Quote Originally Posted by Niblox View Post
Alan Rickman did a splendid job as Eamon De Valera - he looked and sounded like him so well that many elderly people who saw the film thought it WAS Dev! And Alan Rickman is English....

For those of you who are interested, Tim Pat Coogan has also written a biography of De Valera - "Long Fellow, Long Shadow". Be warned, however, that this is not a hagiography.
Though born in England, Rickman's father was Irish, and his mother was Welsh.