Editing Éamon de Valera (section)

==Early life==
Éamon de Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in [[Lenox Hill|Lenox Hill, New York]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/nyhs/ms443_20_nursery_childs_hospital/ | title=Nursery and Child's Hospital Records: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids }}</ref> the son of [[Catherine Coll]], who was originally from [[Bruree]], County Limerick,<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/mystery-of-1916-leader-and-new-yorker-eamon-de-valera-s-birth | publisher = IrishCentral.com | title = Mystery of 1916 leader and New Yorker Eamon de Valera's birth | date = 14 October 2016 | access-date = 5 January 2018 | archive-date = 5 January 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180105180435/https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/mystery-of-1916-leader-and-new-yorker-eamon-de-valera-s-birth | url-status = live }}</ref> and Juan Vivion de Valera, described on the birth certificate as a Spanish artist born in 1853. Some researchers have placed his father's place of birth in [[Cuba]],<ref name="Castro">{{cite journal |last=Castro |first=Aurora |date=29 December 2021 |title=Exploring the Spanish Roots of Éamon de Valera |journal=[[Zenodo]] |doi=10.5281/zenodo.5809396}}</ref> while others have suggested other locations; according to Antonio Rivero Taravillo, he was born in [[Seville]],<ref>{{cite journal|author=José Francisco Fernández|title=En busca de la Isla Esmeralda. Diccionario sentimental de la cultura Irlandesa (Antonio Rivero Taravillo)|journal=Estudios Irlandeses - Journal of Irish Studies|date=March 2018 - February 2019|issue=13|page=197|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324004946|access-date=15 July 2021|archive-date=12 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912121216/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324004946_Irish_Studies_in_Spain_-_2017|url-status=live}}</ref> while [[Ronan Fanning]] has him born in the [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]].<ref>{{cite book | title = A Will To Power: Eamon De Valera | page = 3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Foz2CwAAQBAJ&q=juan | publisher = Harvard University Press | date = 2016 | first = Ronan | last = Fanning | quote = ''De Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in the Nursery and Child's Hospital, Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, New York; the only child of Juan Vivion de Valera and Catherine ('Kate') Coll'' | isbn = 9780674970557 | access-date = 21 September 2020 | archive-date = 12 September 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210912121210/https://books.google.com/books?id=Foz2CwAAQBAJ&q=juan | url-status = live }}</ref>

He was born at the [[New York Nursery and Child's Hospital|Nursery and Child's Hospital]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/nursery/bioghist.html|title=Nursery and Child's Hospital Records - 1854-1934 - MS 443.20 |publisher=New-York Historical Society Museum & Library |access-date=21 August 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220821054837/http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/nursery/bioghist.html |archive-date= Aug 21, 2022 }}</ref> [[Lexington Avenue]], a home for destitute orphans and abandoned children.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/de-valera-s-begrudging-attitude-to-the-big-fellow-1.410958|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|author=[[Tim Pat Coogan]]|title=De Valera's begrudging attitude to 'The Big Fellow'|date=31 January 2005|access-date=19 January 2019|archive-date=30 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130204128/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/de-valera-s-begrudging-attitude-to-the-big-fellow-1.410958|url-status=live}}</ref>
His parents were reportedly married on 18 September 1881 at St Patrick's Church in [[Jersey City, New Jersey]], but archivists have not located any marriage certificate or any birth, baptismal, or death certificate information for anyone called Juan Vivion de Valera (nor for "de Valeros", an alternative spelling). On de Valera's original birth certificate, his name is given as George de Valero and his father is listed as Vivion de Valero. Although he was known as Edward de Valera before 1901, an amended birth certificate was issued, when de Valera was an adult, in which his first name was updated to Edward and his father's surname given as "de Valera".<ref name="homepage">{{cite web |url=http://homepage.eircom.net/%7Eseanjmurphy/irhismys/devalera.html |title="Eamon de Valera's father" 2006 |publisher=Homepage.eircom.net |access-date=21 August 2013 |archive-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404220530/http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/irhismys/devalera.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/features/devalera.shtml |title= Notable New Yorkers – Eamon de Valéra | website= nyc.gov | publisher= NYC Department of Records |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040208005923/http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/features/devalera.shtml | archive-date= 8 February 2004 }}</ref> As a child, he was known as "Eddie" or "Eddy".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/myers-on-de-valera-1.223731|title=Myers on De Valera|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=9 December 1998|access-date=11 May 2017|archive-date=23 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823163121/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/myers-on-de-valera-1.223731|url-status=live}}</ref> An article, published in 2024 in the ''Journal of the Westmeath Archaeological and History Society'', suggested that de Valera's baptismal record and birth certificate were forged by Irish nationalists in New York City in 1916 as part of an effort to spare him from execution.<ref>{{cite web |last=Murray |first=Sean Patrick |date=27 November 2024 |title=The Case for Éamon de Valera's Birth and Baptismal Records Being Forgeries |url=https://debanked.com/pdfs/deValeraBirthRecordForgeries.pdf |access-date=25 December 2024 |via= debanked.com |publisher=Westmeath Archaeological and History Society (Iarmhí, Vol. 1, No. 4)}}</ref>

According to Coll, Juan Vivion died in 1885 leaving Coll and her child in poor circumstances.<ref>{{cite book | author-link = Proinsias Mac Aonghusa | first = Proinsias | last = Mac Aonghusa | title = Quotations from Éamon de Valera | date = 1983 | page = 89 | publisher = Mercier | isbn = 0-85342-684-8}}</ref> Éamon was taken to Ireland by his uncle Ned at the age of two<!--or3?-->. When his mother remarried in the mid-1880s, he was not brought back to live with her, but was reared by his grandmother, Elizabeth Coll, her son Patrick and her daughter Hannie, in Bruree, [[County Limerick]].<!--It is not necessary to clarify all: sentence construction, grammar, punctuation and sense are much more important! --> He was educated locally at Bruree National School, County Limerick, and [[C.B.S. Charleville]], [[County Cork]]. Aged sixteen, he won a scholarship. He was not successful in enrolling at two colleges in [[Limerick]], but was accepted at [[Blackrock College]], Dublin, at the instigation of his local curate.<ref name = "JordanIrishCatholic">Jordan, Anthony J. ''Eamon de Valera 1882–1975. Irish; Catholic; Visionary'' (Westport Books, 2010)</ref>{{rp|19–20}} Blackrock College has since named one of their six student houses after him.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.blackrockcollege.com/news/commissioning-of-house-captains-2022-23/ | title=Commissioning of House Captains 2022/23 }}</ref>

He played rugby at Blackrock and [[Rockwell College]], then for [[Munster rugby|Munster]] around 1905. He remained a lifelong devotee of rugby, attending international matches even towards the end of his life when he was nearly blind.{{sfn|Jordan|2010|p=279}}

At the end of his first year at Blackrock College, he was student of the year. He also won further scholarships and exhibitions and in 1903 was appointed teacher of mathematics at Rockwell College, County Tipperary.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml|title=Éamon de Valera (1882–1975)|work=BBC News|access-date=6 December 2008|archive-date=21 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121193122/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_valera_eamon.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> It was here that de Valera was first given the nickname "Dev" by a teaching colleague, Tom O'Donnell.<ref name = "Farragher1984">{{cite book |last=Farragher CSSp |first=Sean P. |title=Dev and his Alma Mater |publisher=Paraclete Press |year=1984 |location=Dublin & London |isbn=0-946639-01-9 }}</ref>{{rp|73}} In 1904, he graduated in mathematics from the [[Royal University of Ireland]]. He then studied for a year at [[Trinity College Dublin]] but, owing to the necessity of earning a living, did not proceed further and returned to teaching, this time at [[Belvedere College]].<ref name = "Farragher1984"/>{{rp|87–90}} In 1906, he secured a post as a teacher of mathematics at [[Our Lady of Mercy College, Carysfort|Carysfort Teachers' Training College]] for women in [[Blackrock, Dublin]]. His applications for professorships in colleges of the [[National University of Ireland]] were unsuccessful, but he obtained a part-time appointment at [[St Patrick's College, Maynooth]]<ref name="DIBDev">{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/de-valera-eamon-dev-a2472|title=De Valera, Éamon ('Dev')|last=Fanning|first=Ronan|author-link=Ronan Fanning|date=October 2009|work=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]|publisher=Royal Irish Academy|access-date=21 October 2021|archive-date=21 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021150759/https://www.dib.ie/biography/de-valera-eamon-dev-a2472|url-status=live}}</ref> and also taught mathematics at various Dublin schools, including [[Castleknock College]] (1910–1911; under the name Edward de Valera) and Belvedere College.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/amon_de_Valera |title=Éamon de Valera |work=UCC – Multitext Project in Irish History |access-date=6 December 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225170429/http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/amon_de_Valera |archive-date=25 December 2008 }}</ref>

His interest in mathematics and science continued later in life, and he was involved in the foundation of the [[Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies]] in 1940, to which he invited scientists such as [[Erwin Schrödinger]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/80023816 |title=Eamon de Valera, Erwin Schrödinger, and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |author=Maureen Julian|work=Journal of Chemical Education |date=January 1983 }}</ref> He also reportedly did mathematics, while jailed and awaiting possible execution, in 1916.<ref>{{cite book | last = Misner  | first = Charles W.  |author2=Kip S. Thorne |author3=John Archibald Wheeler | title = [[Gravitation (book)|Gravitation]]|page=1135 | publisher = [[W. H. Freeman]]   | location = San Francisco  |date=September 1973  | isbn = 0-7167-0344-0 }} </ref>

There were occasions when de Valera seriously contemplated the religious life like his half-brother, Fr. Thomas Wheelwright, but ultimately he did not pursue this vocation. As late as 1906, when he was 24 years old, he approached the President of Clonliffe Seminary in Dublin for advice on his vocation.{{sfn|Jordan|2010|p=23}} De Valera was throughout his life portrayed as a deeply religious man, and in death asked to be buried in a religious habit. His biographer, [[Tim Pat Coogan]], speculated that questions surrounding de Valera's legitimacy may have been a deciding factor in his not entering religious life. Being illegitimate would have ordinarily been a bar to receiving priestly orders as a secular priest, but not to becoming a priest or religious in some [[religious orders]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=The Defect of Birth|first=James H.|last=Driscoll|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02579b.htm|encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia|year=1907|access-date=2 November 2008|archive-date=12 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012045729/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02579b.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

As a young ''[[Gaeilgeoir]]'' (Irish speaker), de Valera became an activist for the [[Irish language]]. In 1908, he joined the Árdchraobh of [[Conradh na Gaeilge]] (the Gaelic League), where he met [[Sinéad de Valera|Sinéad Flanagan]], a teacher by profession and four years his senior. They were married on 8 January 1910 at [[St. Paul's (Roman Catholic) Church, Dublin|St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin]].

The couple had five sons: [[Vivion de Valera|Vivion]] (1910–1982), [[Éamon de Valera, Jnr.|Éamon]] (1913–1986), Brian (1915–1936), [[Rúaidhrí de Valera|Rúaidhrí]] (1916–1978), and Terence (Terry; 1922–2007); and two daughters: [[Máirin de Valéra|Máirín]] (1912–1984) and Emer (1918–2012). Brian de Valera predeceased his parents.

===Early political activity===
[[File:Eamon de Valera (7038732625).jpg|thumb|right|upright|De Valera in March 1918]]
While he was already involved in the [[Gaelic revival]], de Valera's involvement in the political revolution began on 25 November 1913, when he joined the [[Irish Volunteers]]. The organisation was formed to oppose the [[Ulster Volunteers]] and ensure the enactment of the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]]'s [[Home Rule Act 1914|Third Home Rule Act]] won by its leader [[John Redmond]]. After the outbreak of [[World War I]] in August 1914, de Valera rose through the ranks and it was not long before he was elected captain of the [[Donnybrook, Dublin|Donnybrook]] branch. Preparations were pushed ahead for an armed revolt, and he was made commandant of the Third Battalion and adjutant of the Dublin Brigade. He took part in the [[Howth gun-running]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dwane|first=David T.|title=Early Life of Eamonn De Valera|publisher=The Talbott Press Limited|year=1922|location=Dublin|page=43|url=https://archive.org/stream/earlylifeofeamon00dwan/earlylifeofeamon00dwan_djvu.txt}}</ref> He was sworn by [[Thomas MacDonagh]] into the oath-bound [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]], which secretly controlled the central executive of the Volunteers. He opposed secret societies, but this was the only way he could be guaranteed full information on plans for the Rising.<ref name = "JordanIrishCatholic"/>{{rp|32}}