Éamon de Valera and the Creation of Modern Ireland

Just as a prelude, we heard Professor Toyin for Lola with us because

he has just published or in the process of publishing a book on secessionist states,

and this raises the question of whether to give just a prelude to our discussion

whether Ireland was a secessionist state. As I understand it, this is not

the way the Irish look at it. If they achieve their own independence.

But on the other hand, they regard Northern Ireland as a secessionist state.

So this becomes a rather complex issue. What they also we’re very happy that Filippa is back

with us.

And many of you will remember Kevin Kinney, who taught here

in the nineteen nineties. Five, six. How many years? Five years.

And then he was lured away to Boston College. And he has gone

on from Boston College to NYU and he’s in his second month

at NYU. So this is a remarkable occasion.

I want to point out that Kevin is famous for the books that he has already

written on Irish history, and one in particular,

Ireland and the British Empire, which was the first

book in the companion series of the Oxford history of the

British Empire. So, Kevin, we are very much looking forward to hearing your

talk about Alan.

Thank you very much, Roger. It’s a great pleasure to be back

at U.T. Hellstrom. I started here in nineteen ninety four twenty five years ago and

joined the British Studies Seminar in my first week, and I have then

the junior fellow ever since. Once a junior fellow, always a junior

fellow stays in touch with Roger

as a role model and a colleague and a mentor during all

of that period. Roger contacted me in the summer and asked me if I would

give re-appraisal of Ayman Devil era

the dominant and most controversial figure. Irish political history of the

invites me to do things, whether it’s a book or a lecture, before giving

a reappraisal in my own mind. I have to come up with an appraisal. In other

words, there was a learning curve for me. I had to learn quite a lot about Devil Arrow before I could reappraise

him. But that’s what I’ll attempt to do today. Aymond Devil area with the

dominant figure in Irish politics for almost half a century from his role

in the Easter Rising of 1916 to his last term as Prime

Minister, or t shock, which ended in 1959. And after

that, he served two seven year terms in the ceremonial but influential

office of President of Ireland. So from 1916 to 1973,

Devel era was the dominant figure. The architect of the Irish state

DEVEL era is also the most controversial and divisive figure in modern Irish history.

It is fair to say that he is currently more disliked than liked in

Ireland for two main reasons. First, his rejection

of the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921 contributed in a significant measure

to the civil war that followed. And interestingly, the treaty split

rather than any conventional left right spectrum has defined

Irish party politics ever since. It’s one of the reasons Ireland isn’t polarized

today in a conventional manner. It’s been split over a different issue

whether to support the treaty or oppose it. While

Devel era remains a hero to some hard line Republican nationalists, his

role in the treaty negotiations and the civil war earned him an enduring reputation

as dogmatic, self-righteous and anti-democratic.

Second, because Devel era was the dominant political figure in Ireland for so long,

retiring from the presidency only at the age of 90 when he was almost fully

blind, his generally perceived as having overstayed his time

and consequently as embodying in Ireland, beset by economic

and cultural backwardness, of which he seemed to display very little

awareness, Devel believed an economic self-sufficiency rather

than development. He did nothing to stop the massive emigration that continue to

characterised Ireland throughout the 20th century as much as it had on the 19th.

And he clung to a deeply conservative approach on social questions. For example,

women’s rights add to this the forms of censorship he introduced during and

after World War 2 and Devil Era as Ireland emerges as a bleak

narrow-minded place. So the case against Devel era is a. Wrong one.

But so, too, is the case in his favor. When he returned to power

in the nineteen thirties, a decade after the treaty split, he drafted a new constitution

that made Ireland a republic in all but name. And he carved out a space for

Irish neutrality that carried Ireland through the crisis of World War 2

and has endured to the present. In these two ways, in particular, the Constitution

and neutrality devil era created modern Ireland. That’s a sovereign state.

So let me begin with a brief account of what previous historians and biographers

have made of a medieval era. The official biography published by Lord

Longford and Thomas O’Neill in 1970 was by the nature

of its genre, long on praise and short on critical judgment.

Tim Pat Coogan, a well-known Irish newspaper editor and self-trained historian,

set out to provide a corrective in his 700 page Aymond devil era,

The Man Who Was Ireland, published in 1995. Coogan

had previously published a biography of Michael Collins, Devel Errors chief antagonist

in the Civil War, whom Coogan regarded as the legitimate architect of the Irish

state. Few remember the film Michael Collins, the eponymous hero

played by Liam Neeson and the craven, duplicitous figure of Devel era.

Brilliantly, though surely and accurately captured by the late Alan Rickman

are largely Coogan’s creations. Coogan’s biography of Devel era,

though comprehensive, is, in the end a hatchet job. Coogan declares his intention,

quote, to steer between the seller of hagiography and the Charybdis of denigration.

Practically everything of substance written about him falls into one category or the other.

Coogan writes I have tried to evaluate him neither as a demon

nor as a plaster saint, but for what he was. For better or worse,

the most important leader of the 20th century. But Coogan’s biography is not nearly

as balanced as he suggests. Was he a Lincoln or a Machiavelli?

Coogan asks at the outset. A saint or a charlatan, a man of peace,

or one who incited young men to hatred and violence? The very terms of this

inquiry virtually ensure that the latter set of attributes Machiavellian

charlatans, charlatan, apostle of violence not only get a serious airing in the book,

but on balance went out. The figure of devil error that emerges over the

next several hundred pages is, as Coogan puts it in his final chapter, etched

in light and shade with the light demmer and the shade darker than official

portraits have hitherto depicted. But once again, that’s portrayed as not as subtle as Coogan suggests.

His devil aira is always vain, self-righteous, petulant, dogmatic

and devious, and always angling for power. Coogan finds devel errors handling

of the treaty negotiations which determine the course of Irish history for the next century irresponsible

and born out of a reckless pride. As a result of devel errors actions, he concludes,

Ireland’s course was set in bitterness and small horizons.

He concludes that the great challenges which confronted him during his years in office,

including partition, the economy and emigration devel error did little

that was useful and much that was harmful. Coogan’s biography ends

as it begins with a series of rhetorical questions. What then was devel error?

A hero or a fraud? A patriot and a statesman or a ward heeling politician,

a scholar or an obscurantist, a charlatan or a seer?

Again, merely to pose the matter. In this way is virtually to ensure the outcome.

He had elements of all these things in him. Coogan declares. But as ever, he

is most interested in exposing the negative qualities. Reviewing Coogan’s

book in The Independent. Professor Roy Foster of Oxford University paid a backhanded

tribute to DEVEL errors political gifts, but also skewered him for his weaknesses

repeatedly. Foster writes Devel error converted practical defeat into a

rhetorical victory. The rising quarrels with Irish-American leaders.

The treaty split the civil war. The entry into the dole, that’s I wrote the Irish

parliament. The same tactic would gloss over the distancing of Ulster. The failure

to revive spoken Irish economic stagnation and the hemorrhage of emigration.

And, Foster adds, a virtue was made of his personal commitment to moronic

artistic censorship and sectarian constitutional law.

This is why I said Doubler is not very popular in Ireland.

But Phosphor also acknowledges what he calls devel errors of political brilliance.

His personal and other inadequacy, fossile writes, was transmuted

into political karisma private narrow mindedness, self-delusion, even. Jealousy

were eclipsed in the public sphere by a legendary political personality

that was foster, rather critically concludes somewhere

between Savannah, Rola and Kenyatta. I have no

idea of what that means. The most recent biography by Professor

Ronan Fanning of University College Dublin offers the most subtle and balanced

and hence the most persuasive account of devel error of his career at 300 pages.

It is also mercifully shorter than Coogan’s recognizing Devel

era as the most significant figure in the political history of modern Ireland, as well as the most

controversial. Fanning seeks to define the magnitude of his political achievement.

Like Coogan, Fanning is harshly critical of devel errors and transitions

over the trade negotiations and his culpability in the civil war. But

he lands much greater weight than Coogan to devel errors. Political and diplomatic

contributions, especially in the critical decades of the 1930s and 1940s.

Okay. So on the basis of that balance sheet in my lecture today, I

want to interweave an assessment of DEVEL errors accomplishments

into a political biography. I want to tell you a lot about his political life and

the sequence that has unfolded. And I want to touch on the main themes, the four main themes

I have mentioned so far devel our strengths and weaknesses as a political leader.

Secondly, his role in the treaty split and the civil war. Thirdly,

his crafting of a new constitution that paved the way for a full fledged independent republic.

And finally, the question of neutrality, which he saw as the key

to national sovereignty.

Emma Devora was born in New York City in 1882,

the only child of an Irish immigrant named Catherine Cole and a Spanish

sculptor named Juan Vivian. Dave Allura. Catherine Cole

was born in County Limerick in 1856, emigrated to Brooklyn.

The next parish over 1879. There, like so many

Irish women of her generation. She entered domestic service. Vivian

Devora, born in the Basque Country in 1853, was the son of an army

officer. The family moved from Spain to Cuba, and he wrote relocated to New York

in the 1870s in hopes of advancing his career as a sculptor.

According to Devil Errors account, his parents were married in New Jersey in 1881,

though no documentary evidence of this marriage has survived. His political

opponents occasionally raise the specter of illegitimacy, but in general, devil

use the exotic surname to cultivate an aura of being above the fray

in Irish politics, known early on as the Spaniard. He was sometimes referred

to as the Longfellow because of his height 6 6 feet, one inches,

and eventually he was known universally as dev- by his friends and enemies

alike, a scholarship student at the Christian Brothers School in

Limerick, and then at BlackRock College, the elite school just

outside Dublin. Devil Erra excelled. Mathematics went on to take his

B.A. and that subject at the Royal University in 1984 and secured

a full time appointment as the head of the Mathematics Department at the Teacher Training College

in Karis for Black Rock in 1986. Up to this point, Devel IRA had shown

no interest in the Irish language, but with a Gaelic revival emerging

as a central component of cultural nationalism, he enrolled in Irish classes.

He fell in love not only with the language, but with his teacher, schneid Flanagan, and

they were married in 1910. It was at this point that Devil Erra changed his given

name Edward to Aimen. Like many of his generation,

Devora was radicalized by the home rule. Home rule crisis that broke out in 1912

to paramilitary forces. The Ulster Volunteer Force in the north and the Irish volunteers

in the south stood ready to do battle. Devil Erra joined the Irish volunteers

at their inaugural meeting in Dublin in 1913, and his diligent attendance

at weekly drell meetings and his interest in more advanced military exercises

won him promotion to captain of his own company. With the Lords veto

over the Commons reduced in 1911 to a three year moratorium.

The Home Rule bill was finally passed in September 1914.

This being Irish history, it immediately went wrong because war had just broken out

in Europe and home rule was put on hold for the duration of the conflict.

John Redmond, the leader of the dominant moderate nationalist

forces in Ireland, sensing a chance to demonstrate the compatability

of home rule with imperial loyalty and unity, recommended that the Irish

and list and fight and eventually 210000 Irish people

served in the British Army. 35000 died during that conflict, including

Redman’s brother, Willie. But the result was a split within the Irish volunteers.

The majority sided with Redmond, but about seven thousand five hundred men broke away.

Among them Aymond Devel era, and this extremist group played a central role

in the lead up to the Easter 1916 Rising Devil. Erra

played a minor part in the rising, commanding an isolated outpost at a place called

Boland’s Mill on the outskirts of the city. But the events of Easter Week made his

reputation and laid the foundation for his political career.

Like other leaders of the Rising, he was sentenced to death by a military court

by met by May 12th, 1916. Within a couple of weeks of

the outbreak of the rising, General John Maxwell had presided over the execution

of fifteen of the revolutionary leaders. Devil Larry’s wife, Shawn Age, asked

the American Council to intervene on the grounds that he was a U.S. citizen.

But devil area was actually saved by a stroke of luck rather than by

diplomacy. Despite a telegram from. Asquith calling for a halt to the shootings.

Maxwell had proceeded with the execution of James Connolly,

the socialist leader. On May 12th, he then asked the Crown prosecuting

officer W E Wiley if the next prisoner on the list, Ayman

Devel era, was of any importance. No, said Whiley.

He’s a schoolmaster who was taken at Boland’s mill,

so he escaped execution. He spent the next year in prison for first in Dublin and

then in four English prisons. And it was in prison

that he made the transition from soldier to politician, establishing himself as the undisputed

leader of the Irish Revolution. He was older than most of his companions,

enjoyed military seniority as the sole surviving common commandant

of 1916. And he insisted on political prisoner status,

whichever prison he was. That was very important. He was elected

to parliament on the Sinn Fein ticket, not taking his seat, obviously, but

elected while in prison. He returned as a popular hero

in 1917 and was elected as president of both

the Sinn Fein Party. The party of Irish Republicanism and the Irish volunteers.

Devil Valera consolidated his leadership by leading a successful campaign against conscription

during which he skillfully secured the support of the Irish hierarchy. The Bishop’s proclamation

negotiated with Devil Era that the Irish people had the right to resist conscription by every

means consonant with God’s law was a critical step towards legitimacy

for Sinn Fein as a political party and faced with this opposition. The British government

backed down on extending conscription to Ireland. But devil Aaron

seventy-two Sinn Fein leaders were arrested in May 1918 on trumped

up allegations of plotting with German agents. The devil IRA went back to

jail, this time Lincoln Jail in England. While in jail,

he was returned unopposed to his seat.

Ireland’s own parliament, Dall Airand, met for its inaugural

session. Devil Erra escaped from lincoln. jail in February 1919.

Initially considered going straight to the United States, where he felt he could best advance Ireland’s case

for self-determination by bringing Irish American pressure to bear on President

Woodrow Wilson. He was persuaded to return to Dublin

and was elected president of Doyle arem, the self-declared

Irish parliament, in 1919. He still had his eye primarily on America, however.

And in June 1919, he left for the United States, where he spent the

next 18 months, the critical period in the Irish Revolution. But Devel era

was here and felt that this was the best place to be as president of Doyle

Aaron. The Irish Parliament. He was hailed by Irish Americans with the informal

title President of Ireland, a misconception he made no

effort to correct, and eventually grew impatient

with Irish American efforts to lobby Wilson and concentrated his energies

on raising funds to support the self-declared Irish Republic.

This is one area where the question of secessionism comes in because in devil aros opinion,

Ireland did. Ireland did not need to be granted the right of self-determination by

any council of international powers. It already possessed that right.

It had exercised the right in the interaction of 1916, and again in the election

of nineteen eighteen Create and Dall Aaron. Irish Americans, he concluded,

should stop devoting their time and money to opposing the Versailles Treaty, to seeking the

right to self-determination, and should concentrate instead, and directly helping Ireland

in its war of independence against the British to secure control over

American funds. Devil Erra decided in the summer of 1920 to bypass

the existing nationalist societies on this side of the Atlantic and to set up his own

organization. During his time, the United States he issued up to five million

dollars in bond certificates whereby Americans could support

the war in Ireland. Devel †returned to Ireland on

December 23rd, 1920. The date is significant because that same

day Parliament enacted the Government of Ireland bill partitioning the island

into two on equal parts six northeastern counties constituting Northern

Ireland, which remained part of the United Kingdom, and the remaining 26 counties

whose status would soon be up from. Nation When a truce came into effect

in July 1921, Devil IRA met Lloyd George four times

in Downing Street, but he rejected any offer of Dominion status

with safeguards for British defense interests. The two leaders continue to

correspond until September, when Devel era accepted an invitation

for an Irish delegation to attend a conference in London to determine the nature of

Ireland’s association with the impasse. The conference began

on October 11th. Devil IRA refused

to join the delegation. Sending a team led by Arthur

griffeth and Michael Collins instead would give them how the negotiations

turned out. His refusal to participate in the conference has been the source of endless

criticism and recrimination ever since. Devil Erra claimed subsequently

that he remained at home to avoid compromising the republic to evade

any trickery by Lloyd George, who was known for his trickery

of Devil R-New, knew to ensure that any final decision

would be taken in Dublin rather than London. This was Devil Aros retroactive

rationale, but based on his previous meetings with Lloyd George, he must have

known how inexperienced and disadvantaged the Irish team would be compared

with their seasoned British counterparts who included Churchill and Lloyd George

operating on Homefield. If you like. And in retrospect, it

seems clear that he ought to have explained clearly to the Irish delegates that

in his view, they did not have full plan of potential re power to agree

on a treaty. In Davila’s view, all of that would have to come back to Dublin before

any decision was made. DEVEL Errors Authority in Ireland

had been so unquestioned since 1916 that apparently nobody

saw the need to offer these explanations or to address them upfront. So there’s a confusion at

the heart of things. Error did not anticipate that the Irish delegates would bond as a team

during their constant journeys back and forth to London by sea and rail.

He did not anticipate that they would be worn down by the British negotiators, which

they were. Above all, he did not anticipate that they could possibly sign an agreement

without his approval, which they did on December 6th,

which they regarded as their right to do. Michael Collins remarked pragmatically

and presciently that the treaty. qual- it did not grant full independence,

gave Ireland the freedom to achieve freedom, that with Collins’s phrase,

the freedom to achieve freedom devel era. However, rejected the agreement

out of hand. Instead, he proposed his own version of the so-called

document number two. Now, what I’m about to say is a little confusing.

It’s because it’s a little confusing. No, no. Nobody has ever really been able to get to the heart

of fully to the heart of document number two as distinct from the treaty. But

here are the issues at stake. The treaty provided for an Irish free state

that would be a self-governing dominion within the British Empire. The king would be the head

of the Irish state. His representative in Ireland would be a governor general.

Of the members of the Irish parliament. Would swear an oath of allegiance

not only to the constitution of the Irish free state, but also to the king.

Devil Era insisted that the only source of authority over Ireland was

the Irish people and that he could not or Ireland could not accept that arrangement

under document number two, Ireland would cooperate with other Commonwealth powers

on matters of common concern. Representatives to two

Dall Aaron would swear an oath only to the Constitution of the Irish

free state. While recognizing the British monarch as the head

of an association, the Commonwealth, to which Ireland voluntarily

belonged rather than as the head of the Irish state.

OK, all of that sounds a bit a bit clearer than I expected. It was maybe to clear

the issue at stake. In any case was sovereignty. It was not.

It was the sovereignty of the 26 counties. It was not,

as is often assumed, the partition of Ireland. Partition was

a fait accompli. It had been an act of the previous year. The question was, would Southern Ireland

constitute an independent republic, as the man of 1916 had declared,

or would it retain an allegiance to the British Empire? Such that the members of its government

would be required to swear an oath of loyalty to the Crown,

with the King remaining? Ireland’s head of state.

Now, is that the kind of issue you fight a civil war over? The answer has to be yes, because

the civil war came out of precisely that issue. Devil error expected to win majority

support for his alternative formulation, but the Doyel approved the treaty

rather than document number two by 64 votes to fifty seven.

ERU resigned as president of Dall. Aaron stood for reelection as president

of that body. But was again defeated on an even narrower

margin, 60 votes to 58. And then here is the

key to the whole thing. Unable to accept this outcome.

Error took the profoundly undemocratic step of withdrawing from the

Doyle with his supporters. In doing so, he did not single

handedly cause the Irish civil war. Extremist elements in the I.R.A.

were determined to oppose the treaty by force. But devil error did determine

the form and the scale of the conflict that followed.

Devil Wears Cardinal Sin, as Fanning puts it, was his rejection of the treaty

and its consequent culpability for the civil war that charges incontrovertible

if Devil Arah had been prepared to swallow his pride and with it his legitimate

complaint that the planet potential’s had broken their word not to sign the treaty

without first referring it back to Dublin. The treaty split might have been contained. This

is fanning. The funding concludes that he opposed the treaty not because it was a compromise.

But because it was not his compromise. Now is a compromise

that here he had authorized in advance of its conclusion.

A devil area, as I said, never control the extremists, but its pronouncements as

the crisis escalated enhance the chances of war. On St. Patrick’s

Day 1922, for example, he declared that if the treaty were accepted, the

i._r._a quote would have to wade through Irish blood, through the blood of the soldiers

of the Irish government and through perhaps the blood of some of the members of the government

in order to get Irish freedom. The following month, anti treaty forces

occupied the four courts in Dublin, the main judicial center, and the storming of

that building by Irish Free State Free State Army forces

ignited the civil war, which lasted for most of the next year.

In 1923, devil, “the Sinn Fein candidates won

to take their seats on the grounds that the Irish free state was invalid.

Devil Lara was arrested by free state troops sent back to jail for a year.

This was the low point of his political career, but he was already

planning his slow return to power. One

of the brief digression and then I’ll get em to the remainder of the latter. One of the

more peculiar, interesting essays I was asked to write was the

volume on Abraham Lincoln called The Global Lincoln, which looks at

images of Lincoln and countries around the world. And they have

invited to see if I’d like to write one on Ireland. Abraham Lincoln,

an Irish political discourse. And my response

was that’s that’s either a very good idea or a very bad idea, because nothing has ever been written

on that. So either nothing can be written or it’s an opportunity. And that turned out to be an opportunity.

What I found. We can maybe get into this in the Q&A, but what I found was that all parties to the

Irish question, the hard line nationalists, the moderate nationalists, the Ulster Unionists,

invoked Abraham Lincoln with sufficient frequency. It’s not a mantra, but with sufficient

frequency to make things interesting. They invoked a different Lincoln.

So what was at stake here is that Devel era had a bust of Lincoln on his desk

and he had framed copies of the Declaration of Independence in his office.

Lloyd George was very interested in Lincoln, but when when either man talked about Lincoln,

they were really talking about themselves. The Lincoln they were literal remembering was a part

of themselves. So Lloyd George loved the Lincoln who had fought a war

over over the forces of reaction and prevailed. The Civil War, World War,

one devil era loved the Lincoln who were prevented

secession, which he equated with partition and in Devon IRA’s view of the matter,

as Roger alluded to. Whereas Lloyd George

would see the devil era, his kind of secessionists from the Empire Devil

Errors position was We have nothing to secede from the union. The union

was imposed, not chosen. It’s illegitimate. We have nothing to secede from.

Secession is the wrong term. Nor by the same

similar logic to the people of Northern Ireland, have any right to secede

from an inviolable Irish nation, which is can be

identified with the territory of Ireland and has existed from time immemorial.

So in the Irish political idiom, secession

becomes partitioned. There are arguments made against it. OK. In 1926,

Devil Era resigned as president of Sinn Fein and announced the formation of a new

political party that the party has seen a fall, which is one of the two main political parties

in Ireland ever since, with the objectives of securing

the political independence of the United Ireland as a republic. Restoring the Irish

language and implementing a social

system of equal opportunity. Land redistribution and economic self-sufficiency

of those who came close to enacting the first on the last. In other words, political and

independence in a form something like a republic and some degree

of economic self-sufficiency. By

this time, the free state government had

passed a law providing their candidates for the Irish parliament must

henceforth declare their intention before a nomination.

To take the prescribed Declaration of Allegiance if they were elected.

Right, so up to this point, devil, Erin, Sinn Fein have been running

in elections, but with no intention of taking their seats. Now, under the law, if they’re going to run

for office, they have to take their seats to take their seats. They have to

take the oath of allegiance. Devil IRA advises Finn Finn

Falls national executive, that they must now choose between entering the dole

or simply forsaking political action. And he devised self-righteous

compromise, issuing a press release explaining that the requires declaration

was not really an oath, but simply an empty political formula

carrying no obligation of loyalty to the English crown. Why, he could

not have seen the matter that way in January 1922, on the eve of the civil war, remained

unexplained. But within five years of the 1927 compromise that I’ve just

mentioned, which is 10 within 10 years of the Civil War. Finn

offor entered the Irish parliament as the minority but main stream party

of the Republican opposition. Sophina Fall and Devel era are back in

business. And in 1932. They win the election.

Devil Arabic big becomes Prime Minister Auty shock and for good measure

takes the position of Minister for External Affairs. But

both positions and his goal is clear he wants to remove the remaining

impediments to Irish independence and on that basis to carve out a position for

Ireland as a neutral state in a world beset by huge ideological divisions.

He introduced legislation to abolish the oath straight away, insisting

that Ireland was acting constitutionally. Invoking the Statute of Westminster passed

in December 1931, which provided that no law of the United Kingdom should

extend to any of the Dominions without their consent. So he just revoked

the concept the British did not resist. In 1935, devilry began working

on a new constitution for Ireland. He took advantage of the British abdication crisis

to implement its central features. Ireland’s new constitution.

Endorsed by the Irish people in a referendum on July 1st, declared

that Ireland is a sovereign, independent, democratic state and affirmed the Irish

nation’s inalienable, indivisible and sovereign right to choose its own

form of government. Now, as the title of the country devel ira chose

the name Aira the A or E or Ireland

rather than the Republic of Ireland. Thereby retaining a vague

relationship with the Commonwealth. So Ireland by 1937 is a republic and all but name.

But not a name. He feared partly that Britain might retaliate

by depriving Irish born citizens and Britain of their rights or by closing the all important

safety valve of emigration. So he was careful in what he was doing. He also claimed

subsequently that the name Republic should be used not for the 26 countries alone,

but only when the 32 countries came back together.

Article 44 of the Constitution conferring a special position

on the Catholic Church is among the most controversial aspects. He drafted

this article himself. He did not reveal its wording until he shared the text

of the full document with his cabinet the day before it went changed

for printing. Article 44 has been roundly criticized for favoring the Catholic

Church. But you are a historian. You would also have to see it in its context

as a compromise. Given the power of the Catholic Church in Irish society,

the hierarchy had wanted exclusive, not merely special recognition

so that the dominant church get special recognition, not exclusive recognition. Devil

took pains to ensure that the article made explicit, explicit references to

the rights of Protestants and Jews.

No satisfied that his new constitution had reconciled sovereignty with

majority rule. Formula he had failed to achieve in 1922,

devil error moved to repudiate the I.R.A. His logic

was that now that the Irish people had established a state in accordance with their own wishes

and any attempts to overthrow that state was treason. That’s a very harsh

anti Irish laws are introduced at that point. Devon A second

great accomplishment in the 1930s was to lay the grounds for Irish neutrality.

And under the treaty of nineteen

twenty two, the sole remaining restriction on our sovereignty was

a series of ports in Ireland that remained

under the defense annex of the treaty. In other words, British access

to those ports was guaranteed. DEVILRY could not dismantle

that restriction unilaterally. Negotiation was needed.

He entered into negotiations with with Neville Chamberlain government, and in April 1938

it was agreed that all defense facilities retained by the British would be handed

over to the Irish government. Now, this is 1938. Obviously, nobody

could foretell what was going to happen. Two years later, in 1938,

even as the ports were being formally transferred, the Irish and British intelligence services

agreed on close cooperation on counter-espionage and other security matters.

Devora had long believed and publicly stated that an independent Ireland would never

threaten Britain. On the contrary, Irish independence would benefit both countries.

Provided that Britain respected Irish sovereignty, Ireland would have a vested interest in

its neighbor remaining strong, and Britain would benefit from Ireland’s refusal to

cooperate with aname powers in devil areas mind. Therefore, neutrality

always entailed mutual cooperation with Britain and a commitment to prevent Germany using

Irish territory in the event of war. And actually you can trace that strain and his thought back 20 years

before World War 2, when the I.R.A.,

as the self-styled government of the Irish Republic launched a bombing campaign in England in 1939,

DEVEL †reinforced the Treason Act of 1937 with the new offenses against the State

Act. And in 1940, aware that i._r._a overtures to Hitler’s Germany

threatened to give Britain a pretext to infringe on Irish neutrality. Devil Ourown

acted draconian emergency powers legislation under which i._r._a

prisoners were interned without trial among those who were tried. Some were executed

by military tribunal, while others were allowed to die on hunger

strike and heavy censorship with them enforced throughout the emergency.

The Devil Erra maneuvered Ireland for the most part expertly through the challenges of World War

Two. An outward display of absolute neutrality and independence

was essential to preserve Ireland’s sovereignty, but at the same time aware

that a German victory would destroy that sovereignty. Ireland furnished considerable assistance

to Britain in secret, including permission for overflights of Irish territory,

transmission of coast watching and meteorological reports and shared intelligence.

Censorship prevented the public from knowing the extent of this cooperation and

devel error concealed much of it even from its own from his own cabinet. Chambre

Chamberlain in 1940 and Churchill in 1941 made overtures

purporting to offer a united Ireland in return for the abandonment of neutrality

and the use of the treaty ports. But DEVEL error refusing to compromise Irish

independence rejected this proposal out of hand. Nor, of course, was he naive

enough to assume that Chamberlain or Churchill had either the intention or the ability

to follow through on these wartime overtures. Devil ARA’s pursuit

of neutrality significantly enhanced his position as a statesman, but he rather spoils

the effect. On May 2nd, 1945, with his mulish insistence

that strict neutrality required him to visit the German envoy to pay his condolences

on the occasion of Hitler’s death, characteristically

it through a characteristically pedantic gesture that infuriated the British

and even more so, the Americans, and which Fanning describes as grotesquely ill

judged. This incident aside DEVEL errors policy of neutrality

was notably successful. He emerged victorious from an exchange of radio broadcasts with Churchill.

Two weeks later, when the British prime minister congratulating himself for his self-restraint,

that not having. Re-occupied the treaty, Portes made several sneering references to Devel

era and his policies DEVEL era and a dignified response. Regarded as

one of his finest speeches, Camile reiterated that neutrality was

the scene a qua non of Irish independence.

Okay. To wrap up by 1945 to urban devil, Erra had accomplished

his primary objectives. The new Constitution. The emergence of Ireland as a republic and all but name

and a form of neutrality that allowed the Irish state to survive. The only significant

threat to its sovereignty that it has yet faced the crisis of World War 2

and other major issues. However, partition, emigration and the economy. He had

few effective ideas or practices, as Professor Joseph Lee once put it. Devel

errors qualities would have made him a leader beyond compare in the pre-industrial world.

It wasn’t one sensor’s misfortune that his career should coincide with an age of

accelerated economic change whose causes and consequences largely baffled

him. Error went on to serve three more terms as teh shock, followed

by two terms in the ceremonial office of President. He had no choice in 1972,

given the nature of his position as president, but to publicly approve of

Ireland’s entry into the European Economic Community. He saw it as inevitable,

though in private, he worried about its implications for Irish sovereignty. Always his main

concern. Without devel error, Ireland would not have secured its sovereignty as

early as it did, and it might not have retained us during World War 2.

It is perhaps a fitting testament to his achievement that the Irish electorate regarded

this sovereignty as sufficiently secure. By 1972

that they voted overwhelmingly to dilute it by joining Europe.

It is primarily on his accomplishments and failures. Through the end of World War Two, the devil aera must be

judged. He may have been authoritarian, pedantic and self-righteous.

But these same qualities were the key to the unshakeable self-confidence that defined

his political leadership. If I wish to know what the Irish want,

he once famously declared, I look into my own heart.

Professor Foster rightly points out that this claim entailed consigning large numbers of people to

the category of an Irish not only a million northern Protestants,

but also those people in the rest of Ireland who disagreed with devel error on politics, culture or anything

else. Yet if DEVEL error self-confidence was his greatest weakness contributing

to the calamity of the Civil War, it was obviously also his greatest strength, allowing

him to create a new Irish nation state. On one side of the coin was fussiness

dogmatism, but on the other was a style of leadership so skilled and self-assured

that it made Devel era seem like Ireland’s only natural head of state, not only to himself,

but to well established people. In this respect, there is perhaps at least a partial

comparison with General de Gaulle. The two men had very different personalities.

One extroverted and volatile, the other introverted and reserved. What they had in common

was unshakeable self-confidence in matters of state. They met in 1969,

in the twilight of their careers when President Devel era host of the former French president

in Dublin. Each of them, for better and for worse, saw himself and

his country as one and the same. Thank you.