AFTER forty years' experience of the toss and tumble of Irish public life, Eamon De Valera can be described as going steady. Although he has failed, so far, to resolve the major national problem and restore the unity and independence of the country, as he set out to do, he is still leading the largest single party in the Irish Republic of twenty-six counties. Indeed, the two recent by-elections, in Dublin and Carlow, give some indication that the Fianna Fail Party may be on its way back to power.
Mrs. Mary Bromage, an Irish-American writer, is an admirer, and her biography is the best so far. She includes most of the Chief's achievements, but she by no means overlooks his failures.
Among the former was his success in persuading the British Chancellor to forego the Land Annuities (a matter of several millions a year) ; it was he who abolished the oath of allegiance, and who was able to coax Mr. Chamberlain into restoring to him the three reserved Irish ports. His chief failure, up to now, has been his inability to persuade the Northern politicians, or the majority of the electorate in the six counties, that they should take shelter under his Republican umbrella. They prefer the Union Jack, with its slightly higher social services.
Dev is a picturesque figure who can draw larger crowds anywhere than any three of his leading opponents combined. He has a great appeal to the crowd. At the same time, the voters would appear to re-consider the matter between the meeting and the booth, for the Chief rarely secures more than half of their crosses.
He fought with the Insurgents in the 1916 Rebellion. He has a large acquaintance with English prisons, including Dartmoor, Maidstone, Lewes, Pentonville, Gloucester and Lincoln. He escaped from Lincoln by making a duplicate key, modelled from the altar candle butts, and with this he calmly walked past the guards. He went to the U.S.A., when all the King's horses and men were watching for him, disguised as a sailor.
His judgment of the American political arena was superficial. When senators were interviewed, and with the Irish vote in sight, they agreed to adopt a reservation approving of the principle of self-determination for the Irish people. Dev telegraphed home an exultant message : "A Te Deum should be sung throughout Ireland" ! His rejoicing was premature, for in a day or two the Senate in council rejected the whole peace plan, "including the Irish reservation".
Dev backed the Irregulars when they made war upon the Dail and the National Army ; they were a relatively small minority then. Before that disaster had arisen Sir James Craig, leader of the Northern Tories, went all the way to interview him at Dalkey. The Boundary clause of the Treaty was still unimplemented. Craig was prepared to give many concessions to Northern Nationalists in return for a settlement. But once the Irregulars struck at the Provisional Government in Dublin, the national strength was dissipated, and Craig saw his danger had passed. He could afford to ignore all Dublin politicians after that. The whole struggle for a united Ireland had gone out of the people of the twenty-six counties, and by the time Dev and the Government had composed their differences, the country wanted peace at any price.
It may surprise many that Dev was not originally in favour of a rebellion, but as a soldier felt bound to obey orders. It will also come as a surprise that when Casement landed on the Kerry coast from Germany, he was coming not to comfort the Irish Republican Army but to cancel the rising altogether. He realised the hopelessness of depending upon outside help in the circumstances of that day. The British nevertheless executed him. For the matter of that, the existence of the elaborate plot to have the Germans invade Ireland, which the British Secret Service professed to have discovered then, and on account of which Dev and the others were interned in Lincoln by Chief Secretary Shortt, was bogus, declares De Valera. English statesmen in a difficulty rarely want for evidence, or an excuse.
When Dev crossed to London to negotiate with Lloyd George he soon discovered there was little chance of bringing back a Republic, and he was constrained to substitute a new qualification, "external association", to make the pill more acceptable in Whitehall, where the limit had been set as dominion status for 26 counties — perhaps for 28.
One wonders now, if the Irish had fixed upon dominion status for all Ireland, whether they might not have won. The magic of the term "Republic" held the Irish delegation in fetters. That, and the fear of the extremists behind, like Mary MacSwiney, Brugha and Stack. It is only fair to Dev to admit that he would have given up much for a united Ireland. Smuts, from South Africa, assured him he could have dominion status for the asking. Dev, in his difficulty, offered Craig any measure of autonomy he desired, if the North would come into the Republic.
Meantime, an Election was held in Northern Ireland. The Nationalists in the six counties believed in 1921 that their best interests would be served in having the Dublin Republicans representing Northern seats in Belfast. Dev was elected for Down, McNeill for Derry, Milroy for Tyrone and O'Mahony for Fermanagh. But these Abstentionists produced only dead sea fruit for the Northern people. The latter did not re-elect the group again.
The July 1919 negotiations came to nought, but were revived in October, when De Valera remained behind in Dublin, sending Griffith in his place to the conference table. Collins, too, went reluctantly. Neither Stack nor Brugha would go, knowing what was possible, and wanting to be in a position to say later that they had never let the Republic down. It is only fair to Dev to admit that in all his talks and letters to the plenipotentiaries he insisted that if a break must come with the British, it should be upon exclusion of the North rather than an oath of allegiance to the King.
Neither Griffith's view nor that of the majority in the border counties was accepted. And with the excuse of an internal rebellion upon their hands, the Free State Government then felt obliged to acquiesce in the border as fixed by the British Government. They had either to do so or start off afresh on a new "boundary" war.
One third the area governed by the Northern Government would then, and now, vote itself into the Republic of Ireland if given the choice. The result of the vote for the border seats at Westminster makes this clear enough. At the last Imperial Elections two Abstentionist Republicans who were returned were later found to be disqualified by reason of their conviction over border raids. They are doing ten years penal servitude. Their seats, on petition, have been filled by their two Tory opponents, who received a minority vote.
De Valera is a strong advocate of an Irish-speaking country. This part of his programme has not produced any fruit. In a country where humour is rather typical of the people, he rarely makes a joke ; he neither partakes of intoxicants nor smokes. St. John Ervine, who wrote the biography of Craig, comments : "It is singular that the man from the North should have all the qualities that are associated in alien minds with the southern Irishman and that the man from the South should have all those that are commonly associated in the same minds with Ulstermen."
Like Eisenhower, De Valera stands much better with the populace than does his Fianna Fail Party. This suggests that when, in the near future (he is now 74) he bows himself out, there may be many changes in the political situation. His eyes have been giving him trouble for years.
He has not been successful in his major policy of restoring the unity of the country. It cannot be claimed that in the economic field he has been altogether a success either. He has, with Government backing, set up many new industries and given electricity even to the remote mountain places. The relatively high cost of these has imposed a heavy burden upon the taxpayers. Notwithstanding these aids to industry, the young continue to leave the country in alarming numbers, the majority making their way towards the better paid jobs in England.
All this has given rise to an underground element of unrest and dissatisfaction, which reveals itself in the resurrection of the once defunct I.R.A. or an imitator which continues to make raids on the border, burning customs huts and attacking army and police barracks. This form of opposition merely hardens pro-British opinion in the six counties, giving them warning of further trouble in the offing. De Valera, with many troubles behind him, has, seemingly, a troubled enough world ahead.
1.De Valera was, however elected for Down until 1938. He was Abstentionist.
De Valera by Cahir Healy
First Published in The European - Book Reviews - De Valera and the March of a Nation by Mary Bromage - January 1957
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