On the 40th anniversary of Éamon de Valera’s death, his biographer Ryle Dwyer examines the changing perceptions of the long fellow including why he was called a spy.

Playing with O’Donovan Rossa’s dynamite and his monstrous reign of terror from 1867 to the mid 1880s, is a very irresponsible policy agenda for this state to pursue. No liberal democracy on this earth would place such an evil man on a pantheon of glory.