Sir, - In your issue of December 2nd (An Irishman's Diary) you published one of your fairly regular attacks on Irish national leaders. In order to diminish Eamon de Valera, Kevin Myers revives unsubstantiated rumours about his early years and his family background. These rumours were initially peddled by political opponents of de Valera in the early 1930s.
He says: "There was probably no `de Valera' father. No record of him has been found. He, like so much of Eamon de Valera, was probably imagined"; and earlier: "He was probably illegitimate. . ."
Kate Coll, Eamon de Valera's mother, reached New York on the SS Nevada as an immigrant on October 2nd, 1879. Later, while working as a domestic servant in the Giraud household, she met Vivion Juan de Valera, a music teacher and book-keeper of Cuban-Spanish background. Miss Coll and Mr de Valera were married by Father Hennessy on September 19th, 1881, at St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church at Greenville, New Jersey. The witnesses were Fred Hamilton and Lily Brady.
One child was born to them at the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital on Lexington Avenue on October 14th, 1882. On November 10th, 1882, he was registered, presumably in error, as "George de Valero". On December 3rd, 1882, he was baptised as "Edward de Valera" at St Agnes's Roman Catholic Church, 141 East 43rd Street, New York by Father H.C. McDowall.
When he arrived at Knockmore, near Bruree, Co Limerick at the age of 21/2 years, he was generally referred to locally as "Eddie Coll" or "The Little French boy". The name "de Valera" must then have sounded most foreign and difficult to pronounce for local people. But that Eamon was the son of Kate Coll and Vivion Juan de Valera, a married couple, is a fact. - Yours, etc., Proinsias Mac Aonghusa,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.