A chara, - As somebody who has lived all his life within two miles of where Eamon de Valera grew up in his grandmother's and uncle's cottage near Bruree, I was pained and disgusted by Kevin Myers's piece on de Valera (An Irishman's Diary, December 2nd) in which malicious hearsay, of recent vintage, is given the same prominence as if it were fact. Your columnist's repeated use of the name "Edward Coll" instead of Eamon de Valera (the name by which de Valera has been universally known since the War of Independence) was utterly contemptible.
I can assure Mr Myers that de Valera was never known as "Edward Coll" in the Bruree district. Mr Myers writes: "Edward Coll (the name with which he entered his national school rolls, Coll being his mother's family name). . ." This is untrue. I attended Bruree school, de Valera's old school, and I have seen the old school rolls there (in fact I possess one of them). In the roll for the year 1888 - he began schooling in May of that year - his name appears as Eddie Develera (photocopy enclosed) in "Infants" class. In the De Valera Museum in Bruree there is a piece of paper bearing the "baby" signature of de Valera - written perhaps when he was six or seven years of age. It reads "Eddy de Valera".
Saying that de Valera was reared in a bleak loveless home, as Kevin Myers does, and demonising de Valera's uncle, Pat Coll, would seem to me to be part of a campaign to build up a suitable pad from which to launch the kind of unpleasant character that certain people would represent the later de Valera to have been. I never heard any of de Valera's contemporaries and neighbours - among whom was my own mother - describe the Coll home in which de Valera grew up as being the kind of home Kevin Myers portrays. De Valera's grandmother was remembered as a kind and loving person; and in after years de Valera would speak very affectionately about her.
De Valera's uncle, Pat Coll, whom I knew, was not the tyrannical kind of person that Kevin Myers insinuates. He did make his nephew work hard - a lot of young lads were compelled to work hard at that time when so much work was done by hand - but he did not prevent de Valera from playing games. De Valera regularly played hurling and football in the Pump Field and in the field where Bruree Catholic Church now stands. Both these venues were half-a-mile from his home. It should be remembered too that Pat Coll, a man by no means rolling in riches, made a considerable sacrifice when he agreed to send his nephew to the Christian Brothers' secondary school at Charleville.
Over the years, up to his nineties, de Valera came back again and again to his boyhood home in Bruree. I remember meeting him there on one occasion, and from listening to him reminisce with his first cousin, Mrs Meagher (nee Coll), it was clear that that house in which he grew up had very happy memories for him. I have seen him with his uncle, as have many of his old neighbours, and it was obvious to anybody with eyes that a very strong bond of affection existed between the two. - Yours, etc., Mainchin Seoighe,
Hon Curator, De Valera Museum, Bruree, Cill Mocheallog, Co Luimnigh.