Síle de Valera Dublin, where she qualified as a career guidance teacher. De Valera comes from a famous political family; she is the granddaughter of Éamon de Valera, the founder of Fianna Fáil, former Taoiseach and third President of Ireland. She is a niece of the former TD Vivion de Valera and is a first cousin of Teachta Dála Éamon Ó Cuív. De Valera was first returned to Dáil Éireann in the Fianna Fáil landslide victory at the 1977 general election. She was elected for the Dublin County Mid constituency, which included the Tallaght area of County Dublin, being the youngest TD elected
Éamon de Valera by historians as a positive one, and a biography by Tim Pat Coogan alleges that his failures outweigh his achievements, with de Valera's reputation declining while that of his great rival in the 1920s, Michael Collins, is rising.The most recent work on de Valera by historian Diarmaid Ferriter presents a more positive picture of de Valera's legacy. Bertie Ahern, at a book launch for Diarmaid Ferriter's biography of de Valera, described de Valera's achievements in political leadership during the formative years of the state: One of de Valera's finest hours was his regrouping of the Republican side after defeat in