Irish Independence

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

Ireland likely gained its independence in 1922. The actual time and date is a matter for research but we do know the following:

 

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the de facto Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of Independence. It established an autonomous dominion, known as the Irish Free State, within the British Empire and provided Northern Ireland, which had been created by the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, an option to opt out of the Irish Free State, which it exercised.

 

 

The treaty was signed in London on December 6, 1921 by representatives of the British government, (which included David Lloyd George who was head of the British delegates) and envoys of the Irish Republic who claimed plenipotentiary status (i.e., negotiators empowered to sign a treaty without reference back to their superiors, including Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith). In accordance with its terms the Treaty needed to be and was ratified by the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and the British Parliament. Dáil Éireann for the de facto Irish Republic also ratified the Treaty (narrowly). Though the treaty was duly ratified, the split led to the Irish Civil War, which was ultimately won by the pro-treaty side.

 

The Irish Free State created by the Treaty came into force on 6 December 1922 by royal proclamation after its constitution had been enacted by the Provisional parliament of Southern Ireland (also styled the Third Dail) and the British parliament.

 

However, there are two crucial dates inbetween the signing of the Anglo Irish Treaty and its coming into force with the creation of the Irish Free State which need to be considered.

 

 

 

The Second Dáil formally ratified the Treaty on 7 January 1922 by a vote of 64 to 57. De Valera resigned as President on 9 January and was replaced by Arthur Griffith, on a vote of 60 to 58. On 10 January De Valera published his second redraft, known generally as "Document No. 2".

 

Griffith, as President of the Dáil, worked with Michael Collins, who chaired the new Provisional Government of Ireland, theoretically answerable to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, as the Treaty laid down. In December 1922 a new Irish constitution was enacted by the Third Dáil, sitting as a Constituent Assembly, providing the legal basis for the Irish Free State.

 

The House of Commons of Southern Ireland, which was made up largely of the same membership as the Dáil, but which was in British constitutional theory the parliament legally empowered to ratify the Treaty, did so unanimously on 14 January 1922.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Irish_Treaty

 

In short, there were two separate ratifications of the Treaty, one on the 7th of January and the second on the 14th of January, which the UK insisted on for its consideration of legality.

 

The question we must now answer if the Treaty giving birth to Irish independence came into being with

 

a) its signing on December 6, 1921

b) the first ratification on January 7, 1922

c) the formal second ratification on January 14, 1922, or

d) the coming into force of the Treaty on December 6, 1922.

 

With regard to b) and c) we should note that many of the same members were present on the two occasions. Moreover, while the actual times of the signing or votes cast in b) or c) are not known, likely the midnight time would be taken for d).

 

Best wishes,

 

Thor