Lia Fáil (political party)

Lia Fáil (named after

From the outset, the group had extremely radical goals; it sought to make it illegal for any foreigner to purchase land in Ireland, to confiscate any land purchased in Ireland by foreigners since the Easter Rising of 1916, to annul the Land Acts and to redistribute land to the young men of Ireland.

Lia Fáil was somewhat of a "last gasp" of Radical Agrarianism in Ireland; the context of their formation was that Clann na Talmhan, the last of the "farmer's parties" to be represented in Dáil Eireann was on its last legs by 1957, having done poorly in the 1957 Irish general election, the penultimate election it would contest. While the dedicated farmer's party was wilting away, Fianna Fáil was undergoing a change. Fianna Fáil had traditionally supported small farmers and landholders and had many times through the 30s and 40s flirted with land division and even land redistribution. However, under new leader Seán Lemass, the party was developing a new outlook that focused more on Industrialisation rather than agricultural reform.^[3][4]

Newspaper and program

To spread the message of Lia Fáil, Father Fahy began producing a party newspaper also named Lia Fáil. The various editions of the newspaper, mostly written exclusively by Fahy, expanded upon the goals and values of Lia Fáil.

In the same period of time as the party was being set up the IRA had launched another campaign, this one called the Border campaign. Lia Fáil supported the IRA in this and copies of the Lia Fáil newspaper were sent to IRA prisoners being kept in Curragh Camp military prison at that time.

During the 1959 Irish presidential election campaign Lia Fáil called on its followers to support Seán Mac Eoin over De Valera. The party gave 25 reasons for this position, with some of those reasons being that De Valera "was an alien" (De Valera had been born in the United States, but had been raised and living in Ireland since the age of 2), was a puppet of the British, that he was "the darling" of Protestants, Freemasons and the British Army, and that "his satanic lust for power motivates every act of his life". The paper’s reasons for supporting Mac Eoin were because he was "an honest-to-God Irishman of our own flesh and blood whose father and mother we know" and his military background.^[1][5][2]

The last issue of the Lia Fáil newspaper was published in September 1960. In it, the paper imagines a world where the Lia Fáil party has achieved its goals. In this world Lia Fáil has abolished the

The final issue also made wild claims including that "Ireland had the most masonic lodges per square mile in the world", that "Communists had sales in every county and 17 in Dublin", and that "Masonry was only the forerunner of Communism, working to make the gentile the slave of Jewish nations, in a world banishing Christianity".[5]

Direct Action taken in Lia Fáil's name

On 29 March 1958, an incident happened near Hollymount in rural County Mayo where members of Lia Fáil and a collection of small farmers attempted to divide up a 411-acre (1.7 km²) estate amongst themselves, citing Lia Fáil gave them the authority to do so. When the matter went to the local courts, local papers reported that it had been Lia Fáil who had "led them astray".^[1][5]

Lia Fáil in the national headlines

In May 1959, a group of about five farmers near Banagher, County Offaly herded cattle off land being held by the Irish Land Commission and ploughed it to provided crops for a local widow. When the loose cattle were spotted by locals, the guards were called. When the Gardai arrived and attempted to return the cattle to now ploughed land, the farmers attempted to stop them. From there things escalated and by the end of the Gardai ended up arresting the farmers and taking them to Banagher's Garda station. When word of the arrest spread, a crowd of about 100 people gathered outside the garda station. During this arrest, 3 men were allowed into the station on the pretence of delivering food and clothes for the prisoners. However, those 3 men helped the 5 farmers escape from their cell before running into the courtyard of the station, at which point the crowd helped the farmers escape. The Garda, being completely outnumbered, were unable to chase after the escapees who left in a van.^[1]

The incident immediately featured in the headlines of the national newspapers, and doubly so when two days after the escape, the five wanted farmers attended Mass at Father Fahey's church in view of the public. Highly embarrassed by the developing situation, the Garda Siochana moved to act decisively and a 50 officer raid took place on Father Fahy's home the next morning. Despite the raid being intended to be carried out in secrecy, someone tipped off the Daily Herald and a journalist and a photographer were sent to cover the raid as it happened. They were able to photograph the moment when Father Fahy, dressed in his dressing-gown, answered the door to the Gardai as they raided his home at 5 am. The Gardai searched the home for 10 minutes but found no one there but Fahy's housekeeper.^[1]

Thanks to the dramatic photograph, the story made frontpage news in Ireland and was a major propaganda victory for Lia Fáil. Fahy was interviewed in these articles and denied housing the fugitives, but made clear he supported "the land war" now beginning. Some speculate that Fahy himself had been tipped off about the raid, given the speed in which he was able to turn the situation to his advantage.

The matter continued to take on a national dimension and it came to be debated in

The farmers were all eventually recaptured by the end of the month and brought before the local courts. Perhaps cognisant that the case was grabbing national headlines in the middle of a presidential campaign and a referendum on Proportional Representation, the judges elected to handle things with care and attempted to defuse the situation by offering leniency if the farmers would promise not to re-offend. Initially, the farmers refused to do so but after several adjournments and the matter being dragged out until November, they eventually relented, perhaps because in the meantime Lia Fáil's reputation in the public had considerably dropped.^[1]

Protest of Erskine Childers

Sensing the unrest in Offaly, De Valera and Fianna Fáil arranged for the Ministry of Land and Fisheries

Fahy had drawn national attention on to himself and Lia Fáil but following the Childers' protest, the support base was splintering. Furthermore, the party ended up being fined £1,000 by the courts in relation to a matter relating to the escaped farmers who damaged some property while on the run. Fahy's superiors in the Catholic Church moved to quell the whole affair, by July 1959 he had been forced to resign as Parish Priest by his bishop and moved to another parish, under command to no longer engage in politics. With the removal of Fahy, the debt hanging over them and their support fractured, Lia Fáil faded out of existence. Some of their last actions including unofficially running a candidate in the 1960 Irish local elections, which was not successful.^[1][2]

See also

• An Ríoghacht
• Maria Duce

References