Dev in the classroom — it’s FF propaganda

THERE is no doubt that in Judging Dev, historian and newspaper columnist Diarmaid Ferriter has written a fine book, but it is also one that takes a favourable view of its subject.

It is disappointing then that Education Minister Mary Hanafin chose to send this particular book to schools for the purpose of celebrating the 70th anniversary of Bunreacht na hÉireann which, although undoubtedly related, is not the same issue as the contribution made by de Valera to Irish history and thus the real purpose served is propaganda for Fianna Fáil.

Had the minister desired a book that celebrates the constitution in a non-partisan way — including a vast amount of reproduction of primary documentation — she and the Department of Education might have cast their eye on The Making of the Irish Constitution 1937 by Dermot Keogh and Andrew McCarthy.