What is the difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael? They’re both listed as pro-European conservative parties, which is obviously an over-simplification.
The Irish party system is confusing. Looking at the history, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael descend from the Anti-Treaty and Pro-Treaty factions of Sinn Fein which fought the Irish Civil War in the early 1920s. The basis of the appeal of both was vote the way you shot, so animosities ran very deep without being based much upon policy in the conventional European sense.
The predecessors of Fine Gael governed as a conservative Catholic party. They also attracted the support of former unionists (mostly in the Dublin area) and the larger farmers.
Fianna Fail was also a conservative Catholic party, but it was a more populist vehicle for Eamonn De Valera and had support originally from smaller farmers, particularly in the west of Ireland.
As the two parties have developed they both aspired to be conservative catch all parties, but Fine Gael was simultaneously more conservative old wealth and socially liberal than Fianna Fail. Fianna Fail represented more new wealth and clientalist politics. The culture of the two parties is quite different, as far as I can tell, not myself being Irish.
