EAMON DE VALERA
De Valera, Eamon (1882-1975), Irish republican leader, was Ireland's first prime minister (1937-48; also in 1951-54 and 1957-59) and its president (1959-73). He was born on October 14, 1882, in New York City, and educated at Royal University, Dublin. During his early life he was a student and teacher of mathematics in Ireland. He soon became well known as an activist for Irish independence. He led a group of Sinn Féin rebels during the uprising of Easter Week, 1916, and was sentenced to life imprisonment when the British quelled the revolt. He was released in the general amnesty of 1917. Later that year, when the Irish republican members of the British Parliament resigned to form their own government, he was elected president of the Sinn Féin party.
De Valera was rearrested by the British in May 1918 on the charge of suspicion and rebellion, but he escaped (1919) with the help of a group of Sinn Feiners. He then went to the United States, where he raised more than $5 million to support the revolutionary movement; he was also elected president of an Irish republican government in exile. He resigned in 1922, when the Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament) ratified a treaty with Great Britain that De Valera had denounced as a humiliating compromise. Because of his opposition, the Irish Free State government, officially recognized by this same treaty, imprisoned him in 1923. Released after 11 months, he again became head of the Sinn Féin party, which did not participate in the Dáil until 1927. In that year a dissident faction of Sinn Féin the Fianna Fáil, re-entered the Dáil headed by De Valera.
De Valera was president of the executive council of the Irish Free State from 1932 to 1937 and was elected premier of Eire under the new constitution of 1937. In 1932 De Valera served as president of the League of Nations council and in 1938 as president of its assembly. At home, his policies were consistently characterized by nationalism and isolationism, both political and economic. In 1938 he approved the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain; during World War II De Valera successfully advocated a policy of neutrality for Ireland. He lost the premiership in 1948, but occupied the post twice again until 1959, when he was elected president of Ireland. He was reelected president in 1966. In 1973 De Valera retired from public life. He died near Dublin on August 29, 1975.
