De Valera letters: Correspondence reveals details of power struggle with Collins

Letters from Eamon De Valera to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George reveal the extraordinary background to the Anglo-Irish Treaty

September 19, 1932: Crowds cheer Irish nationalist leader Eamon de Valera at Victoria station, London, as he prepared to travel to Geneva. During that summer of 1921, an extraordinary series of letters were exchanged between the self-declared President of the Irish Republic, de Valera, and the British prime minister David Lloyd George. The correspondence ultimately led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, but it also reveals de Valera’s divisive power struggle with Michael Collins. Picture: Keystone/Getty Images

Letters from Éamon de Valera to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George reveal the extraordinary background to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, writes Daniel McConnell

One hundred years ago this month, on July 11, a truce was declared between the armed forces of the British Army and the rebel republican forces in Ireland after two years of conflict.