely assemble, or the people being rid of external aggression are at liberty to decide freely how they are to be governed". However it had no real authority and was a pale shadow of the republican Dáil government of 1919–21, which had provided an alternative government to the British administration. Among the Civil War's many tragedies were the
assassination of
Michael Collins, who was the head of the
Provisional Government, the death through exhaustion of the
President of Dáil Éireann,
Arthur Griffith, and the Free State
execution of the treaty delegation adviser,
Robert Erskine Childers among others. In March 1923, de Valera attended the meeting of the IRA Army Executive to decide on the future of the war. He was known to be in favour of a truce but he had no voting rights and it was narrowly decided to continue hostilities. On
30 May,
1923, the IRA's new Chief of Staff
Frank Aiken (Lynch had been killed) called a ceasefire and ordered volunteers to "dump arms". De Valera, who had wanted an end to the internecine fighting for some time, backed the ceasefire order in a famous speech in which he called the anti-Treaty fighters "the Legion of the Rearguard", saying that "the republic can no longer be successfully defended by your arms
... Further sacrifice 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".
After this point many of the republicans were arrested in Free state "round ups" when they had come out of hiding and returned home. De Valera was arrested in
Clare and
interned until 1924.
Entry into the Free State Dáil: the 'empty formula'
After the IRA dumped their arms rather than surrender them or continue a now fruitless war, de Valera returned to political methods. In 1924 he was arrested in
Newry for "illegally entering Northern Ireland" and held in
solitary confinement for a month in
Crumlin Road Gaol,
Belfast. After narrowly losing a vote of the
Sinn Féin party to accept the Free State Constitution (contingent on the abolition of the
Oath of Allegiance), de Valera resigned from the presidency of the party and in March 1926 formed a new party,
Fianna Fáil (Soldiers of Destiny), a party that was to dominate twentieth century Irish politics. The party made swift electoral gains but refused to take the Oath of Allegiance (spun by opponents as an 'Oath of Allegiance to the Crown' but actually an Oath of Allegiance to the Irish Free State with a secondary promise of fidelity to the King in his role in the Treaty settlement. The oath was actually largely the work of Michael Collins and based on three sources: British oaths in the dominions, the oath of the
Irish Republican Brotherhood and a draft oath prepared by de Valera in his proposed Treaty alternative,
Document No.2). The party began a legal case to challenge the requirement that it take the Oath, but the assassination of the
Vice-President of the Executive Council ''(i.e. deputy prime minister)''
Kevin O'Higgins led the
Executive Council under
W. T. Cosgrave to introduce a Bill requiring all Dáil candidates to promise on oath that if they were elected they would take the Oath of Allegiance. Forced into a corner, and faced with the option of staying outside politics forever or taking the oath and entering, de Valera and his TDs took the Oath of Allegiance in 1927, declaring it "an empty formula", albeit one that hundreds had fought and killed over in a civil war five years earlier.
President of the Executive Council
In the
1932 general election Fianna Fáil secured 72 seats and became the largest party in the Dáil, although without a majority. De Valera was appointed
President of the Executive Council ''(Prime Minister)'' by Governor-General
James McNeill on
9 March. He at once initiated steps to fulfil his election promises of abolishing the oath and withholding land annuities owed to Britain. In retaliation the British imposed economic sanctions against Irish exports, and the resulting
economic war caused much distress. On his advice the appointment of
James McNeill as Governor-General was terminated by
King George V on
1 November,
1932 and a 1916 veteran,
Domhnall Ua Buachalla, was appointed Seanascal in his place. Thus another symbol of monarchical authority was virtually removed. To strengthen his position against the opposition in the Dáil and Seanad, de Valera called a general election in January 1933 and won 77 seats, giving him an overall majority. Under his leadership, Fianna Fáil won further general elections in 1937, 1938, 1943 and 1944.
De Valera took charge of Ireland's foreign policy as well by acting as his own Minister for External Affairs. In that capacity he attended meetings of the
League of Nations. He was president of the Council of the League on his first appearance at
Geneva in 1932 and, in a speech that made a worldwide impression, appealed for genuine adherence by its members to the principles of the Covenant of the league. In 1934, he supported the admission of the
Soviet Union into the League. In September 1938 he was elected nineteenth president of the Assembly of the League, a tribute to the international recognition he had won by his independent stance on world questions.
De Valera's government followed the policy of breaking down the Treaty of 1921. In this way he would be pursuing republican policies and lessening the popularity of republican violence and the IRA. IRA members were recruited by de Valera into the Free State army and the Gardaí. He refused to dismiss the
Cumann na nGaedhael, Cosgrave supporters who had previously opposed him during the Civil War. He did, however, dismiss
Eoin O'Duffy from his position as Garda Commissioner after a year, as it was a pivotal post that needed to be in Fianna Fáil control. Eoin O'Duffy was then invited to be head of the
Army Comrades Association (ACA) formed to protect and promote the welfare of its members, previously led by J.F O'Higgins, Kevin O'Higgins brother. This organisation was an obstacle to de Valera's power as it supported Cumann na nGaedhael and provided stewards for their meetings. Cumann na nGaedhael meetings were frequently disrupted by Fianna Fáil supports following the publication of the article : ''No Free Speech for Traitors'' by
Peadar O'Donnell, an IRA member.
The ACA was changed to the National Guard under O'Duffy. They adopted the uniform of black berets and blueshirts with the straight armed salute and were nicknamed '
The Blueshirts'. They were outwardly fascist; however, they did not engage in extreme violence and supported democracy. Their policy of rearranging the Dáil into vocational sections and dividing the land up between all farmers was seen as a threat by de Valera. They planned a march in 1933 through Dublin to commemorate Michael Collins, Kevin O'Higgins and Arthur Griffith. This march struck parallels with Mussolini's March on Rome (1922), in which he had created the image of having toppled the democratic government in Rome by staging a March. O'Duffy backed down when de Valera issued the threat that all members of the National Guard would be disbanded by the specially employed troops, Broy's Harriers, named after
Eamon Broy who filled O'Duffy's previous position as Garda Commissioner. Smaller local marches were scheduled for the following week. De Valera then proceeded to ban the ACA permanently in 1933, which caused particular bitterness because de Valera failed to ban the IRA also. O'Duffy then formed the Young Ireland Association (YIA) in its stead, but the threat from O'Duffy never really emerged again.
De Valera's new constitution – Bunreacht na hÉireann
Éamon de Valera entering Leinster House, home of the Free State parliament
During the 1930s, de Valera had systematically stripped down the Irish Free State constitution that had been drafted by a committee under the nominal chairmanship of his great rival, Michael Collins. In reality, de Valera had only been able to do this due to three reasons. First, though the 1922 constitution was supposed to require
amendment through public
plebiscite eight years after its passage, the Free State government under W. T. Cosgrave had amended that period to 16 years, meaning that until 1938 the Free State constitution could be amended by the simple passage of a ''Constitutional Amendment Act'' through the Oireachtas. Secondly, while in theory the Governor-General of the Irish Free State could ''reserve'' or ''deny'' the
Royal Assent to any legislation, in practice the power to advise the Governor-General so to do as and from 1927 no longer rested with the British Government in London but with ''His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State'', which meant that in practice, the Royal Assent was automatically granted to legislation; the government was hardly likely to advise the Governor-General to block the enactment of one of its own bills. Thirdly, in theory the Constitution ''had'' to be in keeping with the provisions of the
Anglo-Irish Treaty, the fundamental law of the state. However, that requirement had been removed only a short time before de Valera gained power. Thus, with all the checks and balances that had been provided to ''preserve'' the Treaty settlement neutralised, de Valera had a free hand to change the 1922 constitution at will.
This he did with a vengeance. The Oath of Allegiance was abolished, as were appeals to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The opposition-controlled
Senate, when it protested and slowed down these measures, was also abolished. And finally in December 1936, de Valera used the sudden abdication of King
Edward VIII as king of his various realms including ''King of Ireland'' to pass two Bills; one amended the constitution to remove all mention of the King and Governor-General, while the second brought the King back, this time through statute law, for use in representing the Irish Free State at diplomatic level.
In 1931, the British parliament had passed the ''
Statute of Westminster'', which established the legislative equal status of the self-governing dominions of the British Empire, including the Irish Free State, and the United Kingdom. Though many constitutional links between the Dominions and the United Kingdom remained, this is often seen as the moment at which the Dominions became fully sovereign states. In July 1936, de Valera as constitutionally the King's Irish Prime Minister, wrote to King Edward in London indicating that he planned to introduce a new constitution, the central part of which was to be the creation of an office de Valera provisionally intended to call ''President of Saorstát Éireann'', which would replace the governor-generalship. The title ultimately changed from ''President of Saorstát Éireann'' (Uachtarán Shaorstát Éireann) to ''President of Ireland'' (Uachtarán na hÉireann), but it still remained the central feature of his new constitution, to which he gave the new
Irish language name ''Bunreacht na hÉireann'' (meaning literally the Constitution of Ireland).
De Valera's new constitution embodied a process called
Constitutional Autochthony, that is, the assertion of legal nationalism. At various levels it contained key symbols to mark Irish republican independence from Britain. These included:
★ a new name for the state,
Éire
★ a claim that the island of Ireland was a natural national territorial unit (Article 2), as such challenging Britain's partition settlement of 1920;
★ a new popularly elected 'President of Ireland' to replace the British King and Crown and the appointed Irish Governor-General;
★ recognition of the "special position" of Roman Catholicism, which had for most of Britain's rule in Ireland been suppressed and discriminated against;
★ a recognition of the Roman Catholic concept of marriage which excluded civil divorce, as distinct from anullment in
Canon Law which could be sought from the
Roman Catholic Church;
★ the declaration that the Irish language was an official language of the nation, along with English;
★ the use of Irish language terms to stress Irish cultural and historical identity (eg, Uachtarán, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Rialtas, Dáil, Seanad, etc.).
In reality, as with many of de Valera's policies, most of the above were more apparent than real:
★ For all the anti-partition rhetoric, partition remained a legal reality, accepted by Article 3;
★ for most of its existence, the ''popularly elected'' president was never popularly elected, but chosen by the political parties for their own reasons. In addition, the powers that defined who was
Head of State, were possessed by the 'King of Ireland' (as George VI was proclaimed and continued to be called until the declaration of the republic in April 1949;
★ the "special position" of the Roman Catholic Church was a constitutionally meaningless phrase. In some areas (De Valera's refusal to make Catholicism the ''established'' church, his refusal to side with
Franco in the ''
Spanish Civil War'', the constitutional recognition given to the existence of the
Church of Ireland, the
Presbyterians, the
Methodists and in particular the Irish
Jewish community), de Valera's constitution was actually quite radical and distinctly non-Catholic for its day. For that reason,
Pope Pius XI refused to support its adoption, an endorsement constitutions in predominantly Catholic countries routinely sought and often got;
★ the features of the "Catholic" family focused on in the constitution (family based on marriage, with no divorce and the belief that the family was central to society) accurately mirrored most of the beliefs (divorce excepted) of the mainstream Protestant faiths on the island, namely the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church (although many conservative Protestants also oppose divorce);
★ Though given symbolic superiority, Irish in reality remained a language of a small and rapidly dwindling number of people. In contrast, the state's second official language, English, was the language of the vast majority of people.
Thus for all the ''constitutional autochthony'' symbols, the Irish state was neither as nationalist nor as Catholic, neither as Gaelic nor as free from the Crown as de Valera, through his use of symbols, tried to suggest.
Ireland was declared a Republic in 1948 by
John A. Costello at a time when de Valera was in opposition. The twenty-six county
Éire[11] left the
Commonwealth on 18 April 1949, and became the
Republic of Ireland. The last constitutional links to Britain had finally been cut, ironically not by the revolutionary de Valera.
Neutrality in World War II
Germany's interest in
Ireland before and in the early years of
World War II (called
The Emergency in the Free State) included investigating whether the IRA could be used against Britain, investigating the tactical advantages of invading Ireland, and negotiating with the Irish government.
Germany courted the Irish government, before and during the war, though with little success. De Valera kept Ireland neutral in World War II. The British
MI5 naturally took more than a passing interest in his deeds and whereabouts. Whereas the neutrality of the
U.S. was terminated with the attack on
Pearl Harbor, Irish neutrality was maintained right through to the end of the war. Both the possibility of a German invasion and a British invasion were discussed in the
Dáil.
Needing Irish support and facilities after the invasion of France, Britain made a qualified offer of Irish unity in June 1940. The revised final terms were signed by
Neville Chamberlain on 28 June 1940 and sent to de Valera. On his rejection, neither the London nor Dublin governments publicized the matter. It was proposed that Ireland (described by now as
Éire) would effectively join the allies against Germany by allowing British ships to use its ports, interning Germans and Italians, setting up a joint defence council and allowing overflights. No formal declaration of war was required.
In return, arms would be provided to Éire and British forces would cooperate on a German invasion. London would declare that it accepted 'the principle of a United Ireland' in the form of an undertaking 'that the Union is to become at an early date an accomplished fact from which there shall be no turning back.'
[12]
Despite de Valera's lifelong desire for a united Ireland, the offer was refused mainly due to the exceptional military situation in mid-1940. Historians have pondered whether he feared alienating Germany, or wanted to involve Belfast's politicians, or simply wanted to keep Northern Ireland and the matter of national unity as a useful rallying cry. The policy of neutrality was adhered to.
Characteristics
Irish neutrality took on some unique characteristics of its own:
★ The Irish government secretly aided the Allied side; for example, the timing of
D-Day was decided thanks to weather reports supplied by Ireland which told of incoming weather conditions from the Atlantic.
★ The Irish government also allowed British planes to fly from a base at
Castle Archdale on
Lough Erne in County Fermanagh (part of the six northern counties which had remained within the United Kingdom) across Donegal to the Atlantic. The twenty mile strip, often called "the Donegal corridor" was heavily traveled by aircraft searching for German surface ships and U-boats. A plane from the base in Fermanagh spotted the Bismarck, which was later sunk by the Royal Navy.
★ The Irish government permitted the German Ambassador
Eduard Hempel to maintain a radio transmitter which was used to make reports on weather, troop movements, and the effects of bombing raids on Britain to Germany until 1943 when the radio transmitter was shut down.
★ A mechanism was devised to allow Allied airmen who crashed in Free State territory to be returned to duty across the border. A fairly spurious distinction was established between combatant airmen on "operational" and "non-operational" flights, with practically all Allied airmen who came into Irish hands being judged to be on "non-operational" flights, while German airmen were judged to be on "operational" flights, and thus interned for the duration of the war.
★ Roughly 45,000 Irish Free State men voluntarily joined the Allied forces (including
Patrick Clancy and his brother,
Tom Clancy, both of whom, ironically had also been
IRA volunteers) without interference from the Irish government (which had prohibited Irishmen from entering the Spanish Civil War, some years earlier).
★ On the occasion of the death of
Adolf Hitler, de Valera paid a visit to Eduard Hempel, the German minister in Dublin, to express sympathy over the death of the
Führer.
[13] Along with President
Douglas Hyde, de Valera was the only head of government to express condolences. News of the
Holocaust had already emerged and de Valera was criticised worldwide, though he stated his action was based on courtesy for the German nation and Dr. Hempel personally.
[14][15] He later wrote ''"I expected this. I could have had a diplomatic illness but, as you know, I would scorn that type of thing"''. De Valera did not apologize later. This has been seen by many as evidence that he offered condolences out of spite towards the British, against whom he likely held a bitter hatred. It does not square in any event with de Valera's failure to sign the book of condolences at the American embassy following the death of Roosevelt, as David Gray, the American Ambassador said he would not receive de Valera. All flags were flown at half mast on Roosevelt's death on de Valera's instructions
★ The behaviour of de Valera's government towards Jewish refugees fleeing the
Holocaust is also controversial. Ireland's
Justice Minister Michael McDowell later described the Irish government's treatment of Jewish refugees as ''"antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling"''. Dr Mervyn O'Driscoll of
University College Cork reported on the unofficial and official barriers that prevented Jews from finding refuge in Ireland: ''"Although overt anti-Semitism was untypical, the Irish were indifferent to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and those fleeing the third Reich"''
[1].
[16] However, this attitude towards Jewish refugees differed little from other Western governments – as exemplified by the abject failure of the
Evian Conference - who were unwilling to admit Jews fleeing Nazism.
★ De Valera has been reported to have helped Nazi war criminals and collaborators find asylum in Ireland.
[17][18]
Analysis
Non-neutrality could either have meant support for Germany or the United Kingdom. Neither was particularly appealing and either would have led to an upsurge in subversive activity. An alliance with Germany risked certain invasion from the United Kingdom, and even without that threat was never contemplated by de Valera. An alliance with the United Kingdom risked internal political instability. De Valera's policy of neutrality probably enabled him to maintain a political unity with the opposition. That might not have been achievable had de Valera wanted to side ''openly'' with the Allies, which would have provoked the IRA. De Valera interned hundreds of IRA men during the war and had no hesitation in executing IRA prisoners to set an example. He feared that IRA actions might provoke the British into crossing the border.
Some historians have argued
[19] that Irish neutrality was the best tactic for the Allies too. It was believed that Ireland, because of its small army and exposed coast, would have been a weak link for the Allies, and would have stretched Allied armies too thinly, while making Ireland more of a Nazi invasion target. In contrast, as a neutral state, a Nazi invasion risked infuriating
Irish America and so possibly increasing pressure from the powerful Irish lobby for the United States to join the war. De Valera's calculation appeared to be that, in the earliest days of the war, neutrality could offer more protection from a German invasion than joining the Allies. And in turn, the absence of an attack on Ireland would help the United Kingdom, because it would mean that they would be fighting on one flank (the UK's east coast) rather than facing a Nazi
pincer attack, from west (through Ireland) and east.
In 2005 documents were released from the
Public Record Office regarding contacts between de Valera and a British
MI5 officer in 1942 over the Irish Free State joining the Allies, which was rejected by de Valera. Details of the meetings were not disclosed but it is believed another offer was made over the status of Northern Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland has yet to apologise for de Valera's response to Hitler's death, which, though seen by many as a scandal, is in fact in line with their current policy of neutrality. In contrast, neutral
Sweden and
Switzerland expelled German diplomats in May 1945 as they no longer represented a state. When asked, Republic of Ireland President
Mary McAleese declined to say that it was time for an apology
[20] Sir John Maffey, the then British Representative, commented that de Valera's actions were "unwise but mathematically consistent".
[21]
De Valera and Churchill clash on radio
In his
Victory in Europe Day radio broadcast, British
Prime Minister and old de Valera adversary
Winston Churchill launched a strong attack on the Irish government's policy of neutrality and de Valera in particular, while being careful to distinguish that from any criticism of the Irish people as a whole or of individual Irishmen - a nuance that failed to be communicated.
:''The sense of envelopment, which might at any moment turn to strangulation, lay heavy upon us. We had only the northwestern approach between Ulster and Scotland through which to bring in the means of life and to send out the forces of war. Owing to the action of Mr. de Valera, so much at variance with the temper and instinct of thousands of southern Irishmen, who hastened to the battlefront to prove their ancient valor, the approaches which the southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by the hostile aircraft and U-boats.''
Churchill was here contrasting de Valera with tens of thousands of volunteers from Ireland who chose to fight for the Allied forces despite Ireland's neutrality.
[22]
:''This was indeed a deadly moment in our life, and if it had not been for the loyalty and friendship of Northern Ireland we should have been forced to come to close quarters with Mr. de Valera or perish forever from the earth. However, with a restraint and poise to which, I say, history will find few parallels, we never laid a violent hand upon them, which at times would have been quite easy and quite natural, and left the de Valera Government to frolic with the German and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart's content.''
:''When I think of these days I think also of other episodes and personalities. I do not forget Lieutenant-Commander Esmonde, V.C., D.S.O., Lance-Corporal Keneally, V.C., Captain Fegen, V.C., and other Irish heroes that I could easily recite, and all bitterness by Britain for the Irish race dies in my heart. I can only pray that in years which I shall not see, the shame will be forgotten and the glories will endure, and that the peoples of the British Isles and of the British Commonwealth of Nations will walk together in mutual comprehension and forgiveness.''
De Valera's reply, also in a radio broadcast, won widespread respect and praise in Ireland from even his bitterest opponents. However, there was strong opposition in some sections of opinion in combatant countries. De Valera told
Radio Éireann listeners:
:''It is indeed fortunate that Britain's necessity did not reach the point when Mr. Churchill would have invaded Ireland. All credit to him that he successfully resisted the temptation which, I have not doubt, many times assailed him in his difficulties and to which I freely admit many leaders might have easily succumbed. It is indeed hard for the strong to be just to the weak, but acting justly always has its rewards.''
:''By resisting his temptation in this instance, Mr. Churchill, instead of adding another horrid chapter to the already bloodstained record of the relations between England and this country, has advanced the cause of international morality an important step - one of the most important, indeed, that can be taken on the road to the establishment of any sure basis for peace. . . ''
:''Mr. Churchill is proud of Britain's stand alone, after France had fallen and before America entered the War''.
:''Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoliations, famines, massacres in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but that each time on returning to consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?''
:''Mr. Churchill is justly proud of his nation's perseverance against heavy odds. But we in this island are still prouder of our people's perseverance for freedom through all the centuries. We, of our time, have played our part in the perseverance, and we have pledged ourselves to the dead generations who have preserved intact for us this glorious heritage, that we, too, will strive to be faithful to the end, and pass on this tradition unblemished.''
As a speech, it probably counts among de Valera's finest and even his opponents spoke of their pride in his words.
Post–war period
Having spent sixteen years in power, Fianna Fáil was replaced in 1948 by the first
First Inter-Party Government with compromise candidate
John A. Costello as
Taoiseach. De Valera, as leader of the opposition, embarked on a world campaign to raise the issue of partition. During the
Mother and Child Scheme crisis that racked the First Inter Party Government, de Valera kept a dignified silence, preferring to stay aloof from the controversy. In 1951 de Valera was returned to power but without an overall majority. He was Taoiseach again of what many would consider to be his worst government.It was during this period that de Valera's eyesight began to deteriorate and he was forced to spend several months in the Netherlands where he had six operations.
Fianna Fáil was defeated again in the
1954 general election. However, like the first coalition government, the second lasted only three years. At the general election of 1957 de Valera, then in his seventy-fifth year, won an absolute majority of nine seats, the greatest number he had ever secured. This was the beginning of another sixteen year period in office for Fianna Fáil. A new economic policy emerged with the First Programme for Economic Expansion. In July 1957, in response to the
Border Campaign (IRA), he ordered the
internment without trial of Republican suspects, an action which did much to end the IRA's campaign.
De Valera remained as Taoiseach until 1959, handing over power to
Seán Lemass. In the same year, he was elected
President of Ireland, as which he served until 1973. At his retirement at the age of 90, he was the oldest Head of State in the world.
Éamon de Valera's grave. His wife, Sinéad, and son, Brian (who was killed in a horse-riding accident in 1936) are buried there also. ()
Éamon de Valera died in Linden Convalescent Home,
Blackrock,
County 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. He is buried in Dublin's
Glasnevin Cemetery.
Overview
Ireland's dominant political personality for many decades, de Valera received numerous honours. He was elected Chancellor of the National University of Ireland in 1921, holding the post until his death. Pope John XXIII bestowed on him the Order of Christ. He received honorary degrees from universities in Ireland and abroad and in 1968 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a recognition of his lifelong interest in mathematics. He also served as a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (for Down from 1921 to 1929 and for South Down from 1933 to 1937), though he held to the Republican policy of abstentionism and did not take his seat in Stormont. He retired from the Presidency in June 1973, having served for fourteen years, the longest period allowed under the Constitution.
De Valera was criticised for ending up as co-owner of one of Ireland's most influential group of newspapers,
Irish Press Newspapers, funded by numerous small investors who received no dividend for decades.
[23] De Valera is alleged by critics to have kept Ireland under the influence of Catholic conservatism.
[24] His constitution did explicitly recognise the existence and rights of the Jewish community in Ireland in 1937.
[25]
De Valera rejected fundamentalist Catholic demands by organisations like
Maria Duce that Roman Catholicism be made the state religion of Ireland, just as he rejected demands by the
Irish Christian Front that the
Irish Free State support Franco during the
Spanish Civil War.
His role in Irish history is no longer unequivocally seen by today's historians as a positive one, and a recent controversial biography by
Tim Pat Coogan alleges that his failures outweigh his achievements, with de Valera's reputation declining as that of his great rival in the 1920s,
Michael Collins, is rising.
A notable failure was his attempt to reverse the provision of the 1937 Constitution in relation to the electoral system. On retiring as Taoiseach in 1959, he proposed that the
Proportional Representation system enshrined in that constitution should be replaced. De Valera argued that Proportional Representation had been responsible for the instability that had characterised much of the post war period. A constitutional referendum to ratify this was defeated by the people.
Garret Fitzgerald summarised
[26] his last term as Taoiseach;
''Total economic stagnation marked de Valera's last seven years as leader of his party - because all of the chickens of his disastrous commitment to an inward-looking policy of self sufficiency were coming home to roost.''
Governments
The following governments were led by de Valera:
★
6th Executive Council of the Irish Free State
★
7th Executive Council of the Irish Free State
★
8th Executive Council of the Irish Free State
★
1st Government of Ireland
★
2nd Government of Ireland
★
3rd Government of Ireland
★
4th Government of Ireland
★
6th Government of Ireland
★
8th Government of Ireland
Political career
See also
★
List of people on stamps of Ireland
★
Essay by Patrick Murray
References
1. His name is frequently misspelled 'Eamonn De Valera' but in fact he never used the second 'n' in his first name (the standard Irish spelling) and always a small 'd' in 'de Valera', which is proper in Spanish names (de meaning 'of').
2. "Eamon(n)" actually translates into English as Edmond or Edmund. The correct Irish translation of "Edward" is Éadhbhard.
3.
4. Between 1945 and 1981.
5. Tim Pat Coogan, ''De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' (Hutchinson, London, 1993) hardback. pp.69-72. ISBN 009175030X
6. http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192108170006.html
7. http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.C.192006290062.html
8. http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.C.192105100047.html
9. De Valera's Treaty proposals
10. www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-001/
11. From 1921 the name of the state was the Irish Free State, which changed to Éire in the 1937 Constitution.
12. Eds. O'Day A. & Stevenson J., ''Irish Historical Documents since 1800'' (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1992) p.201. ISBN 0-7171-1839-8. This offer was first published in 1970 in ''Éamon de Valera'' by the Earl of Longford and T.P O'Neill (Arrow Books, London 1974 in p/back) pp.365-367. ISBN 0-09-909520-3.
13. John P. Duggan, ''Herr Hempel at the German Legation in Dublin 1937-1945'' Irish Academic Press, 2002. ISBN 071652757X
14. www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/30/ap/world/mainD8EQKMO00.shtml
15. unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1535300&issue_id=13493
16. At a time when there was beginning in Germany a process of extermination of Jews, according to Andy Pollak of the Irish Times ''a handful" of Jews entered Éire during "The Emergency''. Another source estimates that 38 Jews found a haven in Éire (possibly through human smuggling)
17. travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/destinations/ireland/article1290234.ece
18. www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1750505&issue_id=15078
19. De Valera and the Ulster Question 1917–1973. John Bowman, Oxford, 1982, Page 208.
20. www.rte.ie/news/2005/0127/holocaust.html
21. Tony Gray, ''The Lost Years'' isbn 0316881899 p. 233
22. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3749629.stm
23. Sunday Times, 31 October, 2004 p3; RTÉ broadcast on 2 November, 2004.
24. Tom Garvin ''Preventing the future; why Ireland was so poor for so long.'' (Dublin 2004) passim; ISBN 0-7171-3771-6
25. At a time when there was beginning in Germany, a process of extermination of Jews. According to Andy Pollak of the Irish Times, ''a handful" of Jews entered Éire during "The Emergency''; another source estimates that 38 Jews found a haven in Éire (possibly through human smuggling)
26. Garret Fitzgerald, ''Irish Times'', September 16, 2006.
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