Political parties with misleading names

[ObserverIE]

Oh wow, that's what Fianna Fail means? "Soldiers of Destiny"... rofl. De Valera was quite the megalomaniac!

Anyway, someone's gotta mention the Macedonian parties.

Fianna is the band of warriors of Finn MacCumhaill
The Fenians were named after them, so De Valera didn't invent the connection to modern nationalists.

Warriors of Destiny is a better translation IMO.

It is not an unfitting name for a Nationalist party, it is just that FF degenerated so much.

Fál is one of a number of poetic terms for Ireland, so the best translation is arguably "Warriors of Ireland". The words also form part of the first line of the Irish language version of the national anthem (although when I was taught the words in primary school during a period of FG/Labour coalition government, the line Sinne Fianna Fáil had been changed in the text-book to Sinne Laochra Fáil - the civil war hadn't gone away, you know).

And speaking of Fine Gael, "Tribe of Gaels" suggests a group of dreadlocked, woad-spattered prehistoric hipsters banging bongo drums outside a teepee, rather than the reality of a pinstriped and blue-rinsed coalition of larger farmers and the bourgeoisie.

[ObserverIE]

The words also form part of the first line of the Irish language version of the national anthem (although when I was taught the words in primary school during a period of FG/Labour coalition government, the line Sinne Fianna Fáil had been changed in the text-book to Sinne Laochra Fáil - the civil war hadn't gone away, you know).

lol

And speaking of Fine Gael, "Tribe of Gaels" suggests a group of dreadlocked, woad-spattered prehistoric hipsters banging bongo drums outside a teepee, rather than the reality of a pinstriped and blue-rinsed coalition of larger farmers and the bourgeoisie.

Yeah, I thought about them too, but decided against it. I guess it depends what you associate with the term ironic, I was more connecting ironic with names meaning the opposite of what the party stands for rather than names giving a totally different mental image than what the real party projects. But of course those are ironic as well.

Its rarely-used subtitle is "The United Ireland Party", doubly ironic given its role as last refuge for Southern Unionists and Castle Catholics.

Also, delving into the recent past, "Progressive Democrats".