Hyde, Douglas (1860-1949), served as the first president of Eire (now the Republic of Ireland) from 1938 to 1945. Hyde was a scholar of Gaelic (the ancient language of Ireland). In 1893, he helped to found the Gaelic League, an organization set up to revive the use of Gaelic and to encourage the study of Irish literature. He served as president of the Gaelic League from 1893 to 1915.
Hyde was born in County Roscommon on Jan. 17, 1860, and studied law at Trinity College, Dublin. Hyde published his best-known work, A Literary History of Ireland, in 1899. He also wrote poems, plays, and works on history and folklore. In Beside the Fire (1889), Hyde collected Irish folklore and also set down ideas concerning the literary use of folk language. He was professor of Irish at the National University from 1909 to 1932. He died on July 12, 1949.
