Irish Leaders

the leader of the opposition (irish: ceannaire an fhreasúra) in the republic of ireland is the politician who, de facto, leads the parliamentary opposition in the lower house of the irish parliament, dáil éireann. the current incumbent is micheál martin td of the fianna fáil party. by convention, the leader of the opposition is the leader of the largest party not in government. historically the two largest parties have nearly always been fianna fáil and fine gael, and so the position of leader of the opposition has alternated between them. immediately following the granting of independence in 1922, however, the leader of the labour party acted as leader of the opposition as sinn féin, and later fianna fáil, refused to recognise dáil éireann. after the 2011 general election fine gael became the largest party in dáil éireann and the labour party for the first time became the second largest. however since labour and fine gael entered a coalition government, the third largest party which i