Éamon de Valera Papers
The most significant figure in Irish public life in the twentieth century, Éamon de Valera served as prime minister for twenty four years and president for fourteen. He survived the death sentence passed on him for his role in the 1916 rebellion and outlived virtually all his contemporaries. The party he founded in 1926, Fianna Fáil, continues to be the largest and most effective political organisation in Ireland, serving in coalition government from 1997 to the present. The constitution he drafted and enacted in 1937 is still, with some amendments, in force.
He bequeathed his substantial collection of private papers to the Irish Franciscans in 1970. These have been transferred to UCD Archives under the terms of the agreement between the friars and the university, an agreement which has also allowed for the transfer of medieval and early modern manuscripts.
After losing the 1948 general election, Me de Valera embarked on a round the world journey, accompanied by Frank Aiken, subsequently Irish foreign minister, to gather support for a campaign to end the partition of Ireland. They visited the United States, India, Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. The photograph shows Frank Aiken with de Valera being greeted by Martin Higgins on a stopover in Honolulu in April 1948.
