Eamon de Valera may be the most single most consequential Irish figure of the twentieth century, and certainly helped shaped modern Ireland. While de Valera the statesman, the rebel, the visionary, has passed over into a sort of myth, de Valera the man remains an elusive, almost opaque presence. Precious little is known of his background, his motivations - the roots, in short, of his ferocious devotion to a very particular brand of Irish nationalism.

McCullagh considers the man behind the myth, and sketches a ground-breaking portrait of de Valera, his times and his complex, ever-shifting legacy. Beautifully written and deeply researched, McCullagh's De Valera is a provocative and nuanced portrait of Ireland's most enigmatic leader, as well as a balanced assessment of his role in shaping Ireland's national self-image.

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David McCullagh is a journalist with RTÉ, serving as political correspondent and a presenter on Prime Time in 2013. In 2020, he became the co-host of RTE’s flagship Six One News program. He is the author of A Makeshift Majority: A History of the First InterParty Government and The Reluctant Taoiseach: A Biography of John A. Costello. His acclaimed assessment of the life of Éamon de Valera was published in two volumes: De Valera, Volume I: Rise, 1882-1932 in 2017 and De Valera, Volume II: Rule, 1932-1975 in 2018. His most recent book is The Great Irish Politics Book, a guide to politics for younger readers, which was published in 2021.