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E-mailNew book claims Eamon De Valera was a British spy
American author claims the Long Fellow was a coward during 1916 and was a longtime British informant
A new book by an American author is claiming that Eamon De Valera was so afraid of losing his life during the 1916 Rising that he turned informant for the British.
'England's Greatest Spy: Eamon de Valera,' written by John Turi, which is to be published in Ireland in November and in the U.S. in 2010 by Stacey International, claims that the New York-born Irish leader was on the take from the British for many years.
The author, who has an Irish born wife, researched the book for ten years and says De Valera was a somewhat marginal figure who suffered much rejection during his childhood.
Turi’s research and findings led him to paint a less that flattering picture of Dev’s role in the 1916 rising.
Turi, a retired U.S. naval officer and historian from Princeton New Jersey, is quoted as writing the following in the Irish Independent about De Valera during the 1916 Rising.
After staying awake for several days and being gripped by fear, “[De Valera] abandoned his men and slipped out of Boland's at noon on the Sunday, taking with him a British prisoner . . . as his insurance against being shot before he could surrender".
"De Valera the cowardly, incompetent, mentally unstable officer who deserted his troops was (later) repackaged as de Valera the lonely hero fighting valiantly against overwhelming odds."
Turi believes that De Valera was not spared because he was born in America, but because he turned informant while being held at Kilmainham jail.
In his book that author makes claims that De Valera helped set up Michael Collins’ assassination at Beal Na mBlath in Cork and that Irish neutrality during World War II was a façade.
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