Éamon de Valera those deserters who had served in the Allied forces. General Richard Mulcahy also spoke against the Order, disagreeing with the way in which it applied to enlisted men and not to officers. After de Valera had spent sixteen years in power without answering the crucial questions of partition and republican status the public demanded a change from Fianna Fáil government. In the 1948 election, de Valera lost the outright majority he'd enjoyed since 1933. It initially looked like the National Labour Party would give Fianna Fáil enough support to stay in office as a minority government, but National Labour insisted
Sinéad de Valera Sinéad de Valera Sinéad de Valera (née Ní Fhlannagáin; 3 June 1878 – 7 January 1975) was the wife of Taoiseach and the 3rd President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera. She was also the author of a number of children's books in English and Irish. She was born Jane O'Flanagan in Balbriggan. Her father, Laurence, was a carpenter and was a native of Kildare who moved to Balbriggan and married a local girl, Margaret Byrne. The couple emigrated to New York City where their daughter, Mary, was born in 1871. The family had returned to Balbriggan in 1873, and Sinéad