ABSTRACT
The name Eamon de Valera can evoke to this day a strong and spontaneous response throughout most parts of Ireland. And the sentiment conveyed in that response will vary from unswerving loyalty and unmeasured devotion, on the one hand, to profound bitterness and hostility, on the other. Such has been the legacy of this man, who, upon coming to power in 1932, had already been a nationally prominent figure for over fifteen years. Yet he was to embark upon a career as head of government for twenty of the Irish state’s first thirty-seven years of existence, whereupon he would become head of state (Uachtarán) for another fourteen years. His towering presence, like that of O’Connell and Parnell before him, so dominated the life of the nation that it is not inappropriate to view this period in the making of modern Ireland as the “age of de Valera.”
