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 De Valera’s “Tree of Liberty” at Notre Dame
By
Prof. Brian O Conchubair
Captured in May 1918 and imprisoned in Lincoln Prison, England, Eamon
de Valera, Ireland’s future president, escaped in dramatic fashion
on February 3, 1919. Fearing the propaganda boost his re-arrest would
provide England, the IRA dispatched de Valera to the United States. His
mission was to acquire of½cial U.S. support for Irish independence,
and raise funds. He traveled through the States visiting Irish groups,
meeting politicians and collecting funds that totaled $6 million.
One visit took him to South Bend, Indiana, where he planted a “Tree
of Liberty,” at Notre Dame University.
The Scholastic, the university’s student newspaper, reported that
University President Fr. Burns, had invited de Valera to address the student
body
on Wednesday, October 15, 1919: “Elaborate preparations are being
made at the University by the committees acting with the local branch
of the Friends of Irish Freedom for the reception of the distinguished
visitor. If the necessary arrangements can be made, the students will
be asked to turn out en masse for a parade, and the school’s newly-organized
band will be expected to add ‘tone’ to the reception.”
The following week’s edition counseled that “Notre Dame’s
welcome should be worthy of the eminence of her guest.” And indeed
it was. The Ave Maria newspaper reported on the visit thusly: “It
was characteristically gracious of Dr. Eamon de Valera, ‘King of
Ireland,’ as one youthful admirer calls him to assure the students
of the University of Notre Dame that he would remember as ‘His happiest
day in America’ the one on which he visited them. The address in
which he made this statement evoked such applause as the eminent Irishman
seldom hears, it was so spontaneous, continuous and uproarious. He was
listened to with breathless attention every one present seemingly eager
to catch every word that fell from his lips. But his personality made
even a deeper impression his gravity when speaking of serious things,
his reverence when referring to holy things. Few failed to observe how
recollectedly he said Grace at table, and how thoroughly absorbed he seemed
to be while kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. A good as well as a
great man, a leader who inspires the highest respect and the fullest con½dence,
is President Eamon de Valera.”
De Valera’s speech, subsequently published in The Scholastic, concerned
Ireland’s favorable attitude to the League of Nations, the morality
of the 1916 Rising, and the potential for peaceful political cooperation
between Catholic and Protestant.
Writing in The Scholastic, T.J. Tobin commented: “Upon his arrival,
Mr. de Valera received one of the greatest ovations that Notre Dame has
ever accorded a visitor. After exchanging greetings with Very Rev. Provincial
Morrissey and the members of the faculty, he proceeded to the Statue of
Father Corby, at the foot of which he laid a wreath bearing the inscription
“From Eamon de Valera in loving tribute to Father Corby who gave
general absolution to the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg.” After he
had spoken brie¾y upon the importance of the role played by Army
chaplains, he was taken to the University Library and shown the Gaelic
collection in which are the sword of General Meaghar and the ¾ag
of the Irish Brigade. From the Library he went to the center of the quadrangle
and there planted a tree as a memorial of his visit.”
De Valera would return to Ireland in December 1920 and later lead the
anti-Treaty forces in the Irish Civil War, during which he would again
be arrested and imprisoned, on this occasion by his former comrades. His
supporters appealed to Notre Dame “to use its in¾uence to
obtain immediate information regarding the present condition and whereabouts
of the distinguished scholar and statesman its President and faculty took
pride in honoring if for no other reason than to alleviate the suffering
and anxiety of his sorrowing wife (or perhaps widow) and family and to
join in the nationwide demand for his release, if still alive.”
On his release, de Valera became the dominant political ½gure in
20th-century Ireland, establishing Fianna Fáil, holding various
political of½ces and authoring Ireland’s 1937 constitution.
He ended his political career as President of Ireland, serving two terms
from 1959 until 1973. He was also the Chancellor of the National University
of Ireland from 1922 until 1975.
Sadly, visitors to Notre Dame seeking the tree planted by de Valera
will look in vain. A mere week after the future Irish president’s
departure, a student of “the Unionist persuasion” deracinated
the tree and deposited it in one of the placid lakes ¾anking the
famous grotto. (Notre Dame, then as now, was a politically diverse institution).
The tree was never replanted an oversight that continues to this day.
De Valera’s “Tree of Liberty” at Notre Dame
Captured in May 1918 and imprisoned in Lincoln Prison, England, Eamon
de Valera, Ireland’s future president, escaped in dramatic fashion
on February 3, 1919. Fearing the propaganda boost his re-arrest would
provide England, the IRA dispatched de Valera to the United States. His
mission was to acquire of½cial U.S. support for Irish independence,
and raise funds. He traveled through the States visiting Irish groups,
meeting politicians and collecting funds that totaled $6 million. .
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