to build a telegraph line in the United States: that J. P. Holland, of Clare, was the first to build a submarine, and that Dr. O'Kane, whose grandfather left Ireland in 1752, was the first American Antarctic explorer. We might quote a thousand such names and not exhaust the roll of honour. The list is sufficiently extended to show that though America may claim to have nursed for us a great National leader in Eamonn de Valera, we on the other hand can claim to have taken a big part in making America what she is to-day, whether we view her from a social, political, or military point of view, one of the greatest Nations of the earth.

NOTE. The author is indebted to Mr. Michael J. O'Brien, for information, regarding "Irish firsts in America," derived from his Lecture delivered before the members of the American Irish Historical Society at New York.

CHAPTER II.

BARLY in the year 1884, Eamonn de Valera's father became seriously ill, and towards the end of the year he passed peacefully away, leaving Mrs. de Valera and her little boy, Eamonn, to mourn their loss. Anyone who has experienced the grief and anxiety occasioned by the loss of the head of the household, will readily understand what it meant to be deprived of the breadwinner in a large and busy city like New York. Such was the position in which Mrs. de Valera now found herself. While in fairly comfortable circumstances, she was by no means rich, and it was evident that the question of providing for herself and her little boy in the future would soon arise. Being a woman of talent and ability she had no difficulty in finding a suitable occupation, but the disturbing feature was: who would nurse Eamonn during her absence? One day, however, as she was revolving the question in her mind a communi cation arrived from her brother, Edmund, who was a gentleman's steward in Connecticut, to the effect that he was about to proceed to Ireland. He had contracted malarial fever, and his physician ordered a trip to Ireland as the best cure. The thought that she would send Eamonn over to Ireland with her brother at once occurred to Mrs. de Valera. Her mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Carroll, was still living in the old home at Knockmore, Bruree, where her brother, Patrick, kept the natal hearth warm. She notified her intentions immediately to Edmund and Patrick, and both brothers having approved of her plans, arrangements were accordingly made for Eamonn's

transfer to Ireland. It was indeed with great reluctance that she parted with her child and sent him to Ireland with his uncle.

Edmund Coll was a man of powerful physique, standing well over six feet in height. His family consisted of seven girls and three boys. Two of the boys fought with the Americans in France. The third was already on the Continent when the war broke out, having gone to Louvain to study for the priesthood; but when this great seat of learning was sacked by the Germans, he was lucky enough to be away on a holiday in Switzerland. Little the uncle thought when crossing the broad Atlantic that one day his tiny charge would stand to arms in the cause of libertyfor small nations and for so doing be thus addressed by the mighty British Empire: "The sentence of this courtmartial is that you shall be shot at 6 a.m. on to-morrow morning."

Some time after Edmund Coll's return to America, Mrs. de Valera went to live in Rochester, a city which she subsequently adopted as her permanent place of abode. At the end of seven or eight years she re-married and had by this union two children-a boy and a girl. Both were handsome children, and bore a marked resemblance to their mother. As the little girl grew older she developed a delicacy of feeling and a refinement not usually met with in a child of her age. George Elliot may have created for "Hetty Sorrell ” a certain amount of human loveliness, but nothing can surpass the sweetness of expression, the grace and charm, with which God sometimes endows children of tender years whom He decides on taking to Himself before their innocence is tarnished by contact with a wicked world. These were the impressions left on one by Eamonn de Valera's sister, when, at the early age of ten years, she departed this life. On Mrs. de Valera's re-marriage she became Mrs. Wheelright, and as there was only one child by the first union, the death of the little girl left her now with two sons only, Eamonn de Valera and Thomas Wheelright. In his early schooldays young