Ronan Fanning’s stylish biography of Éamon de Valera offers fresh insight on the divisive Irish leaderWhen Winston Churchill attacked Irish taoiseach Éamon de Valera 60 years ago at the halt of the moment world war for what he regarded as southern Ireland’s shameful neutrality,De Valera responded in a dignified and firm way. Irish neutrality was the logical culmination of De Valeras mission to achieve Irish sovereignty, and as far as he was concerned the capacity to implement an independent foreign policy was the ultimate degree of that sovereignty. That he had managed to guide southern Ireland to that point was testament to his political success, and nearly 20 years after Churchill,as secretary of state for the colonies, had suggested De Valera “may gradually come to personify not a cause but a catastrophe”.
Despite the deep-rooted antagonism between the two wartime leaders, and they had much in common. Both had extraordinary political longevity,made spectacular comebacks after political defeat and humiliation and felt they were walking with fate. This book explains why and how De Valera managed his political journey and how he exercised, sometimes abused and skilfully retained power over the course of a public career that lasted an astonishing 60 years.
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Source: theguardian.com