The story of Éamon de Valera’s surrender

On hearing the shelling stop, the Long Fellow waved the white flag, writes Ryle Dwyer

During the golden jubilee celebrations of the Easter Rebellion in 1966, there was a story circulating in Dublin that Éamon de Valera had essentially abandoned his men at Boland’s Mills and surrendered separately in 1916.

Dick Walsh, who was covering Áras an Uachtaráin for The Irish Times, was told the story, but the newspaper did not publish it. Indeed, Ronan Fanning also overlooked it in his recent biography of de Valera.