Following his expulsion from Fianna Fáil, Kevin Boland tried to persuade Blaney to join the Aontacht Éireann party he was creating but Blaney declined.

After this episode Boland founded his own political party, Aontacht Éireann ( Irish Unity ).

He was elected vice-chairman of Aontacht Éireann, which led to his activities being observed by the Irish Army.

He unsuccessfully contest the 1973 general election in the Dublin County North constituency as an Aontacht Éireann candidate.

The meeting, which like all such meetings was secret, was convened to discuss among other resolutions, the articles of the Provisional IRA constitution which dealt with abstentionism, its opposition to the taking of seats in Dáil Éireann.

Irish coalition governments have traditionally been based on one of two large blocs in Dáil Éireann: either Fianna Fáil in coalition with smaller parties or independents, or Fine Gael and the Labour Party in coalition, sometimes with smaller parties.

In a policy document entitled New Politics, deputy Hogan has suggested creating a country with " a smaller, more dynamic and more responsive political system ," reducing the size of the Dáil by 20, changing the way the Dáil works, and in a controversial move, abolishing the Irish senate, Seanad Éireann.

Ireland's railways are in State ownership, with Iarnród Éireann ( Irish Rail ) operating services in the Republic and NI Railways operating services in Northern Ireland.

Since 1984 an electrically operated train service run by Iarnród Éireann has linked Dublin with its coastal suburbs.

State-owned Bus Éireann ( Irish Bus ) currently provides most bus services in the Republic of Ireland, outside Dublin, including an express coach network connecting most cities in Ireland, along with local bus services in the provincial cities.

Bus Átha Cliath ( Dublin Bus ), a sister company of Bus Éireann, provides most of the bus services in Dublin, with some other operators providing a number of routes.

Cross-border services ( e. g. Dublin city centre to Belfast ) are run primarily by a partnership of Ulsterbus and Bus Éireann with some services run across the border exclusively by one of the two companies ( e. g. Derry – Sligo run by Bus Éireann ).

The Constitution of the Irish Free State made more detailed provision for the state's system of government, with a three-tier parliament, called the Oireachtas, made up of the King and two houses, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann ( the Irish Senate ).

( The Irish Seal consisted of a picture of ' King George V ' enthroned on one side, with the Irish state harp and the words Saorstát Éireann (' Irish Free State ') on the reverse.

For General elections, the county is divided into two constituencies, Donegal South – West and Donegal North – East, with both having three representatives in Dáil Éireann.

If he ceased to " retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann ," the president, along with his cabinet, was obliged to resign, but could continue to serve as acting president until the appointment of a successor.

He discussed his views in a 2011 interview with RTÉ, ( also known as Raidió Teilifís Éireann ), in which he said his wife was conceived through a rape and he says had her mother aborted her, or dumped her in the Ohio River as she had considered, his wife would not exist.

Other countries with electoral college systems include Burundi, Estonia, India, France ( for the French Senate ), the Republic of Ireland ( for Seanad Éireann ), Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.

In the early ' 90s with the development of the Peace Process and Sinn Féin Youth, Fianna Éireann was eventually disbanded and replaced by Ógra Shinn Féin.

Fianna Éireann was decimated with the loss of most of its officers and the organisation went underground until well after the general release of prisoners in 1924.

Fianna Éireann survived the Civil war period intact, they had sided with the Republic.

Two years later in 1977 Fianna Fáil returned to power with a massive parliamentary majority in Dáil Éireann, having had a very populist campaign ( spearhead by Colley and O ' Malley ) to abolish rates, vehicle tax and other extraordinary concessions, which were short-lived.

When the Fourth Ministry assumed office in 1922, with Arthur Griffith as its head, cabinet members were once again described as ministers and Griffith, a monarchist, adopted the practice of referring to himself as the President of Dáil Éireann, although President of the Republic remained his official title.

President of Dáil Éireann was also used, interchangeably with these terms, despite the fact that it did not appear in the constitution, and it was the title preferred by de Valera during his visit to the United States in 1920 – 1921.

Sinn Féin, standing for ' an independent sovereign Ireland ', had won seventy-three of the one hundred and five parliamentary seats on the island in the 1918 General Election and established its own unilateral declaration of independence ( UDI ) state, the Irish Republic with its own parliament, Dáil Éireann.

The text of the draft constitution, with minor amendments, was approved on 14 June by Dáil Éireann ( then the sole house of parliament, the Senate having been abolished the previous year ).

A similar format exists in the Republic of Ireland, though due to more smaller parties being represented in the Dáil Éireann time given to those smaller parties may be as little as one or two minutes.

After four years as a senator, Lenihan finally secured a seat in Dáil Éireann following success in the 1961 general election.

The strategy emerged after the 1981 Irish hunger strike as a response to the electoral success of Bobby Sands in the April 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election and pro-hunger strike campaigners in the Northern Ireland local elections and Republic of Ireland Dáil Éireann elections of the same year.

It was the largest party in Dáil Éireann at every general election from the 1932 general election until the 2011 general election, when it suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government in the history of the Irish state, a loss described as " historic " in its proportions, where it saw its electoral support base diminished by 75 %, as a reaction to the intervention, and in the running of the Irish economy, of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in November 2010.

As part of the ongoing strategy to take control of the IRA, Brugha proposed to Dáil Éireann on 20 August 1919 that the Volunteers were to be asked, at this next convention, to swear allegiance to the Dáil.

On 21 January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs ( who became known as Teachta Dála, TDs ) refusing to sit in the British House of Commons at Westminster, assembled in Dublin and formed a single chamber Irish parliament called Dáil Éireann ( Assembly of Ireland ).

The Irish Treaty delegation set up Headquarters in Hans Place, Knightsbridge and on 5 December 1921 at 11: 15 am it was decided by the delegation during private discussions at 22 Hans Place to recommend the Treaty to the Dáil Éireann ; negotiations continued until 2: 30 am on 6 December 1921 after which the Treaty was signed by the parties.

A Fianna Éireann / Ógra Shinn Féin colour party at Galbally, Tyrone 2009

In August 1922 ( the same month that saw the deaths of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith ), Na Fianna Éireann sustained a heavy blow when two of their senior officers in Dublin, Seán Cole and Alf Colley, were shot dead by Free State Army Intelligence members at The Thatch, Whitehall.

The Republican Sinn Féin-linked Na Fianna Éireann get ready to march at Bodenstown in 2003

This proposal failed to obtain the required two-thirds support at the party conference that year, and as a result the leadership, including six of the party's seven members of Dáil Éireann, left to establish a new party, later named Democratic Left.

First elected at the 1951 general election as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála ( TD ) for Clare, he remained in Dáil Éireann until 1973.

Lynch was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála ( TD ) for Cork in 1948, and was re-elected at each general election until his retirement in 1981.

Lynch remained on in Dáil Éireann as a TD until his retirement from politics at the 1981 general election.

Reynolds was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a TD for Longford – Westmeath in 1977, and was re-elected at each election until his retirement in 2002.

Reynolds was just one of a number of TDs elected to Dáil Éireann on that day, however, at 44 years of age Reynolds was considered a late starter.

Burke was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1973 general election for the Dublin County North constituency, succeeding his father Patrick J. Burke, who had held the seat for 29 years.

The office, also known as Príomh Aire (), was created in the Dáil Constitution adopted by Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Republic, at its first meeting in January 1919.

The President of Dáil Éireann had authority to appoint the remaining members of the Ministry, subject to ratification by the Dáil, and ministers could be dismissed by the President at any time.

Dáil Éireann, the lower house, is directly elected under universal suffrage of all Irish and United Kingdom citizens who are resident and at least eighteen years of age.

He was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election and sat in opposition alongside his father.

To the surprise of his family, Liam decided to seek election to Dáil Éireann in the 1943 general election and was elected as a Teachta Dála ( TD ) for Dublin County at the age of 23, sitting in the 11th Dáil alongside his father W. T. Cosgrave who was one of the founders of the Irish Free State in the 1920s.

As President of Dáil Éireann ( Priomh Aire, or literally First Minister ) Éamon de Valera was the highest official in the Republic at this time but was notionally only the head of government.

The term was first used to describe those Irish parliamentarians who were elected at the 1918 general election, and who, rather than attending the British House of Commons in London, to which they had been elected, assembled instead in Dublin's Mansion House on 21 January 1919 to create a new Irish parliament: the First Dáil Éireann.

FitzGerald was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1969 general election, for the Dublin South – East constituency, the same year he obtained his PhD for a thesis later published under the title " Planning in Ireland ".

The British Parliament at Westminster then passed the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 on 5 December, which provided that the Constitution of the Irish Free State ( Saorstát Éireann ) Act 1922 would have the force of law.

It enjoyed an impressive début at the 1987 general election, winning 14 seats in Dáil Éireann and capturing almost 12 percent of the popular vote to temporarily surpass the Labour Party as Ireland's third largest political party.