Comhairle na dTeachtaí Council of State, had Éamon de Valera as President. In 1926 de Valera resigned as President, left the Sinn Féin party and founded Fianna Fáil, which in 1927 entered the Fourth Dáil. Comhairle na dTeachtaí, never more than a symbolic body, was thereby rendered defunct. In 1930 Cumann na nGaedheal TDs alleged in the Dáil that de Valera had addressed Comhairle na dTeachtaí in December 1926, after the foundation of Fianna Fáil; this was to cast aspersions on de Valera's commitment to the Constitution of the Irish Free State. Comhairle na dTeachtaí Comhairle na dTeachtaí was an Irish republican parliament
Éamon de Valera participation in the War on the Allied side, while others, seeing "England's difficulty as Ireland's Opportunity", were pro-German. Strong objections to conscription in the North were voiced by de Valera. In June 1940, to encourage the neutral Irish state to join with the Allies, Winston Churchill indicated to de Valera that the United Kingdom would push for Irish unity, but believing that Churchill could not deliver, de Valera declined the offer. The British did not inform the Government of Northern Ireland that they had made the offer to the Irish government, and De Valera's rejection was not publicised until 1970.