De Valera
De Valera names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
De Valera EAMON, President of the "Irish Republic
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EAMON, President of the "Irish Republic." He was born in New York in 1882, the son of a Spanish artist (Vivión De Valera), and an Irish mother (Catherine Coll). His father died before the son was three years old and the boy was taken to Ireland to be cared for by his maternal grandmother. He received his education in the school of Bruree, Limerick. He entered Blackrock College, Dublin, and after receiving his degree, taught mathematics at Rockwell College, Cashel. He taught at Maynooth Seminary and at Carysport Normal College, Dublin. He became a member of Gaelic League, and participated in the Gaelic revival. De Valera was prominent among the organizers of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and when the insurrection against British rule broke out in Ireland during Easter week, 1916, he commanded, with Padraic Pearse, the battalion which held the Dublin postoffice and was the last to lay down his arms. On the proclamation of the Irish Republic by the members of the Dail Eireann, assembled in Dublin, De Valera was elected President to succeed Padraic Pearse, who had been executed. He was imprisoned several times and was sentenced to death in 1916. In 1919 he escaped from his prison in England and came to America, where during 1919 and 1920 he toured the country, making speeches. In September, 1920, he replied to Lord Grey's proposal of dominion home rule by declaring that the Irish people had established a republic and would be content with nothing short of absolute independence.
De Valera EAMON. (See IRISH FREE STATE.)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EAMON. (See IRISH FREE STATE.)
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's caught De Valera in 1921 at the moment he was rejecting anything short of "absolute independence" — and left the outcome open. Within months the Anglo-Irish Treaty created the Irish Free State on dominion terms; De Valera opposed it, lost the civil war of 1922-23, then re-entered politics with the new Fianna Fáil party in 1926 and won power by the ballot in 1932. He dominated the country for forty years thereafter, writing the 1937 constitution, keeping Ireland neutral in the Second World War, serving three terms as head of government and then as President from 1959 to 1973, and dying in 1975 at the age of 92. Modern biographers also treat the tidy family details here with caution: his father Vivion is a shadowy figure and the record of his parents' marriage has never been found.
Written for this edition, 2026.