Who took charge of de Valera at the age of two
and a-half years and brought him up at the
home of the Colls near Bruree, Co. Limerick.

EAMONN DE VALERA

At the age of thirty-six.-Photograph taken
during the General Election of 1918.

xii.

EARLY LIFE OF

EAMONN DE VALERA.

CHAPTER I.

"And Spanish ale shall give you hope, my dark Rosaleen " -Mangan.

HE political and religious history of Ireland has been from early times closely associated with that of Western Europe. Within a short period of her conversion to Christianity by St. Patrick, Irish saints and scholars were found labouring unremittingly in France and Italy, and even down to the confluences of the Danube. They founded monasteries and built churches, many of which were famous for centuries. They promoted the study of art and literature and engaged in scientific research. When some of the great nations of to-day were yet in their infancy, Ireland had grown old in knowledge and learning. "The Irish," says Mr. Thomas J. Westropp, had a fine school of art, music, and legendary literature, before the first-known missionaries reached their shores." Indeed, so great was our reputation for learning in Britain and on the Continent, that many foreign nobles sent their sons to Ireland to complete their education.

66

But all this was soon to change. The plundering Dane and the Norman freebooter almost put an end to the ancient culture of the Gael; while the confiscations and age-long persecution which followed in the wake of the English occupation, kept the nation in hopeless bondage and misery. And here we have a strange anomaly. The

Irish who were the pioneers in many branches of learning were themselves now denied the semblance of education. Celtic and European literature had been enriched by their labours, but the fountain-heads of their inspiration at home were now levelled with the ground. The schools, except those of the usurper, were banned; the churches were desecrated; a price was set on the head of the priest, and only the purple heather of the mountain, or the rocky hillside, made beautiful by nature, afforded him and his faithful flock an altar and a place of worship.

In those dark days of persecution there was much friendly intercourse between Ireland and Spain. The tradition of their common origin helped to strengthen the bond of religion which united the two peoples. Among Spaniards of every class there was intense sympathy with the Irish in their sufferings; and if the Irish envoys who sought assistance for their countrymen were not always successful, they were at least sympathetically received. When Elizabeth sought to annihilate the Irish nobles who upheld the Catholic faith, and to confiscate their estates, Spain, on at least two notable occasions, despatched military expeditions to their aid. But the Spaniards, like the French, were unfortunate in their choice of commanders. At Kinsale, in 1602, a more able leader than Don Juan d'Aguila might have turned defeat into victory. In Spain, Irish exiles found a ready welcome; Irish soldiers fought under her banner, and Irish sailors manned her ships. At the port of Corunna alone we find in 1638 no fewer than two thousand Irishmen on board the Spanish fleet under the command of Don Lope de Ozes. When the Irish schools and monasteries were destroyed, the bounty of the Catholic King provided seminaries at Salamanca, Seville, and elsewhere for the training of Irish priests and missionaries. Some of these institutions still flourish, reminding us of the ties which bound our country to Spain in ancient days when the hopes of her people were fixed upon the coming of a Spanish deliverer who would break their chains and free them from the galling

oppression of the English yoke. These hopes, which had been laid aside for centuries as vain, have at last been unexpectedly realised in the coming of Eamonn de Valera.

Eamonn de Valera was born in New York on the 14th October, 1882, the son of Vivian de Valera, a Spaniard by birth and nationality, and of Catherine Coll, of Bruree, Co. Limerick. His birth synchronised with the centenary of Grattan's Parliament. And had it not been for the perfidy of Pitt and Castlereagh, the year 1882 might have been a memorable one in the political history of Ireland. Corrupt though Grattan's Parliament undoubtedly was, Irish brains, unfettered and untrammelled, would no doubt have removed most of its imperfections and made it a model for other nations.

But what was the actual state of affairs in 1882 ? What was the condition of Ireland? What the sounds from without that disturbed de Valera in his peaceful cot? Was it the peal of the joybells celebrating the first centenary of Ireland's freedom? Michael Davitt supplies the answer. Fresh from Dartmoor, his voice resounded through the cities and hamlets of America-from the Atlantic to the Pacific-in bitter denunciation of the British Government. His only tale was one of eviction and suffering. The memory of his eloquent pleadings, like the echoes of Mount Pilatus, long lingered amongst the hills and valleys of America. Meanwhile at home, Forster's Coercion Act was in full swing. Parnell, Dillon, Sexton, and Father Sheehylater on to be de Valera's parish priest—had been thrown into prison. Thus the period of de Valera's birth witnessed the inception of a new movement for Irish liberty, which though limited in its scope and only partially successful, paved the way for the grand struggle for national independence, which under his leadership, we hope to see crowned with ultimate victory.

De Valera, as we have said, was born in New York. A few days after his birth he was baptised in St. Agnes's Church, and given the name Eamonn, which was one of long standing in his mother's family. From the outset