Leader of Fianna Fáil Leader of Fianna Fáil The Leader of Fianna Fáil is the most senior politician within the Fianna Fáil political party in Ireland. Since 26 January 2011, the office has been held by Micheál Martin, following the resignation of Taoiseach Brian Cowen as leader of the party. The post of Leader of Fianna Fáil was officially created in 1926 when Éamon de Valera founded the party. De Valera had previously been leader of Sinn Féin and took the Anti-Treaty side during the Civil War. The new party essentially became a home for dissatisfied Sinn Féin TDs who had become disillusioned with
Éamon de Valera law, for use in representing the Irish Free State at diplomatic level. With the implementation of the new constitution, named in Irish as "Bunreacht na hÉireann" (meaning the Constitution of Ireland), the title ultimately given to the president was "President of Ireland" (Uachtarán na hÉireann). The constitution contained reforms and symbols intended to assert Irish sovereignty. These included: Criticisms of some of the above constitutional reforms include that: As Bew concludes, in the constitution of 1937, de Valera was "trying to placate left-wing Republicans with national phrases and pious people with expressly Catholic bits [and] patriarchal Catholicism." Éamon de Valera