- published: 05 Oct 2015
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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (/ˈtʃɑrlz/ or /ˈʃɑrl dəˈɡɔːl/; French: [ʃaʁl də ɡol] ( listen); 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.
A veteran of World War I, in the 1920s and 1930s de Gaulle came to the fore as a proponent of mobile armoured divisions, which he considered would become central in modern warfare. During World War II, he earned the rank of brigadier general (retained throughout his life), leading one of the few successful armoured counter-attacks during the 1940 Battle of France in May in Montcornet, and then briefly served in the French government as France was falling. De Gaulle was the most senior French military officer to reject the June 1940 armistice to Nazi Germany right from the outset.
He escaped to Britain and gave a famous radio address, broadcast by the BBC on 18 June 1940, exhorting the French people to resist Nazi Germany and organised the Free French Forces with exiled French officers in Britain. As the war progressed de Gaulle gradually gained control of all French colonies except Indochina most of which had at first been controlled by the pro-German Vichy regime. Despite earning a reputation for being a difficult man to do business with, by the time of the Allied invasion of France in 1944 he was heading what amounted to a French government in exile, but although he insisted that France be treated as a great independent power by the other Allies, the Americans in particular remained deeply suspicious of his motives. De Gaulle became prime minister in the French Provisional Government, resigning in 1946 because of political conflicts.
Des Dalton is the president of Republican Sinn Féin (RSF). Previously a member of Ógra Fianna Fáil, he joined RSF aged 18 and has been a member of the RSF Ard Comhairle for over a decade. Dalton ran in the Athy town council Elections in 2004 and 2009 in his home town of Athy, Co Kildare. In both occasions he did not win a seat. He is a brother of Fianna Fáil Kildare County Councillor Mark Dalton.
In 1998 Des Dalton spoke in Maynooth NUI in a debate about constitutional nationalism. Dr Garret FitzGerald, former Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, spoke against Dalton. Dalton remarked that constitutional nationalism was repeatedly, "slapped in the face", by Great Britain.
In July 2011, Des Dalton was arrested in Lurgan, Co. Armagh in relation to an illegal parade, protesting against the Imprisonment of Martin Corey. He was subsequently charged.