Éamon de Valera Totally Explained

Everything about Eamon De Valera totally explained

During the 1930s, de Valera had systematically stripped down the Irish Free State constitution that had been drafted by a committee under the nominal chairmanship of his great rival, Michael Collins. In reality, de Valera had only been able to do this due to three reasons. First, though the 1922 constitution originally required public plebiscite for any amendment beyond eight years after its passage, the Free State government under W. T. Cosgrave had amended that period to sixteen years. This meant that, until 1938, the Free State constitution could be amended by the simple passage of a Constitutional Amendment Act through the Oireachtas. Secondly, while in theory the Governor-General of the Irish Free State could reserve or deny the Royal Assent to any legislation, in practice the power to advise the Governor-General so to do as and from 1927 no longer rested with the British Government in London but with His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State, which meant that in practice, the Royal Assent was automatically granted to legislation; the government was hardly likely to advise the Governor-General to block the enactment of one of its own bills. Thirdly, in theory the Constitution had to be in keeping with the provisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the fundamental law of the state. However, that requirement had been removed only a short time before de Valera gained power. Thus, with all the checks and balances that had been provided to preserve the Treaty settlement neutralised, de Valera had a free hand to change the 1922 constitution at will.
   This he did emphatically. The Oath of Allegiance was abolished, as were appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The opposition-controlled Senate, when it protested and slowed down these measures, was also abolished. And finally in December 1936, de Valera used the sudden abdication of King Edward VIII as king of his various realms including King of Ireland to pass two Bills; one amended the constitution to remove all mention of the King and Governor-General, while the second brought the King back, this time through statute law, for use in representing the Irish Free State at diplomatic level.
   In 1931, the British parliament had passed the Statute of Westminster, which established the legislative equal status of the self-governing dominions of the British Empire, including the Irish Free State, and the United Kingdom. Though many constitutional links between the Dominions and the United Kingdom remained, this is often seen as the moment at which the Dominions became fully sovereign states. In July 1936, de Valera as constitutionally the King's Irish Prime Minister, wrote to King Edward in London indicating that he planned to introduce a new constitution, the central part of which was to be the creation of an office de Valera provisionally intended to call President of Saorstát Éireann, which would replace the governor-generalship. The title ultimately changed from President of Saorstát Éireann (Uachtarán Shaorstát Éireann) to President of Ireland (Uachtarán na hÉireann), but it still remained the central feature of his new constitution, to which he gave the new Irish language name Bunreacht na hÉireann (meaning literally the Constitution of Ireland).
   The text of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland

is available as amended to 2004.
The constitution contained a number of reforms and symbols intended to assert Irish sovereignty. These included:

a new name for the state, "Éire" (in Irish) and "Ireland" (in English);
a claim that the national territory was the entire island of Ireland thereby challenging Britain's partition settlement of 1921;
a new popularly elected 'President of Ireland' to replace the British King and Crown and the appointed Irish Governor-General;
recognition of the "special position" of Roman Catholicism, which had for most of Britain's rule in Ireland been suppressed and discriminated against;
a recognition of the Roman Catholic concept of marriage which excluded civil divorce;
the declaration that the Irish language was the first official language of the nation although English was also included as an official language;
the use of Irish language terms to stress Irish cultural and historical identity (for example, Uachtarán, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Rialtas, Dáil, Seanad, etc.); and
the provision that Dáil and Presidential elections would be by means of Proportional Representation-Single Transferrable Vote.

Ciriticisms of some of the above constitutional reforms include that:

despite anti-partition language in the Constitution, partition remained a legal reality, accepted by Article 3;

until 1949, the popularly elected president wasn't popularly elected, but effectively chosen by the political parties for a variety of reasons. In addition, his legal status was somewhat uncertain.

the "special position" of the Roman Catholic Church had little practical significance. In some areas (De Valera's refusal to make Catholicism the established church, his refusal to side with Franco in the Spanish Civil War, the constitutional recognition given to the existence of the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterians, the Methodists and in particular the Irish Jewish community), de Valera's constitution was actually quite radical and distinctly non-Catholic for its day. For that reason, Pope Pius XI refused to support its adoption, an endorsement constitutions in predominantly Catholic countries routinely sought and often got;

the features of the "Catholic" family focused on in the constitution (family based on marriage, with no divorce and the belief that the family was central to society) also accurately mirrored most of the beliefs (divorce excepted) of the mainstream Protestant faiths on the island, namely the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church (although many conservative Protestants also opposed divorce); and

the superior position afforded to the Irish language under the constitution didn't lead to its revival and the language remained in decline. Ireland was declared a Republic on 18 April 1949 by Taoiseach, John A. Costello. The state adopted an official description, the Republic of Ireland while keeping its name, Ireland. In doing so Ireland left the Commonwealth. The last constitutional links to the United Kingdom had finally been cut, ironically not by the revolutionary de Valera.

Neutrality in World War II

By September 1939, a general European war was inevitable. On 2 September, de Valera advised Dáil Éireann that neutrality was the best policy for the country. In this he was almost uniformly supported by the Dáil and the country at large (including the pro-British elements). This gave sweeping new powers to the government for the duration of the Emergency, such as internment, censorship of the press and correspondence, and the government control of the economy. The Emergency Powers Act finally lapsed on 2 September 1946.
This status remained throughout the war, despite pressure from Chamberlain and Churchill. However, de Valera did accept a request from Northern Ireland for fire tenders to assist in fighting fires following the Belfast Blitz. Nevertheless, Churchill and he exchanged bitter words when the war was over.
In 1945 de Valera was the only head of state to send condolences to the German people on the death of Adolf Hitler.

Post–war period

Having spent sixteen years in power, Fianna Fáil was replaced in 1948 by the first First Inter-Party Government with compromise candidate John A. Costello as Taoiseach. De Valera, as leader of the opposition, embarked on a world campaign to raise the issue of partition. He visited the United States, Australia, New Zealand and India, and in the latter country, was the last guest of the Viceroy Lord Mountbatten before the handover of Indian independence. In Melbourne, Australia, he was feted by the powerful Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix, at the centenary celebrations of the diocese of Melbourne. He attended mass-meetings at Xavier College, and addressed the assembled Melbourne Celtic Club. Returning to Ireland, during the Mother and Child Scheme crisis that racked the First Inter Party Government, de Valera kept a dignified silence as Leader of the Opposition, preferring to stay aloof from the controversy. In 1951 de Valera was returned to power but without an overall majority. It was during this period that de Valera's eyesight began to deteriorate and he was forced to spend several months in the Netherlands where he'd six operations.
   Fianna Fáil was defeated again in the 1954 general election. However, like the first coalition government, the second lasted only three years. At the general election of 1957 de Valera, then in his seventy-fifth year, won an absolute majority of nine seats, the greatest number he'd ever secured. This was the beginning of another sixteen year period in office for Fianna Fáil. A new economic policy emerged with the First Programme for Economic Expansion. In July 1957, in response to the Border Campaign (IRA), he ordered the internment without trial of Republican suspects, an action which did much to end the IRA's campaign.
   De Valera remained as Taoiseach until 1959, handing over power to Seán Lemass. In the same year, he was elected President of Ireland, as which he served until 1973. At his retirement at the age of 90, he was the oldest Head of State in the world.
   In 1969, seventy three countries sent goodwill messages to NASA for the historic first lunar landing. These messages still rest on the lunar surface and de Valera's message on behalf of Ireland stated, "May God grant that the skill and courage which have enabled man to alight upon the Moon will enable him, also, to secure peace and happiness upon the Earth and avoid the danger of self-destruction."
   Since the foundation of the state, a de Valera has nearly always served in Dáil Éireann. Éamon de Valera served until 1959, his son, Vivion de Valera, was also a Teachta Dála (TD). Éamon Ó Cuív, his grandson, is currently a member of the Dáil and his granddaughter, Síle de Valera is a former TD. Both have served in ministries in the Irish Government.
   )]] Éamon de Valera died in Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, County Dublin on 29 August, 1975 aged 92. His wife, Sinéad de Valera, four years his senior, had died the previous January, on the eve of their 65th wedding anniversary. He is buried in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery.

Overview

Ireland's dominant political personality for many decades, de Valera received numerous honours. He was elected Chancellor of the National University of Ireland in 1921, holding the post until his death. Pope John XXIII bestowed on him the Order of Christ. He received honorary degrees from universities in Ireland and abroad and in 1968 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a recognition of his lifelong interest in mathematics. He also served as a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (for Down from 1921 to 1929 and for South Down from 1933 to 1937), though he held to the Republican policy of abstentionism and didn't take his seat in Stormont. He retired from the Presidency in June 1973, having served for fourteen years, the longest period allowed under the Constitution.
De Valera was criticised for ending up as co-owner of one of Ireland's most influential group of newspapers, Irish Press Newspapers, funded by numerous small investors who received no dividend for decades. De Valera is alleged by critics to have kept Ireland under the influence of Catholic conservatism. Though that's explained buy the large role Catholicism has played in Irish history. His constitution did explicitly recognise the existence and rights of the Jewish community in Ireland in 1937. At a time when there was beginning in Germany, a process of extermination of Jews. According to Andy Pollak of the Irish Times, a handful" of Jews entered Éire during "The Emergency". Though he rejected Jewish quotas for immigration to Ireland, and always stood for Jewish rights. De Valera rejected fundamentalist Catholic demands by organisations like Maria Duce that Roman Catholicism be made the state religion of Ireland, just as he rejected demands by the Irish Christian Front that the Irish Free State support Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

De Valera’s preoccupation with his part in history, and his need to explain and justify it, are reflected in innumerable ways. His faith in historians as trustworthy guardians of his reputation wasn't absolute. He made many attempts to influence their views and to adjust and refine the historical record whenever he felt this portrayed him, his allies or his cause inaccurately or unfavourably to his mind, these could often mean the same thing. He extended these endeavours to encompass the larger Irish public. An important function of his newspaper group, the Irish Press group, was to rectify what he saw as the errors and omissions of a decade in which he'd been the subject of largely hostile commentary.

In recent decades his role in Irish history has no longer been unequivocally seen by historians as a positive one, and a controversial biography by Tim Pat Coogan alleges that his failures outweigh his achievements, with de Valera's reputation declining as that of his great rival in the 1920s, Michael Collins, is rising. This view may be changing: the most recent work on De Valera by historian Diarmaid Ferriter presents a more positive picture of de Valera's legacy. Bertie Ahern described in a book launch, the achievements of de Valera's political leadership during the formative years of the state:

One of de Valera’s finest hours was his regrouping of the Republican side after defeat in the civil war, and setting his followers on an exclusively peaceful and democratic path, along which he later had to confront both domestic Fascism and the IRA. He became a democratic statesman, not a dictator. He didn't purge the civil service of those who had served his predecessors, but made best use of the talent available.

A notable failure was his attempt to reverse the provision of the 1937 Constitution in relation to the electoral system. On retiring as Taoiseach in 1959, he proposed that the Proportional Representation system enshrined in that constitution should be replaced. De Valera argued that Proportional Representation had been responsible for the instability that had characterised much of the post war period. A constitutional referendum to ratify this was defeated by the people.
Garret Fitzgerald summarised his last term as Taoiseach;

Total economic stagnation marked de Valera's last seven years as leader of his party - because all of the chickens of his disastrous commitment to an inward-looking policy of self sufficiency were coming home to roost.

Governments

The following governments were led by de Valera:

6th Executive Council of the Irish Free State

7th Executive Council of the Irish Free State

8th Executive Council of the Irish Free State

1st Government of Ireland

2nd Government of Ireland

3rd Government of Ireland

4th Government of Ireland

6th Government of Ireland

8th Government of IrelandFurther Information

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