John Waters on 'The Ireland That We Dreamed Of' by Éamon de Valera (2023)

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I shook Dev's hand at my Grandfather's funeral

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None other than Diarmaid Ferriter in his brilliant book Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Eamon de Valera (2007) noted that the speech is against materialism and is refreshing in an Ireland obsessed with Gross Domestic Product. Furthermore others have noted that it is an egalitarian speech. Ferriter is my favourite Irish historian and we definitely do not agree politically. Edit: Éamon de Valera thought woman had a political role but socially he was very conservative, passing laws affecting access to work and furious spats with his feminist friends. As for the Church, Ferriter notes that she was respectful of the Taoiseach's authority and correspondence with John Charles McQuaid was respectful despite failure to have the country declared Catholic. John Aloysius Costello was far more amenable to the Church though however never in a formal sense. As for the Irish Civil War (1922-1923), it has become somewhat accepted fact that the Irish Republican Army would have risen either way. The Constitution however is generally a brilliant document.