http://www.irishcentral.com/topics/Eamon+O%27Cuiv IrishCentral Eamon O'Cuiv en-us http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the_wests_awake/little-de-valera-eamon-o-cuiv-takes-a-new-stance-150926505.html http://www.irishcentral.com/story/roots/the_wests_awake/little-de-valera-eamon-o-cuiv-takes-a-new-stance-150926505.html Thu, 10 May 2012 05:30:15 PDT Illustration by Caty BartholomewAs a young reporter with The Irish Press in Dublin in the sixties I occasionally was dispatched to cover President de Valera's public appearances He was very old then and I was always terrified that he would drop dead on my watch That was not because his family owned the paper, but because of the palpable fragility of one of the state's founding fathers You felt that only willpower kept the towering dark figure erect at all for the duration he was in the public eye READ MORE ]]>