De valera Is Executed With The Other Rebel Leaders in !916! What Changes?

Like him or loath him, Eammon De valera aka the chief, was by far the most significant political figure in Ireland since O'Connel. He was spared execution in 1916 despite being a rebel leader during that rebellion due to his American citizenship and The U.S. was not in WW1 yet. It has been speculated that he was 'turned' during interrogation to became a British spy but that doesn't stand to reason at all. He founded what became the major party of government in the Republic - Fianna Fail, he kept Ireland neutral in WW2, but is chided for having an insular catholic world view and it's often claimed by clinging onto power to long , he held Ireland back! Also he played a negative role in the Irish civil war and it's speculated that he had some sly role in the death of his nemisis, Michael Collins during it. BTW I'm in a sense trading Collins surviving to a ripe old age for an executed Dev! So what changes?
 
Even without Dev pulling the strings there were still plenty of people who regarded Collins as a traitor for signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and would want him dead. Assuming he survived the Civil War and became PM there would still have been some sort of political party formed from the anti-treaty forces, whether it could have achieved the same electoral success as Fianna Fail did without Dev is doubtful.

I don't see Ireland joining WW2 as the memories from the War of Independence would still be very bitter. Collins may have taken an even more pro-Allies slant than Dev and he certainly wouldn't have signed the book of condolence for Hitler!

Given recent events in Ireland, many Irish people would be delighted if Fianna Fail could have been butterflied into oblivion!!
 

Cook

Banned
Without De Valera still alive and in charge of the Republican movement Collins would never have been sent to London to negotiate would he?

With his standing unblemished by involvement in the negotiations might he have been able to hold more sway with the radicles and prevent the split, prevent the Civil War ever happening?
 
Markievitz would never have been taking very seriously at the time dsue to her gender. And while a recent book has suggested that DEV was turned during interrogation while facing almost certain execution ( a notion the vast majority of us including me find very far fetched though he became the ultimate free stater eventually), it has been reported recently that during similar interrogation the countess crouched herself up into a ball and subsequently went crawling on her knees begging the British authorities for her life!
BTW surely there would be no Fianna Fail - the major Irish party of government since 1932 without the chief! A highly pragmatic party generally led by people who actually believe in nothing and all -embracing in its make-up to such an extent that only the Congress party in India would be ahead of it in this respect and corrupt virtually on a par with the Italian Christian Democrats and proven so!
Mind you had the other major party been the major governing party for that length (Fine Gael - AKA The Blueshirts) they would have been as bad if not worse, given their reknowned love of uniforms and frothing at the mouth regard for rules and regulations!
 
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