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Image:Douglas Hyde - Project Gutenberg eText 19028.jpg Douglas Hyde, circa 1912 Douglas Hyde (Irish: Dubhghlas de hÍde) (17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949) was an Anglo-Irish scholar of the Irish language who served as the first President of Ireland from 1938 to 1945. He founded the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland.
BackgroundHyde was born in Castlerea in County Roscommon, while his mother was on a short visit there. His father, Arthur Hyde, was Church of Ireland rector of Kilmactranny, County Sligo from 1852 to 1867, and it was here that Hyde spent his early years. [1]. In 1867, his father was appointed prebendary and rector of Tibohine, and the family moved to neighbouring Frenchpark, in County Roscommon. While a young man he became fascinated with hearing the old people in the locality speak the Irish language. he was influenced in particular by the gameskeeper Seamus Hart and the wife of his friend, Mrs Connolly. He was crushed when Seamus Hart died(Douglas was 14) and his interest in the Irish language, which was the first language he bagan to study in any detail, and which was his own undertaking, flagged for a while. However, he visited Dublin a number of times and realised that there were groups of people, just like him, interested in Irish. a language looked down on at the time by many and seen as backward and old-fashioned.
Conradh na GaeilgeHyde's Irish language movement, initially seen as eccentric, gained a mass following throughout the island. He published a pamphlet called The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland, arguing that Ireland should follow her own traditions in language, literature and even in dress. Many of the new generation of Irish leaders who played a central role in the fight for Irish independence in the early twentieth century, including Patrick Pearse, Éamon de Valera (who married his Irish teacher Sinéad Flanagan), Michael Collins, and Ernest Blythe first became politicised and passionate about Irish independence through their involvement in Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League). Hyde himself, however, felt uncomfortable at the growing politicisation of his movement (which had been infiltrated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, just like the Irish Volunteers and the Gaelic Athletic Association) and resigned the presidency in 1915; he was replaced by the radical political activist and Irish-language teacher, Patrick Pearse (1879-1916). Senator
However, his tenure was shortlived. In November 1925, the house moved from being an appointed to an elected body. Hyde contested the election, which was based on one state-wide constituency, but a smear by a far right-wing organisation, the Catholic Truth Society, based on his supposed support for divorce (in fact he was anti-divorce) and his Protestantism, and promoted by the CTS secretary in the letters column of the Irish Independent, fatally damaged his chances and he lost his seat. He returned to academia, as Professor of Irish at University College Dublin, where one of his students was future Attorney-General and President of Ireland, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh. President of IrelandImage:CBI - SERIES C - FIFTY POUND NOTE.PNG Hyde is notable in that he is the only leader of independent Ireland to be featured on its banknotes, here on a Series C Banknote of IR£50. In April 1938, by now retired from academia, Douglas was plucked from retirement by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and again appointed to Seanad Éireann. Again his tenure proved short, even shorter than before. But this time it was because, on the suggestion of Fine Gael in inter-party negotiations to choose a first President of Ireland, Hyde had been chosen to take on the office. He was selected for a number of reasons.
Hyde was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland in June 1938 and moved into the long vacant Viceregal Lodge. Hyde's recitation of the Presidential Declaration of Office in his native Roscommon Irish dialect, remains one of the few recordings of a dialect that has long disappeared and of which Hyde himself was one of the last users. "Fine and scholarly old gentleman" says F.D.R.Hyde, with his handlebar moustache and warm personality, was a popular president. United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt called President Hyde a "fine and scholarly old gentleman", while President Hyde and King George VI (who still was legally King of Ireland and would remain so until 1 April 1949) corresponded about stamp collecting. However in April 1940 he suffered a massive stroke. Plans were made for his lying-in-state and state funeral, but to the surprise of everyone he survived, albeit paralysed and having to use a wheelchair. Decisions as PresidentAlthough the role of President of Ireland was, and is, largely ceremonial, Hyde did have a small number important decisions to make during his presidency. He was confronted with a crisis in 1944 when de Valera's government unexpectedly collapsed in a vote on the Transport Bill and the President had to decide whether or not to grant an election to de Valera.[3] (He granted the election.) President Hyde also twice used his power under Article 26 of the Constitution, having consulted the Council of State, to refer a Bill or part of a Bill to the Supreme Court, for the court's decision on whether the Bill or part referred is repugnant to the Constitution (so that the Bill in question cannot be signed into law). On the first occasion, the court held that the Bill referred - Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill, 1940- was not repugnant to the Constitution. [4] In response to the second reference, the Court decided that the particular provision referred - section 4 of the School Attendance Bill, 1942 - was repugnant to the Constitution.[5] Because of Article 34.3.3° of the Constitution, the constitutional validity of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act, 1940 [2] cannot be challenged in any court, since the Bill which became that Act was found by the Supreme Court not to be repugnant in the context of an Article 26 reference. Retirement and deathHyde left office on 25 June 1945. Due to his ill-health he did not return to his Roscommon home Ratra, which had lain empty since the death of his wife early in his term. Instead he was moved into the former Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant's residence in the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin, which he renamed Little Ratra and where he lived out the remaining four years of his life. He died quietly at 10pm on 12 July 1949, aged 89. State funeralImage:Douglas Hyde St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin 2006 Kaihsu Tai.jpg Memorial to Douglas Hyde in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. As a former President of Ireland he was accorded a state funeral. One protocol problem arose; as an Anglican his funeral service took place in Dublin's Church of Ireland St. Patrick's Cathedral. However, contemporary religious rules prohibited Roman Catholics from attending services in Protestant churches. As a result all but one member of the Catholic cabinet, Dr. Noel Browne, remained outside the cathedral while Hyde's funeral took place. They then joined the cortège when his coffin left the cathedral. Éamon de Valera, by now Leader of the Opposition, was represented by a senior Fianna Fáil figure who was a member of the Church of Ireland, Erskine Childers, a future President of Ireland himself. Hyde Museum in RoscommonHyde was buried in his native Roscommon. His father's old church is now a museum dedicated to showing memorabilia about Douglas Hyde, the Anglican squire who took up the cause of the Irish language and ended up as the first President of Ireland. Coláiste de hÍde, TamhlachtColáiste de hÍde, a Gaelcholásite (all-Irish secondary level college) was founded in 1993 in Tallaght, South Dublin in his honour. A picture as well as a collection of his books originally written in Irish are on display in the school's new building in Tymon North Park, Tallaght. [3] Footnotes
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