Eamon de Valera, who played a major part in every phase of the Irish fight for independence, will be the subject of the talk by Professor J. Joseph Lee at the Irish Cultural Society meeting on Tuesday, October 7 at 8 p.m. in the Garden City Library, 60 Seventh Street, across the street from the Garden City Hotel. The meeting is open to the public.

Eamon de Valera was a military leader during the Easter Rising, saved from the firing squad by his American birth. He helped to found the political parties Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail, was a member of the first Dail, was a great advocate of the Irish language, was the person who sent Michael Collins to negotiate the controversial 1921 Treaty, and led the anti-Treaty forces in the Irish Civil War. Many Irish-Americans will remember Eamon de Valera as the face of Ireland in its early years of independence. Professor Lee's research interest in 19 th and 20 th century Irish history and politics will help the audience at the meeting to come to a better understanding of de Valera's role in Irish history.

Professor Lee is Professor of History at N.Y.U. and Director of Glucksman Ireland House, the pre-eminent site for Irish studies in New York. He served in the Upper House of the Irish Parliament, was Chair of the Fulbright Commission for Ireland and served as President of the Irish Association for European Studies. Professor Lee is an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy. His publications have won the History Prize from the American Conference for Irish Studies and the Aer Lingus/Irish Times Prize for non-fiction. His publications include Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society; The Modernisation of Irish Society, 1848-1928; and is co-editor with Marion Casey of Making the Irish American.

Professor Lee will bring the scholar's thoroughness and the public figure's charisma to his treatment of a most complex personality, Eamon de Valera.

At the meeting, President Martin Kelly will give the audience a preview of the next month's meeting and will urge everyone to pay the dues which support the Society's endeavors.