De Valera — Leinster House, 2 September

Eamon de Valera, fifty-seven, has been Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Eire since 1937 — the year of the new Constitution establishing Ireland as a fully sovereign state, an "external associate" of the British Commonwealth. A veteran of the Easter Rising of 1916, of the War of Independence of 1919-1921, of the Irish Civil War of 1922-1923, he is one of the founders of the Irish state and its most striking political leader. A fervent Catholic, a nationalist, a Gaelicist.

His foreign policy is dominated by two issues: Northern Ireland (the six counties left under British sovereignty at the time of partition in 1921) and neutrality (a doctrine of defence of Irish sovereignty against all British interference).

In 1938, by the Chamberlain-de Valera agreement, the United Kingdom returned the Treaty Ports (the Atlantic ports of Berehaven, Queenstown/Cobh, Lough Swilly) hitherto held by the Royal Navy. Those ports would have been crucial in a submarine war in the Atlantic. Churchill, then a backbencher, had vigorously protested against the return — he saw in it "one of the most unconceivable and irresponsible acts of any British government."

On 1 September 1939, at the invasion of Poland, de Valera must determine the official stance. Irish opinion is divided: the Catholic community in the north and the IRA lean towards a neutrality hostile to London, even tacit support for Germany (the logic of "my enemy's enemy"). A part of moderate Catholic opinion and business circles would prefer a discreet alignment with Britain.