Éamon de Valera (1882-1975) had a vision of Ireland as being free, sovereign, and self-sufficient; rural and celebrating all things rural; guided in all things by the Catholic Church (no separation of Church and State); Irish-speaking; and united as one 32-county nation. All of his economic policies were aimed in this direction.
De Valera’s speech titled “The Undeserted Village Ireland” occurred in 1943, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Gaelic League. It is his most famous speech, and many people blame it — and him — for the economic chaos in the 20th century in Ireland. This speech was delivered in the middle of World War II. Here is an excerpt:
“Acutely conscious though we all are of the misery and desolation in which the greater part of the world is plunged, let us turn aside for a moment to that ideal Ireland that we would have. That Ireland which we dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as the basis of right living, a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort, and devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit — a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths and the laughter of comely maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. It would, in a word, be the home of a people living the life that God desires that man should live. […] It was the idea of such an Ireland, happy, vigorous, spiritual, that fired the imagination of our poets, that made successive generations of men give their lives to win religious and political liberty, and that will urge men in our own and future generations to die, if need be, so that these liberties may be preserved.”
He goes on to point out (ironically, in English) that restoring the use of Gaelic in every household is of paramount importance, and that neglecting to speak it is “a betrayal of those who gave their lives so that not merely a free but an Irish-speaking nation might be possible.” Subsequent to this famous speech, the Irish language declined much further, and more waves of emigration continued to lower the population of Ireland.
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