Fianna Fáil’s Agrarian Man and the Economics of National Salvation

Abstract

This chapter examines the triangular relationship between masculine revival, economic revival, and national revival in the Irish Free State of the 1920s and 1930s. As Fianna Fáil rose in power at the end of the 1920s, so too did their representation of Irish rural masculinity as the national ideal; the sturdy self-sufficient farmer became a national treasure. Building on the popularity of this imagery, and the long-standing emotional and economic power of the Irish landscape dating back to the land reforms of the 1880s, Fianna Fáil positioned itself as the only Irish political party that could and would achieve the social and economic advancement of the ‘small man’.