DE VALERA, Eamon. Ireland’s Case Against Conscription. SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY FROM ÉAMON DE VALERA

Dublin and London: Maunsel, 1918. Crown octavo. pp. iv, 46. Green stiff wrappers, title printed in black on upper cover. Signed presentation copy from Éamon de Valera to Fr. Cullen, dated Nodlaig, 1926 on titlepage. A very good copy.
This pamphlet constitutes one of Éamon de Valera’s most important political statements of 1918, articulating Ireland’s opposition to British conscription during the First World War at a moment of acute constitutional crisis. Ireland’s Case Against Conscription was prepared for intended presentation to President Woodrow Wilson by the Lord Mayor of Dublin as part of the wider Irish diplomatic effort to internationalise the question of Irish self-determination. De Valera’s arrest in May 1918, amid the so-called ‘German Plot’, prevented the completion and delivery of the document in its original form. The text was subsequently edited for publication by Robert Brennan, acting in accordance with de Valera’s instructions, and supplemented with testimonies from international writers and public figures described as “authors unprejudiced in favour of Ireland”, lending the pamphlet an explicitly international and moral dimension.

[CAT 163]