Speech of
An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin TD
Eamon de Valera Commemoration,
Ennis,
Sunday 27th September 2026
Tá áit ar leith ag an gClár i stair an náisiúnachais agus i stair an daonlathais in Éirinn.
Is anseo a fuair Dónall Ó Conaill údarás chun troid i gcoinne an leithcheala agus an idirdhealaithe frith-Chaitliceach.
Bhí a bhua mar chuid den chéad ollghluaiseacht i stair an daonlathais.
Agus is anseo díreach níos lú ná nócha bliain níos déanaí a toghadh ceannaire nua ar Éirinn nua.
It is an honour to be with you today to remember the life and contribution of the most successful democratic leader in Irish history.
During his lifetime he was known and respected throughout the world particularly amongst newly independent states and those seeking independence.
He was seen as a strong character. Resolute, determined and clear in his vision. A vision not just for his own country but also the international community.
He overcame enormous hurdles from his earliest days.
Sent across an ocean as a young child.
Raised in poverty and inspired to dream of better times through education, his determination to succeed remains as compelling as ever.
When the cause of his country required it, he risked everything in helping to light the spark of our revolution.
He would go on to lead remarkable advances in the cause of Ireland.
His victory here in the July 1917 by-election was overwhelming. It was also achieved in the face of the aggressive opposition of a wartime administration desperate to stop him.
That contest secured his place as the unchallenged leader of nationalist and republican Ireland. When he retired 56 years later he had won more national elections than any person will ever match.
Yet for all this, the scale of his contribution to our development is rarely fully appreciated.
During his lifetime he had many loyalists who wouldn’t hear a bad word against him. But he also always had active opponents who wouldn’t hear a positive word about him.
Today, many who reference him start with the assumption that he should be knocked off his pedestal – or seem to believe that he was personally responsible for everything negative which happened during his time as a political leader.
A fair and balanced look at the life and career of Eamon de Valera shows that he made historic and positive contributions to our country which are both unmatched and sustained.
He created a constitutional and international framework within which our democracy has been protected and prospered. It has allowed us to develop in new ways over the years so that today that ours is the only state formed in the aftermath of the First World War which has been democratic without interruption.
This was fundamentally because he was no inflexible and dominant ideologue.
His career was defined most often with a constant search for new ways forward.
Nothing demonstrates this as strongly as his decision to persuade the vast majority of Irish republicans to honour but leave behind their struggle in the civil war by founding a new democratic republican movement.
When he gathered his colleagues and supporters together to found Fianna Fáil one hundred years ago, he had with him people whose names and heroism were central to the Rising and the War of Independence. Amongst those with him were Markiewicz, Pearse, Clarke, Lemass and many others who had seen their friends and relations sacrifice so much for Irish freedom.
But they were not content to spend their time giving speeches and singing songs about their past exploit – they wanted to work for the Irish people and build a real sovereignty.
And that is exactly what they did.
With few resources and facing a government which controlled much of the media and the entire public administration, they went into every corner of our country and built a new political party which has been one of Europe’s most successful over the last century.
Eamon de Valera was the unquestioned leader, but he never closed-off debate. He allowed a vibrant and always evolving debate within the party. That’s what lay at the core of its radical programme when, only six short years after it was founded, the party won the confidence of the people and entered government.
The innovation and determination of his first governments will never be matched. They secured our sovereignty in a range of ways – perhaps the most remarkable being the democratic republican constitution which he wrote and serves us to this day.
Written at a time when the world was falling to dictatorships of the left and right, it is a constitution which insisted that Ireland is a peaceful and democratic state.
It rejected the intolerance sweeping Europe, giving explicit protection to minorities.
It introduced new protections for democracy, making Fianna Fáil the only party in Europe of those times which achieved power and then limited that power through new legal and constitutional controls.
And it asserted that Ireland believes in international law, cooperation between nations and respect for rules.
Ireland rejected the idea that states should seek to compete with each other – or that national sovereignty meant everyone could do what they wanted.
This is an inspiring inheritance and one which is as relevant to the world today as it was when Eamon de Valera wrote our constitution.
His worldwide stature was reinforced by his dramatic speeches to the League of Nations in the 1930 when he denounced rising conflict and hunger.
He told the largest assembly of nations ever to be convened, “The Irish nation has no imperialist ambitions. Though a mother country we covet no colonies and have no dominions.” And also that:
“a hundred million people are faced with starvation in the midst of a world of plenty - a world where human energy and scientific and mechanical development [are]… capable of meeting many times the peoples' needs. It is our duty …… to plan for the well-being and happiness of the plain ordinary human beings in every country who feel and think and suffer. There is no doubt that, with a will, a solution for this, a purely human problem, but the fundamental problem of our day, can be found.”
These words and the remarkable international tradition of the party founded by de Valera were very much in mind this week when I addressed the United Nations at a moment in history where there is a new fear and uncertainty over so many issues.
Conflict and escalating competition between nations ultimately only helps the very worst of people.
In the face of those who want to ignore international law we must work closely with those who share our belief in cooperation and common interests.
In the face of wars aggression and genocidal actions, we must always stand with those who seek to live in peace.
And where we need to change in order to be true to these values, then we should be willing to change.
There is no virtue in standing aside as those things you value are threatened – and I for one will not accept that our wonderful tradition of peacekeeping could be lost because one powerful aggressor is blockading the UN Security Council.
We oppose joining military blocks and our tradition of positive neutrality, enacted by Fianna Fáil in the face of opposition, remains vital. But we cannot allow our ability to contribute to peacekeeping forces to be lost. The reform of the triple lock, which will continue to root our decisions in the values of the United Nations charter is absolutely essential or we may very soon see the end of our sixty years of peacekeeping.
Eamon de Valera’s commitment to Ireland being a democratic republican state was absolute and was reflected in the way in which he so often sought new ways of dealing with the most difficult of problems.
From the first days after Fianna Fáil was founded he talked about trying to find ways of overcoming the reality of partition.
He never stepped back for one moment in criticising partition for introducing an artificial divide on our island and undermining progress and prosperity in both jurisdictions.
But it is entirely wrong when people suggest that he did nothing or cared nothing about partition. What he didn’t have was an easy answer to partition.
It is remarkable how often people criticise him for not ending partition while failing to suggest any serious option which was actually open to him or others.
Partition was designed and then reinforced specifically to increase division and be difficult to unravel.
De Valera understood this and believed that once you accepted that a conflict was not credible or winnable and would lead to untold destruction, then you had to find a new model for unity.
The records are full of examples of him rejecting the idea that all that was required was one more push or nationalist unity and everything would be fine.
With the authority of a man who had risked everything in the struggle for independence, he regularly talked about finding different institutional arrangements and accepting that we couldn’t just ignore the reality of divergence.
In the following decades every time he thought about a new opening to the North and finding a path to unity he had to deal with those, many of whom were in his own party, who found comfort in a inflexible approach.
Immediately after the Second World War he and Seán Lemass planned to try to open relations with Northern Ireland which had been effectively closed since independence.
In the early 1950s he supported Lemass in a genuinely visionary paper setting out a future for the island. It is remarkably similar to the policy which secured the Good Friday Agreement and other progress in recent years. It talked of building contacts and convincing all traditions that their interests were respected.
De Valera also made many gestures to show that he was against sectarianism. He arranged for state funding for Trinity College, which was in financial trouble and subject to a religious boycott.
He personally nominated to Seanad Éireann a Cavan Orange Order leader who was a nephew of a Unionist MP.
The historic opening up to the North which his successor Seán Lemass implemented was a direct continuation of this policy. It is this approach which has been directly responsible for progress since then and is even more important today.
It is a practical patriotism which does the hard work of engaging with others. Of promoting the interests of all. Of identifying and addressing shared interests. Finding ways where all of us on this island can step outside old divisions and find a new way forward.
Today, just as has been the case for the past 100 years, we have a lot of people who seem to think that you can overcome partition by talking about it or by seeking a victory over the other side. Calling on other people do the work is an awful lot easier than showing how you are willing and able to engage, to change and to act. Pretending that there are no tough choices or sacrifices required is the fastest way to get nowhere.
And we should all realise that a failure to respect the goodwill of those who disagree with you or have other strategies undermines all claims of being inclusive.
We have put in place the biggest programme of work in our history to understand what we share, where we differ and what opportunities are there for promoting our shared interests. The rigour and independence of this work is central to it being accepted and avoiding the trap of everything being seen solely through the lens of one vote.
This is the work de Valera and Lemass envisaged and which was put off for far too long.
I am determined that we will continue to explore new ways forward and I will continue to address this.
But let’s all be clear, that actually achieving something requires change. It demands accepting the fundamental principles of the peace agreement in all of its dimensions by looking for ways of moving forward together.
Us Nationalists talking to ourselves and demanding uniformity behind one strategy might make some people feel better but it will not achieve anything substantive.
Through his remarkable career Eamon de Valera made many mistakes, but the scale of his positive contribution is formidable and beyond that of any of this political critics.
The state which he and his party have done so much to develop in the last century faces many deep challenges and is very far from perfect – but its achievements are undeniable.
There are 2.3 million more people living here than when he founded his party, and one and a half million more people have jobs.
We not only belong to the strongest and most successful union of sovereign state in history, we are presiding over discussions which impact on 450 million people throughout Europe.
The legacy of Eamon de Valera is the values of democratic republicanism which have guided our development and are the key to its future.
It is a legacy we have a duty to remember and to honour.