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The Republic was governed by the First Inter-Party Government, led by Taoiseach John A. Costello. It brought together Fine Gael, Labour, Clann na Poblachta, Clann na Talmhan and independents, an arrangement held together less by ideological uniformity than by the desire to keep Fianna Fáil out of office. Seán MacBride, leader of the small but influential Clann na Poblachta, was Minister for External Affairs; Browne, one of the party’s most energetic figures, held Health. Their presence gave the government a reforming edge, but also added to the strains of coalition government.
The general election of 4 February produced a result that altered the political map without delivering an outright winner. Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil remained by far the largest party, with 68 seats, but it no longer commanded a Dáil majority. The campaign had taken place in a country still emerging from the restrictions and shortages of the Emergency. The immediate post-war years had brought poor harvests, rationing, weak industrial employment and continued emigration. These pressures gave force to the widespread demand to remove a government that had been in office since 1932.
The year’s defining immediate experience was the severe winter of 1946–47. Meteorological records place the sustained cold spell in Ireland from late January until the middle of March; by the beginning of February ponds were frozen widely enough for skating, while temperatures at Dublin Airport remained below 5°C between 22 January and 7 March. Snowfall did not simply make roads picturesque or inconvenient. Persistent frost, easterly winds and repeated storms isolated places, delayed traffic and made already scarce supplies harder to move.
The most consequential political development within the State was the emergence of Clann na Poblachta. A conference at Barry’s Hotel in Dublin on 6 June produced a founding statement and provisional plans for the new party. Seán MacBride, barrister, former IRA chief of staff and son of the executed 1916 leader John MacBride, became its central figure. The party grew from republican networks, but it aimed to bring discontent into constitutional politics rather than revive an armed campaign.
