Catherine Coll
| Catherine Coll | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Catherine Coll 21 December 1856 Bruree, Limerick, Ireland |
| Died | 12 June 1932 (aged 75) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Known for | Mother of Éamon de Valera |
| Spouse(s) | Juan Vivion de Valera (m. 1881 – d. 1886) (alleged) Charles Wheelwright (m. 1888 – d. 1929) |
| Children |
Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) Ann Wheelwright Fr. Thomas Joseph Wheelwright (1890–1946) |
Catherine (Kate) Wheelwright (née Coll; 21 December 1856 – 12 June 1932) was the mother of Irish President and Taoiseach Éamon de Valera.
In 1910 she was a nurse.
Catherine Coll was born in Bruree, County Limerick. She emigrated to New York City in 1879. She first took a job with a wealthy French family that was living in Manhattan. This is where she allegedly met Juan Vivion de Valera (born 1854), a Cuban or Spanish sculptor who came to the home of her employers to give music lessons to the children. Though de Valera's official biography (Longford/O'Neill, Hutchinson, London, 1970) states that his parents were married at St. Patrick's in Greenville, New Jersey, on 19 September 1881, the parish records show no record of any Coll–de Valera wedding either at St Patrick's or any church, nor were any civil records found, in the vicinity during the period from 1875 to 1887. Also, initially de Valera was not registered in his father's name.
The New York State records contain two de Valera birth certificates. The first, registered on 10 November 1882, gives his name as George De Valero. The second was a "corrected certificate" which was "approved by Commissioner of Health" on 30 June 1910. Consequently, whilst the correction was instigated by de Valera's mother Kate, there appears to be no validity in the claims that it was for the purpose of establishing de Valera's U.S. citizenship in an attempt to save him from a firing squad following the Easter Rising in Dublin, which occurred six years later. It is in this second certificate that the first name is given as Edward and the surname as de Valera.
It was alleged that Vivion de Valera, always in poor health, left his young family behind him and traveled to Colorado, hoping that perhaps the healthier air would help him out only to die within a few months. However, not merely is there no record of the wedding. No record exists of the existence of a "Juan Vivion de Valera" anywhere in the United States: no birth certificate, no baptismal certificate (if he was a Catholic), no wedding certificate and no death certificate. While it was possible that he was born abroad and so either had a foreign birth certificate or was not registered, the absence of a death certificate for someone stated definitely in Éamon de Valera's family history to have died in the United States has puzzled researchers. Some scholars have questioned whether he ever existed. There has been a mischievous suggestion that he was related to the French painter Achille Deveria as Éamon de Valera "was known to be particularly fond of his works" - this claim is hardly likely given that Deveria was a painter of erotica, and de Valera nothing if not a prude. It should also be noted that Deveria died in 1857, at least 20 years before De Valera was born.
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