Fianna Fáil Election Poster captioned "Young People! Fianna Fáil has plan for you", [1954?]
The inaugural meeting of Fianna Fáil took place on 16 May 1926. The new party was launched by Eamon de Valera, who up to this point, had been the president of Sinn Féin. Once the party of all republicans fighting for Irish freedom, Sinn Féin found its power slowly dwindling after 1922 as it refused to enter the Dáil of the Irish Free State. At the 1926 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, de Valera proposed a motion that the party should work to have the main stumbling block to entry, the oath of allegiance to the English Crown, removed. The motion was narrowly defeated, prompting de Valera’s resignation. His new party, however, came quickly to eclipse Sinn Féin, as it took much of its membership and gained broad support throughout the country.
Fianna Fáil’s excellent showing in the two general elections of 1927 left the party’s future uncertain, as it had not succeeded in getting the oath removed. The party now had to consider whether to take the oath and enter the Dáil or remain in the wilderness. An intense debate followed, and many left the party over its eventual decision to take the oath. Fianna Fáil’s entry created the first effective opposition in the Dáil in the history of the Free State. The party had a succession of bye-election victories and its first general election victory in 1932. Fianna Fáil was asked to form a government and continued in office for sixteen years, until 1948. The party was to find itself in government again throughout much of the 20th century and into the 21st century.
In 2020, after a number of months of political stalemate following the general election, Fianna Fáil agreed with Fine Gael and the Green Party to enter into an unprecedented coalition, with the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael rotating between the roles of Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
In the aftermath of the 2024 general election it is interesting to look back on the party’s approach to past elections. The running of election campaigns was carefully controlled from the top, right down through directors of election and to ordinary members canvassing from door to door.
The archives of the Fianna Fáil Party were deposited in UCD Archives in May 2000. In the Papers of the Fianna Fáil Party, files on election campaigns are supplemented by a large collection of election posters from 1932-1990. The posters present a potted history of the party from the Civil War rhetoric of its early campaigns, to focusing on its achievements, to the slick electioneering of its more recent campaigns.
UCDA P176/1225 is a General Election Poster captioned "Young People! Fianna Fáil has plans for you", with an estimated date of 1954. The poster outlines Fianna Fáil achievements to date and promises more new houses, schools and employment, as well as improved health services.
Fianna Fáil Election Poster captioned "Young People! Fianna Fáil has plan for you", [1954?]
