Eamon de Valera

In spite of de Valera's recent order, issued through the "Minister of Home Affairs," forbidding the Siki-McTigue boxing match and ordaining a period of national mourning "in view of murder" of prisoners of war, St. Patrick's Day passed naturally enough. The Siki-McTigue bout took place and no one mourned--except Siki.

There is one curious side of de Valera's threat: any Irishman should have known that it was manifestly absurd to deprive the nation of their traditional joy on St. Patrick's Day, no matter what might be the political or economic exigencies. Again, when framing the "order," de Valera must have known that he could not possibly enforce it. The cause of this bravado seems somehow lost in its effect.

Eamon de Valera is a well educated man, holding the degree of B.A. from the Royal University of Ireland, and for some time a professor in Dublin University. He was born in New York in 1883. His mother was an Irish woman and his father a Spaniard.