Éamon de Valera

Biography

De Valera was born in New York City in 1882 and was taken to Ireland at the age of two, where he was raised by his mother's family in Bruree, County Limerick. A scholarship took him to Blackrock College in Dublin, and he graduated in mathematics from the Royal University of Ireland in 1904. He then taught mathematics at several colleges, including Carysfort Training College from 1906.

As a commandant of the Irish Volunteers he held Boland's Mill during the 1916 Easter Rising. He was sentenced to death but spared, partly because of his American citizenship. In 1917 he became president of Sinn Féin, and he led the revolutionary government during the War of Independence. He rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty and led the anti-Treaty side.

In 1926 he founded Fianna Fáil, which he led for 33 years and which came to power in 1932. He headed the government as President of the Executive Council and then, under the 1937 constitution he introduced, as Taoiseach, holding office from 1932 to 1948, 1951 to 1954 and 1957 to 1959. His refusal to keep paying land annuities to Britain set off a trade war that lasted until 1938.

He was elected President of Ireland in 1959 and re-elected in 1966, serving until 1973. He died in 1975.