EAMON DE VALERA

Facts

NAME: Eamon de Valera OCCUPATION: President of Ireland BIRTH DATE: October 14, 1882 DEATH DATE: August 29, 1975 EDUCATION: Blackrock College

(Dublin), Royal University (now called UCD)

Childhood

We know very little about Eamon de Valera’s childhood. He was born in New York on October 14th 1882. He was

baptised Edward but he changed his name to Eamon later on.

His mum[Catherine] was Irish and his dad[Juan] was Spanish. His father died when he was 2 years old so his mum sent him to be reared by his grandmother in Ireland in 1885.

He had a half brother called Thomas, who was a Catholic priest in America.

He won a scholarship to go to Blackrock College. He studied mathematics at the Royal University [now called U.C.D].

He taught at Maynooth college and other colleges. He was a very keen rugby player.

This is Eamon de Valera’s birth certificate

Adult Life

In 1910 Eamon de Valera married one of his teachers, Sinead Flanagan. He had five sons and two daughters. He was really into speaking Irish.

As a adult he joined the Irish volunteers in 1913. He took part in the 1916 Irish Rising and was one of the leaders. He was sentenced to death by the English for this, but this was changed to a life sentence in prison because he was American.

He was freed in 1917 and became president of Sinn Fein. He was elected to the government by the people of county Clare.

This is Eamon de Valera as an adult

Profession page 1

The IRA and Sinn Féin disagreed about swearing to be loyal to the King of Great Britain. So, Sinn Fein split in two. Eamon de Valera then founded his own political party called Fianna Fáil in 1926. Fianna Fáil wanted :

To unite Ireland as a republic To let Irish people speak their language again To let the Irish people have their land back To make Ireland independent

Profession page 2 In November 1926 he became president of

Fianna Fáil. In 1933 Fianna Fáil finally got rid of having to swear the oath to the king. De Valera became Taoiseach from 1937-48 and again from 1951-54 and 1957-59.

World War II became known as ‘The Emergency’. De Valera’s government wasn’t very popular because people were very poor. In 1948 De Valera’s government lost power and other parties took over.

This is a photo

of a 1917 Sinn Fein banner.

Áras an Úachtarain, the President’s house in The Phoenix Park

Presidency

Eamon de Valera was the third president of Ireland. He was elected president of Ireland on the 25th of June in 1959. In 1961 it was the first time Irish television was broadcast. Eamon de Valera was the very first person to be broadcast on Irish television. He was aged 79. John F. Kennedy [President of America] visited Ireland and met de Valera five months before he was shot in 1963.

He finished up being president in 1973, when he was aged 90. This happened because he had been president for 14 years and this is the most allowed. When he retired as president he had the world record as oldest president.

Erskine Childers becoming president of Ireland. Eamon de Valera is sitting on the bottom left of the picture, for his last public duties.

Post Presidency

Eamon de Valera died on the 29th of August 1975 aged 92. He was buried in Glasnevin cemetery. His wife, Sinéad, died the January before. This was just before their 65th wedding anniversary.

Glasnevin Cemetry, Eamon de Valera’s grave

EAMON DE VALERA

THIS PROJECT WAS CREATED BY ROBERT MOORING FORM 4’