Brief Guide To Political Parties In The Republic


In 1926 Eamon de Valera left Sinn Fein and founded the Fianna Fail party. Still calling itself republican (meaning it supported a united Irish republic), it aimed to represent those who had opposed the treaty, but within the system the treaty had created. He took most of Sinn Fein with him, leaving only a small number to carry on the Sinn Fein/IRA tradition of militant republicanism.

In 1933 Cumann na nGaedheal joined with two smaller groups, including the fascist Blue Shirts, to form Fine Gael. Even so, they had lost power in the general elections of 1932 to Fianna Fail and would remain in opposition for about 50 of the next 70 years. Fianna Fail under De Valera became entrenched as Ireland's largest political party, and in 1949 De Valera declared the Free State an independent Republic and led it out of the British Commonwealth.

Fianna Fail under De Valera was a very conservative, Catholic party with a large rural base. For the most part it remains so today, although along with the rest of the nation it has undergone somewhat of a liberalizing process in the last decade or so. It emphasizes traditional Irish values, and still proclaims the reunification of Ireland a goal. It has a much friendlier relationship with modern republicans in Sinn Fein and the IRA than do the other main parties in the Republic, and still calls itself republican.

Fine Gael is not all that dissimilar, but if we're looking for differences it has more of an urban base than does Fianna Fail, and is perceived by some as being more pro-business and outward looking. It is also quite anti-republican, and relations with Sinn Fein are decidedly frostier.

Political allegiance to either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail is still to a large degree based on what side your family was on during the Civil War, and efforts to realign Irish politics on a left-right scale have yet to succeed. Forefront in these efforts has been the Labour Party, which ever since the founding of Fianna Fail has toiled away as the third, somewhat neglected party. Ironically, the Labour party has long since ceased to become a left-leaning party, and has become something of a centrist party similar to the Labour Party in the UK. It recently merged with the Democratic Left party, which had a few deputies in the Dail of its own, in an effort to strengthen what

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