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de Valera, Eamon (sh)




orig. Edward de Valera

born Oct. 14, 1882, New York, N.Y., U.S.
died Aug. 29, 1975, Dublin, Ire.

Irish politician and patriot.

Born in the U.S. to a Spanish father and an Irish mother, at age two he was sent to live with his mother's family in Ireland when his father died. In 1913 he joined the Irish Volunteers and in 1916 helped lead the rebels in the Easter Rising. He was elected president of Sinn Fein in 1918. Repudiating the treaty that formed the Irish Free State because it provided for the partition of Ireland, he supported the republican resistance in the ensuing civil war. In 1924 he founded Fianna Fail, which won the 1932 elections. As prime minister (1932-48), he took the Irish Free State out of the British Commonwealth and made his country a "sovereign" state, renamed Ireland, or eire. He proclaimed Ireland neutral in World War II. After twice serving again as prime minister (1951-54, 1957-59), he became president of Ireland (1959-73).


De Valera, c. 1965

Courtesy of the Irish Embassy; photograph, Lensmen Ltd. Press Photo Agency, Dublin