[2][3] It split from Fine Gael when O'Duffy was removed as leader of that party, which had been founded by the merger of O'Duffy's Blueshirts, formally known as the National Guard or Army Comrades Association, with Cumann na nGaedheal, and the National Centre Party.
[6] Unlike the Blueshirts, whose aim had been the establishment of a corporate state while remaining within the British Commonwealth in order to appease moderates within Fine Gael, the National Corporate Party was committed to the establishment of a republic outside of the British Empire with O'Duffy presenting his party as the true successor to the ideals of the Easter Rising.
[8] The party had a populist set of policies including the adoption of a charter of rights for workers, profit sharing for workers along cooperative lines, the introduction of a minimum wage, the introduction of a 40-hour work week, the lowering of the old age pension age to 65, the creation of a second chamber of parliament which would represent vocational interests.
[9] O'Duffy left Ireland in 1936 to lead a volunteer Irish Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.
O'Duffy was involved in the early stages of the launch of Coras na Poblachta, but played no further role.