Burning de Valera: a political ghost story

THIS Halloween it may interest readers to learn that a unionist living in Belfast during the War of Independence once thought it appropriate to burn an effigy of de Valera on a bonfire.

In late May 1921, general election celebrations at the home of EA Robinson, JP, and his wife, took a highly unusual form.

According to a report published in the Freeman’s Journal on June 1 of that year, Mr Robinson first congratulated “the unionists of the district on the assistance they had given Sir James Craig during the election”, after which his wife was ‘chaired’ to an adjoining field where a bonfire was being prepared.

“A mock trial”, the report continues, “was then staged, where Mr de Valera was indicted, found guilty and condemned to death by burning. His effigy was then saturated with oil and placed on the burning wood. Finally, the Dead March was played.”

Ironically, the unionist leader, Edward Carson, had spoken of his supposed enemy in surprisingly positive terms in February 1921 when he said to a British news reporter: “North and South today are further apart than they ever were, but Mr de Valera might bring them together.”

Frank Bouchier-Hayes

Newcastle West

Co Limerick