Eamon de Valera | president of Ireland | Britannica.com president of Ireland Alternative Title: Edward de Valera Eamon de Valera William Thomas Cosgrave Eamon de Valera, original name Edward de Valera (born Oct. 14, 1882, New York , N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 29, 1975, Dublin , Ire.), Irish politician and patriot, who served as taoiseach (prime minister; 1932–48, 1951–54, 1957–59) and president (1959–73) of Ireland . An active revolutionary from 1913, he became president of Sinn Féin in 1917 and founded the Fianna Fáil party in 1926. In 1937 he made his country a “sovereign” state, renamed Ireland, or Éire. His academic attainments also inspired wide respect; he became chancellor of the National University of Ireland in 1921. Eamon de Valera, the leader of the republicans during the Irish civil war.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Early life De Valera’s father, who was Spanish, died when the boy was two. De Valera was then sent to his mother’s family in County Limerick, Ire., and studied at the local national school and at Blackrock College, Dublin; he graduated from the Royal University, Dublin, and became a teacher of mathematics and an ardent supporter of the Irish-language revival. In 1913 he joined the Irish Volunteers , which had been organized to resist opposition to Home Rule for Ireland. In the anti-British Easter Rising in Dublin (1916), de Valera commanded an occupied building and was the last commander to surrender. Because of his American birth, he escaped execution by the British but was sentenced to penal servitude.

Released in 1917 but arrested again and deported in May 1918 to England, where he was imprisoned, de Valera was acclaimed by the Irish as the chief survivor of the uprising and in October 1917 was elected president of the revolutionist Sinn Féin (“We Ourselves” or “Ourselves Alone”) party, which won three-fourths of all the Irish constituencies in December 1918. After a dramatic escape from Lincoln Jail in February 1919, de Valera went in disguise to the United States , where he collected funds. He returned to Ireland before the Anglo-Irish War (Irish War of Independence) ended with the truce that took effect on July 11, 1921, and appointed plenipotentiaries to negotiate in London. He repudiated the treaty of Dec. 6, 1921, that they signed to form the Irish Free State, however, primarily because it imposed an oath of allegiance to the British crown.

Rise to power After Dáil Éireann (Irish Assembly) ratified the treaty by a small majority (1922), de Valera supported the republican resistance in the ensuing civil war. William Thomas Cosgrave’s Irish Free State ministry imprisoned him, but he was released in 1924 and then organized a republican opposition party that would not sit in Dáil Éireann (now the lower house of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament). In 1927, however, he persuaded his followers to sign the oath of allegiance as “an empty political formula,” and his new Fianna Fáil (“Soldiers of Destiny”) party then entered the Dáil, demanding abolition of the oath of allegiance, of the governor-general, of the Seanad (senate) as then constituted , and of land-purchase annuities payable to Great Britain. The Cosgrave ministry was defeated by Fianna Fáil in 1932, and de Valera, as head of the new ministry, embarked quickly on severing connections with Great Britain. He withheld payment of the land annuities, and an “economic war” resulted.

Increasing retaliation by both sides enabled de Valera to develop his program of austere national self-sufficiency in an Irish-speaking Ireland while building up industries behind protective tariffs. In a new constitution ratified by referendum in 1937, the Irish Free State became Ireland (in Irish, Éire), a sovereign , independent democracy tenuously linked with the British Commonwealth (under the External Relations Act of 1936) only for purposes of diplomatic representation. Britannica Stories Methane Surge Worries Scientists De Valera’s prestige was enhanced by his success as president of the council of the League of Nations in 1932 and of its assembly in 1938. He also entered negotiations with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in which he guaranteed that he would never allow Ireland to be used as a base for attacking Britain in the event of war. This culminated in the Anglo-Irish defense agreement of April 1938, whereby Britain relinquished the naval bases of Cobh, Berehaven, and Lough Swilly (retained in a defense annex to the 1921 treaty), and in complementary finance and trade treaties that ended the economic war.

This made possible de Valera’s proclamation in September 1939, upon the outbreak of World War II , that Ireland would remain neutral and would resist attack from any quarter. In secret, however, de Valera also authorized significant military and intelligence assistance to both the British and the Americans throughout the war; he realized that a German victory would imperil Ireland’s independence, of which neutrality was the ultimate expression. By avoiding the burdens and destruction of the war, de Valera achieved a relative prosperity for Ireland in comparison with the war-torn countries of Europe, and he retained office in subsequent elections. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In 1948 a reaction against the long monopoly of power and patronage held by de Valera’s party enabled the opposition, with the help of smaller parties, to form an interparty government under John A. Costello . Ironically, this precarious coalition collapsed within three years after Ireland became a republic by means of the repeal of the External Relations Act of 1936 and the severance of all ties with the British Commonwealth, an act de Valera had avoided.

De Valera resumed office until 1954, when he appealed unsuccessfully for a fresh mandate , and Costello formed his second interparty ministry. No clearly defined difference now existed between the opposing parties in face of rising prices, continued emigration, and a backward agriculture. De Valera claimed, however, that a strong single-party government was indispensable and that all coalitions must be weak and insecure. On this plea he obtained, in March 1957, the overall majority that he demanded. History Buff Quiz In 1959 de Valera agreed to stand as a candidate for the presidency. He resigned his position as taoiseach and leader of the Fianna Fáil party. In June he was elected president, and he was reelected in 1966. He retired to a nursing home near Dublin in 1973 and died there in 1975. Summary De Valera’s career spanned the dramatic period of Ireland’s modern cultural and national revolution. As an anticolonial leader, a skillful constitutionalist, and a symbol of national liberation, de Valera dominated Ireland in the half century following the country’s independence.

More about Eamon de Valera 13 References found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference Eamonn de Valera - History Learning Site Eamonn de Valera Citation: C N Trueman "Eamonn de Valera" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 25 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. Eamonn de Valera played a key role in Ireland’s recent history . De Valera was one of the leaders in the failed 1916 Easter Uprising . He was also president of Sinn Fein from 1917 to 1926 and was to become prime minister and president of an independent Ireland. Eamonn de Valera was born in 1882 in New York. His mother was Irish and his father was Spanish. Though de Valera was born in America, he was educated in Ireland and became a mathematics lecturer at Maynooth. De Valera developed a passionate love of Ireland and hated what he considered to be the English domination and control of the island.

He joined Sinn Fein and as a battalion commander for the Irish Volunteers fought at Boland’s Hill in the Easter Uprising of 1916. He was captured and put on trial. De Valera was sentenced to death but this was commuted to imprisonment on account of the fact that he was born in America. He served one year in Lewes Prison in Sussex. De Valera returned to Ireland in 1917 and he became president of Sinn Fein. He immediately started to resist the rule of London and as a result he was arrested. De Valera was sent to Lincoln Prison. He escaped from jail in 1919 and went to America. Here he spent a year and a half touring the country in an attempt to raise money for Sinn Fein and what he considered to be the issue of Irish independence. His efforts were very successful and de Valera raised over £1 million for the cause. A lot of this money went into the newly formed Irish Republican Army (IRA – formed in January 1919). By 1922, Ireland had effective independence but this was not enough for de Valera.

He objected to the way Michael Collins had accepted dominion status for the Free State believing that this did not give Ireland true independence. De Valera believed that Collins and all those who had accepted the 1921 agreement had betrayed all those who had died fighting for true independence. There were many who supported de Valera and the newly created Free State descended into civil war that lasted into 1923. In 1926, de Valera decided that it was in the interests of Ireland to accept the new Irish parliament (the Dáil) and he founded a new political party called Fianna Fáil which served as an opposition party from 1926 to 1932. In 1932, Fianna Fáil was elected to power in a coalition with Labour politicians. De Valera was to remain Ireland’s prime minister for 16 years. During this time he did what he could to totally cut Ireland from any form of British linkage. In June 1937, Ireland introduced a new constitution which introduced a new democratic and sovereign state of Eire. After years of internal turmoil, de Valera kept Eire neutral during World War Two .

Fianna Fáil lost the 1948 general election but won the 1951 one. De Valera was returned to the prime minister’s office until 1954. He was prime minister again from 1957 to 1959. In 1959, he stood for and won Eire’s presidential election – an election he won again in 1966. De Valera was the first Irish leader to address America’s Congress (June 1964) and he gained considerable prestige abroad. De Valera retired from politics aged 90 in 1973. He died in 1975. Eamon De Valera Facts LINK / CITE ADD TO WORD LIST Eamon De Valera Facts Eamon De Valera Quotes The Irish revolutionary leader and statesman Eamon De Valera (1882-1975) served as prime minister and later president of Ireland (1959-1973). Eamon De Valera was born in New York City on October 14, 1882.

In 1885, after the death of his Spanish father, he was sent to live with his Irish mother's family in Country Limerick. He graduated from the Royal University of Ireland in 1904 and became a mathematics teacher. De Valera was an ardent supporter of the Irish language revival movement and also became a member of Sinn Fein and the Irish Volunteers. After the failure of the 1916 insurrection, he became the senior surviving rebel leader when his death sentence was commuted because of his American birth. Released by the British government in 1917, he was acclaimed in Ireland as the leader of the revolutionary independence movement. He became president of the Irish Republic established by the separatists after their victory in the election of December, 1918. In June, 1919, De Valera traveled to the United States, where he won much sympathy and financial support for the Irish cause. He returned to Ireland in December, 1920, as the guerrilla war with Britain was moving into its final phase. De Valera accepted British proposals for a truce in July, 1921, and sent a delegation to London to negotiate a peace settlement.

The British refused to accept his compromise plan for an Irish republic in external association with the British Empire and offered instead dominion status for Ireland, with the right of exclusion for loyalist Northern Ireland. In December, 1921, the Irish delegates accepted these terms, believing them to be the best obtainable without further war. De Valera, however, denounced the treaty as a betrayal of the republic which would mean continued subjection to Britain. Despite his protests the Republican Parliament, Dail Eireann, approved the treaty by a small majority in January, 1922. Continued dispute over the settlement led to civil war in June, 1922, and supporters of the new Irish Free State defeated the Republicans in May, 1923. Prime Minister After the civil war De Valera led the Republican opposition to the pro-treaty government of William T. Cosgrave. In 1926 he broke with the extreme Republicans and founded a constitutional opposition party, Fianna Fail, which entered the Dail in 1927. Fianna Fail won the 1932 election, and De Valera formed a government which lasted for 16 years.

As prime minister, he removed the last remaining restrictions on Irish sovereignty imposed by the treaty. His refusal to continue payment of land-purchase annuities to Britain led to an economic war between the two countries, which enabled him to pursue plans to make Ireland more self-sufficient economically. His government also extended social services, suppressed extremist threats to the state, and introduced a constitution in 1937 which made the Free State a republic in all but name. In 1938 agreements made with Britain ended the economic war and British occupation of Irish naval bases retained under the treaty. De Valera was unable, however, to end the partition of Ireland. De Valera had been a strong supporter of collective security through the League of Nations, but he maintained a policy of neutrality, with overwhelming popular support, throughout World War II. In the postwar period Fianna Fail alternated in power with two interparty governments, the first of which formally established the Irish Republic in 1949. Returned to office with a decisive majority in 1957, De Valera retired from active politics in 1959, when he was elected president of the republic.

He was reelected in 1966, the fiftieth anniversary of his entry into Irish political life. Failing eyesight troubled him from the 1930s onward and left him almost blind before his retirement from active politics in 1973. Concurrently, he held the post of Chancellor of the National University of Ireland from 1921 until 1975. He died on August 30, 1975. The wisdom of De Valera's policies has been widely disputed but not his unequaled impact on Irish life in the twentieth century. The charismatic appeal of "Dev" was firmly based on his understanding of the outlook and way of life of a large section of the Irish people and on his fellow citizens' great respect for his ability, austere dignity, and idealism. Further Reading on Eamon De Valera The most complete biography is Eamon de Valera (1970) by the Earl of Longford and Thomas P. O'Neill, written with the full cooperation of the subject.

Background histories of Ireland include Timothy Patrick Coogan, Ireland since the Rising (1966); Desmond Williams, ed., The Irish Struggle, 1916-1926 (1966); and T. W. Moody and F. K. Martin, eds., The Course of Irish History (1967). A feature film released by Warner Bros. in 1996, Michael Collins, covers early twentieth century Irish political history and includes a character representing De Valera. President de Valera | Article about President de Valera by The Free Dictionary President de Valera | Article about President de Valera by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . Valera, Eamon de: see De Valera, Eamon De Valera, Eamon , 1882–1975, Irish statesman, b. New York City. He was taken as a child to Ireland. As a young man he joined the movement advocating physical force to achieve Irish independence and took part in the Easter Rebellion of 1916. ..... Click the link for more information. .

De Valera, Eamon (ā`mən dĕ vəlâr`ə), 1882–1975, Irish statesman, b. New York City. He was taken as a child to Ireland. As a young man he joined the movement advocating physical force to achieve Irish independence and took part in the Easter Rebellion of 1916. He was sentenced to life imprisonment (escaping execution because he was a U.S. citizen) but was released under a general amnesty in 1917. Elected that same year a member of Parliament and president of Sinn Féin Sinn Féin [Irish,=we, ourselves], Irish nationalist movement. It had its roots in the Irish cultural revival at the end of the 19th cent. and the growing nationalist disenchantment with the constitutional Home Rule movement. ..... Click the link for more information. , De Valera was arrested again in May, 1918. However, he escaped from prison (Feb., 1919) and went to the United States, where he raised funds for Irish independence.

In the meantime he had been elected president of Ireland by the Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann [Irish,=diet of Ireland], the popular representative body of the Oireachtas, or National Parliament, of the Republic of Ireland. The second, smaller chamber, the Saenad Éireann, or Senate, has very limited powers, and the executive, as ..... Click the link for more information. , the revolutionary parliament that had declared the country independent. In 1920, when he returned to Ireland, the country was in a state of virtual war against British rule. In 1921 the British government opened the negotiations that led to the establishment of the Irish Free State. De Valera, however, repudiated the final treaty because it excluded Northern Ireland and required Irish officeholders to swear allegiance to the British crown. He resigned from the Dáil in Jan., 1922. Nominal leader of the republican intransigents, De Valera greatly deplored the period of civil war that followed.

He maintained his opposition to the government, however, and did not enter the Dáil with his party, Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil , Irish political party, organized in 1926 by opponents of the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 establishing the Irish Free State and setting up Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. ..... Click the link for more information. , until 1927. In the general election of 1932 his party gained control of the Dáil, and De Valera became head of the government. He immediately abolished the oath of allegiance and refused to pay land annuities to Britain. A tariff war followed that was not ended until 1938. In 1937, De Valera introduced a new constitution declaring Ireland a fully sovereign state. He kept Ireland neutral throughout World War II, refusing to let the British use southern Irish ports and vigorously protesting Allied military activity in Northern Ireland. Fianna Fáil was defeated in the election of 1948, but De Valera returned as prime minister with independent support (1951–54) and with an absolute majority (1957–59).

Hampered by failing vision, in 1959 he moved to the less demanding office of president of the republic, to which he was reelected in 1966. He retired in 1973. Bibliography See his speeches edited by M. Moynihan (1980); biographies by F. P. Longford and T. P. O'Neill (1971), O. Edwards (1988); C. Younger, A State of Disunion (1972); J. O'Carroll and J. Murphy ed., De Valera and His Times (1986). De Valera, Eamon Born Oct. 14, 1882, in New York. Irish politician and statesman. One of the leaders of the Irish Uprising of 1916. In 1917, De Valera headed the Sinn Fein and the patriotic military organization the Irish Volunteers. From 1919 to 1922 he was president and head of the government that won national independence for Ireland.

During the civil war (1922-23) he commanded the republican troops against the supporters of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, under which Northern Ireland remained under British rule and the remainder of the country was proclaimed a British dominion. In 1927, after breaking with the Sinn Fein, De Valera entered the parliament of the dominion as a candidate of the Fianna Fail, which he had founded in 1926. As head of the Irish government and foreign minister from 1932 to 1948, De Valera pursued policies that promoted economic development and reduced Irish dependence on British monopolies. At the same time, his policies tended to suppress democratic freedoms within the country. During World War II the De Valera government proclaimed its neutrality. De Valera was prime minister of the Irish Republic from 1951 to 1954 and from 1957 to 1959. His policies were aimed at actively drawing foreign capital into the national economy and at the same time remaining nonaligned with military-political blocs. De Valera was president of the Irish Republic between 1959 and 1973.

A. G. B OTOV Ireland, Republic of: History Ireland, Republic of History After the establishment by treaty with Great Britain of the Irish Free State (Jan., 1922), civil war broke out between supporters of the treaty and opponents, who refused to accept the partition of Ireland and the retention of any ties with Britain. The antitreaty forces, embodied in the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and led by Eamon De Valera , were defeated, although the IRA continued as a secret terrorist organization. William Cosgrave became the first prime minister. De Valera and his followers, the Fianna Fáil party, agreed to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown and entered the Dáil in 1927. In 1932, De Valera became prime minister, and under his administration a new constitution was promulgated (1937), establishing the sovereign nation of Ireland, or Eire, within the Commonwealth of Nations. De Valera's policies aimed at the political and economic independence and union of all of Ireland.

The loyalty oath to the crown was abolished, and certain economic provisions of the 1921 treaty with England were repudiated, leading to an "economic war" (1932–38) with Britain. During World War II, Eire remained neutral and vigorously protested Allied military activity in Northern Ireland. The British were denied the use of Irish ports, and German and Japanese agents were allowed to operate in the country. Some 60,000 Irish citizens, however, volunteered to serve with the British armed forces, including some 7,000 who deserted from the Irish army. The people of Eire suffered relatively little hardship during the war and even profited from increased food exports. The postwar period brought a sharp rise in the cost of living and a decline in population, due in great part to steady emigration to Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and other countries. In 1948, Prime Minister Costello demanded total independence from Great Britain and reunification with the six counties of Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland was proclaimed on Apr. 18, 1949. The country withdrew from the Commonwealth and formally claimed jurisdiction over the Ulster counties.

It was admitted to the United Nations in 1955. Nothing came of the claim to Ulster, and during the 1950s and 60s the republic and Northern Ireland improved their economic relations. The later decade also saw an all-time low in Irish population, 2.82 million in 1961. In the late 1960s the problem of Northern Ireland flared up again in bitter fighting between the Protestant majority and Catholic minority there, aggravated by the actions of the IRA, which was headquartered in the republic. In 1973, Erskine H. Childers succeeded De Valera as president of Ireland, and Liam Cosgrave , at the head of a Fine Gael–Labor coalition, replaced Jack Lynch , of Fianna Fáil, as prime minister. In the same year the republic joined the European Community (now the European Union ). Childers died in 1974 and was succeeded by Cearbhal O. Dalaigh. Lynch led Fianna Fáil back into office in 1977; in 1979 fellow party member Charles Haughey replaced Lynch as prime minister.

In 1981 a Fine Gael–Labor coalition headed by Garret FitzGerald defeated Fianna Fáil on an economic platform. Although ousted in 1982, the coalition was governing again six months later. Beginning in the late 1970s the republic's political situation was more fluid than it had been; there were several general elections and a variety of party schisms. In 1987, Haughey again became prime minister. As unemployment soared, especially among young people, outmigration increased, reaching a peak of 44,000 in 1989. During the 1990s, the economy grew significantly, buoyed by EU subsidies and new foreign investment. By the end of the decade, unemployment was below the EU average, although pockets of poverty persisted. In late 1994, after the IRA and Protestant militias agreed to a cease-fire, efforts were begun to negotiate a settlement of the the Northern Ireland issue. Despite some setbacks, agreements were reached in Apr., 1998, and approved by voters in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland in May.

Women's issues, such as the government's strong antiabortion stance and the constitutional ban on divorce, also became a focus in the 1990s; a referendum legalizing divorce passed by a narrow margin in 1995. In 1991, Ireland elected its first female president, Mary Robinson, and in 1997 Mary McAleese became its first president from Northern Ireland. In 1992, Albert Reynolds , of Fianna Fáil, replaced Charles Haughey as prime minister, and when the governing coalition collapsed, Reynolds successfully formed another. The Reynolds government fell in 1994, and Fine Gael leader John Bruton succeeded him, heading a Fine Gael–Labor coalition. Bertie Ahern became prime minister in 1997, heading a Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrat coalition; his coalition was returned to office in 2002. Revelations in 2006 that Ahern had received loans from business acquaintances in 1993–94 while he was finance minister and had not yet repaid them sparked controversy.

Ahern said his attempts to repay them had been refused; he did repay the loans soon after they were became public. In 2007 Ahern led his party to another victory at the polls, but Progressive Democrat losses led to the addition of the Green party to the governing coalition. Investigation into Ahern's finances revealed he had received additional secret cash payments in the early 1990s, and in May, 2008, he resigned because the investigation was undermining his government. Deputy Prime Minister Brian Cowen succeeded Ahern as Fianna Fáil leader and prime minister. In June, 2008, Irish voters rejected the European Union's Lisbon Treaty amid concerns over the loss of Irish sovereignty. The Irish, who voted in a referendum because of conflicts between the treaty and the Irish constitution, were the only national electorate given a chance to vote on the treaty. A second vote on the Lisbon Treaty in Sept., 2009, following EU guarantees designed to allay Irish concerns, resulted in the treaty's approval.

Ireland officially entered what became a prolonged recession in Sept., 2008, ending more than a decade of growth that had earned its economy the nickname "Celtic Tiger." By the end of 2008, the collapse of Ireland's booming property market threatened the Irish banking system, especially the Anglo Irish Bank, which was nationalized in early 2009. In Sept., 2010, the total cost of Ireland's bailout of its banking system was estimated to be ultimately €40 billion , with roughly three fourths of that incurred due to the Anglo Irish Bank. In November the markets had forced Ireland to agree to an €85 billion international rescue package, and the country was forced to adopt additional austerity measures and radically overhaul its banks. The Green party remained in the governing coalition but called for an early election, and Cowen, who resigned as party leader (Jan., 2011), was forced to call for an early election when the Greens quit the government. In the February contest, Fine Gael and Labor placed first and second, with the former almost winning a majority. The two parties formed a coalition government in March, with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny as prime minister.

A government proposal to abolish the Senate was rejected in a referendum in Oct., 2013. The country has experienced slow growth since 2011, but unemployment, which went above 10% for the first time in a decade in 2009, peaked at 15% in 2012. Unemployment has since declined below 13%, and the country emerged from financial rescue program and its restrictions at the end of 2013. Sections in this article: BBC - History - 1916 Easter Rising - Profiles - Eamon de Valera Eamon de Valera 1882-1975 Affectionately nicknamed the ‘long fellow’, Eamon de Valera was the dominant political figure in the history of twentieth century Ireland. Fortunate to avoid execution after the Easter Rising, he went on to lead the country as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and represent it as President over the following fifty years. Eamon de Valera © De Valera was born in New York, the son of a Spanish-born father and Irish immigrant mother.

After his father’s death in 1885, he was brought up in Limerick and educated both there and in Dublin. He studied mathematics at the Royal University and subsequently taught the subject at a teacher training college. After joining the Gaelic League in 1908, which stimulated his interest in Irish politics, he was drawn to militant nationalism and enlisted in the Irish Volunteers in 1913. During the Rising, he was commandant at Boland’s Bakery; following the surrender he was court-martialled and sentenced to death. In part because of his American birth he was reprieved. His subsequent rapid rise was due as much to his being the most senior officer to survive as to his undoubted political talents. After his release from Dartmoor prison in June 1917, he almost immediately won a by-election in East Clare, standing for Sinn Féin. He was elected President of the Sinn Féin party and of the Irish Volunteers in October 1917, and on 1st April 1918, was made President of the first Dail.

Controversially in June 1919, during the Anglo-Irish war, de Valera went to the United States; he sought unsuccessfully to gain its recognition of the Irish Republic but did raise $5 million there in funds. Returning in December 1920, he at once gave new impetus and cohesion to the Sinn Féin government. He favoured a truce with Britain but unexpectedly decided not to lead the Irish delegation which negotiated the Treaty (October-December 1921). Critics claim he did this to evade responsibility for the inevitable compromises it entailed. His defence was that in Dublin he could better preserve national unity and gain acceptance of any agreement reached. In any event he rejected the Treaty and resigned as President following its ratification by the Dail. Though he sought some basis for continuing co-operation with its supporters, both his sometimes inflammatory speeches and his attempts to mobilise opposition to it made a civil war more likely. De Valera was somewhat marginalized during the conflict but was imprisoned afterwards for a year which enhanced his credibility with republicans. He subsequently formed a new party, Fianna Fail, and in 1927 it entered the Free State Dail.

The next five years were spent in building up its organisation and he established a newspaper, the ‘Irish Press’, in 1931. Fianna Fail`s election victory in 1932 marked the beginning of 16 unbroken years in power, during which de Valera was both Prime Minister and responsible for foreign affairs. His was the most formative influence on the development of the new state. His policy initiatives included high tariffs to induce economic self-sufficiency, the gradual weakening of ties with Britain, a new and deeply conservative constitution (1937) and neutrality in World War II. His party lost power for six years between 1948-57 but was then returned with a large majority. In 1959 de Valera resigned as Taoiseach; soon afterwards he was elected President of Ireland and again in 1966. He retired in 1973 and died on 29th August 1975 at the age of 92.

De Valera resigns - Feb 18, 1948 - HISTORY.com De Valera resigns Publisher A+E Networks After 16 years as head of independent Ireland, Eamon de Valera steps down as the taoiseach, or Irish prime minister, after his Fianna Fail Party fails to win a majority in the Dail Eireann (the Irish assembly). As a result of the general election, the Fianna Fail won 68 of the 147 seats in the Dail, and de Valera resigned rather than lead a coalition government. In his place, John A. Costello, leader of the Fine Gael Party, joins with several smaller groups to achieve a majority and becomes Irish prime minister. Eamon de Valera, the most dominant Irish political figure of the 20th century, was born in New York City in 1882, the son of a Spanish father and Irish mother. When his father died two years later, he was sent to live with his mother’s family in County Limerick, Ireland. He attended the Royal University in Dublin and became an important figure in the Irish-language revival movement.

In 1913, he joined the Irish Volunteers, a militant group that advocated Ireland’s independence from Britain, and in 1916 participated in the Easter Rising against the British in Dublin. He was the last Irish rebel leader to surrender and was saved from execution because of his American birth. Imprisoned, he was released in 1917 under a general amnesty and became president of the nationalist Sinn Fein Party. In May 1918, he was deported to England and imprisoned again, and in December Sinn Fein won an Irish national election, making him the unofficial leader of Ireland. In February 1919, he escaped from jail and fled to the United States, where he raised funds for the Irish Republican movement. When he returned to Ireland in 1920, Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were engaged in a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces.

In 1921, a truce was declared, and in 1922 Arthur Griffith and other former Sinn Fein leaders broke with de Valera and signed a treaty with Britain, which called for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining part of the United Kingdom. In the period of civil war that followed, de Valera supported the Republicans against the Irish Free State (the new government of the autonomous south), and was imprisoned by William Cosgrave’s Irish Free State ministry. In 1924, he was released and two years later left Sinn Fein, which had become the unofficial political wing of the underground movement for northern independence. He formed Fianna Fail, and in 1932 the party gained control of the Dail Eireann and de Valera became Irish prime minister. For the next 16 years, de Valera pursued a policy of political separation from Great Britain, including the introduction of a new constitution in 1937 that declared Ireland the fully sovereign state of Eire. During World War II, he maintained a policy of neutrality but repressed anti-British intrigues within the IRA.

In 1948, he narrowly lost re-election due to a negative public reaction against his party’s long monopoly of power. Out of office, he toured the world advocating the unification and independence of Ireland. His successor as taoiseach, John Costello, officially made Ireland an independent republic in 1949 but nonetheless lost the prime minister’s office to de Valera in the 1951 election. The relative Irish economic prosperity of the 1940s declined in the 1950s, and Costello began a second ministry in 1954, only to be replaced again by de Valera in 1957. In 1959, de Valera resigned as prime minister and was elected Irish president–a largely ceremonial post. On June 24, 1973, de Valera, then the world’s oldest head of state, retired from Irish politics at the age of 90. He passed away two years later.

Related Videos Eamon De Valera biography, birth date, birth place and pictures Eamon De Valera biography Birthplace : New York City, New York, US Nationality : American Credited as : Statesman and revolutionary, prime minister of Ireland, 0 votes so far The Irish revolutionary leader and statesman Eamon De Valera served as prime minister and later president of Ireland (1959-1973). Eamon De Valera was born in New York City on October 14, 1882. In 1885, after the death of his Spanish father, he was sent to live with his Irish mother's family in Country Limerick. He graduated from the Royal University of Ireland in 1904 and became a mathematics teacher. De Valera was an ardent supporter of the Irish language revival movement and also became a member of Sinn Fein and the Irish Volunteers. After the failure of the 1916 insurrection, he became the senior surviving rebel leader when his death sentence was commuted because of his American birth. Released by the British government in 1917, he was acclaimed in Ireland as the leader of the revolutionary independence movement.

He became president of the Irish Republic established by the separatists after their victory in the election of December, 1918. In June, 1919, De Valera traveled to the United States, where he won much sympathy and financial support for the Irish cause. He returned to Ireland in December, 1920, as the guerrilla war with Britain was moving into its final phase. De Valera accepted British proposals for a truce in July, 1921, and sent a delegation to London to negotiate a peace settlement. The British refused to accept his compromise plan for an Irish republic in external association with the British Empire and offered instead dominion status for Ireland, with the right of exclusion for loyalist Northern Ireland. In December, 1921, the Irish delegates accepted these terms, believing them to be the best obtainable without further war. De Valera, however, denounced the treaty as a betrayal of the republic which would mean continued subjection to Britain. Despite his protests the Republican Parliament, Dail Eireann, approved the treaty by a small majority in January, 1922.

Continued dispute over the settlement led to civil war in June, 1922, and supporters of the new Irish Free State defeated the Republicans in May, 1923. After the civil war De Valera led the Republican opposition to the pro-treaty government of William T. Cosgrave. In 1926 he broke with the extreme Republicans and founded a constitutional opposition party, Fianna Fail, which entered the Dail in 1927. Fianna Fail won the 1932 election, and De Valera formed a government which lasted for 16 years. As prime minister, he removed the last remaining restrictions on Irish sovereignty imposed by the treaty. His refusal to continue payment of land-purchase annuities to Britain led to an economic war between the two countries, which enabled him to pursue plans to make Ireland more self-sufficient economically. His government also extended social services, suppressed extremist threats to the state, and introduced a constitution in 1937 which made the Free State a republic in all but name. In 1938 agreements made with Britain ended the economic war and British occupation of Irish naval bases retained under the treaty.

De Valera was unable, however, to end the partition of Ireland. De Valera had been a strong supporter of collective security through the League of Nations, but he maintained a policy of neutrality, with overwhelming popular support, throughout World War II. In the postwar period Fianna Fail alternated in power with two interparty governments, the first of which formally established the Irish Republic in 1949. Returned to office with a decisive majority in 1957, De Valera retired from active politics in 1959, when he was elected president of the republic. He was reelected in 1966, the fiftieth anniversary of his entry into Irish political life. Failing eyesight troubled him from the 1930s onward and left him almost blind before his retirement from active politics in 1973. Concurrently, he held the post of Chancellor of the National University of Ireland from 1921 until 1975. He died on August 30, 1975. The wisdom of De Valera's policies has been widely disputed but not his unequaled impact on Irish life in the twentieth century.

The charismatic appeal of "Dev" was firmly based on his understanding of the outlook and way of life of a large section of the Irish people and on his fellow citizens' great respect for his ability, austere dignity, and idealism.

Question: Of which country was de Valera the prime minister, and later the president?
Answer: Ireland