Ailtirí na hAiséirghe (Irish pronunciation: [ˈal̠ʲtʲəɾʲiː n̪ˠə ˈhaʃeːɾʲiː], meaning "Architects of the Resurrection") was a minor fascist political party in Ireland, founded by Gearóid Ó Cuinneagáin in March 1942.

[6] The party sought to form a totalitarian Irish Christian corporatist state[7] and its sympathies were with the Axis powers in World War II.

[9] The branch grew rapidly, holding public events as well as organising Irish language classes, and Ó Cuinneagáin was elected to Conradh na Gaelige's executive.

At the time many ideas of the far right, especially corporatism, were fashionable in Ireland, even with ministers of the democratically elected Irish government, and seemed to chime well with Catholic social teaching.

[citation needed] By March 1942, though, Ó Cuinneagáin wished for a wider and more explicitly political organisation, motivated by his failure to be elected president of Conradh na Gaelige and conflicts with other members of its executive.

[20] Aiséirghe began to arrange speeches where crowds of people might be found, such as pubs, cinemas, sporting events and churches, as well as to organise parades and Irish dancing.

[21] Aiséirghe speakers would deliver a speech in Irish before switching to English, something which, according to Aindrias Ó Scolaidhe aroused the curiosity of crowds.

[29] On the morning of 14 May 1949, in an attempt to gain back the ground that was lost by the split and the rise of Clann na Poblachta, posters saying "Arm Now to Take the North."

The province of Ulster would consist of all nine counties, ensuring a Catholic voting majority, and its provincial capital would be Dungannon, chosen due to its being the former seat of the O'Neill dynasty.

[33] Aiséirghe promised full employment, an end to emigration (by making it a criminal offence to leave the country), discrimination against Jews and freemasons, and the reconquest of Northern Ireland by a massive conscript army.

[36] The party intended for the state to stay out of World War II until the participants were worn out, after which Ó Cuinneagáin believed that Ireland, connecting Europe and America and having escaped the secular philosophies that had influenced other European nations after the French Revolution, would emerge as a spiritual leader to the world and re-Christianise Europe as it had after the fall of the Roman Empire, by showing that Christianity could be fully reconciled with the demands of a modern industrial society.

[30][37] While a minority of party members agreed with Ó Cuinneagáin's geopolitical vision, most were more concerned with practical issues such as ending emigration and partition, regarding the idea of an Irish re-Christianisation of Europe as being merely grandiloquent rhetoric.

[39] From the day of the party's ascension to power, all official business was to be conducted in Irish and no civil servant under thirty retained who was not fluent with the language.

In addition, all foreign monuments and memorials were to be destroyed, all names of Irish citizens were to be Gaelicised, and the use of titles associated with the British monarchy or aristocracy would be forbidden.

MI5 believed it to be a front for Ailtirí na hAiséirghe, intended to serve as "a rallying point for Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Breton nationalists".

Ó Cuinneagáin believed the establishment of a Christian corporatist order would appeal to Protestants as well as Catholics and that majority-Protestant educational institutions like Trinity College Dublin could be used as "an effective instrument towards winning the loyalty of the descendants of that section of our countrymen".

[50] Aiséirghe candidate Tomás Ó Dochartaigh stated in a speech that while campaigning for the party in Tipperary during 1944, he found common ground between himself and Dan Breen.

[52] In 1943 Francis Stuart, speaking on the German propaganda broadcast Redaktion-Irland, urged Irish voters to support Aiséirghe and Córas na Poblachta.

[60][61] In addition the lifting of the Emergency Powers Act allowed Aiséirghe to place their program before the public without censorship and effort was put into preparing for the polls and addressing local concerns by constituents.