Dev Steps Aside

In the hearts and minds of Irishmen he was still "The Long" Fella"--the gangling, imperious young rebel commandant whose gallantry and skill during the Easter Rebellion moved even his British foes to admiration. But, as The Long Fella himself knew only too well, the slow wear of the years had transformed the youthful hero of legend into an old man, too weary to enjoy the daily cut and thrust of parliamentary politics, so near blind that he could no longer read the papers. Last week, as he has so often in the past, Eamon de Valera, 76, imposed his own view of things upon his countrymen. Obedient to his wishes, De Valera's Fianna Fail (Men of Destiny) Party cleared the way for his resignation as Prime Minister of Ireland by nominating him for the largely honorific job of President.

Forty years ago, Ireland's countryfolk used to sing: "When next we challenge England, we'll beat her in the fight, and we'll crown De Valera king of Ireland." But Dev himself made Ireland a republic. But for 21 of the last 27 years the inflexible ex-rebel, whose dour personality probably owes more to his Spanish father than his Irish mother, has been Ireland's Prime Minister or Taoiseach (pronounced tea-shock). A man of homely analogies, naive honesty and unbudgeable stubbornness, New York-born De Valera dominated Irish politics.

Even as with crowned kings, De Valera had his griefs. Above all, he had failed to achieve the two goals closest to his heart: the unity of Ireland and the revival of Gaelic as the national tongue. But nobody thought for a minute that he would now fail to get into the Arus an Uachtarain, the presidential mansion set in Dublin's Phoenix Park. There was even talk that the opposition Fine Gael Party would let Dev run unopposed in the June presidential election--if only out of enthusiasm at the idea of seeing him safely removed from active politics. The independent Irish Times, which has often bitterly attacked Dev and his "break all links with Britain" policy, said that Dev was "the fitting choice" for President, and there were few in Ireland to disagree. His possible successor as Taoiseach: Deputy Prime Minister Sean Lemass, able Minister for Industry and Commerce. A golf-playing, hard-driving executive of French ancestry, Lemass was the youngest man in the garrison, a mere spalpeen, at the Dublin General Post Office during the 1916 Rising. The story goes that a British officer, after the surrender, kicked him in the backside and told him to go home because he was too young to have fought. De Valera's right-hand man for a quarter of a century, Lemass has managed to steer clear of The Long Fella's ancient political quarrels, concentrate instead on the practical business of government.

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