Eamon De Valera Comes to Sacramento July 18th, 1919. It may have been the most important date in Sacramento Irish History, when a tall, slender, boyish man of 37 years stepped off the Overland Express and into an adoring crowd at the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot. The President of the fledgling Irish Republic, Eamon De Valera, was in town to make a speech and to connect with the Irish and Irish Americans of the capital city. A large convoy of Irish policemen escorted him by motor car to the City Plaza where dignitaries and thousands of well-wishers waited. What made this visit so special was that Mr. De Valera was a wanted man by the British Government. Ireland was still under the yoke of British rule and the Irish election of 1918 that elected De Valera to that first Dail Eireann (Irish Congress) was not recognized by the British Crown. Just six months earlier, he was busted out of an English jail by the great Michael Collins, and was stowed away on an Irish ship bound for ...