Ó BROIN, León. Charles Gavan Duffy. Patriot and Statesmen. The Story of Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903) [SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY ÉAMON DE VALERA]

Dublin: Duffy, 1967. Foolscap octavo. pp. vii, 164. Purple cloth, titled in gilt. Signed and inscribed in Irish to Maurice Moynihan with love from Éamon de Valera. A fine copy in fine dust jacket with a few nicks.

León Ó Broin (1902-1990) civil servant, historian, writer and playwright was born in Dublin, and joined Sinn Féin and Fianna Éireann while still at school. He wrote many plays, stories and historical works in both English and Irish. He was imprisoned in 1921 and 1922 and afterwards joined the Free State army as a non-combatant. Called to the bar in 1924, after winning first place in the initial Free State junior administrative examinations (1925), he entered the civil service. Assigned to the Department of Education (1925-7), he was involved in launching the Irish-language publishing imprint An Gúm, intended to redress the paucity of  reading material, apart from school texts, in the language. Transferred to the Department of Finance (1927), he served as estimates officer and parliamentary clerk, and was assistant secretary of the economy committee established by the Cumann na nGaedheal government to make recommendations on reductions in current expenditure. Appointed private secretary to the minister for finance (1931-2), he served both Ernest Blythe and the first Fianna Fáil minister, Sean MacEntee. Promoted to assistant principal (1932), and to principal officer (1939), he represented the department on the Irish Folklore Commission, and served on the interdepartmental committee that, after the disastrous Kirkintilloch bothy fire (1937), investigated seasonal migration to Scotland. During the emergency he was regional commissioner for Galway and Mayo (1940 45), one of eight such officers charged with organising contingency preparations for dealing with the likely collapse of central administration in the event of invasion by any of the wartime belligerents.

[L4 10B]