Dáil Éireann


Dáil Éireann

(dôl ā`rôn, dīl âr`ən) [Irish,=diet of Ireland], the popular representative body of the Oireachtas, or National Parliament, of the Republic of Ireland. The second, smaller chamber, the Saenad Éireann, or Senate, has very limited powers, and the executive, as represented by the prime minister, is responsible to the Dáil, whose members are elected by universal adult suffrage. The members of the first Dáil were elected in Dec., 1918, ostensibly to the British Parliament, but they established themselves as a separate revolutionary body. It first convened at Mansion House, Dublin, in Jan., 1919, and proclaimed the Irish republic. The Dáil existed precariously until the creation of the Irish Free State in 1921, and established itself firmly in the period of civil war that followed. See also IrelandIreland,
Irish Eire [to it are related the poetic Erin and perhaps the Latin Hibernia], island, 32,598 sq mi (84,429 sq km), second largest of the British Isles.
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; Sinn FéinSinn Féin
[Irish,=we, ourselves], Irish nationalist movement. It had its roots in the Irish cultural revival at the end of the 19th cent. and the growing nationalist disenchantment with the constitutional Home Rule movement.
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Bibliography

See study by J. L. McCracken (1958); B. Chubb, The Government and Politics of Ireland (2d ed. 1982).