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.

Modern Ireland

The main dates in 20th-century Irish history are:

1916: unsuccessful Easter Rising in Dublin proclaims independent Irish Republic
1918: the Republican party Sinn Fein ("Ourselves Alone") won 73 of 105 Irish seats in the general election, but refused to take seats in the Westminster Parliament and organized their own assembly in Dublin
1919-1921: War of Independence; Ireland given independence as the Irish Free State, still nominally part of the British Empire; Ireland partitioned when the 6 counties of Northern Ireland elected to remain part of the United Kingdom
1921-1922: Civil War between those (led by Michael Collins) willing to accept 26-county independence with nominal British sovereignty, and those (led by Eamon de Valera) who saw anything short of a republic encompassing all of Ireland as a betrayal
1923: Irish Free State joins League of Nations
1926: foundation of Fianna Fail (described by one of its founders, Seán Lemass, as a "slightly constitutional" party), to get around Sinn Fein oath not to take part in politics until ireland reunited
1932: Fianna Fail in power under Eamon de Valera: policies of economic "self-sufficiency" instituted, intended to reduce economic dependence on Britain
1933: foundation of Fine Gael, uniting the strands of nationalism closer to the vision of Michael Collins than of De Valera
1937: Irish Constitution, perhaps the most liberal and democratic new constitution drafted anywhere in Europe in the 1930s (Irish Free State renamed Eire; the "whole island of Ireland" claimed as the national territory; the "special position" of the Catholic Church in Irish life given constitutional recognition)
1938: Royal Navy withdrawn from Irish ports and coastal defences
1940-1946: "the Emergency": Ireland neutral in the Second World War, but governed under a State of Emergency; IRA activists interned for undermining the state's neutrality towards Britain
1949: Republic established (Eire renamed Ireland)
1956: IRA launches "Border Campaign" (carrying out cross-border attacks from the Republic into Northern Ireland)
1957: De Valera orders internment without trial of IRA and Sinn Fein activists at Curragh Camp, Kildare
1958: Seán Lemass replaces De Valera as head of government; launches First Programme for Economic Expansion (moving away from protectionism)
1961-1963: unsuccessful bid for membership of the European Community
1969: beginning of "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland
1970: Dublin Arms Trial: rogue elements of the Irish government and armed forces had been supplying guns to Northern Irish Republicans
1972: 30 January "Bloody Sunday" (paratroopers shoot 27 civil rights protesters in Derry, killing 13); 2 February British embassy burned down in Dublin; constitution modified to drop the "special position" clause relating to the Catholic Church
1973: membership of the European Community
Over the next 30 years, Ireland went from being one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to being one of the richest (the "Celtic Tiger" phenomenon), thanks in part to European structural funds and American investment, but also to a clear policy of making Ireland an attractive place for outside investment, and to the lack of post-industrial problems (due to a lack of older industry)
1998: Good Friday Agreement: Ireland agrees to drop a territorial claim to the whole island of Ireland from its constitution, in response for a voice in the affairs of Northern Ireland

Below, the beginning of the RTE documentary "Ireland in the Seventies", part of the "Seven Ages" series on the history of the Irish state.



For those interested:
Part 2 here
Part 3 here
Part 4 here
Part 5 here
Part 6 here

Decolonization

Ireland was the last predominantly "white" part of the Empire to become self-governing, with the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, and it was one of the first parts of the Empire to break with Britain completely, with the creation of the Republic of Ireland in 1949.

In 1947 India was partitioned into a Hindu-majority state (India) and a Muslim-majority state (Pakistan), both of which became independent. Pakistan, initially made up of two parts on either side of India, was later to separate into Pakistan and Bangladesh (previously East Pakistan). Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Burma became independent in 1948. There were no more significant moves towards independence for almost a decade, when Malaya and Ghana became independent in 1957 and Singapore in 1959. In the intervening years, the Suez Crisis of 1956 had demonstrated that Britain could no longer function as an independent imperial power.

In the 1960s there was a total withdrawal from Empire in Africa, a policy exemplified by Harold Macmillan's "Winds of Change" speech. At much the same time, the most viable territories of the West Indies were also granted independence: Jamaica (1962), Trinidad and Tobago (1962), Barbados (1966), Guiana (1966), the Bahamas (1973).

British withdrawal from Kenya (1963) and from Yemen (1967) were particularly bloody and traumatic (although nothing like as bad as the French withdrawal from Algeria or the Belgian withdrawal from Congo). Also problematic was the continued maintenance of minority White rule in Southern Africa after the end of British control (see here).

The most recent major withdrawal, and presumably the last for some time, is the handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997.

There are still a number of British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the South Atlantic (most significantly the Falkland Islands), the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean (Gibraltar, and an exterritorial military base on Cyprus).