de Valera, Éamon (1882–1975)

Irish nationalist politician, president/Taoiseach (prime minister) of the Irish Free State/Eire/Republic of Ireland 1932–48, 1951–54, and 1957–59, and president 1959–73. Repeatedly imprisoned, de Valera participated in the Easter Rising of 1916 and was leader of the nationalist Sinn Fein party 1917–26, when he formed the republican Fianna Fáil party. He opposed the Anglo‐Irish Treaty (1921) but formulated a constitutional relationship with Britain in the 1930s that achieved greater Irish sovereignty.

De Valera was born in New York, the son of a Spanish father and an Irish mother, and sent to Ireland as a child. After studying at Blackrock College and the Royal University at Dublin, he became a teacher of mathematics, French, and Latin in various colleges. He was sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising, but the sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and he was released under an amnesty in 1917 because he was born in New York. In the same year he was elected to Westminster as MP for East Clare, and president of Sinn Fein. He was rearrested in May 1918, but escaped to the USA in 1919. He returned to Dublin in 1920 from where he directed the struggle against the British government. He authorized the negotiations of 1921, but refused to accept the ensuing treaty arguing that external association with Britain rather than the lesser status of dominion status was attainable.

His opposition to the Anglo‐Irish Treaty contributed to the civil war that followed. De Valera was arrested by the Free State government in 1923, and spent a year in prison. In 1926 he formed a new party, Fianna Fáil, which secured a majority in 1932. De Valera became Taoiseach and foreign minister of the Free State, and at once instituted a programme of social and economic protectionism. He played the leading role in framing the 1937 constitution by which southern Ireland became a republic in all but name. In relations with Britain, his government immediately abolished the oath of allegiance and suspended payment of the annuities due under the Land Purchase Acts. Under an agreement concluded in 1938 between the two countries, Britain accepted £10 million in final settlement, and surrendered the right to enter or fortify southern Irish ports. Throughout World War II de Valera maintained a strict neutrality, rejecting an offer by Winston Churchill in 1940 to recognize the principle of a united Ireland in return for Eire's entry into the war. He lost power at the 1948 elections but was again prime minister 1951–54 and 1957–59, and thereafter president of the Republic 1959–66 and 1966–73.