By 1926, the consolidation of the Free State was no longer in question. Militarily, the Civil War had been well won by the Treatyite forces and the republicans resoundingly defeated. More pertinently, whereas the elections of 1923 had provided a fillip to republican morale, the rapid disintegration of Sinn Féin's electoral machinery in the years after 1924 underscored a corresponding collapse in the basis of that party's appeal to a general public that was slowly responding to the state-building efforts of the Free State government. With state institutions up and running, and daily life functioning with a large degree of normality, republican adherence to the mantras of abstentionism and armed opposition to the Free State appeared more illusory than ever, particularly in the wake of the formation of Fianna Fáil. The ability of Fianna Fáil to successfully fuse latent republican sentiment and popular discontent with an awesomely powerful political machine left both Cumann na nGaedheal and the IRA enormously unprepared for the runaway success of de Valera's new party.

Arguably, neither Cumann na nGaedheal nor the IRA ever recovered from the twin defeats visited on them by Fianna Fáil in the 1930s, and in failing to adapt to the changed political context of the Free State, the republican movement essentially condemned itself to political irrelevance. MacBride was a key figure in the playing-out of that process in the years before the first Fianna Fáil administration in 1932, and soon became a recognisable public figure and a frequent speaker at republican events and street meetings.