Fianna Fáil's vote collapsed in the 2011 general election; it ended in third place, in what was widely seen as a political realignment in the wake of the post-2008 Irish economic downturn.

[26] The previous year, de Valera proposed a motion calling for elected members to be allowed to take their seats in Dáil Éireann if and when the controversial Oath of Allegiance was removed.

Fianna Fáil's platform of economic autarky had appeal among the farmers, working-class people and the poor, while alienating more affluent classes.

[28] It largely pre-empted voters of the aforementioned groups from the Labour Party (with its almost identical economic and social policy) following its entry into the Dáil in 1927.

[35][39] Secondly, the party, which was still in government under a new leader and Taoiseach Brian Cowen, was held responsible for the effects of the post-2008 Irish economic downturn.

[50] In 2018 the party was divided internally over how to handle that year's referendum on the Eighth Amendment, the provision in the Irish constitution which forbade abortion.

Under the agreement, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin served as Taoiseach for the first half of the parliamentary term.

[55] In July 2021 Fianna Fáil suffered what a number of sources suggested might have been the single worst result in its history when the party polled extremely poorly in the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election.

[56][57][58][59] The result prompted Jim O'Callaghan and Cathal Crowe to question whether Martin should lead the party into its next general election.

[114] The party has also been ideologically described as centrist,[119] Christian democratic,[124] liberal-conservative,[125][126] populist,[127][128] conservative-liberal,[129][130] socially conservative,[131][112] liberal,[135] national-liberal[136] and national-conservative.

[154] In 2014, Fianna Fáil expelled MEP Brian Crowley for joining the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists Group, with the party stating that "the ideas and principles of the ECR group and its component parties are totally incompatible with the core principles of Fianna Fáil".

[130] Fianna Fáil supported the unsuccessful 2024 Irish constitutional referendums, which would have deleted a reference to women's domestic duties and broadened the definition of the family.

[82] In 2020, Time magazine described Fianna Fáil as "slightly more socially conservative and further to the left on the economy" than Fine Gael.

In 1926, Seán Lemass described the party as "a progressive republican party based on the actual conditions of the moment"[168][169] while upon winning the 1932 Irish general election, newly elected Fianna Fáil TD Seán Moylan proclaimed that Fianna Fáil's win meant a victory of "the owners of the donkey and cart over the pony and trap class".

[169] During the leadership of Seán Lemass in the 1960s, Fianna Fáil began to utilise some corporatist policies (embracing the concept of 'social partnership'), taking some influence from Catholic social teaching.

[170][171][172][173] It was also during Lemass' time that the party shifted heavily away from autarkic thinking and towards a firm belief in free trade and foreign direct investment in Ireland.

However, during the 1969 Irish general election, the party ran red scare tactics against Labour after it began using the slogan "the seventies will be socialist!".

[4][169] In the same time period, the emergence of the Troubles and the Arms Crisis of 1971 tested the party's nationalism, but despite these events, Fianna Fáil maintained their moderate culturally nationalist stance.

[178] The party embarked on its first ever recruitment drive north of the border in September 2007 in northern universities, and established two 'Political Societies', the William Drennan Cumann in Queens University, Belfast, and the Watty Graham Cumann in UU Magee, Derry, which subsequently became official units of Fianna Fáil's youth wing, attaining full membership and voting rights, and attained official voting delegates at the 2012 Ard Fheis.

On 23 February 2008, it was announced that a former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) councillor, Colonel Harvey Bicker, had joined Fianna Fáil.

[179] Bertie Ahern announced on 7 December 2007 that Fianna Fáil had been registered in Northern Ireland by the UK Electoral Commission.

[180] The party's Ard Fheis in 2009 unanimously passed a motion to organise in Northern Ireland by establishing forums, rather than cumainn, in each of its six counties.

In June 2010, Fianna Fáil opened its first official office in Northern Ireland, in Crossmaglen, County Armagh.

The then Taoiseach Brian Cowen officially opened the office, accompanied by Ministers Éamon Ó Cuív and Dermot Ahern and Deputies Rory O'Hanlon and Margaret Conlon.

[183] At the party's 2014 Ard Fheis, a motion was passed without debate to stand candidates for election north of the border for the first time in 2019.

This was initially met with a negative reaction from Seamus Mallon, former Deputy Leader of the SDLP, who stated he would be opposed to any such merger.

[186] Both Fianna Fáil and the SDLP currently have shared policies on key areas including addressing the current political situation in Northern Ireland, improving public services in both jurisdictions of Ireland, such as healthcare, housing, education, and governmental reform, and bringing about the further unity and cooperation of the people on the island and arrangements for a future poll on Irish reunification.

[194] In January 2010, a report by academic experts writing for the votewatch.eu site found that FF "do not seem to toe the political line" of the ALDE Group "when it comes to budget and civil liberties" issues.

This was due to a combination of the party's vote further dropping in Dublin and a two candidate strategy in the Midlands North West constituency, which backfired, resulting in sitting MEP Pat "the Cope" Gallagher losing his seat.

[200] In the European Committee of the Regions, Fianna Fáil sits in the Renew Europe CoR group, with two full and two alternate members for the 2020–2025 mandate.