What a jerk!

So there is an American “amateur historian” who has put out a book recently called England’s Greatest Spy. In it, author John Turi states that Eamon de Valera was a spy for the British government. De Valerawas the founder of  the modern Irish political party Fianna Fail, four time Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, and 13 year president of Ireland. Turi claims de Valera that cut a deal with the British in 1916, just after the Easter Rising, that allowed him to escape the firing squad in return for his cooperation with British authorities.

Luckily for all of us, the historian community has come out against Turi. In a recent article in the London Times, historians refute this claim. The opinions of the eminent Irish Historian Tim Pat Coogan as well as others are expressed in the article and Turi is revealed as a fraud.

Turi’s farce, England’s Greatest Spy is a result of the current state of historical scholarly research. With the constant pressure to release something new, in order to be published scholars have little choice but to put out something fantastical or fanciful. The real reason that de Valera was not executed following the 1916 Easter Rising was that he was born in New York City. Two years into WWI the United States had not yet joined the fight against the Kaiser and the British government did not want to risk upsetting the US by executing one of  its citizens.