A Yankee in de Valera's Ireland. The memoir of David Gray

by  David GrayPaul Bew

€ 10.00

Quantity

Book Details

Published by Royal Irish Academy

January 2012

Paperback / softback

Number of pages: 300

ISBN: 9781908996053

David Gray has a divided legacy in Ireland. Born in Buffalo, New York, he was a journalist and playwright before he became a diplomat. He took up the post of US Minister to Ireland in 1940 following appointment by his wife's relation Franklin D. Roosevelt. His memoir of that year, ‘Behind the Emerald Curtain’, has been published by the Royal Irish Academy for the first time, with insightful annotations and a long introduction by Professor Paul Bew. Politically, Gray was an Anglophile who opposed Irish neutrality and distrusted many aspects of his host country. His belligerence towards Irish people and his fractious relationship with Eamon de Valera make for an energetic narrative. This is important primary source documentation of neutral Ireland during the Second World War. Woven through Gray's personal accounts are diary extracts, letters exchanged with Roosevelt, secret telegrams and press clippings. Written when he was 89, 'Behind the Emerald Curtain' recalls in florid detail with a sharp comic eye the fishing, racing, Hunt balls and luncheons of the diplomatic life, making this a fine literary work in its own right.

Buy the eBook here.