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Parliamentary party discipline and tactics: the Fianna Fáil archives, 1926–32

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Eunan O’Halpin
Eunan O’Halpin*
Affiliation:
Dublin City University Business School
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Extract

Academic study of the development of Irish political parties has been hampered by a shortage of primary source material available to historians and political scientists. This is because the headquarters records of parties, where they have survived, are generally fragmentary and ill-organised, and because few national politicians or party organisers have left papers for research.

The shortage of primary sources on the major political parties is reflected in the standard academic works dealing with their development, from Maurice Manning’s Irish political parties (1972) and Michael Gallagher’s The Irish Labour Party in transition, 1957–1982 (1982) to Richard Dunphy’s recent The making of Fianna Fáil power in Ireland (1995). These are largely based on secondary sources, on interviews, and on the private papers of individual politicians. Where scholars have had access to party records, furthermore, it has generally been on an informal and improvised basis. It was in such circumstances that John Bowman, while preparing De Valera and the Ulster question, 1917–1973 (1982), and Dermot Keogh, while researching Ireland and Europe, 1919–1948 (1988), were given sight of some of the records of the Fianna Fail national executive committee and the parliamentary party.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 120 , November 1997 , pp. 581 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1997

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References

1 Manning, Maurice, Irish political parties: an introduction (Dublin, 1972)Google Scholar; Gallagher, Michael, The Irish Labour Party in transition, 1957–82 (Manchester, 1982)Google Scholar; Dunphy, Richard, The making of Fianna Fáil power in Ireland, 1923–1948 (Oxford, 1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Bowman, John, De Valera and the Ulster question, 1917–1973 (Oxford, 1982)Google Scholar; Keogh, Dermot, Ireland and Europe, 1919–1948 (Dublin, 1988).Google Scholar

3 National Archives Advisory Council, 4th report (Dublin, 1995), section 8.1; National Archives Advisory Council, A future for our past: strategic plan for the National Archives, 1996–2001 (Dublin, 1996), pp 1–2 Google Scholar.

4 Doyle, John, ‘Freedom of information: lessons from the international experience’ in Administration, xliv, no. 4 (winter 1996-7), p. 76 Google Scholar. Since the present article was prepared for publication the broad question of access to government records has been thrown into confusion by the passage of the seventeenth amendment to the constitution, relating to cabinet confidentiality, in October 1997.

5 Challenges and opportunities abroad: white paper on foreign policy (Dublin, 1996), p. 340.

6 FitzGerald, Garret, All in a life: an autobiography (Dublin, 1991), pp 618–19 Google Scholar.

2 Information from Mr Ray Kavanagh, general secretary of the Labour Party, 5 Nov. 1996.

8 Choille, Breandán Mac Giolla, ‘The de Valera papers — a signpost’ in Hannon, Philip and Gallagher, Jackie (eds), Taking the long view — 70 years of Fianna Fáil (Dublin, 1996), pp 137–8 Google Scholar.

9 Andrews, C.S., Man of no property: an autobiography (Dublin, 1982), p. 52 Google Scholar; interview with Dr Andrews, 8 June 1982.

10 Dunphy, Making of Fianna Fail power, p. xvi.

11 The maverick J. J. Walsh devoted a couple of paragraphs to his ministerial career in Recollections of a rebel (Tralee, 1944).

12 Bew, Paul, reviewing Dunphy, , Making of Fianna Fáil power in Irish Political Studies, xi(1996), p.194 Google Scholar.

13 Speech by Bertie Ahem, T.D., at the launch of Hannon & Gallagher (eds), Taking the long view, Fianna Fáil headquarters, 26 Nov. 1996.

14 Hannon, Philip, ‘Treasure trove of a proud history’ in 61st Ard-Fheis: Fianna Fáil the republican party, 1926–1995 (Dublin, 1995)Google Scholar (unpaginated). I am indebted to my colleague DrHorgan, John, author of Seán Lemass: the enigmatic patriot (Dublin, 1997)Google Scholar, for introducing me to the Fianna Fáil archives.

15 Minutes of fifth meeting’, 5 Aug. 1927, FF/437.

16 Hannon, ‘Treasure trove of a proud history’ (unpaginated); Ahern speech (see n. 13).

17 Parliamentary party minutes, 12, 16 Aug. 1927, FF/438; Gallagher, Michael and Komito, Lee, ‘Dáil deputies and their constituency work’ in Coakley, John and Gallagher, Michael (eds), Politics in the Republic of Ireland (Dublin, 1992 Google Scholar; 2nd ed., 1993), pp 150–66.

18 Parliamentary party minutes, 7 Oct. 1927, 10 Oct., 15 Nov. 1928, FF/438.

19 Ibid., 27 Mar., 16 Oct. 1929, 27 Feb., 5 June 1930.

20 Ibid., 18 Apr. 1929.

21 Manning, Irish political parties, p. 42.

22 Parliamentary party minutes, 2 May, 5 Dec. 1929, 20 Feb., 13, 27 Mar. 1930, 19 Feb., 14 May 1931, FF/438.

23 Ibid., 7 Oct. 1927, 2 May 1929, 13 Mar. 1930, 30 Apr. 1931.

24 National executive minutes, 10 May 1943, FF/342.

25 Parliamentary party minutes, 12 Nov. 1931, FF/438.

26 Ibid., 19 July 1928.

27 Ibid., 12 July 1928, 28 Feb., 7 Mar. 1929.

28 Ibid., 2 May, 14 Nov. 1929, 5 June 1930.

24 Ibid., 14 Nov. 1929, 27 Nov. 1930.

30 Ibid., n July 1929.

31 Ibid., 17 Dec. 1931.

32 Ibid., 18 Apr. 1929.

33 Ibid., 29 Nov. 1928, 16 May 1929.

34 Ibid., 20 Oct. 1927, 16 May 1929.

35 Ibid., 28 Feb., 18 Apr. 1929.

36 Bowman, De Valera & the Ulster question, p. 341.

37 Hannon, ‘Treasure trove of a proud history’ (unpaginated).