Éamon de Valera

14 Oct 1882: Éamon de Valera was born at The Nursery & Child's Hospital on Lexington Avenue in New York City to Catherine "Kate" Coll, originally of Bruree, Co. Limerick.

His initial New York birth record cites the name George de Valero, with his father listed as a Spanish artist named Vivion de Valero.

A corrected birth certificate, issued in 1910 would amend his given name to Edward and the surname to de Valera. But by this time Éamon (the Irish form of Edmund) had long since lost his father and left New York.

Owing to the challenges faced by his widowed mother, a two-year old Éamon boarded the S.S. City of Chicago bound for Cobh Harbour (Queenstown), Co. Cork with his uncle Ned Coll. The pair arrived 18 April 1885 and Éamon was to be raised in Limerick by his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Coll.

While we know Éamon's father was of Spanish descent, the elder de Valera's birth location has long been source of conjecture. It may have been either Seville or the Basque region of Spain...some have even suggested Cuba. Indeed, this question occupied Éamon's mind throughout his life. His detractors would wield his murky paternal lineage and a rumour that he was born out of wedlock as a useful but petty weapon.

A highly educated man de Valera had visions of freedom and sovereignty for Ireland from the beginning. Regardless of whether one agrees with his tactics or policies from 1916 through his retirement from public life, "Dev" helped steer the course of a nation for generations