1. Douglas Hyde was a leading figure in the Gaelic revival, and the first president of the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland at the time.
24 Facts About Douglas Hyde
1. 2.
Douglas Hyde was home-schooled by his father and his aunt due to a childhood illness.
3.
Douglas Hyde was influenced in particular by the gamekeeper Seamus Hart and his friend's wife, Mrs Connolly.
4.
Douglas Hyde entered Trinity College Dublin, where he became fluent in French, Latin, German, Greek, and Hebrew, graduating in 1884 as a moderator in modern literature.
5.
Douglas Hyde helped establish the Gaelic Journal in 1892; in November, he wrote a manifesto called The necessity for de-anglicising the Irish nation, arguing that Ireland should follow its own traditions in language, literature, and dress.
6.
Uncomfortable with the growing politicisation of the movement, Douglas Hyde resigned the presidency in 1915.
7.
Douglas Hyde was succeeded by the League's co-founder Eoin MacNeill.
8.
Douglas Hyde had no association with Sinn Fein and the independence movement.
9.
Douglas Hyde was elected to Seanad Eireann, the upper house of the Irish Free State's Oireachtas, at a by-election on 4 February 1925, replacing Sir Hutcheson Poe.
10.
Douglas Hyde returned to academia as Professor of Irish at University College Dublin, where one of his students was future Attorney General of Ireland, Chief Justice of Ireland and President of Ireland, Cearbhall O Dalaigh.
11.
Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland, on 26 June 1938.
12.
Dr Douglas Hyde was installed formally in Dublin Castle, where the seals of office were handed over by the Chief Justice.
13.
Douglas Hyde wore morning dress, but Mr de Valera and Mr Sean T O'Kelly, who followed Dr Hyde in the next motor-car, wore black clothes with felt hats.
14.
Douglas Hyde set a precedent by reciting the Presidential Declaration of Office in Irish.
15.
However, Douglas Hyde survived, albeit paralysed and having to use a wheelchair.
16.
Douglas Hyde was confronted with a crisis in 1944 when de Valera's government unexpectedly collapsed in a vote on the Transport Bill.
17.
Douglas Hyde had that option but, after considering it with his senior advisor Michael McDunphy, he granted the dissolution.
18.
Douglas Hyde twice used his prerogative 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.
19.
One of Douglas Hyde's last presidential acts was a visit to the German Ambassador Eduard Hempel, on 3 May 1945, to offer his formal condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler.
20.
Douglas Hyde left office on 25 June 1945, opting not to nominate himself for a second term.
21.
Douglas Hyde moved into the former residence of the Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, on the grounds of Aras an Uachtarain, which he renamed Little Ratra, where he lived out the remaining four years of his life.
22.
Douglas Hyde died at 10pm on 12 July 1949, aged 89.
23.
Douglas Hyde was represented instead by a senior Fianna Fail figure who was a member of the Church of Ireland, Erskine H Childers, a future President of Ireland himself.
24.
Douglas Hyde was buried in Frenchpark, County Roscommon at Portahard Church, beside his wife Lucy, his daughter Nuala, his sister Annette, his mother Elizabeth, and his father Arthur.