Laois Fianna Fáil to celebrate centenary with gala night in Portlaoise

Laois Fianna Fáil is set to hold a big gala celebration in Portlaoise to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the party.

As 2025 draws to a close, the Laois Comhairle Dáil Ceantar has notified members that it is entering its centenary year as the organisation was founded in 1926.

Laois members have been informed that it will mark the milestone with a celebration of "100 years of achievement in Laois", by hosting a gala dinner early in the New Year.

Honorary guests include Taoiseach Micheál Martin, iar Taoiseach Brian Cowen. The Dáil Ceantar says the contributions of the local ordinary, elected and formerly elected members to the success of the party nationally in 'shaping the nation' over the past century will be honoured on the night.

The event takes place on Saturday, February 7, in the Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise. Doors will open from 6.30 pm with all guests to be seated by 7 pm.

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When Fianna Fáil was made up of opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The party was established and led by Eamon de Valera. Members of Fianna Fáil at first refused to be seated in Dáil but finally entered in 1927 after it had become the lower house of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament. In 1932, Fianna Fáil gained 48% of the seats in the Dáil, and de Valera became Taoiseach. MORE BELOW PHOTO.

The then Tánaiste Micheál Martin pictured with former Laois Offaly TD and Taoiseach Brian Cowen in 2024.

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Thomas Tynan, the first Fianna Fáil TD to represent Laois, from Jamestown, Ballybrittas he was elected for the Leix–Offaly constituency at the June 1927 general election. He lost his seat at the September 1927 general election, having only served three months as a TD.

Some 100 years later, Fianna Fáil voters represented in the 24th Dáil by Sean Fleming, whose uncle Paddy was a contemporary of de Valera and a friend of Seán Lemass, who succeeded de Valera as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader in the 1960s.