When the song was written, Eamon De Valera was one of the top leaders of the Republian Movement in Ireland, in later years he outlawed the I.R.A. and jailed it's members, for doing exactly what he had done in earlier years. This lead some people to consider him a bit of a traitor, not all thought that way. Some people sing " Or fought with Cathal Brugha" instead. Cathal Brugha (Charles Burgess in English) was a die hard republican who refused to compromise in any way with the English. When Brugha died in a gun fight he had 42 bullet holes in him. In 1949 De Valera declared the 26 counties a republic. Most republicans held the idea that Ireland would never be a true republic unless the whole island (all 32 counties) were independent, this did not help endear Dev to a lot of the people either. No matter how you feel his contribution to the republican movement cannot be minimized or overlooked.