Éamon De Valera’s moving tribute to Franklin Roosevelt that surprised critics

On the 70th anniversary of US president Franklin D Roosevelt’s death, Ryle Dwyer examines how Éamon de Valera’s fulsome condolence gesture stunned critics

PRESIDENT Franklin D Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945. His relationship with taoiseach Éamon de Valera went back to 1919 when, as president of the self-styled Irish Republic, he sought legal advice of the future American president on the sale of Irish bond certificates in the United States.

As taoiseach in 1938, de Valera gave Roosevelt credit for intervening at an opportune moment to persuade the British to conclude a series of Anglo-Irish Agreements that led to both the ending of the Economic War and to Britain’s renunciation of her agreed right to Irish bases in wartime.