Second volume of de Valera biography looks at political years

While the first volume, Rise, was chiefly about Dev the revolutionary, Rule focuses on Dev the politician

Éamon de Valera, in Áras an Uachtaráin in 1968. ‘De Valera’s social conservatism is portrayed here [in the book Rise] as a little extreme even by the era’s standards’ Pic: Getty

Biography: De Valera: Volume II Rule 1932-1975, By David McCullagh, Gill Books, €24.95

When Éamon de Valera first came to power in 1932, senior British government figures thought he had a lot in common with the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. They did not mean it as a compliment. Prime minister Ramsay MacDonald complained that both men had “a mentality which simply baffles one in its lack of reason”, while his deputy Stanley ...