Eamon de Valera (1882-1975) was an Irish politician who played a major role in the creation of the Irish Free State. Considered the father of the Irish Free Nation, this American-Irishman was deeply committed to the Irish nationalist cause, and would later devote the rest of his political career to the creation and development of the Irish Republic.
Éamon de Valera was born on October 14, 1882 in New York City into a well-to-do family that was already rather politicized. After brilliant studies, De Valera became a mathematics teacher, and spent the rest of his time on his passion for rugby and Irish Gaelic culture.
Before long, Éamon de Valera was juggling between New York and Dublin, before finally deciding to pursue a political career in Ireland, at a particularly troubled time when anti-British sentiment was growing ever stronger. He then joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (or IRB) and defended the Irish nationalist movement alongside leading figures such as Michael Collins and James Connolly.
Together, they decided to take up arms and foment a rebellion: the Easter Insurrection.
The Easter Rising of 1916 was therefore one of the most important attempted uprisings in Irish history. Despite all the effort put into the rebellion, the uprising ended in failure, and many of the movement’s leaders were executed. Luckily, however, De Valera escaped, thanks to his American citizenship. He was then imprisoned successively in Dartmoor, Maidstone and Lewes prisons.
From his cell, he continued his struggle despite the prison bars and was elected as a Sinn Féin MP. In 1919, De Valera and other party members created Dáil Éireann, a revolutionary parliament representing Irish nationalists. Eamon De Valera was appointed Prime Minister of the Dàil and escaped from Lincoln prison a few months later.
For De Valera, August 1921 was the date on which he had the Irish constitution changed to make himself President of the Republic of Ireland. He encouraged Irish nationalists to take up arms, and plunged Ireland into a particularly deadly War of Independence (1919-1921).
But the latter put London in an indelicate position, and London offered to sign the Treaty of London with the Nationalists on December 21, 1921. Then President of the Dàil, De Valera commissioned Michael Collins to negotiate the Treaty in the British capital.
On the return of Michael Collins, Irish nationalists split into 2 groups: pro-treaty and anti-treaty. Eamon De Valera was also dissatisfied with the Treaty, seeing independence as partial and insufficient, to the detriment of Northern Ireland, still under British rule. Faced with this situation, De Valera joined the anti-treaty camp, opposing Michael Collins.
This conflict gave rise to a veritable Irish Civil War, with pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions clashing in a fratricidal conflict. The war lasted 2 years, and ended in victory for the pro-treaty side, aided by the advanced military equipment supplied by the British themselves.
In the face of this bitter failure, De Valera was re-imprisoned in 1923 until 1924, before being released at the end of the conflict, like all opponents of the Treaty. A new era began, when De Valera resigned himself to politics in the Republic of Ireland. He then put in place new measures to develop the Irish political landscape, now free of the British presence.
In 1926, he founded a new political party, Fianna Fàil, and was appointed head of the Taoiseach (the Irish government) from 1932 until 1948. In 1937, he submitted his draft Republican Constitution, and was elected President of the General Assembly of the League of Nations, which enabled him to protect Ireland from the Second World War.
He was then renamed head of the Taoiseach from 1951 to 1954.
1959 was the year he was elected President of Ireland. He practiced until 1973, when he retired and died in 1975.
Even today, De Valera is regarded as a major figure in the Irish nationalist struggle, having contributed to the creation of the Irish Free State and the Irish Republic… Very popular with the Irish people, he remains a leading political figure, famous for his strong ideas and deep commitment to the Irish cause.
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