Reputations | Éamon De Valera: Ireland's Hated Hero | BBC Documentary 1999

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Komentáře • 159

  • @mattrogers7521
    @mattrogers7521 Před rokem +54

    I have always believed that if Collins had survived he would have found a way to unite Ireland. He was an energetic very intelligent man while Dev was little more than a very clever career politician.

    • @Dechieftian
      @Dechieftian Před rokem +4

      I one hundred percent agree with your very sharp and succinct comment.

    • @pato2200
      @pato2200 Před rokem +7

      I believe you are correct.
      Churchill rated collins very highly and said he was worth a dozen brass hats (generals). He created the SOE modelled on collins' organisation "to do to the germans what collins did to us".
      Collins said of the treaty, "it is not freedom but the the freedom to obtain freedom". I agree with you, collins would have found a way to get the Republic and unification.

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 8 měsíci +1

      You said my grandfather worked as runner for Michael Collins as he very young but involved in civil war later ended been jailed in Mountjoy on his release he feel out of the truck carrying him home and feel in a dich which was freezing and lost his sight in one eye he drank again the stories he told me so grateful RIP grand dad

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 8 měsíci +2

      Sorry my grandfather never drank again

    • @BobHerzog1962
      @BobHerzog1962 Před 7 měsíci +3

      I don't think he would have. Simply because the notion that it was on the table is a myth.
      Churchill is a master at words and note he never explicitly said that he would support reunification. He worded it in a way that it could easily mean symbolic as being united in a common struggle.
      De Valera (and many Irish politicians who were part of the struggle) knew Churchill quite well. And Churchill had an ugly site when dealing with those under British rule.
      Churchill was opposed to letting Ireland regain full sovereignty (on the treaty port question). He even forced Collins to use violence and thus make negotiation impossible in the Irish Civil war in order to maintain control.
      De Valera was also smart enough to remember how well the British remembered their promises post war in wars before. Just ask the Arab Rebellion in WW1 ...
      I grant that a lot of De Valera's policies in particular economic wise were short sighted and driven by ideology. But him not seeing Churchill's speech as a 100% sure reunification offer was pure political realism.

  • @joehart7260
    @joehart7260 Před 8 měsíci +15

    A land of comely maidens indeed. He kept Ireland religiously and economically in a backwater for decades.

    • @markpower9081
      @markpower9081 Před 7 měsíci +3

      I think it's better to compare him to other rulers of his era than to the politics of today. He could have been worse.

    • @adrianainespena5654
      @adrianainespena5654 Před 3 měsíci +1

      Religiously yes, but then his opponents were no better. Remember the Mother and Child debacle. As for economically, he started industrialization, carrying out the Griffith policies based on List's theories. After all, he unleashed Sean Lemass and allowed him to learn on the job.

    • @joehart7260
      @joehart7260 Před 3 měsíci

      @@adrianainespena5654 My Auntie Nora used to admonish me whenever I criticised De Valera. "You don't know what this country was like before we got De Valera" she would say. I still think Collins would have been a better leader but perhaps she had a point.

    • @phil2003ashleigh
      @phil2003ashleigh Před 3 měsíci

      Let Tuam judge him

    • @adrianainespena5654
      @adrianainespena5654 Před 3 měsíci +1

      @@markpower9081 It was the era of fascism and dictatorships. He kept Ireland free of those.

  • @brianbozo2447
    @brianbozo2447 Před 8 měsíci +10

    Collins was effectively the Irish JFK

    • @dug8377
      @dug8377 Před 6 měsíci +1

      I’d say he was more along the lines of a George Washington

    • @MarkHarrison733
      @MarkHarrison733 Před 6 měsíci

      @@dug8377 Collins was like Benedict Arnold.

    • @MarkHarrison733
      @MarkHarrison733 Před 6 měsíci

      Kennedy was a disaster.

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci

      @@MarkHarrison733 No more nor less than Joe Biden.

    • @MarkHarrison733
      @MarkHarrison733 Před 4 měsíci

      @@stephenwright8824 Collins betrayed Ireland.

  • @danielofinan5071
    @danielofinan5071 Před 11 měsíci +11

    I love/hate Dev. He did put his life on the line for irish freedom many times. The man was literally sentenced to death and fought in the easter rising so you can't say he wasn't a true irish patriot. However he was offered the six counties during WW2 which would have been the united Ireland SO many generations of irish men and women died for in exchange for irish aid in defeating the Germans but DeValera stayed neutral and rejected it. He had it right there in his hands. For aid in a war in which, in the end, many irish men would die fighting in anyway. Would have prevented the troubles and so much pain and destruction. He also gave WAY too much power to the Catholic church which had very negative effects on the Irish psyche. I guess most people have complicated feelings about him.

    • @markpower9081
      @markpower9081 Před 7 měsíci

      He was not offered the 6 counties.

    • @danielofinan5071
      @danielofinan5071 Před 7 měsíci

      @@markpower9081 he was though

    • @markpower9081
      @markpower9081 Před 7 měsíci +3

      @@danielofinan5071 He wasn't. Malcolm MacDonald merely stated that he thought Ireland's participation in the war would help bring about a United Ireland. It was a just an opinion, and an opinion based on nothing but wishful thinking. He also told the Irish government that the British government would not coerce Northern Ireland into joining a United Ireland. In other words, it wasn't going to happen, and de Valera knew it.

    • @eireisrising
      @eireisrising Před 6 měsíci

      If he had of taken that offer, éiRe would have been brought into world war 2..? he didn't want that for us, he wanted us to remain neutral... Unlike mr Martin of today..

    • @pato2200
      @pato2200 Před 3 měsíci

      If ireland had allowed british troops in less than two decades after the black and tans, ireland would have split, gine back to civil war, and resistance to the british. It was not, given ireland at that time, a feasible option.
      Churchill did offer a united ireland three times in fact, as the western ports were so vital, but it was not a realistic option given the splits in ireland a heavily armed unionist faction in the north which ultimately would not accept it.

  • @Currabell
    @Currabell Před 9 měsíci +9

    He refused to separate the state from the catholic church. An enormous mistake.

    • @Dechieftian
      @Dechieftian Před 4 měsíci

      He like many others in Ireland was incapable of seeing the harm the Catholic Church perpetrated on the people of Ireland. He like the others was brainwashed by religion at an early age.

    • @phil2003ashleigh
      @phil2003ashleigh Před 3 měsíci

      Thousands of dead children would agree if only they had a voice. Total hypocrite who never admonished the same blame on the absent fathers. May he never rest at peace. Traitor and self gratification were his greatest traits.

    • @Dechieftian
      @Dechieftian Před 2 měsíci

      I totally agree with your comment.

  • @dermototoole1762
    @dermototoole1762 Před rokem +28

    Jealousy is a nasty human trait and de Valera was full of jealousy against Michael Collins. He hated and feared the brilliant fighter tactician and all around organiser of men who would go to hell and back for him. Let there be no mistake, champagne glasses were raised in the de Valera household on August 22 1922....if only history had given de Valera his bullet in 16 and Collins would have certainly avoided his assassination. RIP Mick Collins on this the centenary of your death....

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 7 měsíci +1

      Well said

    • @brymorian
      @brymorian Před 7 měsíci +5

      My view be entirely De Valera was the vilest traitor

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 7 měsíci +1

      Well said

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 7 měsíci

      @@brymorian so you're

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 7 měsíci +1

      Sorry mis spelt so right what you are saying

  • @adrianainespena5654
    @adrianainespena5654 Před rokem +19

    Ireland is a rarity in newly independent country: it has never known a dictatorship. That was his biggest achievement.

    • @Ricky_Baldy
      @Ricky_Baldy Před rokem +1

      The Catholic Church effectively ran a dictatorship and they were invited by DeValera.

    • @adrianainespena5654
      @adrianainespena5654 Před rokem +8

      @@Ricky_Baldy The Catholic Church was already there. They did not need to be invited by deValera nor anyone.

    • @ianc1312
      @ianc1312 Před 7 měsíci +6

      He gave them full license to bully and intimidate

    • @adrianainespena5654
      @adrianainespena5654 Před 7 měsíci

      They already had that. @@ianc1312

    • @eireisrising
      @eireisrising Před 6 měsíci +1

      Really. ? Are you living in éiRe now.

  • @aarondavis8943
    @aarondavis8943 Před 2 měsíci +4

    De Valera had a habit of choking at the finish line. Collins grasped an opportunity by the throat.

  • @bernardkeating9691
    @bernardkeating9691 Před 8 měsíci +6

    Why would you send a soldier to do a politically job, Dev went to the USA to collect for the ‘cause he returned and gave some of the money to the cause, gave some to his family I.E the Irish Press when the donors learned of this they demanded their money back he almost admitted this near the end of his life commenting that in the fullness of time Collins contributed more to Irelands freedom than he had previously acknowledged 😢😢

  • @brianmorgan5739
    @brianmorgan5739 Před rokem +17

    It is a bit ironic that British criticism is still persistent to this day concerning Irish independence and it's leaders is still present. Yet let the World stage pay witness to the oppression and systematic murder by British authorities that was forced upon the Irish in the same manner as a yoke is placed upon the shoulder of draft horses pulling a heavy load uphill. Sure it is easy to villainize Eamon Devilera, Michael Collins, Parnell and Shaw, but. Has your noble British society villanized the likes of Oliver Cromwell or Margret Thatcher and their authoritarian forms of Government? I as the nephew of an IRB Brigade member have no sympathy what so ever for those of RIC or British Military whom were ambushed and killed. For it was the British whom were the invaders and occupiers of Ireland for 750 years.

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 7 měsíci +1

      Like wase you have said the truth

    • @MarkHarrison733
      @MarkHarrison733 Před 6 měsíci

      Modern historians agree Cromwell did nothing wrong in Ireland.

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci

      @@MarkHarrison733 Modern historians are no less human than historians from any other time. Which means they can be dead wrong. Remember how Himmler's "experts" distorted the truth?

    • @tommurphy3671
      @tommurphy3671 Před 3 měsíci +1

      I love what you have said here and how you said it. I agree with you 1 million percent

  • @splinterbyrd
    @splinterbyrd Před 5 měsíci +2

    He paid an official prime ministerial visit to the German Ambassador to offer on behalf of himself and the Irish People their condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci

      Something so many idiots mistake for his being a Nazi sympathiser.

  • @phil2003ashleigh
    @phil2003ashleigh Před 3 měsíci +3

    TUAM TUAM TUAM TUAM TUAM: There is your ideology Dev. Careerist first, backstabber second, Irishman never. Lion led by a lamb paid the ultimate price.

  • @patcarolan1
    @patcarolan1 Před 8 dny +1

    Dev was an agent for the crown who was behind the murder of Collins

  • @bunreachtde-jureConstitution.

    It was Collins who went to Downing Street...

    • @Dechieftian
      @Dechieftian Před rokem +4

      so did DeValera in the Summer of 1921 about four months before Griffith and Collins and the plenopontentiary team that Devalera had selected. DeValera sat as the lone Irish delegate with British PM David Lloyd George who at that time spelled out what could be offered and what would not be considered. I believe that is why he didn't go with Arthur Griffith. He knew what would be offered and he knew he would not be judged in history as the man who accepted 'too little'. He was of course wrong - history will continue to judge him harshly for that and for walking out on the ratification vote when his side lost the vote. That action I believe resulted in the civil war a few months later.

    • @bunreachtde-jureConstitution.
      @bunreachtde-jureConstitution. Před rokem +1

      @@Dechieftian what did de valera give us in 1937. An bunreacht 1937 63article clo gaelach font Constitution. And is the fundamental law of the land today. Regardless of there corruption of it. Article 15.4. 1.The oireachtas shall not enact any law repugnant to this constitution or any provisions thereof.
      Pursuant to article 52.2 and 63.
      Yes we haue 63 articles in our constitution. Not the 50 fully incorporated crown one on the shelves. My friend.

    • @bunreachtde-jureConstitution.
      @bunreachtde-jureConstitution. Před rokem

      De valera gaue us freedom, if you had a clue what you were talking ABOUT. HOW MANY ARTICLES DO YOU STAND UNDER?...... Now that's a trick question. If you can read. 63 articles, why do the gov hide this from the people... Don't worry pal you sit do your thing, the truth is coming. Soon. Its already all ouer persons like you are still at sea. 😂😂

  • @johnbrendanoneill1029
    @johnbrendanoneill1029 Před 8 měsíci +3

    It wasn't develara made the decision it was the irish people

  • @Dechieftian
    @Dechieftian Před 2 lety +24

    a shame he didn't stay in the US .. He can never be forgiven for walking out of the Dail with his deputies after the vote for the Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified by a majority vote. Not good enough for Dev .. oh no .. he knew better .. instrumental in destabilizing the country when it was most vulnerable. instrumental in causing the civil war that resulted in the death of the man that paved the way for independence .. a man that done the heavy lifting in the years that Devalera was dining in the Waldorf Astoria in New York .. 2 years he spent there preening and glad handing and smiling for the cameras.

    • @dermototoole1762
      @dermototoole1762 Před rokem

      Well said Brendan Ryan. The biggest historical shame is that de Valera didn't get his bullet in 16 and Collins lived to lead our country into the 20s and beyond. A dictator I would call him. A cute whore he certainly was. RIP the wonderful Mick Collins 100 years on. RIP de Valera, I don't think so....

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci

      AND messing up relations between the Irish here and those at home for at least a couple of decades. Except that he literally destroyed your country, as an Irish-American, I'm almost glad his Ma sent him back to Bruree.

  • @stephendevaney7282
    @stephendevaney7282 Před 9 dny +1

    I wonder what Michael Collins would make of the Ireland of today.

  • @maryheffernan2627
    @maryheffernan2627 Před měsícem +1

    Why did he survive ??

  • @seamusconnolly9710
    @seamusconnolly9710 Před 2 měsíci +4

    De Valera was a turncoat. He served himself.De Valera was a hero of De Valera

  • @mrgabagoo580
    @mrgabagoo580 Před 3 měsíci

    The claim that reunification was really offered is such an incredible lie that it discredits the entire documentary. The offer was so vague and cryptic as to be completely ridiculous. Dev is in no way guilty for rejecting a bizarre message from that drunkard in London.

  • @carmelmulroy6459
    @carmelmulroy6459 Před rokem +13

    The British couldn't shoot Dev as he was an American. Dev was a sneak who probably celebrated Collins death. Collins was younger and more popular and Dev was a control freak. He also paid condolences to the Nazis even though lots of Irish people had served on the American side in WWII.

    • @Dechieftian
      @Dechieftian Před rokem +6

      well said. I agree, one hundred percent! Ireland would have fared far better had he stayed in America . His idea of an Ireland with freshly saved hay and the laughter of maidens in the fields getting reay to kneel down and say the Rosary. He allowed the Catholic Church to interfere with the business of State and allowed them to influence legislation that they in turn could use to their advantage.

  • @christan10
    @christan10 Před rokem +6

    Great heros have same way of thinking..Irish has got such a great hero and our leader subash chandra bose has huge respect on him

  • @stephenwright8824
    @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci

    33:48 Opulence is death, and here Churchill proved it.

  • @olliephelan
    @olliephelan Před 11 měsíci +3

    It was standard diplomatic practice to write a letter of condolences.
    DeValera never did that.
    He visited the embassy with his minister of external affairs.

  • @nickmacdonald9535
    @nickmacdonald9535 Před 9 měsíci +6

    Because of de Valera the Catholic Church had so much power that the Republic was almost a theocracy.

    • @Dechieftian
      @Dechieftian Před 4 měsíci +1

      While it may seem far fetched at first glance .. If one should wonder what Ireland was like in the era of De Valera and his ilk .. look no further than the Islamic Republic of Iran. When rabid religious doctrine is shrouded in public policy and practise you end up with leading government officials like the Ayatollah Khomeini and Eamon De Valera and His Eminence John Charles McQuaid and the Mullahs and Parish Priests. All pretty much the same thing in a different language.

    • @declanfeeney7004
      @declanfeeney7004 Před 3 měsíci

      The catholic church already had deep power in the country. There is much to dislike about De Valera but the Idea that he singlehandedly introduced and then forced Catholicism on Ireland is just pure delusion.

  • @angusyates828
    @angusyates828 Před rokem +3

    Complex individual.

  • @leprechaun7667
    @leprechaun7667 Před 8 měsíci +2

    One thing you can definitely be sure of. Anything from mainstream media sources i wouldnt trust!

    • @markpower9081
      @markpower9081 Před 7 měsíci

      Why trust the non-mainstream media?

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci

      @@markpower9081 I smell a sycophant of the Stupid Hitler, aka Donald John Trump. That's boilerplate MAGA rhetoric, so it is.

  • @PlushyPlay1
    @PlushyPlay1 Před rokem +5

    Anyone in Ireland who thinks he's a hero forget quick he let the Catholic church do as they pleased it's also hilariously ironic McGuiness saying of de Valera what I say of him today

  • @sparkyhughes131
    @sparkyhughes131 Před 2 lety +6

    The career politician of his day

  • @kamilksiazek8019
    @kamilksiazek8019 Před rokem +3

    Great but complex man. He opposed the treaty with British which led to the civil war, that was his only but big mistake.

    • @Oakeedokee7
      @Oakeedokee7 Před rokem +2

      De Valera allowed for Jews in Ireland to be sent to concentration camps, and gave condolences to Hitler when he died, in the name of "neutrality". I am Irish myself, and I will never forget the heroes who fought for us, but De Valera did a ton of terrible things which tarnish his legacy

    • @kamilksiazek8019
      @kamilksiazek8019 Před rokem +1

      @@Oakeedokee7 in The Times of Israel (sic!) I'm reading sth exactly opposite about Jews:
      "A proposal to admit 100 Jewish orphans from Bergen-Belsen was initially blocked and only proceeded after de Valera’s personal intervention. Perhaps this was the prime minister’s way of atoning for his decision the previous year to visit the German ambassador to offer his condolences on Hitler’s death."

    • @mx2000
      @mx2000 Před rokem

      De Valera will forever be infamous for being the only world leader giving condolences to Germany at Hitlers death. This was right after the images of the concentration camps made the news, mind you.
      His censorship machine spent the whole war downplaying German atrocities to justify his version of neutrality. He also instated harsh punishment for any Irish who fought in the British army against the Nazis.

    • @markpower9081
      @markpower9081 Před 7 měsíci +3

      @@Oakeedokee7 Irish Jews didn't go to concentration camps - I don't know where you got that from.

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci

      @@markpower9081 Right. If anything, DeValera offered the Jews in Europe refuge from the Nazis.

  • @nova77791
    @nova77791 Před 2 lety +8

    He allowed ego to get in his way. Better had he become a martyr

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci +1

      Dev was: *Crazy from Boland's Mill to the day he died.* And I don't buy the crap about him not wanting, ultimately, to become a priest. If he had, it would have been better for all concerned.

  • @joeoconnor5400
    @joeoconnor5400 Před rokem +2

    This has been edited?

  • @Touhou-forever
    @Touhou-forever Před 2 lety +40

    I have no respect for Eamon De Valera he only cared about himself and not Ireland he disagreed with Michael Collins's idea of making peace with Britain not to mention he was the one who started Irish Civil War so that's the reason why I have no respect for him.

    • @declan1278
      @declan1278 Před 8 měsíci +2

      Well said

    • @Touhou-forever
      @Touhou-forever Před 8 měsíci +4

      @@declan1278 I mean don't get me wrong he did some good things but it is difficult for to recognize those good things because of his ego and arrogance

    • @internetual7350
      @internetual7350 Před 6 měsíci +3

      He disagreed with Michael Collins' stance on the Treaty that is true but so did such great leaders like Constance Markievicz, the Civil War was a battle between brother and sister, neighbour and co-worker, patriot vs patriot and De Valera was undeniably a man of principle, he was a selfless patriot of Ireland as shown through his open defiance of Britain first during the Civil War and later with his actions during the Second World War where he spared our great nation from the black spectre of Nazism and British imperialism. The two greatest evils to ever befall humanity, and Ireland chose justice and peace.

    • @freedomunltd
      @freedomunltd Před 4 měsíci

      @@internetual7350In which case he should have gone to those negotiations in London himself and not sent Michael Collins there to do the work which Michael himself said, meant ‘signing his own death warrant’. DeValera knew exactly what it meant for Michael, by sending him to London, it’s why he didn’t go there himself. As for DeValera, his complete capitulation to, and absolute deference to the Pope and the Catholic Church’s involvement in Irish life, brought misery to millions of people in Ireland for generations where even dancing and music was regarded as sinful with women regarded as secondclass citizens and the Pope’s dictat, ‘that what God has joined together, let no man put asunder’ causing despair for hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens for decades whilst the violence through corporal punishment, meted out to schoolchildren along with the hidden sexual abuse of these children also, which lasted up to the 1990’s, destroyed the lives of countless children and families. So one regime of repression was exchanged for another.

    • @pato2200
      @pato2200 Před 4 měsíci +2

      De Valera did not reject peace with britain but did reject the terms of the treaty collins made, which accepted partition and did not achieve the republic.

  • @helloschoales
    @helloschoales Před 2 lety +14

    Repress Ireland for decades with his idea of Ireland!

    • @adrianainespena5654
      @adrianainespena5654 Před rokem

      And yet it was thanks to him that Sean Lemass became Prime Minister. Lemass was just another terrorist until de Valera took him under his wing.

  • @damienholden2132
    @damienholden2132 Před 3 měsíci

    Ðo the mathematics

  • @alanocallaghan2883
    @alanocallaghan2883 Před rokem +5

    The treaty with Britain was signed by devalera before Collins even set foot at downing St. Britain's price for home rule was collins head . Devalera the politician could be bargained with but collins the revolutionary could not . Not fact but just an opinion .

  • @Dechieftian
    @Dechieftian Před 3 měsíci +1

    Listening to Terry De Valera ( Son of Eamon De Valera ) recall the 'uncanny' manner in which his father made 'momentous decisions' with extraordinary rapidity can be best summed up in a single word. Only one word is required. Delusional. The harsh reality of the 'dead hand' of De Valera and his cabinet created for so many decades an inept and impotent economy. A time when so many of Ireland''s best and brightest left Ireland never to return. Hardly the work of a man credited in Terry De Valera as endowed with ' A God given gift of leadership' .. such nonsense. De Valera combined with the toxic nature of the Catholic prelates in Ireland .. single handidly ruined the new economy and furture of the new state. I t would take decades for the nation to emerge from his 'leadership' and 'charisma.

  • @mrgabagoo580
    @mrgabagoo580 Před 3 měsíci

    Another lie. As far as I recall the constitution did not recognize a woman's place as in the home but declared that women should not be forced out of the home by the economic necessity to work. It may sound similar, but the reality is that one formulation of words legalizes the oppression of women while the second liberates and empowers women by giving them the freedom to choose work or family. Ireland did not fulfill it's constitutional promise, but the principle was admirable. It is an aberration of modern feminism to force women into the workplace - the reality of traditional feminism and the desire of the majority of women is to be enabled to choose how much time to devote to their children and how much time to devote to work.

  • @SamSam-wj5nd
    @SamSam-wj5nd Před 6 měsíci +1

    He was a bad person same as the rest of them

  • @brianodwyer4198
    @brianodwyer4198 Před rokem

    Really bad documentary with americams talking saying superficial bs

    • @stephenwright8824
      @stephenwright8824 Před 4 měsíci +1

      Were you and I watching the same video? I heard a lot more British accents than American ones. I actually don't remember hearing ANY American accents.
      The British have, as a race, yet to expunge that part of their character that tells them they have an absolute right to some part of Ireland. That's where the bs you think the few Americans in this video are spouting, comes from.