Éamon de Valera narrowly loses the gamble he made on January 4, and fails to survive a vote to reelect him as President of Ireland. The Dail nonetheless rises to cheer for him in recognition of his central role in the path to Irish independence.
He lost by two votes, with three members of the Dail not voting, including de Valera. The abstentions were in recognition that a yes vote would have rejected the treaty, creating an added irony to the entire matter. The entire matter is hard to reconcile, but had the three votes been ones to reelect, it would have amounted to throwing the entire country into chaos over a single vote.
Of course, as it would turn out, it was merely a prelude to violent chaos. De Valera and Sinn Fein were about to take the country into a civil war over the distinctions between dominion and full republic status for Ireland.
In Laramie, they were not only reading about the situation in Ireland that would lead to war, but had the chance to see a film that depicted American troops, including it was claimed local Laramieites, fighting i the recent Great War.
No comments:
Post a Comment