ABSTRACT
Eamon de Valera raised a lot of funds in the United States during his visit, funds which formed part of the National Loan. Given the amounts and how vital the National Loan was to the Irish struggle for independence, it may be instructive to view how various historians have described and dealt with this topic. Rex Taylor, writing in the 1950s in a biography states that Collins was responsible for raising the Loan and that the targets were, in Ireland, to raise £250,000, and in the United States where de Valera was to raise $5 million. Margery Forester, in her work states that despite de Valera in the United States causing divisions among Irish–American societies and supporters he achieved good work in the cause. In 1996 Kostick, writing a left-wing version of the struggle for independence mentions both de Valera's fundraising in the United States and the bond drive which resulted in the huge amount of $5,123,640.
