A speech prepared by young activist William Fallon for Irish Parliamentary Party MP Tom Condon's St Patrick's Day banquet address in London in 1914 gave the impression that the party was sure to be not only remembered, but remembered fondly. Condon's subsequent speech received little coverage, certainly in comparison with the words of Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) leader John Redmond, who used the occasion to criticise proposals for partition. However, the remarks, written by a party activist for an MP outside the party's leadership circle, were redolent of how many Irish Party members would have viewed their place in history at that time. Notwithstanding the potential dangers present in 1914, after years of patient constitutional agitation at the British parliament in Westminster, the party appeared on the verge of its promised land: home rule or self-government for Ireland. In the aftermath of the First World War and the Easter Rising in 1916, the party suffered devastating defeat. Although the IPP retained the support of approximately 220,000 voters in December 1918, the nature of its defeat and the tumultuous events which followed meant the Irish Party's place in the public mind of the Irish Free State which emerged in 1922 was far more ambiguous. Tom Condon spent his final years in poverty with little public acknowledgement for his career in the party.

However, the party had a demonstrable legacy in independent Ireland. While previous studies of the Irish Party have concluded with its dramatic fall in 1918, this book provides the first detailed analysis of the influence of former IPP members and methods in independent Ireland and the place of the party's leaders in public memory. In doing so, it aims to shed new light on how individuals from home rule backgrounds became prominent politicians, how the party's achievements were remembered, and how elements of IPP political culture, organisations and followers were reinvented in the new state. In addressing these questions, this book utilises a number of methods.