Farmers' Party (Ireland)
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Farmers' Party
Páirtí na bhFeirmeoirí |
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|---|---|
| Leader |
Denis Gorey (1922–27) Michael Heffernan (1927–32) |
| Founded | 1922 |
| Dissolved | 1932 |
| Ideology | Agrarianism |
The Farmers' Party or Farmers' Union (Irish: Páirtí na bhFeirmeoirí) was an agrarian political party in the Irish Free State between 1922 and 1932. It was concerned almost exclusively with the interests of the agricultural community, and never sought to widen its scope beyond the countryside.
The party won seven seats in Dáil Éireann at the 1922 general election, the first in the Free State, and increased that total to fifteen in the 1923 election. These seats were concentrated in richer rural areas, an indicator that the party's support base was farmers with large holdings of land rather than the more numerous and poorer small farmers. At the 1925 Seanad election, the party won three seats.
During the 1920s, the Farmers' Party supported the Cumann na nGaedheal government. Support was strongest among the deputies who supported free trade. Among these members were the party leadership, particularly leader Denis Gorey, who proposed a merger of the Farmers' Party with Cumann na nGaedheal. Supporters of protectionism favoured continuation as an independent party, more criticism of the government, and from 1926 co-operation with the Fianna Fáil party, founded in 1926. This division, between the more conservative free-trading large farmers and the more radical protectionist small farmers, harmed the party and eventually led to the partitioning of its votes between the two main parties. The pro-independence side won the tactical debate, and an embittered Gorey joined Cumann na nGaedheal in time for the June 1927 general election.
The party lost nine of its fifteen representatives in Dáil Éireann during 1927 to defections and two election defeats. It continued to support the Cumann na nGaedheal government throughout the late 1920s, most importantly in the vote of no confidence that preceded the September 1927 election. After that election, Farmers' Party leader Michael Heffernan was appointed to junior governmental office to ensure his party's support for the resulting minority government. Heffernan would himself join Cumann na nGaedheal before the subsequent election.
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