‘Law and (dis)Order’: security rhetoric in the Irish Free State, 1922–1937

ABSTRACT

This article examines the use of ‘law and order’ rhetoric by governing parties in the Irish Free State. In the post-Civil War period, Cumann na nGaedheal governments devised and implemented a series of public safety measures to combat real or perceived security threats, accompanying each with robust and repeated justificatory rhetoric. As this article illustrates, such rhetoric was also utilised as a means by which to burnish Cumann na nGaedheal’s image as the protectors of ‘stability’, and to cast doubt on the commitment of political opponents to the maintenance of order should they ever achieve power. In addition, the article counters the often implied view that whereas Cumann na nGaedheal (and later Fine Gael) embraced a reputation as the party of ‘law-and-order’, Fianna Fáil eschewed such nomenclature. Rather, it shall be demonstrated that despite variations in tone, once in power, Fianna Fáil adopted a broadly similar approach to the utilisation of ‘law-and-order’ rhetoric.

KEYWORDS:

• Fianna Fáil
• Cumann na nGaedheal
• Fine Gael
• Irish Free State
• Law-and-order

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author

Notes

1 The safety of the state is the supreme law.

2 ‘Republicans’ was the term used for anti-Treaty candidates. The election occurred during the interregnum between the expiration of de Valera’s Cumann na Poblachta organisation (formed in March 1922) and the first ard fheis of the new anti-Treaty Sinn Féin Party in October 1923.

3 Established in 1926, the National League emanated from the Irish Parliamentary Party tradition.

4 Saor Éire was a short-lived leftwing political front organisation established by the A-TIRA in 1931.

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Notes on contributors

Séan Ó Duibhir

Séan Ó Duibhir is a historian of Modern Ireland, and lectures part-time on Irish and Northern Irish political history at the Centre for Adult Learning and Professional Development at the University of Galway.