Party Politics in a New Democracy: The Irish Free State, 1922–37

340 Pages·2017·5.443 MB·English

by  Mel Farrell (auth.)

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN POLITICAL HISTORY
PARTY
POLITICS
IN A NEW
DEMOCRACY
The Irish Free State, 1922-37
MEL FARRELL
Palgrave Studies in Political History
Series Editors
Henk te Velde
Leiden University
Leiden, The Netherlands
Maartje Janse
Leiden University
Leiden, The Netherlands
Hagen Schulz-Forberg
Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark
The contested nature of legitimacy lies at the heart of modern politics.
A continuous tension can be found between the public, demanding to
be properly represented, and their representatives, who have their own
responsibilities along with their own rules and culture. Political history
needs to address this contestation by looking at politics as a broad and
yet entangled field rather than as something confined to institutions and
politicians only. As political history thus widens into a more integrated
study of politics in general, historians are investigating democracy, ideol-
ogy, civil society, the welfare state, the diverse expressions of opposition,
and many other key elements of modern political legitimacy from fresh
perspectives. Parliamentary history has begun to study the way rheto-
ric, culture and media shape representation, while a new social history
of politics is uncovering the strategies of popular meetings and political
organizations to influence the political system.
Palgrave Studies in Political History analyzes the changing forms and
functions of political institutions, movements and actors, as well as the
normative orders within which they navigate. Its ambition is to publish
monographs, edited volumes and Pivots exploring both political institu-
tions and political life at large, and the interaction between the two. The
premise of the series is that the two mutually define each other on local,
national, transnational, and even global levels.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/15603
Mel Farrell
Party Politics in a New
Democracy
The Irish Free State, 1922–37
Mel Farrell
University College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland
Palgrave Studies in Political History
ISBN 978-3-319-63584-2 ISBN 978-3-319-63585-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63585-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017948704
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A
cknowledgements
Growing up in rural Ardagh, County Longford, during the 1990s and
2000s, local and general elections were always dominated by Fine Gael
and Fianna Fáil. From this vantage point, there did not appear to be any
other parties! It was a small community, and each side had their local
‘stalwarts’, operating the party machinery when required. From a young
age, this fascinated me. How come some people were ‘born into’—as
described in Michael Gallagher and Michael Marsh’s 1999 study Days of
Blue Loyalty—either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, and why had they chosen
one political ‘colour’ over another? In many respects, this book is a prod-
uct of my long-standing fascination with these questions.
This book could not have been written without the assistance and
guidance of my Ph.D. supervisor Prof. Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses. It was
Filipe who first encouraged me to examine the wider, European context
in which the Irish Free State was established. Filipe’s expertise in modern
European history has transformed the way I think about Ireland in the
twentieth century. For this, I am most grateful to him. I owe a particular
debt of gratitude to Prof. R. V. Comerford for his unstinting support of
my work and this book project in particular. I thank him, also, for his
warm friendship and many words of encouragement over the years. I
owe a special thanks to my Ph.D. examiners, Prof. Fearghal McGarry
and Prof. Terence Dooley, who have continued to offer encouragement
and advice. I thank Prof. Marian Lyons, Dr. Jacinta Prunty, Ms. Ann
Donoghue, Ms. Catherine Heslin, and all the staff at the Department
of History, Maynooth University for their support over many years. I
v
vi ACkNOWLEDGEMENTS
am especially grateful to Molly Beck, Emily Russell, Carmel kennedy,
Ramesh kumaran, and the editors at Palgrave Macmillan. They have
embraced this project with enthusiasm, and for that I am humbled. I also
thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
I also wish to express my deep gratitude to Prof. James kelly, Head
of History and Geography, DCU for giving me the opportunity to teach
a module related to the subject of this book while I was employed in
St. Patrick’s Campus, Drumcondra. I thank Dr. Daithí Ó Corráin, Dr.
Marnie Hay, Dr. Carla king, Dr. Juliana Adelman, and Dr. Matthew
Stout for sharing their time and unique insights during the academic
year, 2015–16. I am grateful to Prof. Diarmaid Ferriter for his words
of encouragement at various intervals in UCD, and for his interest in
my work. I am especially grateful to Prof. Michael Laffan, Dr. William
Mulligan, Prof. Eunan O’Halpin, Dr. Conor Mulvagh, Dr. Catherine
Cox and Dr. Marie Coleman for their guidance and advice. I thank
Dr. Paul Rouse, Dr. Brian Hanley, Dr. Ciara Meehan, Dr. John Regan,
Dr. Robert McNamara, Dr. Seán Lucey, and Dr. Emma Lyons for
sharing their time and expertise over the years. Dr. Jason knirck has
discussed this project with me on many occasions. I thank him for
his friendship, generosity, and support over recent years. Dr. Noel
Fitzpatrick and Prof. Gerardine Meaney have been especially supportive
as this book neared completion for which I will be forever grateful.
The staffs at a wide range of institutions have also been critical to the
completion of this work. In particular, I want to thank the staffs at Cork
City and County Archives, John Paul II Library Maynooth, the National
Archives of Ireland, UCD Archives, and TCD library. Specifically, I wish
to thank Mary Broderick for the time, and effort that she put into help-
ing me to source political ephemera and cartoons. I am most grateful
to her. I thank James Harte, Tom Desmond, Sandra McDermott, Glenn
Dunne, and all the staff at the National Library of Ireland for their help
and support over the years. I am particularly indebted to the National
Library for permission to reproduce election materials from the period. I
am especially grateful to the descendants of Gordon Brewster for permis-
sion to reproduce three of his political cartoons. Martin Morris and the
staff at Longford County Archives have been supportive and helpful as
were the staffs at Westmeath County Library and the killaloe Diocesan
Archives. Interviews with the late Prof. Risteárd Mulcahy and the late
Dr. Garret FitzGerald proved illuminating. I thank Camilla kelly and
Lucius Farrell for discussing M.P. Connolly and J.P. Farrell respectively.
ACkNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
Likewise, General Seán MacEoin’s nephew, Eamon Tynan, engaged in
many conversations about his uncle’s life and career.
Innumerable conversations with leadings experts in the field have
broadened my understanding of independent Ireland. In this regard I am
especially grateful to Dr. Barry Whelan, Dr. Regina Donlon, Dr. Brian
Hughes, Dr. Martin O’Donoghue, and Dr. Colin Reid. I also thank
Stephen Collins, Paul Hughes, Dr. Brian Casey, Dr. Fergus O’Ferrell,
Dr. Ida Milne, Dr. Colin Barr, Dr. Eve Morrison, Dr. Catherine Bergin,
Dr. David Browne, Dr. Darragh Gannon, Liam O’Rourke, Dr. Sharon
Webb, Dr. Edward Tynan, and Dr. katie Drake for their friendship and
insights. Friends such as David Belton, Alan Gallagher, Conor Neville,
John Lahart, Thomas Burke, kevin Conor, James Duffy, Dr. Evie
Monaghan, Eoin Bannon, Conor Rock, and Tadhg Twomey have been
extremely patient! Dr. Daragh Curran, Dr. Proinsias Ó Drisceoil, Martin
Millerick, and Aidan O’Hara each read earlier drafts, for which I am
most grateful, and I accept full responsibility for any errors that remain.
I thank all of my aunts, uncles, and extended family for their support
over the years. For their generosity, patience, and constant support, spe-
cial thanks go to my parents, Paddy and Anne, and my brother Mark.
It simply would not have been possible to bring this book to a success-
ful conclusion without the unfailing support of Anna Duignan. Anna,
I thank you for the remarkable reserves of patience you have displayed
and for understanding my desire to finish this book, and the sacrifices
entailed! Finally, I dedicate this book to my grandmother Mary Anne
Bannon, and to the memory of my grandparents Alice Farrell, John
Farrell, and Bernard Bannon. I am fortunate to have known all of my
grandparents. Both of my grandfathers were born prior to 1922 while
my two grandmothers were born during the Free State period. They
each, in their own way, helped spark my curiosity about the events
described in the pages that follow.
c
ontents
Part I From Revolution to Statehood, 1919–27
1 Introduction: The Politics of Independent Ireland 3
2 ‘Substance Not Shadows’: Sinn Féin and the
Anglo-Irish Treaty 21
3 ‘The Deplorable Conflict’: Free State Politics and
the Civil War 53
4 Aspirations and Realities: Cumann na nGaedheal
in Government, 1923–1926 101
Part II A Stable Democracy, 1927–37
5 A Two-Party System? Free State Politics in 1927 151
6 ‘Holding the Scales Even’: Cumann na nGaedheal’s
Final Years in Power 193
7 Political Realignment: Ireland in the 1930s—
A Stable Democracy? 235
ix
x CONTENTS
8 Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil: Common Origins,
Separate Identities? 287
Bibliography 299
Index 319