View source for Éamon de Valera

{{Short description|Irish statesman (1882–1975)}}
{{Redirect|De Valera|other people with the surname|De Valera (surname)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image               = De Valera LCCN2016822004 (headshot).jpg
| caption             = De Valera, {{c.|1918–1921}}
| office              = [[President of Ireland]]
| taoiseach           = {{plainlist|
* [[Seán Lemass]]
* [[Jack Lynch]]
* [[Liam Cosgrave]]}}
| term_start          = 25 June 1959
| term_end            = 24 June 1973
| predecessor         = [[Seán T. O'Kelly]]
| successor           = [[Erskine Hamilton Childers|Erskine H. Childers]]
| office1             = [[Taoiseach]]
| president1          = Seán T. O'Kelly
| 1blankname1         = [[Tánaiste]]
| 1namedata1          = Seán Lemass
| term_start1         = 20 March 1957
| term_end1           = 23 June 1959
| predecessor1        = [[John A. Costello]]
| successor1          = Seán Lemass
| president2          = Seán T. O'Kelly
| 1blankname2         = Tánaiste
| 1namedata2          = Seán Lemass
| term_start2         = 13 June 1951
| term_end2           = 2 June 1954
| predecessor3        = John A. Costello
| successor3          = John A. Costello
| president4          = {{plainlist|
* [[Douglas Hyde]]
* Seán T. O'Kelly}}
| 1blankname4         = Tánaiste
| 1namedata4          = {{plainlist|
* Seán T. O'Kelly
* Seán Lemass}}
| term_start4         = 29 December 1937
| term_end4           = 18 February 1948
| predecessor4        = ''Himself as president of the Executive Council''
| successor4          = John A. Costello
| vicepresident5      = Seán T. O'Kelly
| term_start5         = 9 March 1932
| term_end5           = 29 December 1937
| office5             = [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President of the Executive Council]]
| predecessor5        = [[W. T. Cosgrave]]
| successor5          = ''Himself as Taoiseach''
| office6             = [[Leader of the Opposition (Ireland)|Leader of the Opposition]]
| president6          = Seán T. O'Kelly
| taoiseach6          = John A. Costello
| term_start6         = 2 June 1954
| term_end6           = 20 March 1957
| predecessor6        = John A. Costello
| successor6          = John A. Costello
| president7          = Seán T. O'Kelly
| taoiseach7          = John A. Costello
| term_start7         = 18 February 1948
| term_end7           = 13 June 1951
| predecessor7        = [[Richard Mulcahy]]
| successor7          = John A. Costello
| president8          = W. T. Cosgrave
| term_start8         = 11 August 1927
| term_end8           = 9 March 1932
| predecessor8        = [[Thomas Johnson (Irish politician)|Thomas Johnson]]
| successor8          = W. T. Cosgrave
| office9             = [[Leader of Fianna Fáil]]
| term_start9         = 23 March 1926
| term_end9           = 23 June 1959
| predecessor9        = ''Office established''
| successor9          = Seán Lemass
| office10            = [[President of the Irish Republic]]
| term_start10        = 26 August 1921
| term_end10          = 9 January 1922
| predecessor10       = ''Office established''
| successor10         = ''Office abolished''
| office11            = [[President of Dáil Éireann]]
| term_start11        = 1 April 1919
| term_end11          = 26 August 1921
| predecessor11       = [[Cathal Brugha]]
| successor11         = [[Arthur Griffith]]
{{collapsed infobox section begin |last=yes |Parliamentary offices
 |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office12            = [[Teachta Dála]]
| term_start12        = [[1922 Irish general election|August 1922]]
| term_end12          = [[1959 Irish presidential election|June 1959]]
| constituency12      = [[Clare (Dáil constituency)|Clare]]
| term_start13        = [[1918 Irish general election|December 1918]]
| term_end13          = June 1922
| constituency13      = [[East Clare (UK Parliament constituency)|Clare East]]
| parliament14        = Northern Ireland
| constituency_MP14   = [[South Down (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)|South Down]]
| term_start14        = 30 November 1933
| term_end14          = 9 February 1938
| predecessor14       = John Henry Collins
| successor14         = [[James Brown (Northern Ireland politician)|James Brown]]
| office15            = Member of the {{nowrap|Northern Ireland Parliament}}<br />for [[Down (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)|Down]]
| term_start15        = 24 May 1921
| term_end15          = 22 May 1929
| predecessor15       = ''Constituency established''
| successor15         = ''Constituency abolished''
| parliament16        = United Kingdom
| constituency_MP16   = [[East Clare]]
| term_start16        = 10 July 1917
| term_end16          = 15 November 1922
| predecessor16       = [[Willie Redmond]]
| successor16         = ''Constituency abolished''{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
| birth_name          = George de Valero
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1882|10|14|df=y}}
| birth_place         = New York City, U.S.<!--Per WP:OVERLINK "The names of subjects with which most readers will be at least somewhat familiar", including locations with NYC as an example, do not typically need to be linked-->
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1975|8|29|1882|10|14|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Blackrock, Dublin]], Ireland
| resting_place       = [[Glasnevin Cemetery]], Dublin, Ireland
| nationality         = {{flatlist|
* Irish
* [[Birthright citizenship in the United States|American]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishamerica.com/2016/02/eamon-de-valera-man-of-mystery-2/|title=Éamon de Valera: Man of Mystery|work=Irish America Magazine|access-date=14 June 2022|first=Robert|last=Schmuhl|date=February 2016}}</ref>}}
| party               = [[Fianna Fáil]]
| otherparty          = {{plainlist|
* {{longitem|[[Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin]]<br />(1923–1926)}}
* {{longitem|[[Cumann na Poblachta]]<br />(1922–1923)}}
* {{longitem|[[Sinn Féin]]<br />(1916–1922)}}
}}
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Sinéad de Valera|Sinéad Flanagan]]|8 January 1910|7 January 1975|end=d.}}
| children            = 7, including {{enum|[[Vivion de Valera|Vivion]]|[[Máirin de Valéra|Máirín]]|[[Éamon de Valera, Jnr|Éamon]]|[[Rúaidhrí de Valera|Rúaidhrí]]}}
| father              = [[#Early life|Juan Vivion de Valera]]
| mother              = [[Catherine Coll]]
| relatives           = {{plainlist|
* [[Éamon Ó Cuív]] (grandson)
* [[Síle de Valera]] (granddaughter)}}
| education           = {{plainlist|
* [[C.B.S. Charleville]]
* [[Blackrock College]]}}
| alma_mater          = {{ubl|[[Royal University of Ireland]] (B.A., 1904)|[[Trinity College Dublin]]<br/>(1904–1905, no degree)}}
| profession          = {{ubl|Teacher|politician}}
| signature           = Éamon de Valera Signature 2.svg
| module              = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Éamonn de Valera speaks on an ideal Ireland.ogg|title=Éamon de Valera's voice|type=speech|description=Éamon de Valera [[The Ireland That We Dreamed Of|speaks on an ideal Ireland]]<br />Recorded 17 March 1943}}
}}

'''Éamon de Valera'''{{efn|His name is frequently misspelt '''Eamonn De Valera''', but he never used the second "n" in his first name (the standard Irish spelling), and he always used a small "d" in "de Valera", which is proper for Spanish names ({{lang|es|de}} meaning "of").}}{{efn|{{lang|ga|Éamon(n)}} translates into English as "Edmond" or "Edmund". The correct Irish translation of "Edward" (his name as given in his amended birth certificate) is {{lang|ga|Éadhbhard}}.}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|eɪ|m|ən|_|ˌ|d|ɛ|v|ə|ˈ|l|ɛər|ə|,_|-|ˈ|l|ɪər|-}} {{respell|AY|mən|_|DEH|və|LAIR|ə|,_|-|LEER|-}}; {{IPA|ga|ˈeːmˠən̪ˠ dʲɛ ˈwalʲəɾʲə|lang}}; first registered as '''George de Valero'''; changed some time before 1901 to '''Edward de Valera''';<ref>[http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Blackrock/Williamstown_Avenue/1313563/ UK Census 1901 held in the National Archives in the Republic of Ireland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129070926/http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Blackrock/Williamstown_Avenue/1313563/ |date=29 January 2017 }} de&nbsp;Valera listed as Edward in a Roman Catholic boarding school, Blackrock College, in Dublin. This was the same boarding school which [[T.F. O'Rahilly]] attended, listed as Rahilly.</ref> 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the [[president of Ireland]] from 1959 to 1973, and three terms as prime minister (titled as [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State]] from 1932 to 1937 and as [[Taoiseach]] from 1937 to 1948, 1951 to 1954, and 1957 to 1959). He had a leading role in introducing the [[Constitution of Ireland]] in 1937,<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Eamon-de-Valera.D.1919-01-21/|title=Éamon de Valera|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=1 June 2009|archive-date=23 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923235419/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Eamon-de-Valera.D.1919-01-21/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="frs"/> 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]].

De Valera was a [[commandant]] of the [[Irish Volunteers]] (Third Battalion) at [[Boland's Mill]] during the [[Easter Rising|1916 Easter Rising]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Macardle |first=Dorothy |author-link= |date=1965 |title=The Irish Republic |url= |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |page=169 |isbn=}}</ref> 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 Rising leaders. He returned to Ireland after being jailed in England and became one of the leading political figures of the [[Irish War of Independence|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 which abandoned the policy of [[abstentionism]] from [[Dáil Éireann]] in favour of republicanising the [[Irish Free State]] from within.<ref>Macardle, p. 233</ref>

From there, 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 of the Irish Free State|president of the Executive Council]] from [[W. T. Cosgrave]] and later became [[Taoiseach]], with the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937. With a total of 21 years in office, he is the [[Records of Irish heads of government since 1922#Cumulative days served|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 been the founding [[Leader of 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 President of Ireland from 1959 to 1973, two full terms in office.

De Valera's political beliefs evolved from militant [[Irish republicanism]] to strong [[Social conservatism|social]], [[Cultural conservatism|cultural]] and [[Fiscal conservatism|fiscal]] conservatism.<ref name="Ferriter, 2007">Ferriter, ''Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Eamon De Valera'' (2007), {{ISBN|1-904890-28-8}}.</ref> He has been characterised as having a stern and unbending, and also devious demeanour. 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.<ref name="Ferriter, 2007" />

==Early life==
Éamon de Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in [[Lenox Hill|Lenox Hill, New York]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/ms443_20_nursery_childs_hospital/ | title=Nursery and Child's Hospital Records: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids }}</ref> He was the son of [[Catherine Coll]], who was originally from [[Bruree]], County Limerick,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/mystery-of-1916-leader-and-new-yorker-eamon-de-valera-s-birth | publisher = IrishCentral.com | title = Mystery of 1916 leader and New Yorker Eamon de Valera's birth | date = 14 October 2016 | access-date = 5 January 2018 | archive-date = 5 January 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180105180435/https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/mystery-of-1916-leader-and-new-yorker-eamon-de-valera-s-birth | url-status = live }}</ref> 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]],<ref name="Castro">{{cite journal |last=Castro |first=Aurora |date=29 December 2021 |title=Exploring the Spanish Roots of Éamon de Valera |journal=[[Zenodo]] |doi=10.5281/zenodo.5809396}}</ref> while others have suggested other locations; according to Antonio Rivero Taravillo, he was born in [[Seville]],<ref>{{cite journal|author=José Francisco Fernández|title=En busca de la Isla Esmeralda. Diccionario sentimental de la cultura Irlandesa (Antonio Rivero Taravillo)|journal=Estudios Irlandeses - Journal of Irish Studies|date=March 2018 - February 2019|issue=13|page=197|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324004946|access-date=15 July 2021|archive-date=12 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912121216/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324004946_Irish_Studies_in_Spain_-_2017|url-status=live}}</ref> while [[Ronan Fanning]] has him born in the [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]].<ref>{{cite book | title = A Will To Power: Eamon De Valera | page = 3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Foz2CwAAQBAJ&q=juan | publisher = Harvard University Press | date = 2016 | first = Ronan | last = Fanning | quote = ''De Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in the Nursery and Child's Hospital, Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, New York; the only child of Juan Vivion de Valera and Catherine ('Kate') Coll'' | isbn = 9780674970557 | access-date = 21 September 2020 | archive-date = 12 September 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210912121210/https://books.google.com/books?id=Foz2CwAAQBAJ&q=juan | url-status = live }}</ref>

He was born at the [[New York Nursery and Child's Hospital|Nursery and Child's Hospital]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/nursery/bioghist.html|title=Nursery and Child's Hospital Records - 1854-1934 - MS 443.20 |publisher=New-York Historical Society Museum & Library |access-date=21 August 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220821054837/http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/nursery/bioghist.html |archive-date= Aug 21, 2022 }}</ref> [[Lexington Avenue]], a home for destitute orphans and abandoned children.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/de-valera-s-begrudging-attitude-to-the-big-fellow-1.410958|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|author=[[Tim Pat Coogan]]|title=De Valera's begrudging attitude to 'The Big Fellow'|date=31 January 2005|access-date=19 January 2019|archive-date=30 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130204128/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/de-valera-s-begrudging-attitude-to-the-big-fellow-1.410958|url-status=live}}</ref>
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 spelling). 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".<ref name="homepage">{{cite web |url=http://homepage.eircom.net/%7Eseanjmurphy/irhismys/devalera.html |title="Eamon de Valera's father" 2006 |publisher=Homepage.eircom.net |access-date=21 August 2013 |archive-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404220530/http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/irhismys/devalera.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/features/devalera.shtml |title= Notable New Yorkers – Eamon de Valéra | website= nyc.gov | publisher= NYC Department of Records |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040208005923/http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/features/devalera.shtml | archive-date= 8 February 2004 }}</ref> As a child, he was known as "Eddie" or "Eddy".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/myers-on-de-valera-1.223731|title=Myers on De Valera|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=9 December 1998|access-date=11 May 2017|archive-date=23 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823163121/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/myers-on-de-valera-1.223731|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |last=Murray |first=Sean Patrick |date=27 November 2024 |title=The Case for Éamon de Valera's Birth and Baptismal Records Being Forgeries |url=https://debanked.com/pdfs/deValeraBirthRecordForgeries.pdf |access-date=25 December 2024 |via= debanked.com |publisher=Westmeath Archaeological and History Society (Iarmhí, Vol. 1, No. 4)}}</ref>

According to Coll, Juan Vivion died in 1885 leaving Coll and her child in poor circumstances.<ref>{{cite book | author-link = Proinsias Mac Aonghusa | first = Proinsias | last = Mac Aonghusa | title = Quotations from Éamon de Valera | date = 1983 | page = 89 | publisher = Mercier | isbn = 0-85342-684-8}}</ref> Éamon was taken to Ireland by his uncle Ned at the age of two<!--or3?-->. 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]].<!--It is not necessary to clarify all: sentence construction, grammar, punctuation and sense are much more important! --> 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.<ref name = "JordanIrishCatholic">Jordan, Anthony J. ''Eamon de Valera 1882–1975. Irish; Catholic; Visionary'' (Westport Books, 2010)</ref>{{rp|19–20}} Blackrock College has since named one of their six student houses after him.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.blackrockcollege.com/news/commissioning-of-house-captains-2022-23/ | title=Commissioning of House Captains 2022/23 }}</ref>

He played rugby at Blackrock and [[Rockwell College]], then for [[Munster rugby|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.{{sfn|Jordan|2010|p=279}}

At the end of his first year at 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml|title=Éamon de Valera (1882–1975)|work=BBC News|access-date=6 December 2008|archive-date=21 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121193122/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> It was here that de Valera was first given the nickname "Dev" by a teaching colleague, Tom O'Donnell.<ref name = "Farragher1984">{{cite book |last=Farragher CSSp |first=Sean P. |title=Dev and his Alma Mater |publisher=Paraclete Press |year=1984 |location=Dublin & London |isbn=0-946639-01-9 }}</ref>{{rp|73}} In 1904, he graduated in mathematics from the [[Royal University of Ireland]]. He then studied 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]].<ref name = "Farragher1984"/>{{rp|87–90}} In 1906, he secured a post as a teacher of mathematics at [[Our Lady of Mercy College, Carysfort|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]]<ref name="DIBDev">{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/de-valera-eamon-dev-a2472|title=De Valera, Éamon ('Dev')|last=Fanning|first=Ronan|author-link=Ronan Fanning|date=October 2009|work=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]|publisher=Royal Irish Academy|access-date=21 October 2021|archive-date=21 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021150759/https://www.dib.ie/biography/de-valera-eamon-dev-a2472|url-status=live}}</ref> and also taught mathematics at various Dublin schools, including [[Castleknock College]] (1910–1911; under the name Edward de Valera) and Belvedere College.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/amon_de_Valera |title=Éamon de Valera |work=UCC – Multitext Project in Irish History |access-date=6 December 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225170429/http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/amon_de_Valera |archive-date=25 December 2008 }}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/80023816 |title=Eamon de Valera, Erwin Schrödinger, and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |author=Maureen Julian|work=Journal of Chemical Education |date=January 1983 }}</ref> He also reportedly did mathematics, while jailed and awaiting possible execution, in 1916.<ref>{{cite book | last = Misner  | first = Charles W.  |author2=Kip S. Thorne |author3=John Archibald Wheeler | title = [[Gravitation (book)|Gravitation]]|page=1135 | publisher = [[W. H. Freeman]]   | location = San Francisco  |date=September 1973  | isbn = 0-7167-0344-0 }} </ref>

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.{{sfn|Jordan|2010|p=23}} De Valera was throughout his life portrayed as a deeply religious man, and in death 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]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=The Defect of Birth|first=James H.|last=Driscoll|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02579b.htm|encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia|year=1907|access-date=2 November 2008|archive-date=12 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012045729/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02579b.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 de Valera|Sinéad Flanagan]], a teacher by profession and four years his senior. They were married on 8 January 1910 at [[St. Paul's (Roman Catholic) Church, Dublin|St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin]].

The couple had five sons: [[Vivion de Valera|Vivion]] (1910–1982), [[Éamon de Valera, Jnr.|Éamon]] (1913–1986), Brian (1915–1936), [[Rúaidhrí de Valera|Rúaidhrí]] (1916–1978), and Terence (Terry; 1922–2007); and two daughters: [[Máirin de Valéra|Máirín]] (1912–1984) and Emer (1918–2012). Brian de Valera predeceased his parents.

===Early political activity===
[[File:Eamon de Valera (7038732625).jpg|thumb|right|upright|De Valera in March 1918]]
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 [[Home Rule Act 1914|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, Dublin|Donnybrook]] branch. Preparations were pushed ahead for an armed revolt, and he was made commandant of the Third Battalion and adjutant of the Dublin Brigade. He took part in the [[Howth gun-running]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dwane|first=David T.|title=Early Life of Eamonn De Valera|publisher=The Talbott Press Limited|year=1922|location=Dublin|page=43|url=https://archive.org/stream/earlylifeofeamon00dwan/earlylifeofeamon00dwan_djvu.txt}}</ref> 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.<ref name = "JordanIrishCatholic"/>{{rp|32}}

== Revolutionary years ==
===1916 Easter Rising===
[[File:De Valera addressing a crowd.jpg|thumb|left|upright|De Valera addressing a crowd on the steps of [[Ennis Courthouse]], County Clare, in July 1917]]
On 24 April 1916, the [[Easter Rising]] began. Forces commanded by de Valera occupied [[Boland's Mill]]{{r|gunther1940}} 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 among the few republican leaders the British did not execute.<ref name="gunther1940">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n393/mode/2up | title=Inside Europe | publisher=Harper & Brothers | last=Gunther|first=John | author-link = John Gunther|year=1940 | pages=371}}</ref> 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 situation was clarified.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} 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.{{r|gunther1940}} Third, when Lt-Gen [[John Maxwell (British Army officer)|Sir John Maxwell]] reviewed his case he said, "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 commuted the court-martial's death sentence to life imprisonment.<ref name = "BartonBehind">Barton, Brian. ''From Behind a Closed Door, Secret Court Martial Records of 1916'', The History Press</ref>{{rp|93}} 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.<ref name = "BartonBehind"/>{{rp|92}} 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.<ref name = "BartonBehind"/>{{rp|91–94}}

[[File:Eamon de Valera's cell in Kilmainham Gaol.jpg|left|thumb|upright|The [[Kilmainham Gaol]] cell of Éamon de Valera]]

De Valera's supporters and detractors argue about his bravery during the Easter Rising. His supporters claim he showed leadership skills and a capacity for meticulous 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]] [[Teachta Dála|TD]] and Minister, [[Thomas F. O'Higgins|Dr. Tom O'Higgins]], if he ever repeated the story.<ref>Tim Pat Coogan, ''De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' (Hutchinson, London, 1993). pp. 69–72. {{ISBN|0-09-175030-X}}.</ref> The British reportedly, however, considered de Valera's forces the best-trained and best-led among the rebels.{{r|gunther1940}} De Valera's latest biographer, [[Anthony J. Jordan]], writes of this controversy, "Whatever happened in Boland's Mills, or any other garrison, does not negate or undermine in any way the extraordinary heroism of "Dev" and his comrades".<ref name = "JordanIrishCatholic"/>{{rp|37}}

After imprisonment in [[Dartmoor (HM Prison)|Dartmoor]], [[Maidstone (HM Prison)|Maidstone]] and [[Lewes (HM Prison)|Lewes]] prisons, de Valera and his comrades were released under an amnesty in June 1917. On 10 July 1917, he was elected as the [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[East Clare (UK Parliament constituency)|East Clare]] (the constituency which he represented until 1959) in a by-election caused by the death of the previous incumbent [[William Hoey Kearney Redmond|Willie Redmond]], brother of the Irish Party leader John Redmond, who had died fighting in World War I. In the [[1918 Irish general election|1918 general election]] he was elected both for that seat and [[East Mayo (UK Parliament constituency)|Mayo East]].<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=921|title=Éamon de Valera|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=1 June 2009|archive-date=30 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130174725/http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=921|url-status=live}}</ref> As an [[abstentionist]] de Valera would not have gone to Westminster, but was not able to do so regardless because in early 1918 he was again arrested.{{r|gunther1940}}

Because most other Irish rebellion leaders were dead, in 1917 de Valera had been elected [[President of Sinn Féin]],{{r|gunther1940}} the party which had been blamed incorrectly for provoking the Easter Rising.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} This party became the political vehicle through which the survivors of the Easter Rising channelled their republican ethos and objectives.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eamon-de-Valera|title=Eamon de Valera {{!}} president of Ireland|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=4 September 2017|archive-date=5 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180705234328/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eamon-de-Valera|url-status=live}}</ref> The previous President of Sinn Féin, [[Arthur Griffith]], had championed an Anglo-Irish dual-monarchy based on the [[Austro-Hungarian]] model, with independent legislatures for both Ireland and Britain.

===President of Dáil Éireann===
[[Sinn Féin]] won a huge majority in the 1918 general election, largely thanks to the British executions of the 1916 leaders, the threat of conscription with the [[Conscription Crisis of 1918]] and the first-past-the-post ballot. They won 73 out of 105 Irish seats, with about 47% of votes cast. 25 seats were uncontested. On 21 January 1919, 27 Sinn Féin MPs (the rest were imprisoned or impaired), calling themselves Teachtaí Dála (TDs), assembled in the [[Mansion House, Dublin|Mansion House]] in Dublin and formed an Irish parliament, known as [[First Dáil|Dáil Éireann]] (translatable into English as the ''Assembly of Ireland''). The [[Ministry of Dáil Éireann]] was formed, under the leadership of the [[President of Dáil Éireann|Príomh Aire]] (also called President of Dáil Éireann) [[Cathal Brugha]]. De Valera had been [[German Plot (Ireland)|re-arrested in May 1918]] and imprisoned and so could not attend the January session of the Dáil. He escaped from [[HM Prison Lincoln|Lincoln Gaol]], England in February 1919.<ref>Macardle, p. 283</ref> As a result, he replaced Brugha as Príomh Aire in the April session of Dáil Éireann.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}[[File:Eamon De Valera, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front, wearing cap and gown LCCN99471563 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|upright|De Valera in academic dress to receive an honorary degree from [[College of the Holy Cross]] in [[Massachusetts]]]]

In the hope of securing international recognition, [[Seán T. O'Kelly]] was sent as an envoy to Paris to present the Irish case to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Peace Conference]] convened by the great powers at the end of 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 (1917–22)|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, including a visit to [[Fenway Park]] in [[Boston]] in front of 50,000 supporters.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/1919/06/30/eamon-valera-pleads-irish-cause-fenway-park/mgvbvIyHAyWwG6Gbx4e96K/story.html|title=Eamon De Valera pleads Irish cause at Fenway Park |newspaper=The Boston Globe|access-date=23 February 2019|archive-date=11 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200211171458/https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/1919/06/30/eamon-valera-pleads-irish-cause-fenway-park/mgvbvIyHAyWwG6Gbx4e96K/story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> One negative outcome was the splitting of the Irish-American organisations into pro- and anti-de Valera factions.<ref name = "JordanIrishCatholic"/>{{rp|63–70}} He met the young Harvard-educated leader from [[Puerto Rico]], [[Pedro Albizu Campos]], and forged a lasting and useful alliance with him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alianzabolivariana.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=430|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617141011/http://www.alianzabolivariana.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=430|url-status = usurped|archive-date=17 June 2013|title=Pedro Albizu Campos: El Ultimo Libertador de America|date=19 January 2006|work=Alianza Bolivariana Para Los Pueblos de Nuestra America|access-date=12 March 2012}}</ref> It was during this American tour that he recruited his long-serving personal secretary, [[Kathleen O'Connell]], an Irish emigrant who would return to Ireland with him.<ref name=Dolan>{{cite book|last1=Dolan|first1=Anne|editor1-last=McGuire|editor1-first=James|editor2-last=Quinn|editor2-first=James|title=Dictionary of Irish Biography|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|chapter=O'Connell, Kathleen}}</ref> In October 1919, he visited the [[University of Notre Dame]] campus in Indiana, where he planted a tree and also laid a wreath by the statue of [[William Corby]]. He toured the university archives and spoke in [[Washington Hall (University of Notre Dame)|Washington Hall]] about the cause of Ireland in front of twelve hundred students.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Notre Dame: Washington Hall|url=http://archives.nd.edu/washingt.htm|access-date=4 March 2021|website=archives.nd.edu|archive-date=17 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517071720/http://archives.nd.edu/washingt.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hope|first=Arthur J.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/251881423|title=Notre Dame, one hundred years|date=1948|publisher=University Press|oclc=251881423|access-date=4 March 2021|archive-date=12 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912121217/https://www.worldcat.org/title/notre-dame-one-hundred-years/oclc/251881423|url-status=live}}</ref>[[File:Eamon de Valera at Holy Cross College cph.3a47637.jpg|thumb|De Valera at the [[College of the Holy Cross]] in 1920]]De Valera managed to raise $5,500,000 from American supporters, an amount that far exceeded the hopes of the Dáil.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192108170006.html |title=Dáil Éireann – Volume 2 – Vote of thanks to the people of America |date=17 August 1921 |work=Houses of the Oireachtas |access-date=6 December 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908125827/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192108170006.html |archive-date=8 September 2012 }}</ref> Of this, $500,000 was devoted to the American presidential campaign in 1920, helping him gain wider public support there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.C.192006290062.html |title=Dáil Éireann – Volume 1 – Ministerial Motions. – Presidential election campaign in USA |date=29 June 1920 |work=Houses of the Oireachtas |access-date=6 December 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607133142/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.C.192006290062.html |archive-date=7 June 2011 }}</ref> In 1921, it was said that $1,466,000 had already been spent, and it is unclear when the net balance arrived in Ireland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.C.192105100047.html |title=Dáil Éireann – Volume 1 – Debates on Reports. – Finance |date=10 May 1921 |work=Houses of the Oireachtas |access-date=6 December 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119185346/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.C.192105100047.html |archive-date=19 November 2007 }}</ref> Recognition was not forthcoming in the international sphere. He also had difficulties with various Irish-American leaders, such as [[John Devoy]] and Judge [[Daniel F. Cohalan]], who resented the dominant position he established, preferring to retain their control over Irish affairs in the United States.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}
While American recognition for the Republic had been his priority, in February 1921, De Valera redirected [[Patrick McCartan]] from Washington to Moscow. McCartan was told by [[Maxim Litvinov]], that the opportunity of recognition and assistance had passed. The Soviet priority was a trade agreement with Britain (signed in March). In June the British government (with a view to both domestic and American opinion) published the proposed treaty between the [[Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic)|Dáil]] government and the Soviets, and related correspondence.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Arthur|first=Michell|title=Revolutionary Government in Ireland: Dáil Éireann 1919–1922|publisher=Gill & Macmillan|year=1995|isbn=9780717120154|location=Dublin|pages=191–192}}</ref>

Meanwhile, in Ireland, the conflict between the [[British government|British authorities]] and the Dáil (which the British declared illegal in September 1919), escalated into the [[Irish War of Independence]]. De Valera left day-to-day government, during his eighteen-month absence in the United States, to [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], his 29-year-old [[Minister for Finance (Ireland)|Minister for Finance]]. De Valera and Collins would later become opponents during the Irish Civil War.<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat ''de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' pp. 120–122, {{ISBN|0-09-995860-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-09-995860-4}}.</ref>

===President of the Republic===
In January 1921, in his first appearance in the [[Dáil]], after his return to a country gripped by the War of Independence, 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 [[terrorism|terrorist]] group,<ref>[[D. G. Boyce]], ''Englishmen and Irish Troubles: British Public Opinion and the Making of Irish Policy, 1918–1922'' (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1972), pp. 92–93.</ref> and to take on the British forces with conventional military methods. This they strongly opposed, and de Valera relented, issuing a statement expressing support for the IRA, and claiming it was fully under the control of the Dáil. He then, along with Cathal Brugha and [[Austin Stack]], brought pressure to bear on Michael Collins to undertake a journey to the United States himself, on the pretext that only he could take up where de Valera had left off. Collins successfully resisted this move and stayed in Ireland. In the [[1921 Irish elections|May 1921 elections]], all candidates in [[Southern Ireland (1921–1922)|Southern Ireland]] were returned unopposed, Nationalists and Sinn Féin secured 12 seats in [[Northern Ireland]] including leaders such as de Valera, Michael Collins, [[Eoin MacNeill]] and [[Arthur Griffith]].<ref>Macardle, p. 453</ref>
 
Following the [[Truce of July 1921]] that ended the war, de Valera went to see Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] in London on 14 July. No agreement was reached, and by then the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland]] had already met. It became clear that neither a republic nor independence for all 32 counties, was going to be offered; Lloyd George told de Valera he could "put a soldier in Ireland for every man, woman and child in it" if the IRA did not immediately agree to stop fighting.<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat ''De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' p. 234.</ref> In August 1921, de Valera secured Dáil Éireann's approval to change the 1919 [[Dáil Constitution]] to upgrade his office from prime minister or chairman of the cabinet to a full President of the Republic.<ref>Mcardle, p. 502</ref> 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 [[Anglo-Irish Treaty|Treaty Negotiations]] (October–December 1921) at which British and Irish government leaders agreed to the effective independence of twenty-six of Ireland's [[Counties of Ireland|thirty-two counties]] as the [[Irish Free State]], with Northern Ireland choosing to remain under British sovereignty. It is generally agreed by historians that whatever his motives, it was a mistake for de Valera not to have travelled to London.<ref name="JordanIrishCatholic" />{{rp|91}}

Having effected these changes, the [[Irish Boundary Commission]] met in 1922-25 to redraw the Irish border. [[Irish nationalism|Nationalists]] expected its report to recommend that largely nationalist areas of Northern Ireland (South Armagh, South Down, Derry City and the Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh) 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 many complaints about [[Partition of Ireland|partition]] in the [[Treaty Debates]].

===Anglo-Irish Treaty===
The Republic's delegates to the Treaty Negotiations were accredited by de Valera and his cabinet as [[plenipotentiary|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.<ref>P. S. O'Hegarty, ''A History of Ireland Under the Union: 1801 to 1922'' (New York: Kraus Reprint Co., 1969), 751.</ref> The Treaty proved controversial in Ireland insofar as it replaced the Republic by a [[dominion]] of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] with the King represented by a [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State]]. The Irish delegates Arthur Griffith, [[Robert Barton]] and Michael Collins supported by [[Erskine Childers (author)|Erskine Childers]] as Secretary-General set up their delegation headquarters at 22 [[Hans Place]] in [[Knightsbridge]]. It was there, at 11.15&nbsp;am on 5 December 1921, that the decision was made to recommend the Treaty to [[Dáil Éireann]]. The Treaty was finally signed by the delegates after further negotiations which closed at 02:15 on 6 December 1921.<ref>Mcardle, p. 590</ref>

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 ''him'', their president, before signing. His ideal drafts, presented to a secret session of the Dáil during the Treaty Debates and publicised in January 1922, were ingenious compromises{{original research inline|date=March 2022}} 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 and the payment of war pensions was to be paid.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.P.A.170001.html |title=De Valera's Treaty proposals |work=Houses of the Oireachtas |access-date=6 December 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218222359/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.P.A.170001.html |archive-date=18 February 2012 }}</ref>

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'. On a speaking tour of the more republican province of [[Munster]], starting on 17 March 1922, de Valera made controversial speeches at [[Carrick on Suir]], [[Lismore, County Waterford|Lismore]], [[Dungarvan]] and [[Waterford]], saying that: "''If the Treaty were accepted,'' [by the electorate] ''the fight for freedom would still go on, and the Irish people, instead of fighting foreign soldiers, will have to fight the Irish soldiers of an Irish government set up by Irishmen.''" At [[Thurles]], several days later, he repeated this imagery and added that the IRA: "''..would have to wade through the blood of the soldiers of the Irish Government, and perhaps through that of some members of the Irish Government to get their freedom.''" In a letter to the [[Irish Independent]] on 23 March de Valera accepted the accuracy of their report of his comment about "wading" through blood, but deplored that the newspaper had published it.<ref>J.J. O'Kelly ([[Sceilg]]) ''A Trinity of Martyrs'', Irish Book Bureau, Dublin; pp. 66–68. "Sceilg" was a supporter of de Valera in 1922.</ref>

De Valera objected to the oath of allegiance to the King that the treaty required Irish parliamentarians to take.<ref>Mcardle, pgs. 578-579</ref> He also 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 (Ireland)|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, under the title "Document No. 2"). 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 [[1922 Irish general election]] together and form a coalition government afterwards. Collins later called off the pact on the eve of the election. De Valera's opponents won the election and civil war broke out shortly afterwards in late June 1922.<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat ''de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' p. 299, {{ISBN|0-09-995860-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-09-995860-4}}.</ref>

===Civil War===
{{Main|Irish 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 (June 1922 to 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 [[Battle of Dublin|takeover of the Four Courts]] 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 [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|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.<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat ''de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' p. 338, {{ISBN|0-09-995860-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-09-995860-4}}.</ref>

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 revolutionary military leadership, headed by [[Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army|IRA Chief of Staff]] [[Liam Lynch (general)|Liam Lynch]]. De Valera and the anti-treaty [[Teachta Dála|TDs]] formed a "[[Irish republican legitimatism|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 and what shall be their political relations with other countries" .<ref>Mcardle, p. 808</ref> However, it had no real authority and was a pale shadow of the [[Government of the 1st Dáil|Dáil government of 1919–21]].{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

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.<ref name=JordanIrishCatholic/>{{rp|131}} The leader of the Free State, [[W. T. Cosgrave]], insisted that there could be no acceptance of a surrender without disarming.<ref>Jordan, Anthony J. ''W. T. Cosgrave: Founder Of Modern Ireland''. Westport Books, 2006, p. 89.</ref>

On 30 April 1923, the IRA's new chief of staff, [[Frank Aiken]] (Lynch had been killed), called a ceasefire. This was followed on 24 May by an order for volunteers to "dump arms". De Valera, who had wanted an end to the internecine fighting for some time, backed the ceasefire order with a message 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 and prejudicial to the future of our cause. Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the republic. Other means must be sought to safeguard the nation's right."<ref>{{cite book | last = Bowyer Bell | first = J. | author-link = J. Bowyer Bell | title = The Secret Army: The IRA | publisher = Transaction Publishers | year = 1997 | page = [https://archive.org/details/secretarmyira00bell/page/38 38] | isbn = 1-56000-901-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/secretarmyira00bell/page/38 }}</ref>

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 remained in hiding for several months after the ceasefire was declared; however, he emerged in August to stand for election in [[County Clare]]. Referring to the Clare electorate he said: "If the people of Clare elect me as their candidate again, I will be with them and nothing but a bullet will stop me".<ref>Mcardle, p. 864</ref> Making a campaign appearance in [[Ennis]] on 15 August, de Valera was arrested on the platform and interned at Kilmainham jail. He was moved to [[Arbour Hill]] barracks briefly prior to his release on 16 July 1924.<ref>[https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/building-a-state-in-the-shadow-of-civil-war-part-1-1.234896 'Building a state in the shadow of civil war (Part 1)' ''Irish Times'']</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/07/17/archives/de-valera-and-stack-are-set-at-liberty-more-releases-expected.html |title='De Valera and Stack Are Set at Liberty; More Releases Expected Within 24 Hours', ''The New York Times'', 17 July 1924 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=17 July 1924 |access-date=19 November 2021 |archive-date=19 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119094731/https://www.nytimes.com/1924/07/17/archives/de-valera-and-stack-are-set-at-liberty-more-releases-expected.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Founding of Fianna Fáil==
[[File:Members of Fianna Fáil, 1927 (cropped).jpg|thumb|De Valera surrounded by founding members of Fianna Fáil in 1927, including [[Constance Markiewicz]], [[P. J. Ruttledge]], [[Frank Aiken]], [[Seán Lemass]] and many others.]]
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 later arrested in Derry. When at trial in Belfast on 1 November 1924 he refused to recognize the court saying that it was: "a creature of a foreign power and therefore had not the sanction of the Irish people".<ref>Mcardle, p.878</ref> He was held in [[solitary confinement]] for a month in [[Crumlin Road Gaol]], [[Belfast]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=McGarvey |first=Paul |date=2016-03-31 |title=Crumlin Road Gaol: Evolution from symbol of conflict to concerts |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-35916907 |url-status=live |access-date=2023-07-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824193413/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-35916907 |archive-date=August 24, 2022}}</ref>

During this time, de Valera came to believe that abstentionism was not a workable tactic in the long term. He now believed that a better course would be to try to gain power and turn the Free State from a constitutional monarchy into a republic. He tried to convince Sinn Féin to accept this new line. However, a vote to accept the Free State Constitution (contingent on the abolition of the [[Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)|Oath of Allegiance]]) narrowly failed. Soon afterwards, de Valera resigned from Sinn Féin and seriously considered leaving politics.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

However, one of his colleagues, [[Seán Lemass]], convinced de Valera to found a new republican party.<ref name=examnotes>[http://test.scoilnet.ie/Res/maryodubhain100899224214_2.html Exam notes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003030713/http://test.scoilnet.ie/Res/maryodubhain100899224214_2.html |date=3 October 2017 }} about Seán Lemass</ref> In March 1926, with Lemass, [[Constance Markievicz]] and others, de Valera formed a new party, [[Fianna Fáil]] (''The Warriors of Destiny''), a party that was to dominate 20th-century Irish politics.<ref name="BBC - History - Eamon de Valera">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml|title=BBC – History – Eamon de Valera|access-date=4 September 2017|archive-date=23 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823055201/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> While Sinn Féin still held to an abstentionist line, Fianna Fáil was dedicated to republicanising the Free State from within if it gained power.

Having attracted most of Sinn Féin's branches due to Lemass' organisational skill,<ref name=examnotes/> the new party made swift electoral gains in the [[June 1927 Irish general election|general election on 9 June 1927]]. In the process, it took much of Sinn Féin's previous support, winning 44 seats to Sinn Féin's five. It refused to take the Oath of Allegiance (portrayed 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'').<ref name=DEDebate1921>{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192112190002.html |title=Dáil Éireann – Volume 3–19 December 1921 - Debate on Treaty |access-date=4 March 2011 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721130127/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192112190002.html |archive-date=21 July 2011 }}</ref>

The oath was largely the work of 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". De Valera began a legal case to challenge the requirement that members of his party take the Oath, but the assassination of the [[Vice-President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|Vice-President of the Executive Council]] (deputy prime minister) [[Kevin O'Higgins]] on 10 July 1927 led the [[Executive Council of the Irish Free State|Executive Council]] under W. T. Cosgrave to introduce a Bill on 20 July<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1927-07-20/23/ |title=Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 1927—First Stage |access-date=9 December 2018 |archive-date=9 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209212917/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1927-07-20/23/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 on 12 August 1927, though de Valera himself described the Oath as "an empty political formula".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro236.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820044651/http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro236.shtml |url-status = dead|archive-date=20 August 2010 |title=BBC's Short History of Ireland |publisher=BBC |date=1 January 1970 |access-date=21 August 2013 }}</ref>

De Valera never organised Fianna Fáil in Northern Ireland and it was not until 7 December 2007 that Fianna Fáil was registered there by the [[UK Electoral Commission]].<ref name="rte-ukelcomm">{{cite news|url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1207/fiannafail.html|title=FF officially recognised in Northern Ireland|publisher=[[RTÉ News]]|date=7 December 2007|access-date=8 December 2007|archive-date=8 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208135811/http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1207/fiannafail.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==President of the Executive Council==
[[File:President De Valera and his Cabinet (Poster).jpg|thumb|right|1932 Fianna Fáil poster displaying De Valera's new cabinet, featuring prominent figures such as [[Seán Lemass|Lemass]], [[Frank Aiken|Aiken]] and [[Gerald Boland|Boland]]]] 
[[File:Eamon de Valera-TIME-1932.jpg|thumb|right|upright|De Valera on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine in 1932]]
In the [[1932 Irish general election|1932 general election]] Fianna Fáil secured 72 seats and became the largest party in the Dáil, although without a majority. Some Fianna Fáil members arrived at the first sitting of the new Dáil carrying arms, amid fears that [[Cumann na nGaedheal]] would not voluntarily surrender power. However, the transition was peaceful.<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Halpin|first=Eunan|title=Defending Ireland: the Irish state and its enemies since 1922|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|page=80|isbn=978-0-19-924269-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzG-LKq5a10C&q=%22Rumours+of+a+coup+prompted+some+Fianna+Fail+%22&pg=PA80|access-date=3 August 2011|archive-date=12 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912121211/https://books.google.com/books?id=QzG-LKq5a10C&q=%22Rumours+of+a+coup+prompted+some+Fianna+Fail+%22&pg=PA80|url-status=live}}</ref> De Valera was elected [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President of the Executive Council]] ''(Prime Minister)'' by the Dáil by a vote of 81–68, with the support of the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] and [[Independent politicians]], and took office on 9 March.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Foz2CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT219 |title=Éamon de Valera |last=Fanning |first=Ronan |date=25 April 2016 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674970557 |pages=219 |access-date=8 March 2019 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727151113/https://books.google.com/books?id=Foz2CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT219 |url-status=live }}</ref>

He at once initiated steps to fulfil his election promises to abolish the oath and withhold land annuities owed to the UK for loans provided under the [[Irish Land Acts]] and agreed as part of the 1921 Treaty. This launched the [[Anglo-Irish Trade War]] when the UK in retaliation imposed economic sanctions against Irish exports. De Valera responded in kind with levies on British imports. The ensuing "Economic War" lasted until 1938.<ref>Barry, Frank, and Mary E. Daly. "Irish Perceptions of the Great Depression" (No. iiisdp349. IIIS, 2011.) [https://www.tcd.ie/iiis/documents/discussion/pdfs/iiisdp349.pdf Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811154311/https://www.tcd.ie/iiis/documents/discussion/pdfs/iiisdp349.pdf |date=11 August 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,744016,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111092210/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,744016,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 November 2007 |title=Time (Magazine) – IRISH FREE STATE: Economic Civil War. Monday, 25 Jul. 1932 |magazine=Time |date=25 July 1932 |access-date=21 August 2013}}</ref>

After De Valera had urged King George V to dismiss McNeill as governor-general, the King suggested an alternative course of action: that McNeill, instead, carry on a while longer as viceroy and only then resign, which he did on 1 November 1932. Subsequently, a 1916 veteran, [[Domhnall Ua Buachalla]], was appointed governor-general. To strengthen his position against the opposition in the Dáil and Seanad, de Valera directed the Governor-General to call a [[1933 Irish general election|snap election in January 1933]] and de Valera's party won 77 seats, giving Fianna Fáil an overall majority. Under de Valera's leadership, Fianna Fáil won further general elections in [[1937 Irish general election|1937]], [[1938 Irish general election|1938]], [[1943 Irish general election|1943]], and [[1944 Irish general election|1944]].<ref>{{cite report |author= |author-link= |date=3 June 2007 |title=Dáil Elections since 1918 |url=https://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/gdala.htm |publisher=ARK |page= |docket= |access-date=19 December 2024 |quote=}}</ref>

De Valera took charge of Ireland's foreign policy as well by also acting as [[Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade|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 the league in [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]], 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 the nineteenth president of the Assembly of the League,<ref>[http://www.lejournalinternational.fr/Ireland-Eamon-de-Valera-the-eternal-revolutionary_a1308.html Eamon de Valera, the eternal revolutionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023062132/http://www.lejournalinternational.fr/Ireland-Eamon-de-Valera-the-eternal-revolutionary_a1308.html |date=23 October 2013 }}, Fabien Aufrechter, Le Journal International, 22 October 2013.</ref> a tribute to the international recognition he had won by his independent stance on world questions.<ref>''Eamon de Valera'', The Earl of Longford & [[Thomas P. O'Neill (historian)|Thomas P. O'Neill]] (1970), pp. 335–339.</ref>

De Valera's government followed the policy of unilaterally dismantling the treaty of 1921. In this way, he would be pursuing republican policies and lessening the popularity of republican violence and the IRA. De Valera encouraged IRA members to join the [[Irish Defence Forces]] and the [[Gardaí]]. He also refused to dismiss from office those Cumann na nGaedheal, 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. 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's brother. This organisation was an obstacle to de Valera's power as it supported Cumann na nGaedheal and provided stewards for their meetings. Cumann na nGaedheal meetings were frequently disrupted by Fianna Fáil supporters following the publication of the article: ''No Free Speech for Traitors'' by [[Peadar O'Donnell]], an IRA member.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

The ACA changed its name to the ''National Guard'' under O'Duffy and adopted the uniform of black berets and blue shirts, using the straight-armed salute, and were nicknamed the [[Blueshirts]]. They were outwardly fascist and planned a march in August 1933 through Dublin to commemorate Michael Collins, Kevin O'Higgins, and Arthur Griffith. This march struck parallels with [[March on Rome|Mussolini's march on Rome]] (1922), in which he had created the image of having toppled the democratic government in Rome. De Valera revived a military tribunal, which had been set up by the previous administration, to deal with the matter. O'Duffy backed down when the National Guard was declared an illegal organisation and the march was banned. Within a few weeks, O'Duffy's followers merged with Cumann na nGaedhael and the Centre Party to form ''United Ireland'', or Fine Gael, and O'Duffy became its leader. Smaller local marches were scheduled for the following weeks, under different names. Internal dissension set in when the party's TDs distanced themselves from O'Duffy's extreme views, and his movement fell asunder.<ref>''Eamon de Valera'', The Earl of Longford & Thomas P. O'Neill (1970), p. 301.</ref>

==Taoiseach (1937–1948)==
[[File:Bust of De Valera in Fitzgerald's Park, Cork.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Bust of De Valera in [[Fitzgerald's Park]], Cork]]
=== Constitution of Ireland ===
During the 1930s, de Valera systematically stripped the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State|Irish Free State constitution]] – a constitution originally drafted by a committee under the nominal chairmanship of his rival, Collins – of features tying Ireland to the United Kingdom, limiting its independence and the republican character of its state. De Valera was able to carry out this program of constitutional change by taking advantage of three earlier modifications of constitutional arrangements. First, though the 1922 constitution originally required a public [[plebiscite]] for any [[constitutional amendment|amendment]] enacted more than eight years after its passage, the Free State government under W. T. Cosgrave had amended that period to sixteen years. This meant that, until 1938, the Free State constitution could be amended by the simple passage of a ''Constitutional Amendment Act'' through the [[Oireachtas]]. Secondly, while the Governor-General of the Irish Free State could reserve or deny [[Royal Assent]] to any legislation, from 1927, the power to advise the Governor-General to do so 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, though in its original theory, the constitution ''had'' to be in keeping with the provisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty as the fundamental law of the state, that requirement had been abrogated a short time before de Valera gained power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Delany |first=V. T. H. |date=1957 |title=The Constitution of Ireland: Its Origins and Development |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/824397 |journal=The University of Toronto Law Journal |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.2307/824397 |jstor=824397 |issn=0042-0220|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The Oath of Allegiance was abolished, as were appeals to the [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]]. The opposition-controlled [[Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State)|Senate]], when it protested and slowed down these measures, was also abolished. In 1931, the [[British Parliament]] passed the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]], which all but eliminated the UK Parliament's authority to legislate for the self-governing Dominions of the then British Commonwealth, including the Irish Free State, and gave them legislative equality with the United Kingdom. Though a few 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.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

Shortly after the Statute passed, Cosgrave sought and received the right to have an Irish minister advise the king on matters related to the Free State to the exclusion of British ministers. This allowed the President of the Executive Council to directly advise the King in his capacity as His Majesty's Irish Prime Minister. in this capacity, De Valera wrote in July 1936 to King [[Edward VIII]] 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'' ({{langx|ga|Uachtarán Shaorstát Éireann}}), which would replace the governor-general.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.difp.ie/docs/Volume4/1936/1709.htm|title=Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Michael McDunphy (Dublin) enclosing a memorandum on the draft Irish constitution (Secret)|access-date=18 April 2011|archive-date=4 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004042622/http://www.difp.ie/docs/Volume4/1936/1709.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> De Valera used the sudden [[Edward VIII abdication crisis|abdication of Edward VIII]] as King to pass two bills: [[Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936|one]] amended the constitution to remove all mention of the monarch and governor-general, while [[Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936|the second]] brought the monarch back, this time through statute law, for use in representing the Irish Free State at a diplomatic level. With the implementation of the [[Constitution of Ireland]] ({{langx|ga|Bunreacht na hÉireann}}), the title ultimately given to the president was ''President of Ireland'' ({{langx|ga|Uachtarán na hÉireann}}).

The constitution contained reforms and symbols intended to assert Irish sovereignty. These included:
* a new name for the state, ''"[[Éire]]"'' (in Irish) and ''"Ireland"'' (in English);
* a claim that the national territory was the entire island of Ireland, thereby challenging Britain's [[Partition of Ireland|partition settlement]] of 1921;
* the removal of references to the [[Monarchy of Ireland|King of Ireland]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.generalmichaelcollins.com/life-times/the-struggle/saorstat-eireann/|title=The Irish Free State (1922–1937): Saorstát Éireann|publisher=Collins 22 Society|access-date=24 May 2017|archive-date=23 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223153153/http://www.generalmichaelcollins.com/life-times/the-struggle/saorstat-eireann/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn22MvnyW2QC|title=The Irish Civil War 1922–23|last=Cottrell|first=Peter|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2008|isbn=978-1-84603-270-7|location=Oxford|page=85}}</ref> and the replacement of the monarch's representative, the governor-general, with a popularly elected [[President of Ireland]], who takes "precedence over all other persons in the State and who shall exercise and perform the powers and functions conferred on the President by this Constitution and by law";<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4z5Qj-7HZ68C|title=Diplomacy With a Difference: The Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880–2006|last=Lloyd|first=Lorna|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|year=2007|isbn=978-90-04-15497-1|location=Lieden|page=72|access-date=21 September 2020|archive-date=26 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226074631/https://books.google.com/books?id=4z5Qj-7HZ68C|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Constitution of Ireland  |wslink=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Ireland_(consolidated_text)#Article_12 |last= |first= |authorlink= |date=1937 |at=12.1}}</ref>
* recognition of the "special position" of the Catholic Church;
* a recognition of the Catholic concept of marriage which excluded civil divorce, even though civil marriage was retained;
* the declaration that the Irish language was the "national language" and the first official language of the nation although English was also included as "a" second official language;
* the use of Irish language terms to stress Irish cultural and historical identity (e.g., Uachtarán, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, etc.)

Criticisms of some of the above constitutional reforms include that:
* the anti-partition articles needlessly antagonised Unionists in Northern Ireland, while simultaneously attracting criticism from hardline republicans by recognising the {{lang|la|de facto}} situation.
* similarly, the recognition of the "special position" of the Catholic Church was inconsistent with the identity and aspirations of northern Protestants (leading to its [[Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland|repeal in the 1970s]]), while simultaneously falling short of the demands of hardline Catholics for Catholicism to be explicitly made the state religion.
* the affirmation of Irish as the national and primary official language neither reflected contemporary realities nor led to the language's revival
* though the King was removed from the text of the constitution, he retained a leading role in the state's foreign affairs, and the legal position of the President of Ireland was accordingly [[Irish head of state from 1922 to 1949|uncertain]]; there was also concern that the presidency would evolve into a dictatorial position
* elements of Catholic social teaching incorporated into the text, such as the articles on the role of women, the family and divorce, were inconsistent both with the practice of the Protestant minority and with contemporary liberal opinion

As [[Paul Bew]] concludes, in the constitution of 1937 de Valera was "trying to placate left-wing Republicans with national phrases and pious people with expressly Catholic bits [and] patriarchal Catholicism".{{sfn|Bew|2007|p=455}}

The Constitution was [[Adoption of the Constitution of Ireland|approved in a plebiscite]] on 1 July 1937 and came into force on 29 December 1937. With Fianna Fáil having won the [[1937 Irish general election|election]]  held the same day as the plebiscite that ratified the constitution, de Valera continued as President of the Executive Council until 29 December 1937, when the new constitution was enacted. On that date, de Valera's post automatically became that of [[Taoiseach]], which was a considerably more powerful office. Notably, he could advise the [[President of Ireland|president]] to dismiss ministers individually – advice that the president was bound to follow by convention. The old executive council had to be dissolved and reformed {{lang|fr|en bloc}} if its president wanted to remove a minister. Additionally, he could request a parliamentary dissolution on his own authority. Previously, the right to seek a dissolution was vested with the council as a whole.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

In social policy, de Valera's first period as taoiseach saw the introduction (in 1947) of means-tested allowances for people suffering from infectious diseases.<ref name="Growth to Limits">{{cite book |editor-last=Flora |editor-first=Peter |title=Growth to Limits: Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=1986 |location=Berlin |page=248 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GaWtd5zJfB8C&pg=PA248 |isbn=9783110111316 |access-date=6 June 2015 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904041458/https://books.google.com/books?id=GaWtd5zJfB8C&pg=PA248 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement===
With the new constitution in place, de Valera determined that the changed circumstances made swift resolution to Ireland's ongoing trade war with the UK more desirable for both sides—as did the growing probability of the outbreak of war across Europe. In April 1938, de Valera and British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] signed the [[Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement]], lifting all duties imposed during the previous five years and ending British use of the Treaty Ports it had retained in accordance with the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The return of the ports was of particular significance since it ensured [[Irish neutrality]] during the coming Second World War.<ref>{{Citation |last=Daly |first=Mary E. |title=The 1938 Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement: A New Equilibrium |date=1992 |work=Industrial Development and Irish National Identity, 1922-1939 |pages=155–170 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv64h6t9.13 |access-date=2025-02-12 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv64h6t9.13 |jstor=j.ctv64h6t9.13 |isbn=978-0-8156-2719-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===The Emergency (World War II)===
{{Main|The Emergency (Ireland)|Irish neutrality during World War II}}
By September 1939, a general European war was imminent. On 2 September, de Valera advised Dáil Éireann that neutrality was the best policy for the country. This policy had overwhelming political and popular support, though some advocated Irish participation in the war on the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] side, while others, believing that "[[England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity]]", were pro-German. Strong objections to conscription in the North were voiced by de Valera.<ref>{{cite magazine | title = IRELAND: Too Much Trouble | magazine = Time | date = 9 June 1941 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795330,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100624045220/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795330,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 24 June 2010 | access-date =6 September 2010}}</ref> In June 1940, to encourage the neutral Irish state to join with the Allies, Winston Churchill indicated to de Valera that the United Kingdom would push for Irish unity, but believing that Churchill could not deliver, de Valera declined the offer.<ref>"Anglo-Irish Relations, 1939–41: A Study in Multilateral Diplomacy and Military Restraint" in ''Twentieth Century British History'' (Oxford Journals, 2005), {{ISSN|1477-4674}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?13603-Did-de-Valera-refuse-offer-of-Irish-unity-to-preserve-FF-dominance |title=did Dev Valera refuse an offer of Unity...? |access-date=9 December 2018 |archive-date=9 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209124653/http://www.politicalworld.org/showthread.php?13603-Did-de-Valera-refuse-offer-of-Irish-unity-to-preserve-FF-dominance |url-status=live }}</ref> The day after the attacks on [[Pearl Harbor]] Churchill wired de Valera: "Now is your chance. Now or never! A nation once again. I will meet you wherever you wish."<ref>{{cite book |last= Bromage|first= Mary|author-link= |date= 1964 |title= ''Churchill and Ireland''|url= |location= Notre Dame IN|publisher= University of Notre Dame Press|page= 162|isbn=}}</ref> The British did not inform the Government of Northern Ireland that they had made the offer to the Irish government, and De Valera's rejection was not publicised until 1970. 

The government secured wide powers for the duration of the Emergency, such as internment, censorship of the press and correspondence, and government control of the economy. The ''[[Emergency Powers Act 1939|Emergency Powers Act]]'' lapsed on 2 September 1946, though the State of Emergency declared under the constitution was not lifted until the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web|date=29 July 1945|title=Emergency Powers (Continuance and Amendment) Act, 1945|pages=§4(1)|publisher=[[Government of Ireland]]|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1945/en/act/pub/0026/print.html|access-date=2 November 2007|quote=The Principal Act shall, unless previously terminated under subsection (2) of this section, continue in force until the 2nd day of September, 1946, and shall then expire unless the Oireachtas otherwise determines.|archive-date=16 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216172829/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1945/en/act/pub/0026/print.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|date=1 September 1976 |title=National Emergency: Motion (Resumed) |journal=Dáil Debates |volume=292 |pages=119–256 |publisher=[[Government of Ireland]] |url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0292/D.0292.197609010003.html |access-date=2 November 2007 |quote=[[John M. Kelly (politician)|John M. Kelly]]: All the 1939 emergency legislation lapsed not later than 1946. |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607061336/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0292/D.0292.197609010003.html |archive-date=7 June 2011 }}</ref> This status remained throughout the war, despite pressure from Chamberlain and Churchill. However, de Valera did respond to a request from Northern Ireland for fire tenders to assist in fighting fires following the 1941 [[Belfast Blitz]]. His [[The Ireland That We Dreamed Of|1943 St Patrick's Day radio address]], now widely derided, showcased his traditionalist views, extolling an Ireland "satisfied with frugal comfort", populated by "sturdy children" and "happy maidens".

Controversially,<ref>{{cite book|last=Girvin|first=Brian|title=The Emergency|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|MacMillan]] |location=London|isbn=978-1-4050-0010-9|page=5|year=2006|quote="Officials of the Department of External Affairs tried to persuade him not to visit Hempel, although the secretary of the department, Joseph Walsh, who accompanied him, did support the action"}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2023/0910/1404292-eamon-de-valera-hitler-analysis/ | website = rte.ie | title = Why did de Valera offer condolences after Hitler died? | first = David | last = McCullagh |date = 10 September 2023 | accessdate = 22 May 2024 }}</ref> de Valera visited and offered condolences to the German ambassador in Dublin on the death of [[Adolf Hitler]] in 1945, in accordance with diplomatic protocol of neutral nations.<ref>''An Irish Statesman and Revolutionary'' by Elizabeth Keane ({{ISBN|978-1845111250}}), p. 106.</ref><ref name="ind20051231">{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/hyde-and-de-valera-offered-condolences-on-hitlers-death/25954338.html | title=Hyde (and de Valera) offered condolences on Hitler's death | work=Irish Independent | date=31 December 2005 | access-date=26 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/AAE/Article.pdf | title=Éamon de Valera and Hitler | author=Dermot Keogh | work=Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 3, No 1, p. 71 | year=1989 | access-date=22 May 2024 | archive-date=5 June 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605143112/http://nationalarchives.ie/topics/AAE/Article.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> This did some damage to Ireland's international reputation, particularly in the United States – and soon afterwards de Valera had a [[The Emergency (Ireland)#The Emergency after the end of World War II|bitter exchange of words]] with Churchill in two famous radio addresses after the end of the war in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|title=Irish Public Service Broadcasting – 1940s: De Valera and Broadcasting|work=History of RTÉ|publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann|url=http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1940s_a.html|access-date=30 October 2008|archive-date=27 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080927212104/http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1940s_a.html|url-status=live}}</ref> De Valera denounced reports of [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]] as "anti-national propaganda"; according to Bew, this was not out of disbelief but rather because the Holocaust undermined the main assumption underlying Irish neutrality: [[moral equivalence]] between the Allies and the Axis.{{sfn|Bew|2007|p=474}}

The de Valera government was reputedly harsh with Irish Army deserters who had enlisted to fight with the Allied armies against the Axis.<ref>{{cite journal | url = https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/devs-treatment-of-irish-army-deserters-vindictive-or-pragmatic/ | journal = History Ireland Magazine | title = Dev's treatment of Irish army deserters: vindictive or pragmatic? | year = 2011 | volume = 19 | issue = 9 | access-date = 11 July 2018 | archive-date = 24 September 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180924114553/https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/devs-treatment-of-irish-army-deserters-vindictive-or-pragmatic/ | url-status = live }}</ref> The legislation in question was the [[EPO 362|Emergency Powers (No. 362) order]] which was passed in August 1945. On 18 October 1945, Thomas F. O'Higgins moved to annul the order.<ref name=ded19451018>{{Cite journal | title = Emergency Powers (362) Order, 1945 —Motion to Annual. | journal = Dáil Éireann Debate | volume = 98 | issue = 4 | page = 27 | date = 18 October 1945 | url = http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/1945/10/18/00027.asp | access-date = 10 July 2018 | archive-date = 28 October 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141028132410/http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/1945/10/18/00027.asp | url-status = live }}</ref> He did not condone desertion, but felt that the order was specifically harsh on those deserters who had served in the Allied forces. General Richard Mulcahy also spoke against the Order, disagreeing with the way in which it applied to enlisted men and not to officers. It was revoked with effect from 1 August 1946,<ref>{{cite web|title=Emergency powers (no. 362) order 1945 (revocation) order 1946|author=Department of the Taoiseach|location=Dublin|publisher=Stationery Office|url=http://opac.oireachtas.ie/AWData/Library3/Library2/DL054864.pdf|date=29 March 1946|access-date=16 May 2017|archive-date=17 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917213649/http://opac.oireachtas.ie/AWData/Library3/Library2/DL054864.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> but was in effect continued by section 13 of the Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1946/en/act/pub/0007/sec0013.html|title=Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946, Section 13|work=[[Irish Statute Book]]|access-date=28 October 2014|archive-date=28 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028153338/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1946/en/act/pub/0007/sec0013.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Post-war period: Taoiseach/Opposition leader==
===Opposition leader (1948–1951)===
After de Valera had spent sixteen years in power without answering the crucial questions of partition and republican status the public demanded a change from the Fianna Fáil government. In [[1948 Irish general election|the 1948 election]], de Valera lost the outright majority he had enjoyed since 1933. It initially looked as if the [[National Labour Party (Ireland)|National Labour Party]] would give Fianna Fáil enough support to stay in office as a minority government, but National Labour insisted on a formal coalition agreement, something de Valera was unwilling to concede. However, while Fianna Fáil was six seats short of a majority, it was still by far the largest party in the Dáil, with 37 more TDs than the next largest party and rival, Fine Gael (the successor to Cumann na nGaedheal). Conventional wisdom held that de Valera would remain Taoiseach with the support of independent deputies.

This belief came to nought when (after the final votes were counted) the other parties realised that if they banded together, they would have only one seat fewer than Fianna Fáil, and would be able to form a government with the support of at least seven independents. The result was the [[First Inter-Party Government]], with [[John A. Costello]] of Fine Gael as its compromise candidate for Taoiseach. Costello was duly nominated, consigning de Valera to opposition for the first time in 16 years. The following year, Costello [[Republic of Ireland Act 1948|declared Ireland as a republic]], leaving partition as the most pressing political issue of the day.<ref name=Wilsford>{{cite book |title=Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe: A Biographical Dictionary |last=Wilsford |first=David |year=1995 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-0-313-28623-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicalleaders00wils/page/96 96] |url=https://archive.org/details/politicalleaders00wils/page/96 }}</ref>

De Valera, now [[Leader of the Opposition (Ireland)|Leader of the Opposition]], left the actual parliamentary practice of opposing the government to his deputy, Seán Lemass, and himself embarked on a world campaign to address the issue of partition. He visited the United States, Australia, New Zealand and [[India]], and in the latter country, was the last guest of the governor-general, [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Lord Mountbatten of Burma]], before he was succeeded by the first Indian-born Governor-General.<ref>Tim Pat Coogan, ''De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'', London: Arrow, 1993, p. 639.</ref> In [[Melbourne]], Australia, de Valera was feted by the powerful Catholic Archbishop [[Daniel Mannix]], at the centenary celebrations of the diocese of Melbourne. He attended mass meetings at [[Xavier College]], and addressed the assembled [[Melbourne Celtic Club]].<ref>D. F. Bourke, ''A History of the Catholic Church in Victoria'', Melbourne: Catholic Bishops of Victoria, 1988, p. 299; D. J. O'Hearn, ''Erin go bragh – Advance Australia Fair: a hundred years of growing'', Melbourne: Celtic Club, 1990, p. 54.</ref> In Brisbane, Australia, at the request of the influential and long-serving [[Archbishop Duhig]], de Valera laid the foundation stone for the new High School building at [[Marist Brothers College Rosalie]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Sacred Heart Rosalie|work=website|publisher=Jubilee Parish|url=https://www.jubileeparish.com/sacred-heart-rosalie.html|access-date=30 November 2020|archive-date=19 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419153008/https://www.jubileeparish.com/sacred-heart-rosalie.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In October 1950, just thirty years after his dramatic escape from Lincoln Gaol, he returned to [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]] and received the freedom of the gaol.<ref>Diarmuid Ferriter, ''Judging'' ''Dev'', pp. 190–191.</ref> The Anti-Partition of Ireland League of Great Britain marked the occasion with a dinner in his honour and the toast was 'Anglo-Irish Friendship'.<ref>{{cite news |last=Stanford |first=Jane |title=That Irishman: p.279, footnote 530 |work=Look Back |date=17 August 2013 |url=http://thatirishman.com/2012/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/SKMBT_C364e13081610510.pdf |access-date=4 September 2014 |archive-date=25 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725223335/http://thatirishman.com/2012/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/SKMBT_C364e13081610510.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> A key message in de Valera's campaign was that Ireland could not join the recently established [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] as long as Northern Ireland was in British hands; although Costello's government favoured alliance with NATO, de Valera's approach won more widespread support and prevented the state from signing the treaty.<ref name=Wilsford />

===Final years as taoiseach===
[[File:Mary Collins, Mayor John F. Collins, and Eamon deValera, President of Ireland (10158888433).jpg|thumb|right|De Valera (right) with [[Mayor of Boston]] [[John F. Collins]] and his wife Mary]]
Returning to Ireland during the [[Mother and Child Scheme]] crisis that racked the First Inter-Party Government, de Valera kept silent as Leader of the Opposition, preferring to stay aloof from the controversy. That stance helped return de Valera to power in the [[1951 Irish general election|1951 general election]], but without an overall majority. His and Fianna Fáil's popularity was short-lived, however; his government introduced severe, deflationary budgetary and economic policies in 1952, causing a political backlash that cost Fianna Fáil several seats in the Dáil in [[by-elections]] of 1953 and early 1954. Faced with a likely loss of confidence in the Dáil, de Valera instead called an [[1954 Irish general election|election in May 1954]], in which Fianna Fáil was defeated and a [[Second Inter-Party Government]] was formed with John A. Costello again as Taoiseach.<ref>{{cite book |title=Irish television: the political and social origins |last=Savage |first=Robert J. |year=1996 |publisher=Cork University Press |isbn=978-1-85918-102-7 |page=224}}</ref>

On 16 September 1953, de Valera met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the first and only time, at [[10 Downing Street]]. (The two men had seen each other at a party in 1949, but without speaking). He surprised the UK Prime Minister by claiming that if he had been in office in 1948 Ireland would not have left the Commonwealth.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour-online/833--winston-churchill-a-eamon-de-valera-a-thirty-year-relationship |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100703212616/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour-online/833--winston-churchill-a-eamon-de-valera-a-thirty-year-relationship |url-status = dead|archive-date=3 July 2010 |title=Winston Churchill & Eamon De Valera: A Thirty Year "Relationship" |publisher=Winstonchurchill.org |access-date=21 August 2013}}</ref>

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. In 1955, while in opposition, de Valera spoke against the formation of a [[European Parliament]] and [[European federalism]], noting that Ireland "''did not strive to get out of that British domination [...] to get into a worse [position]''".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/history-warns-us-about-the-risks-of-ceding-power-to-eu-26549913.html |title=Opinion: History warns us about the risks of ceding power to EU |website=Irish Independent |quote="''Eamon de Valera on [..] return from Strasbourg in 1955 where he had been attending a meeting that was part of the construction of the future Europe [...] said: 'We did not strive to get out of that British domination of our affairs by outside force, or we did not get out of that position to get into a worse one'.''" |date=11 July 2009 |first=Bruce |last=Arnold |access-date=1 August 2018 |archive-date=1 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801124740/https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/history-warns-us-about-the-risks-of-ceding-power-to-eu-26549913.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Like the first coalition government, the second lasted only three years. At the [[1957 Irish general election|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)]], Part II of the Offences Against the State Act was re-activated and he ordered the internment without trial of Republican suspects, an action which did much to end the IRA's campaign.<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat ''de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'' p. 669, {{ISBN|0-09-995860-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-09-995860-4}}.</ref>

De Valera's final term as Taoiseach also saw the passage of numerous reforms in health and welfare.<ref>[https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/5161/1/Adrian_Kelly_20140708102556.pdf Social Security in Independent Ireland, 1922-52 by Adrian Kelly, M.A., 1995, P.217-218]</ref> In 1952, unemployment insurance was extended to male agricultural employees, child allowances were extended to the second child, and a maternity allowance for insured women was introduced. A year later, eligibility for maternity and child services and public hospital services was extended to approximately 85% of the population.<ref name="Growth to Limits"/>

==President of Ireland==
[[File:Éamon de Valera, President of Ireland, in 1960s (43915959314).jpg|thumb|upright|De Valera in the 1960s as President of Ireland]]
While Fianna Fáil remained popular among the electorate, 75-year-old de Valera had begun to be seen by the electorate as too old and out of touch to remain as head of government.<ref name=uachtaraindevalera>{{cite video |people=Diarmaid Ferriter |year=2007 |title=Uachtaráin – Eamon de Valera |url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2771350061367001609# |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610084624/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2771350061367001609 |url-status = dead|archive-date=10 June 2011 |medium=Television production |language=Irish |publisher=TG4 |location=Dublin, Ireland |access-date=7 February 2011 }}</ref> At the urging of party officials, de Valera decided to retire from government and the Dáil and instead seek the presidency of Ireland. He won the [[1959 Irish presidential election|1959 presidential election]] on 17 June 1959 and resigned as Taoiseach, [[Leader of Fianna Fáil]] and a TD for Clare, six days later, handing over power to Seán Lemass.

De Valera was inaugurated as President of Ireland on 25 June 1959.<ref name="BBC - History - Eamon de Valera"/> By that stage he was "nearly blind", according to [[Down GAA]] captain [[Kevin Mussen]] who met him after the [[1960 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final]] and considered him "not a desperately warm sort of man".<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0ljvntt 'Kevin Mussen. The first man to bring Sam across the border']. BBC Sport, 17 June 2025. Retrieved 20 June 2025</ref> De Valera was re-elected President in [[1966 Irish presidential election|1966]] aged 84, which until 2013 was a world record for the oldest elected head of state.<ref>The new record was set by [[Giorgio Napolitano]], re-elected [[President of Italy]] in 2013 aged 87.</ref> At his retirement in 1973 at the age of 90, he was the oldest head of state in the world.<ref name=uachtaraindevalera /> When he stepped down as president, he ended 55 consecutive years as an elected official.

As President of Ireland, de Valera received many state visits, including the 1963 visit of the US president [[John F. Kennedy]]. Five months later de Valera attended the [[State funeral of John F. Kennedy|state funeral for Kennedy]] in Washington, D.C., and accompanied a group of 24 [[Defence Forces (Ireland)|Defence Forces]] cadets who performed a silent drill at his gravesite.<ref name=uachtaraindevalera /> In June 1964, he returned to Washington, D.C., as the second President of Ireland to address the [[United States Congress]].<ref>The six Irish leaders who have addressed [[List of joint sessions of the United States Congress|joint sessions of the US Congress]] are [[Seán T. O'Kelly]] (18 March 1959), Éamon de Valera (28 May 1964), [[Liam Cosgrave]] (17 March 1976), [[Garret FitzGerald]] (15 March 1984), [[John Bruton]] (11 September 1996), and [[Bertie Ahern]] (30 April 2008).</ref>

In 1966, the Dublin Jewish community arranged the planting and dedication of the [[Éamon de Valera Forest]] in Israel, near [[Nazareth]], in recognition of his support for Ireland's Jews.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_3_48/ai_64507455/pg_7/?tag=content;col1|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707230355/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_3_48/ai_64507455/pg_7/?tag=content;col1|url-status = dead|archive-date=7 July 2012|title=The Jews of Ireland|last=Tracy|first=Robert|year=1999|publisher=bNet.com|page=7|access-date=19 October 2009}}</ref>

In January 1969, de Valera became the first President of Ireland to [[List of addresses to the Oireachtas|address both houses of the Oireachtas]], to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Dáil Éireann.<ref>{{cite web
	| title = Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 21 Jan 1969
	| first = Éamon 
	| last = de Valera 
	| date = 1969-01-21
	| website = Houses of the Oireachtas
	| url = https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1969-01-21/16/
}}</ref>

In 1969, seventy-three countries sent [[Apollo 11 goodwill messages|goodwill messages]] to [[NASA]] for the historic first lunar landing. These messages still rest on the lunar surface. De Valera's message on behalf of Ireland stated, "May God grant that the skill and courage which have enabled man to alight upon the Moon will enable him, also, to secure peace and happiness upon the Earth and avoid the danger of self-destruction."<ref>{{cite web|title=Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages|work=Press release|publisher=[[NASA]]|date=13 July 1969|url=https://history.nasa.gov/ap11-35ann/goodwill/Apollo_11_material.pdf|access-date=28 December 2007|archive-date=3 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903191836/https://www.history.nasa.gov/ap11-35ann/goodwill/Apollo_11_material.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:De Valera grave in Glasnevin cemetery - geograph.org.uk - 337649.jpg|right|thumb|Éamon de Valera's grave in [[Glasnevin Cemetery]] in Dublin. His wife, Sinéad, and son, Brian (who was killed in a horse-riding accident in 1936) are buried there also.]]
Éamon de Valera died from pneumonia and heart failure in Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, Dublin, on 29 August 1975, aged 92.<ref>{{YouTube|-i2F6Xf4wUw|RTE 1975 – Eamon De Valera is dead}} RTÉ News (video). Retrieved 11 November 2011.</ref> 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. Over 200,000 people reportedly lined the three-mile funeral route from Dublin city centre to [[Glasnevin Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/0831/724698-funeral-of-eamon-de-valera/ |publisher=Raidió Teilifís Éireann |title=State Funeral of Éamon de Valera at Glasnevin Cemetery |access-date=16 May 2021 |archive-date=16 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516183830/https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/0831/724698-funeral-of-eamon-de-valera/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He is buried in Glasnevin alongside his wife and son Brian.

==Legacy==
{{Anchor|Overview}}
De Valera's political creed evolved from militant [[Irish republican|republicanism]] to social and cultural conservatism.<ref name="Ferriter, 2007"/>

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 (papacy)|Order of Christ]] (KSC).<ref>{{Cite web|title=President Eamon de Valera|url=https://www.papalorders.ie/index.php/members/award-for-service-to-papal-states/75-president-eamon-de-valera|access-date=30 December 2021|website=papalorders.ie}}</ref> He received honorary degrees from universities in Ireland and abroad. In 1968, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] (FRS),<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Synge | first1 = J. L. | author-link = J. L. Synge |doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1976.0022 | title = Eamon de Valera 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 22 | pages = 634–653| year = 1976 | doi-access = free }}</ref> a recognition of his lifelong interest in mathematics. He also served as a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (for [[Down (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)|Down]] from 1921 to 1929 and for [[South Down (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)|South Down]] from 1933 to 1937), although he held to the republican policy of [[abstentionism]] and did not take his seat in Stormont.

De Valera was criticised for becoming co-owner of one of Ireland's most influential group of newspapers, [[The Irish Press|Irish Press Newspapers]], funded by numerous small investors who received no dividend for decades.<ref>Sunday Times, 31 October 2004 p3; RTÉ broadcast on 2 November 2004.</ref> De Valera is alleged by critics to have helped keep Ireland under the influence of Catholic conservatism.<ref>Tom Garvin ''Preventing the future; why Ireland was so poor for so long.'' (Dublin 2004) passim; {{ISBN|0-7171-3771-6}}.</ref> De Valera rejected, however, 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]] for the Irish Free State to support [[Francisco Franco]] during the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>''Eamon de Valera'', The Earl of Longford & Thomas P. O'Neill (1970), p. 338.</ref>

<blockquote>De Valera's preoccupation with his part in history, and his need to explain and justify it, are reflected in innumerable ways. His faith in historians as trustworthy guardians of his reputation was not absolute. He made many attempts to influence their views and to adjust and refine the historical record whenever he felt this portrayed him, his allies or his cause inaccurately or unfavourably to his mind, these could often mean the same thing. He extended these endeavours to encompass the larger Irish public. An important function of his newspaper group, the Irish Press group, was to rectify what he saw as the errors and omissions of a decade in which he had been the subject of largely hostile commentary.<ref>{{cite web|title = Obsessive Historian: Eamon de Valera and the Policing of his Reputation|last=Murray|first=Patrick|publisher=Royal Irish Academy|url=http://www.ria.ie/publications/journals/ProcCI/2001/PC01/PDF/101C02.pdf|date=21 December 2001|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030430180512/http://www.ria.ie/publications/journals/ProcCI/2001/PC01/PDF/101C02.pdf|archive-date=30 April 2003|df=dmy-all}}</ref></blockquote>

In recent decades, his role in Irish history has no longer been unequivocally seen by historians as a positive one, and a biography by Tim Pat Coogan alleges<ref>Coogan, Tim Pat ''de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow'', {{ISBN|0-09-995860-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-09-995860-4}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2021}} that his failures outweigh his achievements, with de Valera's reputation declining while that of his great rival in the 1920s, Michael Collins, was rising. A more recent 2007 work on de Valera by historian [[Diarmaid Ferriter]] presents a more positive picture of de Valera's legacy.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/new-book-tries-to-reclaim-devs-legacy-1166836.html|title=New book tries to reclaim Dev's legacy|work=[[Irish Independent]]|date=15 October 2007|access-date=26 December 2007|archive-date=23 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071123212424/http://www.independent.ie/national-news/new-book-tries-to-reclaim-devs-legacy-1166836.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Bertie Ahern]], at a book launch for Diarmaid Ferriter's biography of de Valera,<ref name="Ferriter, 2007"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/index.asp?locID=558&docID=3552|title=Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, TD, at the Launch of ''Judging Dev, A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Éamon De Valera'' by Diarmaid Ferriter|publisher=Department of the Taoiseach|date=14 October 2007|access-date=26 December 2007|archive-date=2 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202201534/http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/index.asp?locID=558&docID=3552|url-status=live}}</ref> described de Valera's achievements in political leadership during the formative years of the state:
<blockquote>One of de Valera's finest hours was his regrouping of the Republican side after defeat in the civil war, and setting his followers on an exclusively peaceful and democratic path, along which he later had to confront both domestic Fascism and the IRA. He became a democratic statesman, not a dictator. He did not purge the civil service of those who had served his predecessors but made the best use of the talent available.</blockquote>

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 [[Third Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1958|constitutional referendum to ratify this]] was defeated by the people.

One aspect of de Valera's legacy is that since the foundation of the state, a de Valera has nearly always served in Dáil Éireann. Éamon de Valera served until 1959, and his son, [[Vivion de Valera]], was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1945 to 1981. [[Éamon Ó Cuív]], his grandson, served as a member of the Dáil from 1992 to 2024 (previously having served in the [[Seanad Éireann|Seanad]] from 1989 to 1992) with one stint as [[Leader of Fianna Fáil|deputy leader of Fianna Fáil]], while his granddaughter, [[Síle de Valera]], is also former TD, with both having served in ministries in the Irish Government.

===Catholic social policy===
[[File:Coat of Arms of Éamon de Valera (Supreme Order of Christ).svg|thumb|upright=0.56|right|Éamon de Valera's heraldry as knight of the [[Supreme Order of Christ]]]]
In 1931, de Valera said in the Dáil: "I believe that every citizen in this country is entitled to his share of public appointments, and that there should not be discrimination on the ground of religion, discrimination, mind you, in the sense that because a person was of a particular religion, religion should not be made an excuse for denying a person an appointment for which he or she was fully qualified. Then there comes the question, what are qualifications? If I thought that the principle that the librarian in a Catholic community should be Catholic was a new principle, introduced merely to deny a Protestant an appointment, I would vote against it, but I know from my youth that it is not so. ... if I had a vote on a local body, and if there were two qualified people who had to deal with a Catholic community, and if one was a Catholic and the other a Protestant, I would unhesitatingly vote for the Catholic. Let us be clear and let us know where we are."<ref>[https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1931-06-17/speech/405/ Dáil Éireann debate - Wednesday, 17 Jun 1931 - Vol. 39 No. 4]</ref><ref>{{cite news
| last         = Dwyer
| first        = Ryle
| date         = 2 February 2008
| title        = Political hypocrisy has long history, but Bertie is guilty of much worse
| url          = https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-20054200.html
| work         = Irish Examiner
| access-date  = 26 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mohr |first1=Thomas |date=8 November 2021 |title=Religious Minorities under the Constitution of the Irish Free State, 1922–1937  |url=https://academic.oup.com/ajlh/article/61/2/235/6423091 |journal=American Journal of Legal History |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages= 235–272|doi=10.1093/ajlh/njab002 |access-date=26 December 2021|doi-access=free }}</ref>  Ryle Dwyer, writing in 2008, said "If those were his honest views, one could also say without hesitation that the Long Fellow was a bigot. But, in fact, he was just playing the role of a political hypocrite. It was cynical, but it should be stressed that he behaved responsibly in this regard when he came to power."<ref>{{cite news|last=Dwyer|first=Ryle|date=2 February 2008|title=Political hypocrisy has long history, but Bertie is guilty of much worse|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-20054200.html|work=Irish Examiner|access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref>

De Valera led Fianna Fáil to adopt conservative social policies since he believed devoutly that the Catholic church and the family were central to Irish identity. He added clauses to the new Constitution of Ireland (1937) to "guard with special care the institution of marriage" and prohibit divorce. His constitution also recognised "the special position" of the Catholic Church and recognised other denominations including the [[Church of Ireland]] and Jewish congregations, while guaranteeing the religious freedom of all citizens; however, he resisted an attempt to make Roman Catholicism the [[state religion]] and his constitution forbids the establishment of a state religion. His policies were welcomed by a largely devout, conservative and rural electorate.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal|last1=Kissane|first1=Bill|year=2007|title=Eamon De Valera and the Survival of Democracy in Inter-war Ireland|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=42|issue=2|pages=213–226|doi=10.1177/0022009407075554|s2cid=159760801}}</ref> The unenforceable articles in the constitution which reinforced the traditional view that a woman's place was in the home further illustrate the direction in which Ireland was moving. An act of 1935 prohibited the importation or sale of contraceptives. The most rigorous censorship laws in Western Europe complete the picture.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ryan|first1=Louise|year=1998|title=Constructing 'Irishwoman': Modern Girls and Comely Maidens|journal=Irish Studies Review|volume=6|issue=3|pages=263–272|doi=10.1080/09670889808455611}}</ref>

The specific recognition of Roman Catholicism was deleted by the [[Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland]] (1973) and the prohibition of divorce was removed by the [[Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland]] (1996). Although the [[Irish Supreme Court]] declared in 1973 that [[Contraception in the Republic of Ireland|the 1935 contraception legislation]] was not repugnant to the Constitution and therefore remained valid, subsequent laws have liberalised the use of contraception (see [[Contraception in the Republic of Ireland]]).<ref>BAILII: [http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/1973/2.html McGee v. A.G. & Anor {{bracket|1973}} IESC 2; {{bracket|1974}} IR 284] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518035820/http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/1973/2.html |date=18 May 2015 }} McGee v the Attorney General</ref>

==In popular culture==
De Valera's portrait illustrated the front cover of the 25 March 1940 issue of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19400325,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090807064309/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19400325,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 August 2009 |title=TIME Magazine Cover: Eamon de Valera – Mar. 25, 1940 |magazine=Time |date=25 March 1940 |access-date=20 September 2011 }}</ref> accompanying the article ''Eire: Prime Minister of Freedom''.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763722,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101014074539/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763722,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 October 2010 |title=EIRE: Prime Minister of Freedom |magazine=Time |date=25 March 1940 |access-date=20 September 2011 }}</ref>

He has been portrayed by:
* [[Andre Van Gyseghem]] in a 1970 episode of ''[[ITV Playhouse]]'' entitled "Would You Look at Them Smashing all Those Lovely Windows?"
* Sonn Connaughton in a 1981 episode of ''[[The Life and Times of David Lloyd George]]'' entitled "Win or Lose".
* [[Barry McGovern]] in the 1991 TV movie ''[[The Treaty (film)|The Treaty]]'', about the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]].
* Arthur Riordan in the 1990s [[Network 2]] television show ''[[Nighthawks (TV show)|Nighthawks]]''.<ref>[http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2010/0712/1224274512090.html "Flann and me and his greatest story never told"], ''The Irish Times'', 12 July 2010 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112161438/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2010/0712/1224274512090.html |date=12 November 2011 }}</ref>
* [[Alan Rickman]] in the 1996 film ''[[Michael Collins (film)|Michael Collins]]'', which depicts the events surrounding Ireland's struggle for independence from Britain.
* [[Andrew Connolly]] in the 2001 TV mini-series ''[[Rebel Heart (film)|Rebel Heart]]'' concerning the 1916 Rising.
* Stephen Mullan in the 2016 [[RTÉ One]] mini-series ''[[Rebellion (miniseries)|Rebellion]]''.

==Governments==
The following governments were led by de Valera:
* [[Government of the 1st Dáil#2nd ministry|2nd ministry of the Irish Republic]]
* [[Government of the 2nd Dáil#3rd ministry|3rd ministry of the Irish Republic]]
* [[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]]

==See also==
* [[List of members of the Oireachtas imprisoned during the Irish revolutionary period]]
* [[List of people on the postage stamps of Ireland]]
* [[Éamon de Valera Forest]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book|last=Bew|first=Paul|title=Ireland: the politics of enmity, 1789–2006|place=Oxford|date= 2007}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Bowman|first=John|title=De Valera and the Ulster Question 1917–73|place=Oxford|date=1982}}
* {{cite book|last=Carroll|first=J. T.|title=Ireland in the War Years 1939–1945|url=https://archive.org/details/irelandinwaryear00jose|url-access=registration|date=1975|publisher=David and Charles |isbn=9780844805658}}
* {{Cite EB1922 |wstitle= De Valera, Edward |volume = 30 |last= |first= |pages = |short= }}
* {{cite book|last=Coogan|first=Tim Pat|title=De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow|url=https://archive.org/details/devaleralongfell00coog|url-access=registration|place=London|date=1993|publisher=Hutchinson|isbn=9780091750305}} published as ''Eamon de Valera: The Man Who Was Ireland'' (New York, 1993)
* {{cite book|last=Dunphy|first=Richard|title=The Making of Fianna Fáil Power in Ireland, 1923–1948|date=1995|page=346 | work = Irish Historical Studies | doi = 10.1017/S0021121400013092 |s2cid=164091939 }}
* {{cite book|last=Dwyer|first=T. Ryle|title=Big Fellow, Long Fellow: A Joint Biography of Collins and De Valera|date=2006|publisher=Gill Books |isbn=0717140849}} excerpt and text search
* {{cite book|last=Dwyer|first=T. Ryle|title=De Valera's Finest Hour 1932–59|date=1982}}
* Fanning, Ronan. ''Éamon de Valera: A Will to Power'' (2016)
* {{cite book|first1=The Earl of|last1= Longford|first2= Thomas P.|last2=O'Neill|title=Eamon de Valera|publisher=Gill and MacMillan, Dublin|date=1970|isbn=0-7171-0485-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Jordan|first=Anthony J.|title=Eamon de Valera 1882–1975. Irish: Catholic; Visionary|date=2010|publisher=Westport Books |isbn=978-0-9524447-9-4}}
* {{cite journal|last=Kissane|first=Bill|title=Eamon De Valera and the Survival of Democracy in Inter-War Ireland|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|year=2007|volume=42|issue=2|pages=213–226|doi=10.1177/0022009407075554|s2cid=159760801}}
* {{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=Joseph|first2=Gearoid|last2=O'Tuathaigh|title=The Age of de Valera|date=1982}}
* {{cite book|last=Lee|first= J. J.|title=Ireland, 1912–1985: Politics and Society|place=Cambridge|date=1989}}
* {{cite book|last=McCartan|first=Patrick|title=With de Valera in America|place=New York|date= 1932}}
* {{cite book|last=McCullagh|first= David|title=De Valera Volume 1: Rise (1882–1932)|date=2017}}
* {{cite book|last=McCullagh|first= David|title=De Valera Volume 2: Rule (1932–1975)|date=2018}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=McGarry|editor-first=Fearghal |title=Republicanism in Modern Ireland|place=Dublin|date= 2003}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Murphy|editor-first= J. A.|title=De Valera and His Times|date=1983}}
* {{cite book|last1=O'Carroll|first1=J. P.|last2=Murphy|first2=((John A (eds.)))|title=De Valera and His Times|date=1993|publisher=Cork University Press |isbn=0902561448|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/devalerahistimes00jpoc}} – excerpt and text search

===Historiography===
* {{cite journal|last=Chapple|first=Phil|title='Dev': The Career of Eamon De Valera Phil Chapple Examines a Titanic and Controversial Figure in Modern Irish History|journal=History Review|issue=53|year=2005|page=28}}
* {{cite book|last=Ferriter|first=Diarmaid|title=Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Eamon De Valera|place=Dublin|date=2007|isbn=978-1-904890-28-7}}
* Girvin, Brian. "Beyond Revisionism? Some Recent Contributions to the Study of Modern Ireland." ''English Historical Review'' (2009) 124#506 :94–107· DOI: 10.1093/ehr/cen341
* Hogan, Gerard. "De Valera, the Constitution and the Historians." ''Irish Jurist'' 40 (2005).
* McCarthy, Mark. ''Ireland's 1916 Rising: Explorations of History-making, Commemoration & Heritage in Modern Times'' (Routledge, 2016).
* Murray, Patrick. "Obsessive historian: Eamon de Valera and the policing of his reputation." ''Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C'' (2001): 37–65.
* {{cite journal | last1 = Regan | first1 = John M | year = 2010 | title = Irish public histories as an historiographical problem | journal = Irish Historical Studies | volume = 37 | issue = 146| pages = 265–292 | doi=10.1017/s002112140000225x| s2cid = 159868830 }}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Regan | first1 = John M | year = 2007 | title = Michael Collins, General Commanding-in-Chief, as a Historiographical Problem | journal = History | volume = 92 | issue = 307| pages = 318–346 | doi=10.1111/j.1468-229x.2007.00398.x}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Éamon de Valera}}
{{EB1922 poster|De Valera, Edward|Éamon de Valera}}

* [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Pembroke_West/Morehampton_Terrace/11618/ 1911 Census return of Edward (sic) de Valera and household] from the National Archives of Ireland
* [http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/entity/eamon-de-valera Eamon de Valera's "India and Ireland" in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)]
* [http://www.president.ie/past_presidents/eamon-devalera/ Biography at Áras an Uachtaráin website]
* [https://digital.ucd.ie/view/ivrla:19767 Press Photographs of Eamon de Valera, taken from the Papers of Eamon de Valera held in UCD Archives.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250327061010/https://digital.ucd.ie/view/ivrla:19767 |date=27 March 2025 }} A UCD Digital Library Collection.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fukfcdAXrA8 De Valera Funeral – 1975], Movietone, 2 September 1975
* {{PM20|FID=pe/017736}}
* Pamphlets written by Frank Gallagher as speechwriter to Éamon de Valera in [https://www.tcd.ie/library/research-collections/named-collections/g.php#Gallagher the Gallagher Collection] at the [[Library of Trinity College Dublin]].

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{{DEFAULTSORT:De Valera, Eamon}}
[[Category:Éamon de Valera| ]]
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[[Category:Members of the 7th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 8th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 9th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 10th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 11th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 12th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 13th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 14th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 15th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 16th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1921–1925]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1925–1929]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1933–1938]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Clare constituencies (1801–1922)]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Mayo constituencies (1801–1922)]]
[[Category:Ministers for education of Ireland]]
[[Category:Ministers for foreign affairs of Ireland]]
[[Category:Politicians from New York City]]
[[Category:Politicians from County Limerick]]
[[Category:People of the Easter Rising]]
[[Category:People of the Irish Civil War (Anti-Treaty side)]]
[[Category:People of the Irish War of Independence]]
[[Category:Politicians imprisoned during the Irish revolutionary period]]
[[Category:Presidents of Ireland]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Assembly of the League of Nations]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by the British military]]
[[Category:Taoisigh]]
[[Category:The Irish Press people]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1910–1918]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1918–1922]]
[[Category:World War II political leaders]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for County Down constituencies]]
[[Category:Rugby union players from County Limerick]]
[[Category:Munster Rugby players]]
[[Category:Chancellors of the National University of Ireland]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in the Republic of Ireland]]
[[Category:Burials at Glasnevin Cemetery]]
[[Category:Conservatism in Ireland]]
[[Category:Faculty of Belvedere College]]
[[Category:Escapees from England and Wales detention]]
[[Category:American emigrants to Ireland]]
[[Category:American people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:20th-century presidents in Europe]]
[[Category:Abdication of Edward VIII]]