New Book Claims Eamon De Valera Was British Spy
Controversial Claims Made About Dominant Figure in Irish History
Nov 12, 2009
Rather than being a patriot and republican hero, Eamon de Valera was a paid spy working on behalf of the British state, according to a new book.
John Turi, an amateur American historian, makes the claim in his book England's Greatest Spy: Eamon de Valera.
Working For The British
He argues that de Valera only avoided the fate of other 1916 leaders who were executed by agreeing to work for the British.
Turi argues that de Valera's trip to America in 1919 on behalf of the putative Irish Republic was in fact a British mission designed to destroy any hopes that America might support the Republican struggle to win independence from Britain.
Unstable Upbringing
The author's argument is further based on de Valera's uncertain upbringing. Born in New York to an Irish mother and Spanish father, he was raised in Ireland by his mother and uncle.
His upbringing, Turi alleges, was a cold one, and this, combined with his illegitimate status and consequent rejection as a prospective priest by the Catholic Church, left him "less than human" and open to exploitation by the British.
It also left him with a great antipathy towards Ireland, a country which, he allegedly felt had betrayed and mistreated him.
This prompted his traitorous activities, which Turi argues, render him a fitting subject for a posthumous trial.
Claims Rejected
Tim Pat Coogan, however, a well-known Irish journalist and biographer of de Valera, rejected the allegations as "farcical."
Another historian, T Ryle Dwyer, while accepting some of the book's claims about de Valera's "bizarre" behaviour during the 1916 Easter Rising, nonetheless said he could find no evidence of de Valera's alleged betrayal.
"To say he gave information to the British is mind-boggling," he told the Sunday Times.
Historians have instead insisted that de Valera's avoidance of execution and eventual release after 1916 can be attributed to his American birth, and to the fact that Britain could see the propaganda boost which executions were giving to Sinn Fein.
Taoiseach
De Valera opposed Michael Collins' decision to sign the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty which partitioned Ireland and gave the 26 counties the status of a Free State, rather than a Republic.
Following the 1922-23 Irish Civil War, he left Sinn Fein and created Fianna Fail in 1926.
In 1932 he became President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach from 1937) and proceeded to dominate Irish political life for much of the period up to 1959. He then served two terms as president before retiring in 1973.
He died in 1975.
Sources: The Sunday Times, Irish Independent
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