A century after its founding, Fianna Fáil’s legacy continues to shape Irish politics, even as its future remains unclear.
My mother has a story. In the lead up to the 2011 election, herself and my aunt after what they saw as the countless mistakes, crises, and failures of 2008 told my grandmother – she was entitled to vote for anyone she wanted–as long as they were not Fianna Fáil. Despite their insistence, or perhaps because of it, my granny spent the lead up to that election beset by migraines, headaches and sickness at the thought of it. A knot, one strung through a working class upbringing in Limerick City and parents still burdened by civil war divides had entwined to make the choice painful and unwilling.
Less than a month away from the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Fianna Fáil, the story highlights a few key strands of a party which has dominated Irish politics for most of its existence: How it excelled at giving a sense of pride to those who felt they had no place in the political spectrum and how it significantly damaged that ability through its mishandling of the economy before, during and after one of the worst financial crises to face this island.
Fianna Fáil was founded on the 16th of May 1926 in La Scala Theatre just off O’Connell street. The foundational aims of the party included securing the unity and independence of a republic, the restoration of the Irish language and a fair distribution of land. From its first government in 1932 until its near collapse after the general election of 2011 it was in power for 61 out of those 79 years.
Over this time, it oversaw the transition of the free state to effectively a republic, the modernisation and liberalisation of the Irish economy, and played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process. It also oversaw the institutionalisation of a conservative catholic order, helped define a local yet transactional political culture, and mismanaged the economy to the point that its collapse has created sharp generational and economic divides.
As a mixed legacy, it is one that cuts across political leanings. When Sinn Féin or PBP make grand speeches on Ireland’s peacemaking role as a neutral country they reiterate an argument first made by Eamon De Valera in the 40s to Winston Churchill that ‘even as a partitioned small nation, we shall go on and strive to play our part in the world, continuing unswervingly to work for the cause of true freedom and for peace and understanding between all nations.’
Fianna Fáil’s 1937 constitution has spent much of Ireland’s social transition being repealed over one conservative article or another. Yet, it remains the imprint of the modern Irish state, even as many of its defining assumptions have been contested and revised.
Speaking at an event commemorating his party Taoiseach Micheál Martin stressed the importance of his party not losing its ‘social dimension,’ the sense that they ‘were the sons and daughters of unimportant people.’ Perhaps to the generation he was speaking to this remains true. After all, once they’d paid her penance my granny did make her way back to Fianna Fáil.
However, much of the 21st century has seen that working class vote shift to other parties with Fianna Fáil relying ever more on a legacy vote. Its coalition with its once rival Fine Gael has unsurprisingly blurred their ever indistinct distinctions.
Sinn Féin, it has often been said, is a modern Fianna Fáil. A broad based populist party emerging from militant links. However, the decline of Fianna Fáil’s broad support also reflects the passing of a particular type of society. One that is no longer defined by large mediating institutions, whether it be the common pulpit or the living room telly.
However, the decline of Fianna Fáil’s broad support also reflects the passing of a particular type of society. One that is no longer defined by large mediating institutions, whether it be the common pulpit or the living room telly.
A voting system like Ireland’s proportional representation is made for coalition governments, not dominant majorities. Time has caught up with Ireland’s political system and no gap for any majority appears left open.
The past six months have seen rural protests, renewed attention towards the legacy of institutional abuse, and continued attempts by the government to grapple with the consequences of the 2008 crash in the form of the housing crisis.
As its centenary approaches, Fianna Fáil faces ultimately a narrower question: whether it can continue to shape the direction of Irish politics, or whether it now relies mainly on the legacy of having once done so.