This is the first joint biography of the two major figures in the making of the modern Irish state. These two contrasting figures, one destined to die, the other a long-lived patriarch, complemented and contrasted with each other in the making of the Irish revolution. This book traces their different backgrounds, upbringings and temperaments in a fascinating counterpoint. Among the reviews of the hardback edition: "T. Ryle Dwyer has had a good idea here. Collins and de Valera bestrode...twentieth-century Ireland like twin adversarial colossi, and much has been written about them. Until now, however, no-one ventured to capture their inimical, if inextricable, relationship in one book. This result is fascinating." - John Boland 'The Times'.