Éamon de Valera new line. However, a vote to accept the Free State Constitution (contingent on the abolition of the Oath of Allegiance) narrowly failed. Soon afterward, de Valera resigned from Sinn Féin and seriously considered leaving politics. However, one of his colleagues, Seán Lemass, convinced de Valera to found a new republican party. In March 1926, with Lemass, Constance Markievicz and others, de Valera formed a new party, Fianna Fáil ("The Warriors of Destiny"), a party that was to dominate 20th-century Irish politics. While Sinn Féin still held to an abstentionist line, Fianna Fáil was dedicated to republicanising the Free State from
Sinéad de Valera Sinéad de Valera Sinéad de Valera (née Ní Fhlannagáin; 3 June 1878 – 7 January 1975) was the wife of Taoiseach and the 3rd President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera. She was also the author of a number of children's books in English and Irish. She was born Jane O'Flanagan in Balbriggan. Her father, Laurence, was a carpenter and was a native of Kildare who moved to Balbriggan and married a local girl, Margaret Byrne. The couple emigrated to New York City where their daughter, Mary, was born in 1871. The family had returned to Balbriggan in 1873, and Sinéad