Clann Éireann de Valera and his followers into the party failed. After de Valera created the Fianna Fáil party in March 1926, Clann Éireann grew closer to that group. The party attracted little support and it failed to win any seats in Dáil Éireann at the June 1927 general election. Its seven candidates only attracted a few thousand first preference votes. Seven of them were last in their constituencies and forfeited their deposits. On 28 August 1927, the party issued a statement supporting Fianna Fáil, and ceased political activity. Clann Éireann Clann Éireann (), also known as the People's Party, was a
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