10th Dáil
The 10th Dáil was elected at the 1938 general election on 17 June 1938 and first met on 30 June 1938. The members of Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas of Ireland, are known as TDs. It sat with the 3rd Seanad as the two Houses of the Oireachtas.
The 10th Dáil is the longest serving Dáil, lasting. The Dáil adjourned on 26 May 1943 and on 31 May President Douglas Hyde called a general election for 17 June at the request of the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera. Exceptionally, the outgoing Dáil was not dissolved until 26 June, after the election. Although the Constitution requires the President to dissolve the Dáil before a general election, this procedure was overridden by the General Elections Act 1943. The act, which would have been unconstitutional if not for the state of emergency in effect during World War II, was intended to increase national security by minimising the interval during which no Dáil was in existence.