Irish Parliamentary Party first Governor-General of the Irish Free State (1922–1928), an enlightened choice to bridge the gap between the old order and the new generation of Cumann na nGaedheal politicians, although highly partisan (his nephew was Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins; Healy made a public attack on Fianna Fáil and Éamon de Valera, which led to republican calls for his resignation). Former party MP Hugh Law was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal TD during the 1920s. The conservative nationalist National League Party operated between 1926 and 1931, founded by former IPP MPs Captain William Redmond (son of Irish National League and
Éamon de Valera the IRA dumped their arms rather than surrender them or continue a now fruitless war, de Valera returned to political methods. In 1924, he was arrested in Newry for "illegally entering Northern Ireland" and held in solitary confinement for a month in Crumlin Road Gaol, Belfast. During this time, de Valera came to believe that abstentionism was not a workable tactic in the long term. He now believed that a better course would be to try to gain power and turn the Free State from a constitutional monarchy into a republic. He tried to convince Sinn Féin to accept this