Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál (" Fál " being a legendary name for Ireland ).

Fianna Fáil's success was credited by The Irish Times to its local structure.

She defeated Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan and Fine Gael's Austin Currie in the 1990 presidential election becoming, as an Independent candidate nominated by the Labour Party, the Workers ' Party and independent senators, the first elected president in the office's history not to have had the support of Fianna Fáil.

However, Fianna Fáil's Erskine H. Childers went on to win the presidential election.

He had finally gained complete control of the party, having neutralized his rivals for leadership during the Arms Crisis, and initiated Fianna Fáil's electoral comeback by securing the election of its candidate, Erskine H. Childers, as President of Ireland in 1973, defeating the odds-on favourite, the National Coalition's Tom O ' Higgins.

The document was an echo of Fianna Fáil's republican origins, and although Lynch was not happy with it, he did not stop it.

In the general election in June 1927, Cumann na Gaedheal performed very poorly, winning just 47 seats with 27 % of the vote, and was able to survive in office only because of Fianna Fáil's continued refusal to take up its 44 seats due to the party's rejection of the Oath of Allegiance to the Free State.

Thus the murder indirectly led to Fianna Fáil's forced entry to the Dáil and in August 1927 the government narrowly survived a vote of no confidence.

Nonetheless it came as a surprise when Cumann na nGaedheal was defeated by Fianna Fáil in the general election of February 1932, winning only 57 seats to Fianna Fáil's 72.

Its support base contracted further in the general election of January 1933 ( 48 seats compared to Fianna Fáil's 77 ) as it failed to counter de Valera's populism and was increasingly labelled the party of the middle class.

After Fianna Fáil's landslide victory at the 1977 general election, Burke was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Industry and Commerce.

Cosgrave remained active in opposition but he privately supported Fianna Fáil's referendum to abolish the system of proportional representation in June, 1959, which was defeated.

By the time of the 1981 general election Fine Gael had a party machine that could easily match Fianna Fáil's.

O ' Malley had lost the Fianna Fáil whip in the Dáil in 1984 because of his support for the New Ireland Forum report and was finally expelled from Fianna Fáil early in 1985 for " conduct unbecoming " a member when he refused to support Fianna Fáil's opposition to the introduction of contraception.

In a review of the Department of Finance Robert Wright, a Canadian economist, singled out the policies of the PD's and Fianna Fáil's 2002 election manifestos as contributing significantly to the 2008 property market crash.

Fianna Fáil's founder and longtime leader, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera ( under pressure from members of his party ) decided to leave active party politics and seek the presidency.

Initially, Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan had been favourite to win, however after a number of controversies arising from the brief Fianna Fáil administration of 1981 – 82, and Lenihan's dismissal as Minister for Defence mid-way through the campaign, the Labour Party's Mary Robinson emerged victorious.

Fine Gael had been in decline for nearly a decade ; from the highpoint of the November 1982 general election when it achieved 70 seats in Dáil Éireann, only five seats short of Fianna Fáil's total the party had lost a considerable number of seats.

One of Fianna Fáil's first actions in government was to legalise the IRA and to release imprisoned republicans.

Historically, Fianna Fáil has been seen as to the left of Fine Gael and to the right of the Labour Party and is generally seen as a classic " catch all " populist party-representing a broad range of people from all social classes with the belief in the coincidence of economic growth and social progress.

However, although they are a centre-right party, Fianna Fáil use green ( Ireland's national colours ) to represent themselves, the PD's do use blue, but they are economic liberals.

In the party's election manifesto in 1977 Fianna Fáil promised a whole range of new economic measures.

The minority Fianna Fáil government introduced some of the economic reforms that the Progressive Democrats had recommended, Fianna Fáil was however largely supported by Fine Gael where the economy was concerned and so the Progressive Democrats had difficulty in being effective in opposition.

This bold step became known as the Tallaght Strategy, and represented a major departure in Irish politics whereby Fine Gael would vote with the minority Fianna Fáil Government if it adopted Fine Gael's economic policies for revitalising the economy.

His Tallaght Strategy where he stated that he would support Fianna Fail on economic reforms was also unpopular.

In the course of their pursuit of economic independence, Fianna Fáil also provoked what is known as the Anglo-Irish Trade War with Britain in 1933, by refusing to continue paying back " Land Annuities "-money that Irish farmers had borrowed from the British government since the 1903 Wyndham Act in order to buy their own land.

Poor economic growth and lack of social services led Sean Lemass, who succeeded the veteran Éamon de Valera as leader of Fianna Fáil and as Taoiseach in 1958, to state that if economic performance did not improve, the very future of the independent Irish state was at risk.

When Fianna Fáil returned to power in 1977 O ' Malley was appointed Minister for Industry and Commerce at a time when Ireland's economic fortunes were going into rapid decline.

In 1979, Fianna Fáil's economic policies were derailed due to strikes, higher wage demands, and the 1979 energy crisis.

Nevertheless, it was in August, 1994, while Quinn and Fianna Fáil's Bertie Ahern were economic ministers, that the Irish economy was first described as the " Celtic Tiger ".

During the first Fianna Fáil government, the National Centre Party aligned with the largest opposition party, Cumann na nGaedheal, on almost all issues of political or economic importance.

The founders came from the Liaison Committee of the Labour Left, which in 1975 / 76 had tried to build the " Left Alternative ", a coalition of progressive organisations and individuals, aimed at addressing what they saw as the cultural and economic impoverishment of Irish society by the establishment parties of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

The party drew up a manifesto which offered the electorate a string of financial and economic " sweeteners ", encouraging them to vote for Fianna Fáil.

Originally a member of Fianna Fáil, she left the party in 1998 in opposition to its economic and social policies.

An extremely irresponsible budget by the majority Fianna Fáil government in 1977, which included abolition of car tax and borrowing to fund current spending, combined with some global economic problems to ruin the Irish economy for most of the 1980s, causing high unemployment and mass emigration.

The problems were eventually dealt with starting in 1987 under a minority Fianna Fáil government but with help from the opposition led by Alan Dukes of Fine Gael under what was known as the " Tallaght Strategy ", with economic reform, tax cuts, welfare reform, more competition and a reduction in borrowing to fund current spending.

In a Dáil debate on the budget on 6 March 2008, Morgan launched a strong attack on the government's economic policy, saying that " There is more social conscience in a cat's arse than there is in the entire Fianna Fáil parliamentary party.

Other famous examples of catch all parties include the Republic of Ireland's Fianna Fáil, which has variously been categorised as socialist ( according to former deputy leader Brian Lenihan ) and neo-Thatcherite / neo-Reaganite, a description applied to the economic policies and politics of former Minister for Finance ( 1997 – 2004 ) Charles McCreevy.

On taking over power and coming into office in 1932 the new Fianna Fáil government under Éamon de Valera embarked upon a protectionist policy in economic dealings, and tariffs were introduced for a wide range of imported goods mainly from Britain.

Both the pressure they exerted on the British government and the discontent of Irish farmers with the Fianna Fáil government helped to encourage both sides to seek settlement of the economic dispute.

Under this policy, the Fine Gael opposition party would not oppose economic reforms proposed by the Fianna Fáil minority government in the national interest.