De Valera [Hardcover]

Tim Pat Coogan is one of Ireland's better known journalists, a former editor of the de Valera owned Irish Press, and a noted biographer of Michael Collins. In this critical biography of Eamon De Valera, De Valera doesn't come off looking too good. More importantly, the criticisms Coogan makes of De Valera are well-founded, and well documented.

Despite its many criticisms of De Valera, this book is not so much a book dedicated to denigrating De Valera, as Coogan's lamenting that Ireland was not led by Michael Collins, the brains behind its quest for independence, but rather by Eamon De Valera, who came to prominence as the only commandant in the uprising of Easter 1916 to be spared by the English, because he was deemed to be too insignificant.

As a general rule politicians come in two types: the visionary whose foresight allows him or her to enact policies that are beneficial to the country, and the schmoozer, whose rhetorical abilities and eagerness to set up a spoils systems a la Tammany Hall allows them to enjoy long periods in power.

Coogan emphatically asserts that De Valera was a professional schmoozer and master of bureaucratic infighting, and far less competent as a policy expert. He shows how DeV frequently chose an understanding of history that suited him, so-called "De Valera facts," was very pragmatic when the need arose "As so often happened, De Valera wrestled with his conscience, and won..." questions his paternity, mentions rumors about his relationship with his secretary. He makes much of De Valera's propensity to make political hay out of Ireland's partition, and plead for a reunification, all the while fusing church and state to such a degree as to make this inconceivable.

His most trenchant criticisms are that De Valera plunged Ireland into a civil war to guarantee his preeminence in Irish politics, that he barely if at all understood the economic facts of life. Coogan himself writes that he bears the De Valeras a grudge for what he felt was their shabby treatment of their employees; perhaps for this reason he appears to underestimate the good that De Valera gained for Ireland by keeping it out of the war.

This book is well-written in the sense that if you already have a background in Irish history, Coogan will articulately and thoroughly go over the controversies that he wishes to raise, and give you his take on them. If you don't know that much about Irish history, you'll find many of the issues he refers to be at the very least close to arcane and somewhat baffling.

Reading Tim Pat Coogan I actually thought that Irish English was a distinct language from other forms of English. In the prologue to his "De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow" he writes "Was [de Valera] a Lincoln or a Machiavelli? A saint or a charlatan? A man of peace, or one who incited young men to hatred and violence? Did he seek to heal or worsen the wounds that the Irish and the English inflicted (and inflict) on each other? Was he a revolutionary or a conservative? An unscrupulous manipulator or a nice guy? The truth is that in a sense the answer to all these questions is 'Yes'." The writing is clumsy and illogical, and I honestly had issues understanding the writing for the first few pages before I acclimatized myself. This biography is very long at 704 pages and very unrewarding because of the sloppy, shallow, one-sided analysis.

I liked the film "Michael Collins" very much, a film that ask its audience to imagine the possibilities for Ireland if only that romantic warrior Michael Collins had lived and if that two-faced politician Eamon de Valera had not existed. Having seen the movie I was intrigued by de Valera, and that's why I picked up Coogan's biography. I was surprised and bewildered to find that Coogan in fact agrees with the character portrayal of de Valera in the film as a power-seeking self-promoter. He deliberately maneuvered his arch-nemesis Michael Collins into negotiating an unpopular but necessary treaty with the British to withdraw from Ireland, and then he gave his consent to the armed IRA uprising that killed Michael Collins. A truly amazing survivor he somehow managed to only serve a prison term for his treason, and upon release capitalized on his American financing and support to find a media empire from which he built a political empire. For Coogan, de Valera understood power politics and self-publicity but knew nothing of economics and governing, and Coogan blames de Valera for much of Ireland's woes.

Coogan constantly alludes to Machiavelli's "The Prince" as de Valera's spiritual guide, but de Valera could have probably written "The Prince" himself in the second grade. Given his actions and his success de Valera was obviously a brilliant schemer who would have been a master poker player: somehow who read his opponents well, and had an intimate feel for the political winds.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars