Eamon de Valera
De Valera’s impact on Irish nationalism continues to be controversial. A member of Sinn Fein, a proponent of the use of force, and a skilled orator, de Valera is best remembered through his opposition of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. Some hold him responsible for inciting the Civil War (1922-23), charging him with stoking opposition to the Treaty, and worsening the intra-party tension.
Edward George de Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in New York to a Spanish father and an Irish mother. At the age of two de Valera moved to Ireland and was reared by relatives in County Limerick.
In the 1916 Easter Rising, de Valera was recognized as a leader, and was consequently arrested. On the verge of being executed, like the seven other ringleaders, de Valera was saved by his American birth status, receiving instead a prison sentence. After being released, de Valera ran as a member of Sinn Fein the 1918 General Election. Winning a landslide victory, the representatives refused to take their seats at Westminster, forming instead an independent Irish assembly, the Eireann. De Valera was elected president of the assembly. A few weeks later, the Dail declared an independent Irish Republic and a War of Independence (1919-1921) broke out.The Irish Republican Army (IRA) waged a guerrilla war against Crown forces. For most of the war, Arthur Griffith served as interim President while de Valera toured the United States to garner public support.[1]
In July 1921 a truce was declared and on 6 December of that same year, Griffith announced that he had signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The Irish delegation was sent in October and had negotiated in London for two months before agreeing to the Treaty’s terms. De Valera himself was invited to join, but he refused to do so. De Valera opposed the agreement, as the treaty partitioned Ireland and did not create an independent republic. The Treaty was narrowly passed by the Dail, and de Valera consequently resigned as president. In the months leading up to the Civil War (1922-23), de Valera led the Anti-Treaty faction against the new Irish Free State. The Anti-Treaty forces quickly lost.
In turn, de Valera formed his own party in 1926, Fianna Fail, leading it into the Dail in 1927. Fianna Fail won elections in 1932. In 1937, de Valera wrote a new constitution, which asserted greater autonomy for Ireland—replacing the 1922 Free State Constitution, severing Constitutional links to the British Crown. Ireland, no longer known as the “Irish Free State,” was made functionally independent, and only later in 1949 was the Republic officially declared. De Valera was elected Prime Minister (Taoiseach) three times, and was later President of the Republic from 1959 to 1973, stepping down at the age of 90. De Valera died on 29 August 1975, at the age of 92.[2] Throughout his life, de Valera worked to create a Catholic and Gaelic cultural identity, and was an ardent supporter of the Irish language movement.[3]
[1] Eamon de Valera’s 1919 visit to Boston in the United States was filmed. If interested, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8ljyohXLv0.
[2] “Eamon de Valera, (1882-1975),” BBC History, accessed March 10, 2026, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml.
[3] In 1951, de Valera was interviewed by the BBC. If interested, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE-UjUGVZyw. In the interview, de Valera discusses the importance of preserving Irish history and culture, especially the Irish language.
