Patrick Smith (politician) career, Smith being said to have shouted across the floor at Dáil Éireann, "They gave us stepping-stones, but they [state forces in 1922] would not walk on them." A play on the same quote by Irish revolutionary, Michael Collins. He entered the Dáil in September 1923, as a Republican candidate. In 1926, Éamon de Valera, the Leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein, approached Smith and persuaded him to join his newly founded political party, Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fail abandoned the abstentionist policy of Anti Treaty Sinn Fein and its elected members took their seats in Dáil Éireann. De Valera and Smith
Rúaidhrí de Valera 1947, de Valera became the Archaeological Officer for Ordnance Survey Ireland which permitted him to develop the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland project. He went on to write significant papers on Irish prehistory which contributed to his doctorate, awarded in 1954. In 1957, de Valera was appointed Chair of Celtic Archaeology at University College Dublin where he worked to enlarge the department whilst continuing to publish on Irish chamber tombs, especially the Court cairns which he proposed first developed in the west of the country. De Valera later excavated at the Mound of the Hostages at Tara. He