y the Free State supporters would accept nothing less. With their situation worsening daily, the Republican Army finally gave in and ended the civil war. On August 12, 1923, Eamon De Valera was imprisoned for the third time in his life, this time by his own countrymen. As with his other periods of incarceration, this one was relatively short, only eleven months. Following his release, De Valera again set about working for the Republican cause with Sinn Fein. Unfortunately, internal power shifts while he was in prison had changed the face of Sinn Fein. It would not participate in Free State government and De Valera felt that this stance would only be counter-productive. In response in April of 1926 he founded a new party, the Fianna Fail. This new party was dedicated to the Republican cause, but was determined to effect changes from the inside. His fame and experience propelled him to the presidency of the executive council of the Irish Free State and it was there that he was able to oversee the rewriting of the Irish constitution. This was 1937 and in that same year Eamon De Valera was elected prime minister of Ireland, a position he held until 1948.At the same time as his Fianna Fail was gaining support throughout Ireland, De Valera spent several years working as a member of the League of Nations. He was committed to the idea of the League so that nations could work together to promote peace and prosperity. He was president of the League of Nations council in 1932 and then in 1938 he served as president of the assembly. . De Valera did so with distinction and pride. Later in 1938, he told the world through the medium of the League, that:Why cannot the Peace Conference which will meet in Europe when the next conflict has decimated the nations and disaster and exhaustion have tamed them into temporary submissionwhy cannot this conference be convened now, when calm reason might have a chance to bring the nation into friendly cooperatio...
