Coming in October: de Valera in America

Eamon de Valera, the face of Ireland in America for most of the 20th century, will be the subject of the October meeting of the Irish Cultural Society. The meeting will convene on October 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Garden City Library, 60 Seventh Street, across the street from the Garden City Hotel. The meeting is free and open to the public.

The speaker, Dave Hannigan, will talk about Eamon de Valera in America, a lecture that will touch on the eighteen months in 1919-1920 that de Valera spent in New York and across America. Professor Hannigan is a native of Cork City and is a professor of history at Suffolk Community College in Selden. His interest in de Valera stemmed from a photograph he saw online of Fenway Park in Boston filled

to the rafters for a de Valera rally. Irish-born and Irish-Americans came to hear the future Taoiseach speak, knowing that de Valera was a fugitive from British justice. Americans treated de Valera as if he were a visiting head of state wherever he went.

Inspired by that photograph, Professor Hannigan wrote a book about de Valera’s time in America. He is also the author of eight books and two children’s novels. The audience at the meeting will be introduced to the most influential political figure during the time of Ireland’s struggles to become an independent nation.