De Valera's mother, Catherine Coll, usually known as Kate, came to the states in 1879, at the young age of twenty-three. Like so many other Irish immigrants of that time, she had suffered from poverty, and even hunger, in her native land and saw America as a place where she could go to try and get a fresh start. She first took a job with a wealthy French family that was living in Manhattan. This is where and when she met Vivion Juan de Valera. He was a Spanish sculptor who came to the home of her employers to give music lessons to the children.

In 1881, the couple married. A little over a year later, while living at 61 east 41st Street, Kate Coll de Valera gave birth to the couple's only child. His name was Edward, called by Eddie at first, but would b

Always in poor health, Vivion de Valera left his young family behind him and traveled to Colorado, hoping that perhaps the healthier air would help him out. Within a few months he died. Now a widow, Kate went back to work, leaving Eamon in the care of another woman who also had come from the tiny village of Bruree, in County Limerick. Later in his life, Eamon would remember occasional visits from, as he knew her, a woman in black, which ended up being his true mother.

For nearly a year, he stayed in jail. Then, one day, during a Catholic religious ceremony, he saved the wax from a candle used in the service. With that wax he made an impression of the prison passkey and managed to smuggle it to Michael Collins, another Irish leader. From that impression Collins had a key made, cleverly returning it to de Valera in a fruitcake disguised as a gift.

At first, Eamon tried not to involve himself in politics. Instead, he devoted himself to the Gaelic League. But as the situation with England grew more intense, he joined both the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Sinn Fein (We Ourselves)- groups pressing for Irish freedom. He was even more active in the Irish Volunteers, a group that was arming itself and preparing for open rebellion. He became commander of the Third Battalion of the Volunteers, a force of about 125 men.

He taught Latin, French and mathematics at various secondary schools, but also at colleges, training teachers. Finally he became faculty at St. Patrick's College, an outstanding Irish seminary, responsible for preparing men for the priesthood. At St. Patrick's his involvement with Catholicism became even more intense.

Very tall and thin with dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin, like his Spanish father, what struck people immediately was his seriousness. Just as he had been passionate about rugby and track as a youngster, now he was passionate about his devotion to the Catholic Church, to the study of mathematics, and the cause of freedom from British rule for Ireland. He remained a private person, seldom smiling, seldom revealing his emotions. Whether he was happy or unhappy was difficult to tell.

By 1910, the year the de Valera's were married, the struggle for Irish independence from Great Britain had grown even more bitter. This struggle was by no means new. Long before Eamon's birth, such leaders as Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell had championed the cause of poor Irish farmers, forced to leave their homes when they could not pay rent to the British landlords. In time, many Irish leaders came to see freedom from British rule as the only answer.

In April 1916, the bloody Easter rebellion broke out in Dublin. De Valera seized the railroad station there, as well as a large bakery. They defeated British reinforcements sent to recapture those positions. But after nearly a week, the British, armed with artillery and heavily outnumbering the Irish, finally forced the exhausted rebels to surrender. As the British troops closed in on them, de Valera is said to have declared to his troops, "You have but one life to live and but one death to die. See that you do both like men." He and his battalion were the last to give in.

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Approximate Word count = 2666
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)