al to the Declaration of Independence. Since a Government now was now erected without transition from the old, those who abode by the Second Dáil affirmed once more that it was the legitimate authority, and Mr. de Valera was regarded as head of the Republic once again. In the early months of 1923, it was evident that the Volunteers could not prevail, in a heart broken country, against their powerful opponents, so the Cease Fire order was given, over the signatures of Mr. de Valera and Mr. Frank Aiken, Chief of Staff.
VII.—ENTER FIANNA FAIL
At this stage, the cause of the nation was at its lowest. If ever Irishmen to had come to despair it was now; for Ireland had been forced to accept a Dominion, the land was partitioned, blood had flowed and bitterness and disillusionment were everywhere. Brugha had fallen, and after him Harry Boland. The Free State had executed Childers, and Liam Lynch had been slain. The two principals of the Free State were dead, too.
There were many who refused to despair, and one who saw his way still. In 1925, Sinn Féin considered Eamon de Valera’s proposal that the party should enter the Free State legislature, if only the test oath were removed and should recognise the Free State as fait accompli. This did not commend itself to those who were unwilling to recognise the fact that the fabric of the Republic was gone, and that Republicans must begin again from the bottom to rebuild it. Accordingly, Mr. de Valera formed a new Republican Party, Fianna Fail, which gained further seats at the first election in 1927. Observe that the party was Abstentionist at this stage. It refused the test oath and its agitation was so vigorous as to embarrass those who maintained the oath. The nation wanted all its patriots in the legislature, and was coming to resent the barring of them out. Suddenly Kevin O’Higgins was assassinated. Nobody knows what criminal or insane group did the deed. The country was convulsed by something like panic, and the most violent passions of the civil war boiled up; God knows what might have come in the dark suspicions of that hour. Now came one more test of Eamon de Valera’s prudence. That he had joined, or rather led, the national repudiation of the crime was merely what was to be expected of this Christian statesman, but if the sudden plunge of the nation towards violence was to be checked he must make his great influence felt as he could not do from outside the legislature. Accordingly, with his colleagues of the party, he abandoned the Abstentionist tactics, proclaimed that the oath would be treated as a formality, and so entered the new Dáil, at which, on the second election of that fateful year, Fianna Fail made a formidable showing.
For five years, the new party laboured patiently, gaining mastery of the parliamentary technique and the business of government, though taunted often ungenerously by those who had legislated to force them into the Dáil. The economic policy of the governing party afforded Fianna Fail a double ground of criticism. In the first place, it was marked by a general abandonment of the traditional Irish policy of protection and tillage; the policy of which Griffith himself had been the chief modern expounder. Griffith’s followers had run away from Griffith’s principles. Ireland was being made a mere grass-land for England, while manufacturers still dominated our market and defied industrial revival. In the second place, the Government policy was palpably bad in immediate results. The people were suffering bitterly. Mr. Cosgrave made a half-hearted attempt to ease the position by asking relief from the annuities impost, that drain of millions a year from a struggling country; but the English abruptly refused all concessions. Fianna Fail promised to challenge the enforced tribute, and to set up tariff walls that would enable Irish industry to recover.
At the end of 1931, the Dáil was dissolved, and the test came. To Mr. Cosgrave’s astonishment, the country condemned him. Aided by Labour, Fianna Fail came into power in 1932, the glorious Eucharistic Year. How d