Personal collection shows de Valera’s softer side

A LESS formal Eamon de Valera is depicted in new archival material which illustrates key moments during the formation of the modern Irish State.

The collection comprises more than 200 boxes of personal papers and photographs, representing a unique historical record of the Irish State up to 1975.

Last night, UCD presented Enterprise and Employment Minister Micheál Martin with a copy of the completed catalogue of the de Valera collection.

The photos are remarkable in that they include a range of not only statesman-like public images, but also personal shots showing an informal de Valera.

De Valera bequeathed his personal non-family papers to the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) five years before his death in 1975.

The collection was housed in the Franciscan Library in Killiney, Co Dublin, before its transfer to UCD’s Archives Department in July 1997 under the terms of the OFM-UCD partnership.

The collection remains in the ownership of the Franciscan Order.