Dangerous Ambition: The Making of Éamon de Valera Colum Kenny in conversation with Tommy Graham

In Partnership with RDS Library & Archives

Dangerous Ambition: The Making of Éamon de Valera (Eastwood) charts Eddie, later to be known as Éamon, de Valera’s rise from an early life of stark rearing and thwarted ambitions to becoming the founder of the most powerful political party in Ireland for much of the past century. Join author Colum Kenny in conversation with History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham.

Dr Colum Kenny is a barrister, journalist and historian who has written widely for the media. Formerly a  presenter and reporter with RTE, he served on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and is a professor emeritus of Dublin City University. Born on Eccles Street, Dublin, he is married with three sons. His books have included histories of Kenmare and Kilmainham, biographies  of Arthur Griffith and Tristram Kennedy MP, accounts of the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations of 1921 and the Irish Civil War, a study of a family of Irish immigrants in America, and a monograph on King’s Inns, Dublin. In 2018 he was awarded the Irish Legal History Society’s Gold Medal, and has also received the medal of the Old Dublin Society. He is the author of two overviews of Ireland in the period 1973–2020, and sees Éamon de Valera as a key to our understanding of contemporary Irish affairs.

Tommy Graham is a founder (1993) and editor of History Ireland magazine and convener of its lively Hedge Schools, an ongoing series of round table discussions of historical and contemporary interest, which debuted at the Electric Picnic in 2010. Since 2012 he has lectured in history and politics at Griffith College, Dublin, and is founder (1986) and director of Historical Walking Tours of Dublin. A presenter of Newstalk’s Talking History, he’s also a regular contributor to the station’s Moncrieff Show.