A chara, - Despite Mr Wyley's statement that de Valera escaped execution because the British were satisfied he was no danger to them, I still believe that de Valera's escape from execution (the fate of all the other 1916 leaders) was due to the pressure exerted by the US ambassador in London on behalf of a US citizen. Miss Sile de Valera TD confirms that this is also the firm conviction of all his family.
A similar experience of mine suggests that the US" authorities had both the power and the concern to look after their citizens. My mother was a US citizen, born and bred in Philadelphia. She was arrested in 1922 during the Civil War and thrown into Mountjoy, Jail without charge or trial, just a French citizens before the revolution were consigned to the Bastille by a lettre de cachet.
Mother's protests that she had no involvement with the Republican resistance were of no avail. However, the Irish State (with a compulsory oath of allegiance to the English king from every TD), had just been set up, and the US authorities had installed a consul in a small office in Clare Street in Dublin. I went to him with my sad tale, and mother was home within a couple of hours. - Is mise,
Mooreen, Clondalkin, Dublin 24.