Eamon de Valera summary

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Eamon de Valera, orig. Edward de Valera, (born Oct. 14, 1882, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 29, 1975, Dublin, Ire.), Irish politician and patriot. Born in the U.S. to a Spanish father and an Irish mother, at age two he was sent to live with his mother’s family in Ireland when his father died. In 1913 he joined the Irish Volunteers and in 1916 helped lead the rebels in the Easter Rising. He was elected president of Sinn Féin in 1917. Repudiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 that formed the Irish Free State because it imposed an oath of allegiance to the British crown and provided for the partition of Ireland, he supported the republican resistance in the ensuing civil war. In 1926 he founded Fianna Fáil, which won the 1932 elections. As taoiseach (prime minister; 1932–48), he rescinded the features of the treaty that he and many others found repugnant, and under the new constituion of 1937 he made his country a “sovereign” state renamed Ireland, or Éire. He proclaimed Ireland neutral in World War II. After twice serving again as prime minister (1951–54, 1957–59), he became president of Ireland (1959–73).

Sinn Féin Summary

Sinn Féin, political party that long was widely regarded as the political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), though from at least the 1990s both organizations emphasized their separateness. Organized in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Sinn Féin strives for an end to

president Summary

President, in government, the officer in whom the chief executive power of a nation is vested. The president of a republic is the head of state, but the actual power of the president varies from country to country; in the United States, Africa, and Latin America the presidential office is charged

prime minister Summary

Prime minister, the head of government in a country with a parliamentary or semipresidential political system. In such systems, the prime minister—literally the “first,” or most important, minister—must be able to command a continuous majority in the legislature (usually the lower house in a

Fianna Fáil Summary

Fianna Fáil, the dominant political party in the Republic of Ireland since the 1930s. Constituted in May 1926, Fianna Fáil comprised opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) that had brought the Irish Free State into existence. The party was established and led by Eamon de Valera, who had been