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Eamon de Valera 'was a British spy'
Monday, 26 October 2009
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A new book to be published next month makes the shocking claim that Eamon de Valera, the founding father of the Irish Republic, was under the control of the British.
The book, provocatively titled 'England's Greatest Spy: Eamon de Valera', suggests that Dev was terrified of being executed after the Rising and was "turned" in exchange for his life. For some years afterwards, the book claims, Dev was under British control.
The 470-page hardback is published by Stacey International, a London publisher specialising in politics and history.
The author is retired US naval officer and historian John Turi from Princeton, New Jersey. He developed an interest in Irish history through his wife, who was born in Ireland. Turi has been researching his controversial book for a decade.
The case against de Valera by Turi is based firstly on a detailed analysis of Dev's emotionally stunted formative years.
He claims Dev was rejected by everyone in his early life -- his mysterious father in New York (in fact, Dev was probably illegitimate), his mother, his uncle in Ireland, who treated him coldly, even the Church, which rejected his ambitions for the priesthood because of his probable illegitimacy.
His miserable upbringing left Dev with an inadequate personality, Turi suggests, which made him susceptible to being influenced later on.
Turi is scathing about Dev's erratic behaviour during the Rising, when he was in charge of the men at Boland's Mill.
He stayed awake for days, became disorientated and issued confused, sometimes ridiculous, orders. "It was not just his tactics the men questioned," Turi writes, "they questioned his sanity as well."
Dev kept his men "sitting on their heels" while a short distance away at Mount Street Bridge eight Volunteers were trying to hold off hundreds of British soldiers.
In fact the men at Boland's Mill played little or no part in the Easter Week fighting, Turi says, because Dev was so exhausted and fearful.
At the end of the week, when word reached Boland's Mill of the surrender, Turi writes that de Valera "abandoned his men and slipped out of Boland's at noon on the Sunday, taking with him a British prisoner . . . as his insurance against being shot before he could surrender".
"De Valera the cowardly, incompetent, mentally unstable officer who deserted his troops was (later) repackaged as de Valera the lonely hero fighting valiantly against overwhelming odds."
What followed was also suspicious, Turi says.
Dev later claimed that he was tried with a number of other men and sentenced to death.
Turi writes: "Not one of the men allegedly tried with de Valera ever confirmed that such a trial took place, and there is no trace in the British Public Record Office of any trial."
He also quotes the flat denial by the army prosecuting officer, William Wylie, that de Valera had been tried.
Turi also considers Dev's fragile mental state and tearful collapse at Richmond Barracks the night before he was taken to Kilmainham, to where condemned prisoners were sent.
All the events indicate that Dev was terrified of dying, Turi suggests, and that it would have been easy for the British intelligence officer Ivor Price to turn Dev into a British collaborator. Major Price was "skilled at manipulating weakness".
Turi notes that Dev was the only one of four Dublin commandants not to be tried and executed.
He dismisses theories that Dev was spared because he was born in America or because the British realised that further executions would be a mistake; as others were executed later.
The only reasonable explanation, Turi claims, is that Dev was "turned". In all, Turi sets forth a dozen instances of what he calls "de Valera's machinations that aided and abetted British interests" to support this claim.
Some of this 'evidence' concerns Dev's activities in the US after he was released from prison -- which split the powerful Irish-American lobby.
Turi also says the British feared what Michael Collins might do in the North and used de Valera to engineer the situation that resulted in Collins's death.
Turi also calls Irish neutrality during the World War II "a hoax on the Irish people and a major boon for English interests".
His book, which ends with a call for a posthumous trial of de Valera, will be published in Ireland and Britain on November 30 and in the US next year.
Source irish Independent
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Comments
45 Comments
Late in August 1959, a street orator was ranting that De Valera was a British stooge. A terrier was barking agreement at his feet. What's new?
Posted by Ben | 23.01.10, 12:09 GMT
i believe dev started the civil war and ordered micks execution!
Posted by bara de burca | 16.01.10, 16:41 GMT
Eamon De Valera the self proclaimed President of Ireland had plenty of opportunity to free our native land. Unfortunately, due to his ego and fear of Michael Collins' ability to achieve Irelands call, he collabarated with the enemy to achieve his personal goals. "The fact he saved his own skin" was confirmation of his lack of committment to the cause. The civil war in Ireland was his only legacy.
Posted by Devin | 21.12.09, 22:07 GMT
Wolfe Tone,
I couldn't have put it as well myself - never mind say better.
Slan.
Posted by Evergreen | 30.10.09, 22:10 GMT
Steve, I think you'll find no-one cares if Dev was a British spy or not. The past is the past. We have our freedom.
It's only people like yourself, intent on fostering the (ridiculous) differences created between people of differing religious by an alien government in the past, a government that forbid liberty, religious freedom and the right for all to vote, such as that which the men of 1798 - both Protestant and Catholic - fought for, that keep it going.
Posted by Wolfe Tone | 30.10.09, 08:52 GMT
Steve,
I don't suppose it has entered your head that Dev. played a major role in our fight for independence and that is why we hold him so highly - faults and all. To you he was probably a "terrorist" - just like Mandela etc.
But did you know Steve that a REAL terrorist, and war mongrel, one W. Churchill offered NI to Dev. on a plate if we joined WW11 on the allied side ? (So much for loyalty to the Crown !!)
Therefore surely you should venerate Dev. also, since he quite rightly refused the offer. God knows we had (and still have) enough problems !! But we will get there.
Slan go foill
Posted by Evergreen | 30.10.09, 07:20 GMT
It is really amazing how some of the posters are utterly opposed to Eamon De Valera being anything less that a Gaelic Superman in green trunks.
Its like they are members of a cult of personality that existed around Stalin were he was considered a virtual diety.
Posted by Steve | 28.10.09, 11:36 GMT
John makes the unbelievable comment "It is correct that the British were scared of Michael Collins and rightly so. If Michael Collins had not been murdered he would have achieved a United Ireland.
John , were did you get your crystal ball ? How could possibly make such a comment ?
What is the point of even saying such an outlandish thing ?
Posted by Steve | 28.10.09, 11:34 GMT
Well if Dev was a homosexual then that would make him a member of an select "club" of gay people who hugely influenced Irish history, notably the subject of last's year's big scoop, none other than William of Orange...
Posted by Scrape the Barrel | 27.10.09, 16:46 GMT
the fisherman as stated in papers bought and paid of by british
Posted by william | 27.10.09, 15:56 GMT
I do think Dev had a part in Michael Collins death. As for a British spy, I dont think so. Dev is no hero to the Irish people. I do think the British may have manilpulated him but Dev was a narrow minded Nationist with no understanding of the reality of British power and of Unionist determination to stay out of a free Ireland. Michael Collins is the real hero because he wanted an all Ireland inclusive of all our traditions. Dev was a historical let down. It is correct that the British were scared of Michael Collins and rightly so. If Michael Collins had not been murdered he would have achieved a United Ireland.
Posted by John | 27.10.09, 15:42 GMT
I wonder what part of Ireland Mrs. Turi hails from.
Posted by Domhnall | 27.10.09, 01:15 GMT
I think he was most likely a double spy for the USA.
I alwas thought every thing he did was to benefit the US and little for the Irish.
I also think he was a weak leader if not for those who were able to help him make decisions.
Thats my thoughts.
Posted by DAN | 27.10.09, 00:00 GMT
I was in stitches when I read the comments. Good to see the humour lads P.S. Tony Blair and Scappaticci are lovers and Peter Mandelson wants in on the guy love too
Posted by Greg | 26.10.09, 22:36 GMT
I may be being a teeny bit confused here, but do I get the impression people do not generally believe this??
Posted by Larne man | 26.10.09, 22:35 GMT
in response to billy boy the ufo over stormont was a tricolour
Posted by eamon | 26.10.09, 21:23 GMT
Hey, you guys give me light relief!
Your posts are great. Keep up the good work.
Posted by Chris | 26.10.09, 20:32 GMT
100 hundred percent correct.
The slipperiest Irishman of the last century.
Eamon de Valera, thrust fourth from the loins of eels.
Posted by Chris | 26.10.09, 20:27 GMT
Why the shock, he would hardly be the first republican under British control. They all hate the brits, but love the Queen's head on the back of a tenner.
Posted by take-stock | 26.10.09, 20:25 GMT
this is 100% fact! when i landed on earth after the aliens kidnapped me in 1841, i saw the last century from above just as you would watch a television in your front living room. i tried to warn the rebels that dev was an infiltrator but i couldnt get the hold of michael collins to warn him. stupid me, i though liam neeson was really michael collins?? no wonder liam was not returning my telepathic signals! ah well, too late now. co'mon dev, own up? i also know that ireland pulled out of the second world war because they knew they could not feed and care for 12 million prisoners.
Posted by peter pan | 26.10.09, 18:02 GMT
45 Comments