The slogan “Put them out” gained considerable momentum in early 1948 after 16 years of Fianna Fáil in power. As historian John A Murphy put it, “The slogan has always been an essential part of the Irish election scene but the anti-Fianna Fáil rallying cry in 1948 had unusually forceful connotations and, in the event, a particularly telling effect ... who was to be put in, however, was far from clear. There was certainly no sign of an anti-Fianna Fáil common front.”
It hardly looked promising for the opposition in advance of the February election. Fine Gael was in decline, Clann na Talmhan (CnT) was a regional and sectional party promoting the interests of farmers but beset by internal tensions, and there were two Labour parties after a breakaway faction, the National Labour Party, had been formed in 1944. But the new Clann na Poblachta (CnP) party, formed in 1946, was brimming with confidence and boasting of a momentum that would radically transform Irish politics, accompanied by an insistence it would build new economic and social system “based on Christian principles”.
Despite CnP’s optimism that it could achieve electoral dominance (it fielded 93 candidates), it managed to win only 10 seats for the Dáil of 147. Fine Gael won 31, Labour 14, Independents 12, CnT seven and National Labour five. Fianna Fáil won 68 seats on the back of an even more succinct rallying call, “Up Dev”, and looked forward to another term in power, but the opposition came together to instead oust Dev and form the State’s first coalition government.
Historians have characterised what happened in 1948, in the words of Ronan Fanning, as an ‘essentially negative consensus rather than any measure of agreement about common policies which provided the basis of such unlikely bedfellows’
Given today’s political landscape, the current Opposition might well profit from looking closely at what happened in 1948. The context now is of course different, given the steady erosion in support for the two Civil War parties in recent years and their sharing of power. It is also far fetched to think the entire Opposition would come together to prevent Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael forming the next government, but the plethora of parties opposed to continued governance by the two main coalition parties might well ask themselves how in the coming years they can develop a 21st-century version of “put them out” or if they want to.
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Historians have characterised what happened in 1948, in the words of Ronan Fanning, as an “essentially negative consensus rather than any measure of agreement about common policies which provided the basis of such unlikely bedfellows”. They included CnP leader Seán MacBride, who had been imprisoned during the Civil War and was later briefly chief of staff of the IRA, and Fine Gael leader Richard Mulcahy, who had been commander in chief of the National Army during the Civil War. CnP’s message was accompanied by much self-righteousness bound up with the character and temperament of its leader.
Whatever about such dynamics and ideological gulfs, the desire to be rid of Fianna Fáil, then on 41 per cent of the vote (close to the combined vote of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael today, which is 42.66 per cent) held sway. Just after the election the opposition formed a bloc, representing five different groups, with the sole intention of ousting Dev. They met at the Mansion House in Dublin and agreed to support the nomination of Fine Gael’s John A Costello as taoiseach, Richard Mulcahy being deemed unacceptable due to Civil War wounds. The political correspondent of The Irish Times reported the conclusion of these meetings: “There are no unbridgeable differences between Fine Gael, Labour, Clann na Poblachta, Clann na Talmhan and a substantial number of independents, although there will have to be a certain amount of modification of their several policies.”
There were other factors that facilitated a common purpose. As historian KT Hoppen saw it, shared backgrounds and professional interests (both MacBride and Costello were barristers) and the intimacy of Ireland meant the “strange bedfellows” could come to agreement “more because of interlocking family, educational and temperamental affinities among its more important members than because of anything as mundane as agreement over aims and policies”.
Historian of the Labour Party Niamh Puirséil cites the arguments of those in the party in 1948 who saw CnP not as a threat but a possible ally against the conservative parties. She quotes Joe Deasy, a Labour member of Dublin Corporation, who suggested an “over-purist complex might easily unduly influence us in solving a problem of this nature. It must be remembered that a continued term in office for the present government will do irreparable damage to the nation”.
After the recent election, Labour Party TD Ged Nash insisted: “If you want to make this country better, you need to be in government.” Commentary has centred on the history of smaller parties being punished for sharing power with the bigger entities, but perhaps the electorate would be better served if the Opposition parties considered seriously what they might do together.