Word: valera
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Angry Irish voices filled the lecture theater of Dublin's handsome, wide-flung Leinster House. Honorable red-faced members of the Dail Eireann threw "reckless," "irresponsible," "pique and petulance" at the bowed head of astute, unbowed Prime Minister Eamon de Valera, crouched on his shiny, mahogany front-row seat. De Valera had just tripped an unwary Dail into an unwanted general election, the second within a year...
...night before, a bill to merge Eire's transport system had come up for its second reading. The opposition parties (which altogether-but they are seldom all together-have 71 seats to the 67 of De Valera's Fianna Fail) asked postponement until an investigating committee could complete a report on ugly rumors of fat profits in transport stocks. The committee wanted to know how speculators got hold of confidential information, supposedly known only to high Government officials. Brusquely De Valera rejected the suggestion, but on a vote he lost, 64-to-63. Next day an astonished Dail...
...Foully, unfairly, in secret and undemocratically this decision has been taken and hurled at Parliament and the people," roared choleric Dr. Thomas O'Higgins, leader of Fine Gael, the principal opposition. Retorted De Valera, out to get a solid majority for his Fianna Fail: "I have no apology to offer. A minority government has responsibility but not power...
...Irish wit-and wisdom-came notably from Fordham University's president, the Very Rev. Robert I. Gannon S.J. Said he: "The world needs Ireland. The world needs De Valera. For no matter what else he is-and he has his faults-he is a man of principle-and hence a most conspicuous figure in international affairs...
Presumably, peppery U.S. Minister David Gray (uncle, by marriage, to Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt) stepped down a corridor in Dublin's Leinster House, entered Prime Minister Eamon de Valera's office. Presumably, gaunt, U.S.-born "Dev" scanned the note handed him, hopped good & mad from his chair, sputtering more sparks than the fire on his hearth...