Dangerous Ambition

In 1926 Éamon de Valera founded Fianna Fáil, the most powerful political party in Ireland for much of the last century. But what got him there? His was a story of stark rearing and thwarted ambitions.Born in Manhattan, he was brought up as ‘Eddie’ in a labourer’s cottage in rural Limerick. He never knew his father. Two women, his absent mother Kate and his wife Sinéad, defined his life.Eddie worked hard to get into Blackrock College and graduated from university – rare breaks for a boy of his social class. Reading, rugby, hunting and prayer were his pastimes.But in his thirties he chucked a good job in education, gambling his wife and children on the outcome of bloody rebellion and civil war. In 1924 de Valera left jail after serving just eleven months for his part in a vicious insurgency. His future looked bleak.But destiny found ‘Dev’ a place in history. This book explores the childhood, character and early life of Ireland’s famous leader. Dr Colum Kenny is a barrister, journalist and historian who has written widely for the media. Formerly a presenter and reporter with RTÉ, he served on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and is a professor emeritus of Dublin City University. Born on Eccles Street, Dublin, he is married with three sons. His books have included histories of Kenmare and Kilmainham, biographies of Arthur Griffith and Tristram Kennedy MP, accounts of the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations of 1921 and the Irish Civil War, a study of Irish immigrants in America, and a monograph on King’s Inns, Dublin. He sees Éamon de Valera as a key to understanding contemporary Irish affairs.