Eamon de Valera was an Irish teacher and politician who served as President of Ireland from 1959 to 1973. He was born in New York in 1882 to an Irish mother and Spanish father. As an adult, he joined the Irish Volunteers and took part in the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule. He later founded the Fianna Fáil political party and served multiple terms as Prime Minister of Ireland. De Valera was elected as the third President of Ireland in 1959 and served until 1973, making him the longest-serving president at that time. He died in 1975 at the age of 92.

2. Facts
 NAME: Eamon de Valera
 OCCUPATION: President of Ireland
 BIRTH DATE: October 14, 1882
 DEATH DATE: August 29, 1975
 EDUCATION: Blackrock College
(Dublin),
Royal University
(now called
UCD)

3. Childhood
 We know very little about Eamon de Valera’s childhood.
 He was born in New York on October 14th 1882. He was
baptised Edward but he changed his name to Eamon later
on.
 His mum[Catherine] was Irish and his dad[Juan] was
Spanish. His father died when he was 2 years old so his
mum sent him to be reared by his grandmother in Ireland
in 1885.
 He had a half brother called Thomas, who was a Catholic
priest in America.
 He won a scholarship to go to Blackrock College. He
studied mathematics at the Royal University [now called
U.C.D].
 He taught at Maynooth college and other colleges. He
was a very keen rugby player.

4. This is Eamon de Valera’s birth
certificate

5. Adult Life
 In 1910 Eamon de Valera married one of his
teachers, Sinead Flanagan. He had five sons
and two daughters. He was really into
speaking Irish.
 As a adult he joined the Irish volunteers in
1913. He took part in the 1916 Irish Rising
and was one of the leaders. He was
sentenced to death by the English for this, but
this was changed to a life sentence in prison
because he was American.
 He was freed in 1917 and became president of
Sinn Fein. He was elected to the government
by the people of county Clare.

6. This is Eamon
de Valera as an
adult

7. Profession page 1
 The IRA and Sinn Féin disagreed about
swearing to be loyal to the King of Great
Britain. So, Sinn Fein split in two. Eamon
de Valera then founded his own political
party called Fianna Fáil in 1926. Fianna
Fáil wanted :
 To unite Ireland as a republic
 To let Irish people speak their language
again
 To let the Irish people have their land back
 To make Ireland independent

8. Profession page 2
 In November 1926 he became president of
Fianna Fáil. In 1933 Fianna Fáil finally got
rid of having to swear the oath to the king.
De Valera became Taoiseach from 1937-48
and again from 1951-54 and 1957-59.
 World War II became known as ‘The
Emergency’. De Valera’s government
wasn’t very popular because people were
very poor. In 1948 De Valera’s government
lost power and other parties took over.

9. This is a photo
of a 1917 Sinn
Fein banner.

10. Áras an
Úachtarain,
the
President’s
house in
The Phoenix
Park

11. Presidency
 Eamon de Valera was the third president of Ireland.
He was elected president of Ireland on the 25th of
June in 1959. In 1961 it was the first time Irish
television was broadcast. Eamon de Valera was the
very first person to be broadcast on Irish television.
He was aged 79. John F. Kennedy [President of
America] visited Ireland and met de Valera five
months before he was shot in 1963.
 He finished up being president in 1973, when he was
aged 90. This happened because he had been
president for 14 years and this is the most allowed.
When he retired as president he had the world
record as oldest president.

12. Erskine Childers
becoming president
of Ireland. Eamon de
Valera is sitting on
the bottom left of the
picture, for his last
public duties.

13. Post Presidency
 Eamon de Valera died on the 29th of
August 1975 aged 92. He was buried in
Glasnevin cemetery. His wife, Sinéad,
died the January before. This was just
before their 65th wedding anniversary.

14. Glasnevin
Cemetry,
Eamon de
Valera’s
grave

15. THIS PROJECT WAS CREATED BY ROBERT
MOORING FORM 4’