This is anecdotal history of the most enjoyable kind - a narrative rich in culture, entertaining, fair-minded, poignant, combining humour and tragedy, the politics of poverty and hatred, the history of the Abbey theatre, fishing, shooting and house-parties, Dublin during WW2, poetry and fiction, fact and folklore. . The views of Republicans, countrymen, islanders, teachers, clerics, Loyalists, politicians, poets, writers and journalists are represented, as the author quotes from the memories of those who lived during the 50 years highlighted here and draws on contemporary newspapers and periodicals, diaries and fiction. These are the years of Eamon de Valera - rebel, outcast, politician and president - who came to public notice after the Rising in 1916 and died aged 92 in 1975. And they are the years in which Ireland irrevocably changed.