Fianna Fáil ( fee-AN-ə FALL, Irish: [ˌfʲiən̪ˠə ˈfˠaːlʲ] (listen); meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (Irish: Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a political party in Ireland.
The party was founded as an Irish republican party on 16 May 1926 by Éamon de Valera and his supporters after they split from the anti-treaty wing of Sinn Féin on the issue of abstentionism in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War. Since 1927 Fianna Fáil has been one of Ireland's two major parties, along with Fine Gael; both are seen as being centre-right parties, and as being to the right of the Labour Party and Sinn Féin. The party dominated Irish political life for most of the 20th century, and since its foundation either it or Fine Gael has led every government. Between 1932 and 2011, it was the largest party in Dáil Éireann. Between 1989 and 2011, it led coalition governments with parties of both the left and the right.
Fianna Fáil was last in government from 1997 to 2011 under Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, with a periodic high of 81 seats in 2002, reduced to 77 in 2007. In 2011 (during the post-2008 economic downturn), it was swept from power in the worst defeat of a sitting government in the history of the Irish state, falling to only 20 seats, the lowest in the party's history. At the 2016 general election, Fianna Fáil won 44 seats and became the largest opposition party in both houses (Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann) of the Oireachtas, with party leader Micheál Martin entering into a confidence and supply arrangement with a Fine Gael-led minority government at the beginning of the 32nd Dáil.Fianna Fáil is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and of Liberal International. Since 9 February 2019, Fianna Fáil has been in partnership with the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland.
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