Book review on 'Jugding Dev' by Diarmuid Ferriter
Uploaded by Kerrytom on Aug 10, 2013
‘Judging Dev’ is a recently produced book written by Irish historian Diarmuid Ferriter on the life and political career of Eamon De Valera. While there have been many books and biographies written on De Valera, Ferriter’s is the first to be written with the advantage of using previously unattainable personal correspondences, documents and pictures of De Valera. Could it be described as a complete work on De Valera’s life? The short answer is no. While beautifully produced with an abundance of never before seen personal photographs and documents released from the National Archives, these make up roughly around two thirds of a three hundred and seventy page book. To put it in simple terms, the volume written on De Valera in this book could never suffice to do justice to the life of this Irish political Behemoth. To be fair to Ferriter, he does not claim this book to be a definitive account of the life of De Valera. The aim of Ferriter in this book was to revise the life of De Valera, and to give a more balanced account on his legacy then he has been receiving in more recent times.
This is not a historical book aimed at the academic world, but is written and produced in a way which makes it accessible to all. De Valera has always been a character which has divided opinion, from families and neighbours from every parish in the country, right up to distinguished Irish historians who would be considered experts in their fields. There has been a swing over the last two decades in how De Valera’s legacy has been perceived and written about. In the late sixties, early seventies a biography of De Valera entitled ‘Eamon De Valera’, was written by the Earl of Longford and Thomas P. O’ Neill, which was rather favourable towards De Valera. This view on De Valera was countered by Tim Pat Coogan’s biography ‘De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow’, which was produced in 1993. This book was extremely critical on the life and career of De Valera. What Ferriter is trying to do in this book is to rebalance the more recent negative views on De Valera. He is not trying to swing the pendulum back to an overly positive view on De Valera, like the account given by Longford and O’ Neill, but rather find an honest middle ground on the subject....