Éamon de Valera is among the best-known and most scrutinised figures in Irish history, but one mystery surrounding him endures: who was his father?
According to de Valera’s mother, Catherine Coll, his father was her husband Vivion de Valera, a Spanish artist who died two years after de Valera was born.
A new RTÉ documentary to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his death (on Friday) has added another twist to the enduring mystery.
No trace of Vivion de Valera has ever been found. There is no record of him ever having entered the United States nor is there a death certificate.
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Catherine Coll claimed she married him on September 19th, 1881, at St Patrick’s Catholic Church in New Jersey.
Yet the church has no record that they were ever married and there are no state records either confirming the marriage.
The name Vivion de Valera exists in only two places: the first is Éamon’s baptismal certificate in St Agnes Catholic Church in Manhattan where de Valera’s Baptism took place on December 3rd, 1882. His surname is listed as de Valeros.
De Valera was born on October 14th, 1882, in Lenox Hill, New York. The State of New York birth return states his birth name as George de Valero, his father as Vivion de Valero and his mother as Kate De Valero née Coll.
The New York birth certificate allows for a mother to leave the slot for the father’s name blank and to insert “O.W.” (out of wedlock). Catherine Coll gave the impression that she and Vivion were married.
She later changed his name to Edward and de Valera gaelicised his name to Éamon.
In the two-part documentary, Rise and Rule, biographer and RTÉ current affairs presenter David McCullagh came across a second amended birth certificate from June 30th, 1916.
It was requested by his mother, then known as Catherine Wheelwright, after she married, in order to prove her son was an American citizen.
It was assumed for many decades that de Valera was spared execution because he was an American citizen, although it is now thought more likely that he was spared because of the backlash against the other 15 executions.
The new birth certificate was issued on June 30th, 1916, when de Valera was still in jail after the Rising.
The programme reveals a startling fact. The birth certificates issued in 1882 and 1916 were filled out by the same person; the handwriting is identical and the handwriting on the replacement certificate matches the signature of de Valera’s mother.
In addition, the original birth certificate is signed by a Dr Charles Murray MD, but he has not filled out the form. Birth certificates are supposed to be filled out by a doctor or a public official not by a parent.
“I have seen many birth certificates and this is an exceptional situation. It truly is,” New York City archivist Kenneth Cobb told the documentary.
McCullagh, the author of the two-volume series on de Valera’s life, Rise and Rule, speculates that there is no evidence that Vivion de Valera ever existed.
McCullagh says it hardly matters at this remove who de Valera’s father was, but it mattered hugely to de Valera when he was alive.
Dev: Rise and Rule starts on RTÉ One on Wednesday, September 3rd at 9.35pm
