DE VALERA, EAMON

born Oct. 14, 1882, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 29, 1975, Dublin, Ire. original name Edward De Valera Irish politician and patriot, prime minister (193248, 195154, 195759), and president (195973). An active revolutionary from 1913, he became president of Sinn Fin in 1918 and founded the Fianna Fil Party in 1924. In 1937 he took the Irish Free State out of the British Commonwealth and made his country a sovereign state, renamed Ireland, or ire. His academic attainments also inspired wide respect; he became chancellor of the National University of Ireland in 1921. Additional reading Biographies include Earl of Longford (Frank Pakenham Longford) and Thomas P. O'Neill, Eamon de Valera (1970), written with de Valera's collaboration; Constantine FitzGibbon and George Morrison, The Life and Times of Eamon de Valera (1973), combining biography with a history of Ireland, extensively illustrated; T. Ryle Dwyer, Eamon de Valera (1980); and Tim Pat Coogan, De Valera (1993). John Bowman, De Valera and the Ulster Question, 19171973 (1982), is a positive reevaluation of his career.