Politics in independent Ireland were altered irrevocably by Fianna Fáíl’s entry into Dáil Éireann. As Cumann na nGaedheal recovered at the polls in September 1927, the immediate casualties were the smaller parties, chiefly the National League. However, the Treatyite party would never again enjoy the comfort of rows of empty opposition benches facing them in the Dáil as a new opponent with popular support around the state followed their every move in parliament. The years between 1927 and Fianna Fáil's momentous election win in 1932 can sometimes be glossed over, yet it was a period when the Free State faced the economic storm which followed the Wall Street crash but also a time when politics evolved as parties, individuals and interest groups came to terms with the new imperatives produced by the beginning of a party rivalry which would define politics for decades. It was also a time when significant issues emerged, many of which involved former home rulers—not least the plight of the thousands of ex-British servicemen in the Free State and the debate over whether the state was liable and should continue to pay land annuities owed to the British government from land legislation dating back to the nineteenth century. The year 1932 saw a landmark first change of government in the state, but also the beginning of de Valera's plan to dismantle the Anglo-Irish Treaty—a policy which would have implications not just for those from Irish Party backgrounds but for other Treatyites, and Britain too.

The National League already appeared to be a failed political entity by September 1927. Over time, its last remaining defenders, Captain Redmond, James Coburn and Tom O’Donnell, faced the difficult task of winding up a bankrupt political party. As they did so, each also had to decide where to pledge their political allegiance after the attempt to revive the Irish Party had failed.