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Jerome Connor , Irish, 1874-1943

Title

Eamon de Valera (1882-1975), Statesman and 3rd President of Ireland

MediumBronze

Dimensions

37 cm

Signed(indistinctly): Jerome Connor

Credit LineCast commissioned, Werner Schurmann, Dublin, by the Board of Governors and Guardians, 1968

Object numberNGI.8053

DescriptionEamon De Valera, who began his career as a mathematics teacher, became the most prominent Irish politician and statesman of the twentieth century. In 1908 he joined the Gaelic League, and for his part in the Easter Rising of 1916 was sentenced to death. He escaped the death penalty, however, as he was an American citizen. He opposed the 1921 Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland and fought on the republican side in the Civil War (1922-23). In 1926 he established the Fianna Fáil party, leading it into the Dáil in 1927.
He was first elected Taoiseach in 1932 and remained active in Dáil Éireann until 1959. Though revolutionary in constitutional matters, he was conservative on most economic and social issues. He was elected President of Ireland in 1959 and again in 1966. It seems that De Valera posed for Connor's sculpture while visiting America during the Irish War of Independence. The Kerry-born sculptor emigrated as a child with his family to the United States where he would soon develop an enviable reputation as a sculptor of quality.