The politics that underpinned a pivotal presidency
History: Forgotten Patriot: Douglas Hyde and the Foundation of the Irish Presidency, By Brian Murphy, Collins Press, €19.95
There is a perception that, until the two Marys shook things up in the 1990s, the office of President of Ireland was an uncontentious backwater. It was God’s waiting room – somewhere to shunt Eamon de Valera when he was finally persuaded, aged 77, to relinquish the reins of power.
Or else a white elephants’ graveyard where minds as astute as Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh’s or Patrick Hillery’s were forced into exile.
Photographs taken ...
