THE SINN FEIN LEADER.

Taihape Daily Times, 23 May 1918, Page 6

THE SINN FEIN LEADER.

De Valera is the leader of the Sinn I Fein and is entitled to sit in the House of Commons, but has never taken his seat. He took part in the rejolt of 1916, and his speeches have teen described by Mr, Lloyd George as "coldblooded incitements to rebe»lion." He was born in New York, whither his father, a member of an old Ctalway-Spanish family, had emigrated. He appears to have come to Ireland as a child, and was first at the National School at Bruree, County Limerick, where his uncle resided, and he went as a boy in his teens to Blackrock College, Dublin. He is B.A. of the National University and held the position of Professor of Mathematics at .Blackrock College. During the insurrection he commanded the insurgents in the Ringsend ares. of Dublin, and, like the Countess Markievicz, was sentenced to death by courtmartial, but had the' sentence commuted to penal servitude for lire. It is said in military circles that the dispositions he made at Ringsend showed a much higher order of military talents than was displayed by any of the other insurgent leaders. A remark that was supposed to • have been made by him at the time of his arrest is very much quoted: "Ah,"7>e is allegtd to have said, "if only the people had risen with knives and forks ." It was he, it may be added, who took charge of the released prisoners on the mailboat to Kingstown, formed them up on the deck, and marched them up the gangway and on to the platform in military order. He was released with other Irish prisoners, before the ConTention met, and on the death of the late Major W. H. K. Redmond contested the Ikst Clare seat, winning it by a majority of nearly 3000.