[38] Fine Gael holds a pro-European[39] stance and is generally considered to be more of a proponent of economic liberalism than its traditional rival, Fianna Fáil.

Following the disruption of Cumann na nGaedhael meetings by members of the Irish Republican Army, the ACA had begun providing security at their events.

[43] In early 1933, Eoin O'Duffy took over the ACA, renamed them the National Guard, and began instilling the organisation with elements of European fascism.

[44] However, in August 1933 the Fianna Fáil government banned the National Guard, fearing a planned parade in Dublin might be an attempt to emulate the March on Rome, which saw Benito Mussolini rise to power in Italy.

Following poor results at the 1934 local elections and concerns over his increasingly rabid rhetoric, O'Duffy resigned from the leadership after the party attempted to control what he said in public.

Under the stewardship of Cosgrave and Dillon, the party returned to the more traditional conservatism espoused by Cumann na nGaedhael, with the moribund League of Youth disbanded by 1936.

In what has later been hailed as a landmark moment in Fine Gael history, Costello proposed moving the party to the left in a social democratic direction with a document entitled "Towards a Just Society".

[50] The arrangement between Fine Gael and Labour proved pleasing to both parties and their election pacts remained throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, seeing the pair enter government a number of times together.

The 2011 Irish general election saw the governing Fianna Fáil collapse at the polls,[55] while Fine Gael and the Labour Party returned with their best results ever.

Once more Fine Gael and Labour paired up to form a government, their tenure marked by the difficulty of trying to guide Ireland towards economic recovery.

[78] As the descendant of the pro-Treaty factions in the Irish Civil War, Fine Gael cites Michael Collins as an inspiration and claims his legacy.

Under leader and Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, the party campaigned for a 'No' vote, arguing, on the advice of the Attorney General Peter Sutherland, that the wording, which had been drafted under the previous government, was ambiguous and open to many interpretations.

[94] Its stance conflicted with that of the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign (PLAC) and Catholic bishops, and Fianna Fáil, the largest party in the State at the time, but then in opposition.

The amendment resulted in the addition of Article 40.3.3° to the Constitution, giving the unborn child a qualified[95] equal right to life to that of the mother.

In 2002, Fine Gael campaigned against the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which proposed to remove suicide as a grounds for granting a termination of a pregnancy.

Five TDs and two Senators, including Minister of State Lucinda Creighton, lost the Fine Gael party whip for voting against the legislation.

[98][99] The Act was criticised by various anti-abortion groups[100] and Catholic bishops, but supported by a majority of the electorate in opinion polls, with many indicating they wished to see a more liberal law on abortion.

[102] Several Fine Gael TDs, notably Health Minister Simon Harris and Kate O'Connell, were prominent supporters of the pro-choice side before and during the referendum.

[105] Fine Gael has, since its inception, portrayed itself as a party of fiscal rectitude and minimal government interference in economics, advocating pro-enterprise policies.

Lucinda Creighton (who has since left the party) and Leo Varadkar in particular have been seen as strong advocates of a neoliberal approach to Ireland's economic woes and unemployment problems.

[109] Other solutions conform generally to conservative governments' policies throughout Europe, focusing on cutting numbers in the public sector, while maintaining investment in infrastructure.

In 2008 the SIPTU trade union stated its opposition to then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny's assertion, in response to Ireland's economic crisis, that the national wage agreement ought to have been suspended.

[110] Fine Gael's Simon Coveney launched what the party termed a radical re-organisation of the Irish semi-state company sector.

We regularly have over 350 people on trolleys in A&E, waiting lists that go on for months, outpatient waiting lists that go on for years and cancelled operations across the country..."[117] Fine Gael launched its FairCare campaign and website in April 2009, which stated that the health service would be reformed away from a costly ineffective endeavour, into a publicly regulated system where compulsory universal health insurance would replace the existing provisions.

The spokesperson for family law and children, Alan Shatter TD, robustly defended its proposals as the only means of reducing public expenditure, and providing a service in Ireland more akin to the Canadian, German, Dutch and Austrian health systems.

Fine Gael's current healthcare policy revolves around the implementation of Sláintecare, a cross-party plan for the reform of the Irish health system.

[122] The party's youth wing, Young Fine Gael, passed a motion in 2016 calling on the government to apply for membership of NATO.

[134] The Moriarty Tribunal has sat since 1997 and has investigated the granting of a mobile phone license to Esat Telecom by Michael Lowry when he was Fine Gael Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications in the Rainbow Coalition of the mid-1990s.

The following are the terms of office as party leader, and as Taoiseach (bolded) if applicable: 1922–1932 (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Executive Council of the Irish Free State) 1948–1951; 1954–1957(5th and 7th Government of Ireland) In the 2009 local elections held on 5 June 2009, Fine Gael won 556 seats, surpassing Fianna Fáil which won 407 seats, and making Fine Gael the largest party of local government nationally.

A deal was reached with the main opposition and traditional rival Fianna Fáil to facilitate a minority Fine Gael-led government.