British Commonwealth of Nations: New Irish Party

Monday, Apr. 26, 1926

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When Eamonn (Edward) De Valera, Hispano-Gaelic* hothead, resigned from the presidency of Sinn Fein* (TIME, March 22), the world learned with surprise that there are hotter heads than his in the party, that they had voted down "his policies" 223 to 218.

Mr. De Valera's "policies" envisioned the entrance of the now abstaining Sinn Fein Deputies into the Dail Eireann (Irish Free State Lower House), "as soon as the Oath of Fealty to King George V [now required of all Irish M.P.'s] shall be abolished. . . . My purpose is that our Deputies shall then work from within toward the establishment of a Republic."

For Sinn Fein ultra-die-hards such a program is too milky-mild. They hold that "the Irish Free State is not Irish, is not free, and is not a state."† They are still out for cracked crowns and shillalahing upon the green. They will have none of "working from within."

Therefore Mr. De Valera last week launched a new and as yet unnamed Irish party at Dublin. Said he to former Sinn Feiners who have "bolted" with him: "Let our keynote be abolition of the Oath of Fealty.** The ideal of the majority of the Irish people is still broadly a Republican ideal. . . . Ireland should be united, free and Irish. . . . The people can be banded together for the pursuit of that ideal if a reasonable program, based on existing conditions, is set before them."

^{*He was born in County Cork to Senor Visian de Valera, a
Spaniard, and the onetime Kate Coll of Limerick (1882).
*"The Irish Republican Party," literally translated
"We Ourselves."
†It has "Dominion status" in the
British Commonwealth, and the names of its institutions are
unquestionably designed to sound as soothingly free as possible.
Strictly speaking its "President" is virtually the
"premier" of the resident British Governor General.
Similarly, the "Oath of Fealty" is an attempt to make
palatable on Irish tongues the traditional oath of allegiance.
**Text: "I...do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to
the Constitution of the Irish Free State...and I will be faithful
to H. M. King George V...in virtue of the common citizenship of
Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the...British Commonwealth of Nations."}