A rare photograph of then-Taoiseach Éamon de Valera smiling

In this photograph, de Valera is being greeted by Dr. Bethal Solomons at the Rotunda Bicentenary Congress.

Dr. Solomons was “a world famous obstetrician and gynaecologist, rugby international, horseman, leader of liberal Jewry and of Irish literary and artistic renaissance.” Master of the Rotunda Hospital, he won ten caps on the Irish rugby team, was the first president of the Liberal Synagogue in Dublin, and was even mentioned in Finnegans Wake.

With thanks to the Rotunda Hospital

Watch a video about Éamon de Valera  and Bethal Solomons: