Cumann na Poblachta Cumann na Poblachta Cumann na Poblachta (; "League of the Republic" in English) was an Irish republican political party. The party was founded on 15 March 1922 by Éamon de Valera. It opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and was composed of the anti-Treaty wing of Sinn Féin. The party did contest the 1922 Irish general election but, in accordance with the Collins/De Valera Pact, under the Sinn Féin banner like their opponents. The party commonly appended the title "The Republican Party" to its name. This subtitle was later adopted by the Fianna Fáil party at its foundation in 1926. Its headquarters
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