2011 Irish general election

The 2011 Irish general election took place on Friday 25 February to elect 166 Teachtaí Dála across 43 constituencies to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas. The Dáil was dissolved and the general election called by President Mary McAleese on 1 February, at the request of Taoiseach Brian Cowen. The 31st Dáil met on 9 March 2011 to nominate a Taoiseach and ratify the new ministers of the 29th Government of Ireland.

Cowen had previously announced on 20 January that the election would be held on 11 March, and that after the 2011 budget had been passed he would seek a dissolution of the 30th Dáil by the President. However, the Green Party, the junior party in coalition government with Cowen's Fianna Fáil, withdrew from government on 23 January, stating that it would support only a truncated finance bill from the opposition benches, in order to force an earlier election. On 24 January, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan Jnr reached an agreement with the opposition in Dáil Éireann to complete all stages of passing the finance bill in both houses of the Oireachtas by 29 January—following which the Dáil was to be dissolved immediately. Constitutionally, following a Dáil dissolution, an election must be held within 30 days.

Following the collapse of the coalition, the then minority governing party, Fianna Fáil, sought to minimise its losses following historically low poll ratings in the wake of the Irish financial crisis. Fine Gael sought to gain a dominant position in Irish politics after poor results in the 2000s, and to replace Fianna Fáil for the first time as the largest party in Dáil Éireann. The Labour Party hoped to make gains from both sides, and was widely expected to become the second-largest party and to enter into coalition government with Fine Gael; its highest ambition at the start of the campaign, buoyed by record poll ratings in preceding months, was to become the leading partner in government for the first time in the party's 99-year history. The Green Party, having been in coalition with Fianna Fáil during the Government of the 30th Dáil, faced stiff competition for its votes and was expected to lose at least four of its six seats. Sinn Féin was expected to make gains, encouraged by a by-election victory in November 2010 and by opinion polls which placed it ahead of Fianna Fáil. Some other left-wing groups, including People Before Profit, Workers and Unemployed Action and the Socialist Party, contested the general election under a joint banner, the United Left Alliance.

Fianna Fáil was swept from power in the worst defeat of a sitting government since the formation of the Irish state in 1922. The party lost more than half of its first-preference vote from 2007, and garnered only 20 seats. It was the third-largest party in the 31st Dáil; this was the first election since that of September 1927 out of which it did not emerge the largest party in the chamber. The Irish Times, Ireland's newspaper of record, described Fianna Fáil's meltdown as "defeat on a historic scale." Fine Gael won 76 seats, becoming the largest party in the Dáil for the first time in its 78-year history, while the Labour Party became the second-largest party, with 37 seats; Sinn Féin also increased its number of seats, while the Greens lost all of theirs. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny became Taoiseach, in a coalition with Labour.