Eamon de Valera

Eamon de Valera was the single most influential individual on the course of Irish history in the 20th century.

Born in New York, and holding American citizenship, he was the only one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 to escape execution.

He went on to lead the (unrecognised) Irish Republic of 1918-1921, and to lead Republican forces against the army of the Irish Free State in the Civil War of 1921-1922. Increasingly marginalized from politics after 1922, having taken an oath as a member of Sinn Fein not to take a seat in the assembly until all of Ireland was united and independent, he founded Fianna Fail in 1926 as a way back into the political mainstream, and went on to become head of the Irish government as President of the Executive Council 1932-1937, and (after the Constitution of 1937) Taoiseach 1937-1948, 1951-1954, 1957-1959; and head of state as President 1959-1973. He died in 1973.

He pursued policies of economic self-sufficiency (once telling a journalist that a "higher standard of living" should really be thought of as a "costlier standard of living"), and a moderate form of corporatism with "social partners". Despite his own leadership of Republican forces in the Civil War, he came down heavily on the IRA during the Emergency (1940-1946) and during the Border Campaign (1956-1962), effectively ending that body's influence until it was reinvigorated by the events of 1969.

Below, De Valera speaking on the Easter Rising.

The Uprising of 1916 was an assertion in arms of the right of the Irish People to be free. Freedom has been secured now over more than five-sixths of the national territory. We constantly hope that it will not be long until the whole country is united.