The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1919-04-12
Saturday, April II, 1919
Edward De Velera Hero And
Genius of Sim Fein Party

A capacity. for the quiet manage
ment of emotional men and women
never before displayed so completely
by any Irish leader, and born mathe-
matician's sense of proportion applied
to politics, afford the combination that
seems to explain the career of Fam
mon de Valera to mystified London
newspapers, writes Edward j. Whee-
Ter in the February Current Opinion.
He is man of genius, however mis-
applied, if we are to be guided by the
London News, while the Manchester
Custodian thinks that anywhere but in
Ireland he would now be statesman
in responsible Office, swaying the des-
TIMES of his country. In period so
short that he remains still character
unfamiliar and mysterious, he has
converted an obscure and prescribed
revolutionary society into the domi-
nant Irish political party.
Understands Irish Human Nature.
ership of the Redmonds and the Dill
Ions, the O'Briens and the Devlins all
combined. He has revolutionized the
attitude of the Catholic hierarchy, at
one time openly hostile to him. He
has composed feud after feud within
his following through his perfect SYM
pathy with Irish human nature and
rare comprehension of it's merits and
defects.
Results of this sort, as the Liberal
Manchester organ remarks, are never
achieved by mediocrities, and those
British newspapers which at first hail
ed de Valera as an interloper and
foreigner, coming from nowhere and
representing nothing, are now inclined
to agree that, humiliating as it must
be to the politicians in London, he
has matched his wits against theirs
and made even the great Lloyd George,
to say nothing of Sir Edward Carson,
seem trife inefficient by comparison.
The mystery in which the name and
the career of de Valera are involved in
cludes his present whereabouts. No.
body seems to know definitely, so rigid
is the Irish censorship, whether he is
in Jail or out of it or just what part
of ireland he calls home. The prison
experiences of the past four or five
years have aged the man, our con-
temporary says, and he now looks,
with his lined and pinched face, some
what older than his thirty-seven years.
Splendid Type Of Political Leader.
He is fine looking, says the London
News, although he was never hand
some, like Parnell in his prime, or
aristocratically elegant, like the martyr
Emmett. Nature seems to have given
him the heavy build of OConnell, but
he has not grown fat like that liberia
tor. The wide open eyes of de Vale
ra, set far apart, are large and star
ing. forming an essential feature of
the physiognomical impression as a
whole. The lips are firm and COM
pressed in repose. The nose is slight
ly hawk-like and the skin by its
swarthiness reveals the Ibernian de-
cent. The father Of de Valera is under
stood to have been q political refugee
from Spain when he met and married
the Irish girl who was to become the
mother Of the Sim Fein leader.
He could speak Gaelic with fuency
when he was only twelve.
Many-eided Talents Mark Character.
His mathematical genius-the most
astonishing Of his endowments-dis-
closed itself when he was seventeen
and he thought at one time Of be-
coming an astronomer. Before he had
passed on to the college of Black
rock he was applying mathematical
formulas to every conceivable prob
lem. His sense of proportion and Of
order, his foresight, his constructive.
ness, his ability to plan far ahead, are
aspects, to all who knew him, of his
mathematical genius. He was sue.
cessful tutor in consequence and he
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