The victory in the second election in 1927 gave the Cumann na nGaedheal government a lease on life for another term. However, its record in that term seemed to be purely defensive, as it appeared to lack the creative energy with which it had taken on state-building amidst and after the civil war. Instead, much of its attention was given to attacking Fianna Fail, which used the period to master the art of constitutional politics, to strengthen its popular political machinery, and to wean itself from, although probably not completely, irregu-larism. No doubt the death of O'Higgins was a severe blow to the government as few in it matched his capacity for leadership, articulateness, and energetic authoritativeness. Fianna Fail, on the other hand, significantly reinforced by monetary contributions from the Irish-American community, developed a broadly based popular organization, which was able to engender a mass following by playing a variety of grievances, which included unemployment, poor returns from the smaller tillage farmers, high rates of emigration, the republican (nationalist) dissatisfaction with the persistence of the oath, dominion status, and partition. Its efforts contrasted with the minimal organization of Cumann na nGaedheal, which relied instead on an outdated politics of deference that expected popular support to ensue from the endorsement of social and community leaders such as clergymen, professionals, businessmen, and strong farmers.
Examples of the purely defensive approach of the government included the passage of a series of constitutional amendments that were designed to work against democracy or the expression of popular will. For the first several years of its existence, the Free State Constitution could be amended simply by the vote of the Dail and the Seanad. However, it did allow for referendum if and when a specified minority in the Oireachtas (parliament) demanded such. The referendum mechanism was designed to protect a minority against majority tyranny with the authors having in mind the unionist minority in particular. The constitution also allowed initiative, that is, the bringing of a measure to the public, by the petitioning of a substantial number of citizens. The motive behind initiative was to enable a majority to advance a cause to which more conservative institutions were indifferent. The specific cause that was being advanced by initiative was the republican goal of removing the oath to the monarch as a condition for accepting office, an issue that, if put to the electorate, would probably prevail as most Cumann na nGaedheal voters and even elected officials
Would as soon not have to take the oath. To prevent the crisis arising in which a popular vote could put an end to what was regarded as a treaty-required fixture in the constitution, the government advanced and secured passage by the Bail and Seanad of an amendment to the constitution that did away with both the referendum and the initiative.
Another amendment, not as clearly designed to inhibit the democratic wishes of the majority, changed the procedure whereby the members of the Seanad were to be elected. One-quarter of the members were up for reelection every three years. In the very first election of senators, most were elected by the Dail, with a quarter of members being nominated by the executive council, a procedure designed to guarantee a presence in the body of former unionists. For the second trimester, three times as many candidates as there were seats open for reelection (one-quarter of the entire Seanad) were nominated by the Bail and the Seanad and were voted on by an electorate limited by age. The actual public participation was poor and few knew the great number of candidates who were to be elected by the Single Transferable Voting system, according to which a voter numerically lists his preferential ranking of the candidates. A new amendment ended popular election and resumed the original practice of the Bail electing the Seanad by proportional voting, which was bound to produce the effect of the upper house eventually duplicating the lower house rather than serve as an independent body of "elders" able to advise and restrain the popular house. On the other hand, it prevented a potentially well organized Fianna Fail sweep in a popular election.
The government secured a third amendment extending the time period during which the Seanad could delay the passage of a measure it disapproved of, that is, lengthen the suspensive veto power of the upper house. This measure did have the effect of delaying the major constitutional changes that the Fianna Fail government under Eamon de Valera would introduce when they came to power in 1932, one of which would be the actual abolition of the Seanad itself.
In 1929 the government succeeded in introducing legislation that many people inappropriately came to regard as the essential feature of the Irish Free State era, namely, the establishment of a literary censorship board. The legislation represented the fruit of the recommendations of a commission established in 1925 by O'Higgins to deal with the question of offensive literary works. The idea of controlling salacious and sensational literature was something that met minimal objection in hardly any quarter in the Ireland of that time, or for that matter, in many others nations as well, no more that hate literature or oratory would be regarded as offensive today. However, the actual operation of the censorship board in Ireland became ludicrous. Rather than conducting a systematic rating of literature and determining what ought to be barred from public distribution, the board would respond to individual complaints about single works. In a society with a certain heritage of Puritanism, to which was added the inevitable Puritanism that accompanies revolution and a conviction of the moral superiority of the newly independent nation against its former "oppressor," the censor exercised powers quite broadly, so much so that it almost became an ambition for an Irish author to be censored as a guarantee that his work was worthwhile and likely to succeed outside of Ireland. Paradoxically,
The works of James Joyce, although barred for a long time in the United States and elsewhere, were not censored in Ireland. It must also be noted that the censoring authorities continued well after the Cumann na nGaedheal government had ended and were scarcely inconsistent with the spirit of the Fianna Fail governments that succeeded.
In 1930 and 1931 the worldwide economic depression that followed the Wall Street collapse of October 1929 had taken full hold. Radical political movements of both right and left were appealing to increasing numbers of people, either the lowly paid or the unemployed or those whose relatively comfortable positions had been undermined. Since the Irish economy remained predominantly agricultural and was not especially prosperous to begin with, the depression did not directly effect Ireland. However, that commodity that Ireland continued to export, namely, its young population, who were compelled to emigrate—some to the United States but more increasingly to Britain—found fewer opportunities. Accordingly, those denied the outlet of emigration became another source of discontent.
In such an environment, some of the more subtle figures in Sinn Fein and the IRA, such as Peadar O'Donnell, Sean MacBride, and Frank Ryan, sought to broaden the appeal of their movement away from the exclusively nationalist and republican message to include a social program or dimension. Like many radicals in the world at that time, they looked with tinted lenses at what they perceived as the advancement of equality and development in the Soviet Union, whose planned system seemed to contrast with the misery amidst plen-titude in the capitalist world. Few were aware or attentive to the Gulags or the police state over which Stalin presided. In September 1931 Saor fiire was formed to promote republicanism and socialism. However, within a month the Catholic hierarchy, ever vigilant to the danger of communism, condemned the group and a potential popular following quickly dissipated. The government followed through with a proscription of Saor fiire and a number of other named groups, including the IRA, as well as securing a further constitutional amendment allowing military tribunals to try those accused of sedition and membership in named organizations. However, the government overplayed its hand when it sought to ban the new daily newspaper promoting the Fianna Fail party. Called the Irish Press, the paper was founded by Eamon de Valera with funds given to him by Irish-American holders of Dail fiireann bonds that had been refunded when an American court Solomon-like refused to award the money to either the Irish Free State, Sinn Fein, or similar pretenders to the original Dail fiireann. The Irish courts refused to uphold the ban, which reinforced the impression of the government losing its act.
Significantly, in December 1931 the British parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which implemented the recommendations advocated so vigorously by O'Higgins at the Imperial Conference of 1926 that the legislative autonomy of the dominions be acknowledged. The passage of that legislation in essence ought have been seen as allowing the Free State parliament to change those parts of its constitution that had been mandated by the treaty, especially if the treaty was to be seen, as the British claimed, as a piece of British legislation, rather than an international agreement. However, both the British
And the Cumann na nGaedheal Party failed to see that point when they would both object to de Valera's ultimately successful undoing of the objectionable treaty requirements after he came to power.
Since a Eucharistic Congress was scheduled to be held in Dublin in June 1932, the government decided to move ahead the date for a general election, which would have to be held within the year as it was almost five years since the previous election. The election was held in February and resulted in Fianna Fail gaining a plurality, to which were added the seven votes of Labour Party TDs (teachtai Dala [Dail deputies]), so as to give a clear majority with which to form a government. There was apprehension that some in the government, particularly in the military, might not accept the mandate of the electorate, and some members of Fianna Fail TDs were reported to have arrived in the Dail fiireann with weapons in case a counterrevolutionary coup d'etat was attempted. Fortunately, the outgoing government accepted the wishes of the people and transferred power to those who, a decade earlier had been their armed enemies. This acceptance, along with the willingness of the new state's civil service and military to work with the new government, marked the final evidence that a democratic and constitutional independent Irish state had been created.
World History
