DE HAE, Risteárd. & Ní DHONNCHADHA, Brighid. Clár Litridheacht na NuaGhaedhilge. 1850-1936. I. Na Leabhra. II. Filidheacht i dTréimhseacháin. III. Prós i dTréimhseacháin. [Éamon de Valera‟s copy with his signature on titlepage of each volume. A very good set. Scarce. ]

Three volumes. Baile Átha Cliath: Oifig Dhíolta Foillseacháin Rialtais, 1938/‟40. Royal octavo. pp. (1) viii, 288, (2) xiv, 620, (3) xiv, 1114. Green linen, title in gilt on spines. Éamon de Valera‟s copy with his signature on titlepage of each volume. A very good set. Scarce.

On Language & the Irish Nation - Eamon de Valera. Extract from Eamon de Valera‟s Speech to the
Nation, broadcast on Radio Éireann, March 17th, 1943: “For many the pursuit of the material life is a
necessity ... They rightly strive to secure it and it must be our aim and the aim of all who are just and
wise to assist in that effort. But many have got more than is required and are free, if they choose, to
devote themselves more completely to cultivating the things of the mind and, in particular, those that
make us out as a distinct nation. The first of these latter is the national language. It is for us what no
other language can be. It is our very own... It is more than a symbol, it is an essential part of our
nationhood. It has been moulded by the thought of a hundred generations of our forebears. In it is
stored the accumulated experience of a people... A vessel for three thousand years of our history, the
language is for us precious beyond measure... To part with it would be to abandon a great part of
ourselves, to loose the key to our past, to cut away the roots from the tree. With the language gone we
could never again aspire to being more than half a nation ... .”
In his Irishman‟s Diary of December 15th, 2000, Kevin Myers quotes de Valera as saying that if he
could chose between having freedom with the language and the language without freedom, he would
rather have the latter.