Eamon De Valera. Dublin: Gill, 1970. First Edition. Pp xxiii, 499, illustrated. Green cloth boards, pictorial dust jacket. A nice bright copy.

Signed by De Valera on the front free endpaper.

Longford and O’Neill delve into De Valera’s early life, his leadership during the Easter Rising and the subsequent War of Independence, and his long tenure as Taoiseach and President. Although praised for its depth of detail and access to de Valera himself, some critics argue that the biography occasionally leans toward being overly sympathetic, glossing over the more contentious aspects of his legacy.

Eamon De Valera (‘the long fellow’) was one of the major figures in Irish life and politics for over 50 years. He figured prominently in the Easter Rising, was for a while a member of Sinn Féin, formed the new party Fianna Fáil, and was three times President of the Executive Council, and President of Ireland from 1959 to 1973, when he was the oldest elected Head of State in the world.