De Valera Jr repeatedly facilitated illegal adoptions rte.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rte.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
There wasn t much seasonal cheer in official circles in Dublin, Belfast or London at Christmas 1920.
There just wasn t time.
These few weeks saw Partition become a reality for the first time, with the creation in law of Northern Ireland, and seemingly the hopes for peace on the island dashed, hopes that had flickered for a few precious months.
And yet, and yet.
No sooner than hope for peace had been crushed, it was raised again. The imposition of that most alien of concepts for Nationalists, the Partition of Ireland, had in fact created the conditions for making the peace with Britain, on terms well in advance of what the British had declared themselves willing to offer.