The
Irish Free State (1922–1937) was the state established as a
DominionA dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of semi-autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, from the late 19th century. They included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the...
on 6 December 1922 under the
Anglo-Irish TreatyThe 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...
, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand.
On the day the Irish Free State was established, it comprised the entire
island of IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
but
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
almost immediately exercised its right under the Treaty to
opt outOpt out, is a term used in broadcasting when a nation or region splits from the main national output. In the United Kingdom, BBC ONE Scotland often opts out of the main BBC One schedule in favour of locally relevant programming....
of the new state. The Irish Free State effectively replaced the self-proclaimed but in many respects
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established"...
Irish RepublicThe Irish Republic was a unilaterally declared independent state of Ireland proclaimed in the Easter Rising of 1916 and formally established on 21 January 1919 by Dáil Éireann...
(itself established on 21 January 1919). Similarly, the new government of the Irish Free State replaced both the
Provisional Government of Southern IrelandThe provisional Government of Southern Ireland was the provisional government for the administration of Southern Ireland between 16 January 1922 and 6 December 1922. The government was effectively a transitional administration for the period between the ratifying of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the...
and the Government of the
Irish RepublicThe Irish Republic was a unilaterally declared independent state of Ireland proclaimed in the Easter Rising of 1916 and formally established on 21 January 1919 by Dáil Éireann...
although W. T. Cosgrave, the first
President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free StateThe President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State was the head of government or prime minister of the Irish Free State which existed from 1922 to 1937...
had, in any event, led both governments since August 1922.
Northern Ireland "opts out"
For about two days from 6 December 1922
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
stopped being part of the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and became part of the newly created Irish Free State. This remarkable constitutional episode arose because of the
Anglo-Irish TreatyThe 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...
and the legislation introduced to give that Treaty legal effect.
The Treaty was given legal effect in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
through the
Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922The Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed in 1922 to adopt the Constitution of the Irish Free State....
. That Act established, on 6 December 1922, the new
DominionA dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of semi-autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, from the late 19th century. They included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the...
for the whole island of Ireland. Legally therefore, on 6 December 1922, Northern Ireland became an autonomous region of the newly created Irish Free State. However, the Treaty and the laws which implemented it also allowed
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
to
opt out of the Irish Free State. Under Article 12 of the Treaty, Northern Ireland could exercise its
opt out by presenting an address to the
KingGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 through World War I until his death in 1936...
requesting not to be part of the Irish Free State. Once the Treaty was ratified, the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland had one month (dubbed the
Ulster month) to exercise this
opt out during which month the Irish Free State Government could not legislate for Northern Ireland, holding the Free State’s effective jurisdiction in abeyance for a month.
Realistically, it was always certain that Northern Ireland would
opt out of the Free State. The
Prime Minister of Northern IrelandThe Prime Minister of Northern Ireland was the de facto head of the Government of Northern Ireland. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920. However the Lord Lieutenant, as with Governors-General in other Westminster Systems such as in Canada, chose to appoint someone...
, Sir James Craig, speaking in the
ParliamentThe Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which existed from 22 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...
in October 1922 said that
“when the 6th of December is passed the month begins in which we will have to make the choice either to vote out or remain within the Free State.”. He said it was important that that choice was made as soon as possible after 6 December 1922
“in order that it may not go forth to the world that we had the slightest hesitation”. On 7 December 1922 (the day after the establishment of the Irish Free State) the
ParliamentThe Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which existed from 22 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...
demonstrated its lack of hesitation by resolving to make the following address to the King so as to
opt out of the Irish Free State:
Discussion in the Parliament of the address was short. Prime Minister Craig left for London with the memorial embodying the address on the night boat that evening, 7 December 1922. The King received it the following day,
The Times reporting:
With this, Northern Ireland had left the Irish Free State and rejoined the United Kingdom. If the Houses of Parliament of Northern Ireland had not made such a declaration, under Article 14 of the Treaty
Northern Ireland, its Parliament and government would have continued in being but the
OireachtasThe Oireachtas is the "national parliament" or legislature of Ireland, sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann. The Oireachtas consists of:*The President of Ireland*The two Houses of the Oireachtas :**Dáil Éireann...
would have had jurisdiction to legislate for Northern Ireland in matters not delegated to Northern Ireland under the Government of Ireland Act. This, of course, never came to pass.
On 13 December 1922 Prime Minister Craig addressed the
ParliamentThe Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which existed from 22 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...
informing them that the King had responded to the Parliament’s address as follows:
Historical background
The
Easter RisingThe Easter Rising , was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic...
of 1916, and in particular the decision of the British military authorities to execute many of its leaders after courts martial, generated sympathy for the republican cause in Ireland. But perhaps more importantly it was the republicans and some independent Nationalists who led opposition to the idea of compulsory military service for Irish men in the conscription crisis of early 1918. The
Irish Parliamentary PartyThe Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
, who supported the Allied cause in the
Great WarWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
in response to the passing of the final Third
Home Rule Act 1914The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as the Third Home Rule Bill, and formally known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914 The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as the (Irish) Third Home Rule Bill, and formally known as the Government of Ireland Act 1914 The Home Rule Act of 1914, also known as...
, was discredited by the crisis. In the December 1918 general election, a large majority of Irish seats in the Westminster parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland were won by Sinn Féin, with 73 of 105 constituencies returning Sinn Féin members. Sinn Féin was a previously non-violent separatist party founded by
Arthur GriffithArthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:Arthur Griffith was born at 61 Upper...
in 1905. Under
Éamon de ValeraÉamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland...
's leadership from 1917, it had campaigned aggressively for an Irish republic.
On 21 January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs (or
TDsA Teachta Dála is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower chamber of the Oireachtas of Ireland. The official translation of Teachta Dála is Deputy to the Dáil, a more literal translation isAssembly Delegate...
as they became known, from the Irish
Teachta Dála) refusing to sit in the
British House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
at
WestminsterThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
, assembled in Dublin and formed a single chamber Irish parliament called Dáil Éireann (Assembly of Ireland). It affirmed the creation of an Irish Republic and passed a Declaration of Independence, calling itself
Saorstát Éireann in Irish. Although it was accepted by the overwhelming majority of Irish people, only the Soviet
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
recognised the Irish Republic internationally. (Recent calculations of Sinn Féin support in 1918, based on
actual electoral battles at the national and local level, put party support at 45–48%, largely because many of their seats were won without being contested.)
The War of Independence was fought between the army of the Irish Republic, the
Irish Republican ArmyThe Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
(known now as the "Old IRA" to distinguish it from later claimants to the title), and the
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
of the United Kingdom of which Ireland was still nominally part. On 9 July 1921, a truce was declared. On October 11 negotiations were opened under British Prime Minister
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the...
and Arthur Griffith, who headed the Irish Republic's delegation. The Irish Treaty delegation set up Headquarters in
Hans PlaceHans Place, London SW1, England, is a prime residential garden square situated immediately south of Harrods in Knightsbridge. It is named after Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS , who was a physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the...
,
KnightsbridgeKnightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of Central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
and on 5 December 1921 at 11:15 am it was decided by the delegation during private discussions at 22
Hans PlaceHans Place, London SW1, England, is a prime residential garden square situated immediately south of Harrods in Knightsbridge. It is named after Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS , who was a physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the...
to recommend the Treaty to the Dáil Éireann; negotiations continued until 2:30 am on 6 December 1921 after which the
TreatyThe 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...
was signed by the parties.
That these negotiations would produce a form of Irish government short of the independence wished for by republicans was not in doubt. The United Kingdom could not offer a republican form of government without losing prestige and risking demands for something similar throughout the Empire. Furthermore, as one of the negotiators,
Michael CollinsMichael Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and MP for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations...
, later admitted (and he was in a position to know, given his role in the independence war), the IRA at the time of the truce was weeks, if not days, from collapse, with a chronic shortage of ammunition. "Frankly, we thought they were mad", Collins said of the sudden British offer of a truce, although it was likely they would have continued in one form or another, given the level of public support. The
President of the RepublicPresident of the Republic was the title given to the head of the Irish ministry or Aireacht in August 1921 by an amendment to the Dáil Constitution, which replaced the previous title, Príomh Aire or President of Dáil Éireann...
, Éamon de Valera, realised that a republic was not on offer. He decided not to be a part of the treaty delegation and so be tainted with what some more militant republicans were bound to call a "sellout". Yet his own proposals published in January 1922 fell far short of an autonomous all-Ireland republic.
As expected, the Anglo-Irish Treaty explicitly ruled out a republic. What it offered was
dominionA dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of semi-autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, from the late 19th century. They included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the...
status, as a state of the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
(now called the
Commonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
), equal to Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand and South-Africa. Though less than expected by the Sinn Féin leadership of 1919–1922, it was substantially more than the initial form of home rule within the United Kingdom sought by
Charles Stewart ParnellCharles Stewart Parnell was an Irish Protestant landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, Home Rule MP in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
from 1880, and a serious advancement on the final Third Home Rule Act 1914 that the Irish nationalist leader
John RedmondJohn Edward Redmond M.P. was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP. in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918...
had achieved through democratic parliamentary proceedings. It was ratified by the
Second DáilThe Second Dáil was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 16 August 1921 until 8 June 1922. From 1919–1922 Dáil Éireann was the revolutionary parliament of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic. The Second Dáil consisted of members elected in 1921...
, splitting Sinn Féin in the process.
Governmental and constitutional structures
The structures of the new Irish Free State were laid out in the Treaty and in the
Constitution of the Irish Free StateThe Constitution of the Irish Free State was the founding legal document of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. It was enacted with the adoption of the Constitution of the Irish Free State Act 1922, of which it formed a part...
Act. It provided for a constitutional monarchy, with a three-tier parliament, called the
OireachtasFrom 1922 to 1937 the Oireachtas was the legislature, or parliament, of the Irish Free State. Until the final days of the Irish Free State it consisted of the King and two houses: Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann ....
, made up of the King and two houses, Dáil Éireann and
Seanad ÉireannSeanad Éireann was the upper house of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State from 1922–1936. It has also been known simply as the Senate, or as the First Seanad. The Senate was established under the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State but a number of constitutional amendments were...
(the Irish Senate). Executive authority was vested in the King, and exercised by a cabinet called the
Executive CouncilThe Executive Council was the cabinet and de facto executive branch of government of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Formally, the role of the Executive Council was to "aid and advise" the Governor-General who would exercise the executive authority on behalf of the King. In practice,...
, presided over by a prime minister called the
President of the Executive CouncilThe President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State was the head of government or prime minister of the Irish Free State which existed from 1922 to 1937...
.
The Representative of the Crown
The King in Ireland was represented by a
Governor-General of the Irish Free StateThe Governor-General was the representative of the King in the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Until 1927 he was also the agent of the British government in the Irish state. By convention the office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial...
. The office replaced the previous
Lord LieutenantThe Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , also known as the Judiciar in the early mediaeval period and as the Lord Deputy as late as the 17th century, was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great...
, who had headed English and British administrations in Ireland since the Middle Ages. Governors-General were appointed by the King initially on the advice of the British Government, but with the consent of the Irish Government. From 1927 the Irish Government alone had the power to advise the King whom to appoint.
Oath of Allegiance
As with all dominions, provision was made for an Oath of Allegiance. Within dominions, such oaths were taken by parliamentarians personally towards the monarch. The
Irish Oath of AllegianceThe Irish Oath of Allegiance was a controversial provision in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which Irish TDs and Senators were required to take, in order to take their seats in Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann .-Basis:The Oath was included in Article 17 of the Irish Free State's 1922...
was fundamentally different. It had two elements; the first, an
oath to the Free State, as by law established, the second part a promise of
fidelity, to His Majesty, King George V, his heirs and successors. That second fidelity element, however, was qualified in two ways. It was to the King
in Ireland, not specifically to the British King. Secondly, it was to the King explicitly in his role as part of the Treaty settlement, not in terms of pre-1922 British rule. The Oath itself came from a combination of three sources, and was largely the work of Michael Collins in the Treaty negotiations. It came in part from a draft oath suggested prior to the negotiations by President de Valera. Other sections were taken by Collins directly from the Oath of the
Irish Republican BrotherhoodThe Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the mid-19th and early 20th centuries...
, of which he was the secret head. In its structure, it was also partially based on the form and structure used in the Dominion of Canada.
Although controversially moderate by other dominion standards, and notably indirect in its reference to the monarchy (and hence widely criticised by unionists and other dominions), it was criticised by nationalists and republicans for making any reference to the Crown, the claim being that it
was a direct oath to the Crown, a fact demonstrably incorrect by an examination of its wording. But in 1922 Ireland and beyond, it was the
perception, not the
reality, that influenced public debate on the issue. Had its original author,
Michael CollinsMichael Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and MP for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations...
, survived, he might have been able to clarify its
actual meaning, but with his assassination in 1922, no major negotiator to the Oath's creation on the Irish side was still alive, available or pro-Treaty. (The leader of the Irish delegation,
Arthur GriffithArthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:Arthur Griffith was born at 61 Upper...
, had also died in August 1922). The Oath became a key issue in the resulting
Irish Civil WarThe Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
that divided the pro- and anti-treaty sides in 1922–23.
The Irish Civil War
The compromises contained in the agreement caused the
civil warThe Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
in the 26 counties in June 1922–April 1923, in which the pro-Treaty
Provisional GovernmentThe provisional Government of Southern Ireland was the provisional government for the administration of Southern Ireland between 16 January 1922 and 6 December 1922. The government was effectively a transitional administration for the period between the ratifying of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the...
defeated the anti-Treaty Republican forces. The latter were led, nominally, by Éamon de Valera, who had resigned as President of the Republic on the treaty's ratification. His resignation outraged some of his own supporters, notably
Seán T. O'KellySeán Thomas O'Kelly was the second President of Ireland . He was a member of Dáil Éireann from 1918 until his election as President. During this time he served as Minister for Local Government and Minister for Finance...
. On resigning, he then sought re-election but was defeated two days later on a vote of 60-58. The pro-Treaty
Arthur GriffithArthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:Arthur Griffith was born at 61 Upper...
followed as President of the Irish Republic. Michael Collins was chosen at a meeting of the members elected to sit in the
House of Commons of Southern IrelandThe House of Commons of Southern Ireland was established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was the lower house of parliament of Southern Ireland...
(a body set up under the Government of Ireland Act 1920) to become
Chairman of the Provisional Government of Southern IrelandThe Chairman of the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland was a transitional post established in January 1922, lasting until the creation of the Irish Free State in December 1922 in the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland....
in accordance with the Treaty. The
general electionThe Irish general election of 1922 took place in Southern Ireland on 16 June 1922, under the provisions of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty to elect a constituent assembly paving the way for the formal establishment of the Irish Free State...
in June gave overwhelming support for the pro-Treaty parties.
W.T. CosgraveWilliam Thomas Cosgrave , known generally as W.T. Cosgrave, was an Irish politician who succeeded Michael Collins as Chairman of the Irish Provisional Government from August to December 1922. He served as the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1932.-Early...
's Crown-appointed Provisional Government of Southern Ireland effectively subsumed Griffith's republican administration with the death of both Collins and Griffith in August 1922.
The "freedom to achieve freedom"
Governance
The following were the principal parties of government of the Irish Free State between 1922 and 1937:
- Cumann na nGaedhael
Cumann na nGaedhael , sometimes spelt Cumann na nGaedheal, was an Irish language name given to two Irish political parties, the second of which became the modern Fine Gael party...
under W. T. Cosgrave (1922–32)
- Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , shortened to Fianna Fáil is a political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the largest party in both houses of the Oireachtas, Ireland's bicameral parliament, and the leading party in a coalition government with the Green Party, which also has the support...
under Éamon de Valera (1932–37)
Constitutional evolution
Michael Collins described the Treaty as 'the freedom to achieve freedom'. In practice, the Treaty offered most of the symbols and powers of independence. These included a functioning, if disputed, parliamentary democracy with its own executive, judiciary and written constitution which could be changed by the
OireachtasFrom 1922 to 1937 the Oireachtas was the legislature, or parliament, of the Irish Free State. Until the final days of the Irish Free State it consisted of the King and two houses: Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann ....
. However, a number of limits existed:
- The British king remained king in Ireland;
- The British Government, primarily until the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 continued to have a significant role in Irish governance. Officially the representative of the King, the Governor-General also received instructions from the British Government on his use of the Royal Assent
The granting of Royal Assent is the formal method by which a constitutional monarch completes the legislative process of lawmaking by formally assenting to an Act of Parliament. While the power to withhold Royal Assent was once exercised often, it is exceedingly rare in the modern, democratic...
, namely a Bill passed by the Dáil and Seanad could be Granted Assent (signed into law), Withheld (not signed, pending later approval) or Denied (i.e., vetoed). Letters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
to the first Governor-General Tim HealyTimothy Michael Healy, KC , also known as Tim Healy, was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and one of the most controversial Irish MPs in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a career that spanned the period from Charles Stewart...
had named Bills that if passed were to be blocked, namely an attempt to abolish the Oath, etc. In reality no such Bills were ever introduced, so the issue never arose.
- The Irish Free State, like all Dominions, had limited autonomy compared to the United Kingdom. Entitlement of citizenship of the Irish Free State was defined in the Irish Free State Constitution, but the status of that citizenship was continuously contested by the British authorities. One of the first projects of the Irish Free State was the design and production of the Great Seal of Sáorstát Éireann
The Great Seal of the Irish Free State is the seal which was used to seal official documents of the Irish Free State by the Governor-General...
which was carried out on behalf of the Government by Hugh KennedyHugh Kennedy was the only Attorney-General of Southern Ireland and the first Attorney-General of the Irish Free State, and later the first Chief Justice of the Irish Free State. As a member of the Irish Free State Constitution Commission, he was also one of the constitutional architects of the...
.
- The meaning of 'Dominion status', no less in Ireland than in Canada, radically changed during the 1920s, starting with the Chanak crisis
The Chanak Crisis in September 1922 was the threatened attack by Turkish troops on British and French troops stationed near Çanakkale to guard the Dardanelles neutral zone. The Turkish troops had recently defeated Greek forces and recaptured İzmir...
in 1922 and quickly followed by the directly negotiated Halibut TreatyThe Halibut Treaty was a 1923 Canadian-American agreement concerning fishing rights in the northern Pacific Ocean.The treaty established the International Pacific Halibut Commission as a mechanism for the joint management of the Pacific halibut which, at that time, was in severe decline...
in 1923. A reform of the King's title following a Commonwealth Conference decision and given effect by the UK Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, granted Royal Assent on 12 April 1927, that formed a significant landmark in the constitutional history of the UK and British Empire as a whole...
, changed the King's royal title so that it took account of the fact that there was no longer a United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
. The King adopted the following style by which he would be known in all of his Empire: By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India. That title was the Kings' title in Ireland just as elsewhere in his Empire.
- The Free State tried to push the boundaries of its status as a Dominion. It 'accepted' credentials from international ambassadors to Ireland, something no other dominion up to then had done. It registered the treaty with the League of Nations
The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
as an international document, over the objections of the United Kingdom, which saw it as a mere internal document between a dominion and the UK.
Most dramatically of all, the
Statute of WestminsterThe Statute of Westminster 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the British Empire and the United Kingdom, with a few residual exceptions...
(1931), again embodying a decision of a Commonwealth Conference, enabled each dominion to enact any legislation to change any legislation, without any role for the British parliament that may have enacted the original legislation in the past.
Ireland symbolically marked these changes in two mould-breaking moves:
- It sought, and got the King's acceptance, to have an Irish minister, with the complete exclusion of British ministers, formally advising the king by in the exercise of his powers and functions over the Irish Free State. Two examples of this are the signing of a treaty between the Irish Free State and the Portuguese Republic
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
in 1931, and the separate (from the UK) act recognising the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936.
- The unprecedented abandonment of the use of the British Great Seal of the Realm and its replacement by the Great Seal of the Irish Free State
The Great Seal of the Irish Free State is the seal which was used to seal official documents of the Irish Free State by the Governor-General...
, which the King awarded to the Irish Free State in 1931. (The Irish Seal consisted of a picture of 'King George V' enthroned on one side, with the Irish state harp and the words Saorstát Éireann ('Irish Free State') on the reverse. It is now on display in the Irish National Museum, Collins BarracksCollins Barracks is a former military barracks in the Arbour Hill area of Dublin, Ireland. The buildings are now the National Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts and History...
in Dublin.)
When Éamon de Valera became President of the Executive Council (prime minister) in 1932 he described Cosgrave's ministers' achievements simply. Having read the files, he told his son, Vivion, "they were magnificent, son". All that remained was British control of a number of ports in the Irish Free State, called the
Treaty PortsFollowing the establishment of the Irish Free State, three deep water Treaty Ports at Berehaven, Queenstown and Lough Swilly were retained by the United Kingdom as sovereign bases in accordance with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6 1921...
. However the Ports were returned to Ireland in 1938 (after the Irish Free State had ceased to exist).
That freedom allowed de Valera, on becoming President of the Executive Council (February 1932), to go even further. With no British restrictions on his policies, he abolished the
Oath of AllegianceThe Irish Oath of Allegiance was a controversial provision in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which Irish TDs and Senators were required to take, in order to take their seats in Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann .-Basis:The Oath was included in Article 17 of the Irish Free State's 1922...
(which Cosgrave intended to do had he won the
1932 general electionThe Irish general election of 1932 was held on 16 February 1932, just over two weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 29 January. The newly elected 153 members of the 7th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 9 March 1932 when the new President of the Executive Council and Executive Council of...
), the Senate, university representation in the Dáil, appeals to the
Privy CouncilA privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation on how to exercise their executive authority, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government...
. His one major error occurred in 1936 when he attempted to use the abdication of
King Edward VIIIEdward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the British dominions, and Emperor of India from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December 1936, after which he was immediately succeeded by his younger brother, George VI...
to abolish the crown and governor-general in the Free State with the "Constitution (Amendment No. 27 Act)". He was told by senior law officers and others that, as the crown and governor-generalship existed separately from the constitution in a vast number of acts, charters, orders-in-council, and letters patent, they both still existed. He had to rush through a second bill, the "Executive Powers (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937" to repeal all the elements he had forgotten. He retrospectively dated the second act's effect back to December 1936.
Aftermath of the Irish Free State
In 1937, the people, by referendum, replaced the 1922 constitution. The state was named Ireland (Éire in the Irish language), and a new office of
President of IrelandThe President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...
was instituted in place of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The new constitution claimed jurisdiction over all of Ireland while recognising the reality of the British presence in the northeast (see
Articles 2 and 3Article 2 and Article 3 of the Constitution of Ireland were adopted with the constitution as a whole on 29 December 1937, but completely revised by means of the Nineteenth Amendment which took effect on 2 December 1999...
). It recognised the "special position" of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, while also recognising the existence and rights of other faiths, specifically the minority Anglican
Church of IrelandThe Church of Ireland is a Christian church, an autonomous province of the Episcopal/Anglican Communion, operating across the island of Ireland, and the largest non-Roman Catholic religious body on the island...
and the Jewish Congregation in Ireland. In 1937 the specific reference to religion was viewed by leaders of non-Catholic religions as heading off a
state religionA state religion is a religious body or creed officially endorsed by the state. Practically, a state without a state religion is called a secular state. The term state church is associated with Christianity, and is sometimes used to denote a specific national branch of Christianity...
and it was condemned by conservative Catholic groups as "liberal". This article was
repealedThe Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland removed from the constitution a controversial reference to the "special position" of the Roman Catholic Church as well as recognition of certain other named religious denominations...
in 1973.
Articles 2 and 3 were
rewordedThe Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland introduced changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the constitution required by the 1998 Belfast Agreement . Prior to 1999, Articles 2 and 3 made the controversial claim that the whole island of Ireland formed one single "national territory"...
in 1998 to remove jurisdictional claim over the entire island and to recognise that "a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island."
It was left to the initiative of de Valera's successors in government to achieve the country's formal transformation into a
republicA republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "a public affair".Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their...
. A small but significant minority of Irish people, usually attached to parties like Sinn Féin and the smaller
Republican Sinn FéinRepublican Sinn Féin is a political party operating in Ireland. It emerged in 1986 as a result of a split in Sinn Féin...
, denied the right of the twenty-six county state to use the name
Republic and continued to refer to the state as the Free State. With Sinn Féin's entry in the Republic's
Dáilis the principal chamber of the Oireachtas . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote . Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is...
and the
Northern Ireland ExecutiveThe Northern Ireland Executive is the executive arm of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland. It is answerable to the Assembly and was established according to the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998...
at the close of the 20th century, the number of those who refuse to accept the legitimacy, which was already very small, declined further.
See also
- Irish states since 1171
Irish states have existed under a number of different names for nearly a thousand years. A unified Irish proto-state had been coalescing from the multitude of small tribal kingdoms that existed circa AD 500, similar to the pattern elsewhere in Europe...
- "Series A" Banknotes
The Series A Banknotes were introduced by the Irish Free State in 1928 and were the first banknotes created by and for the state; the series continued to be issued when the Free State became the Republic of Ireland...
– First issued by the Irish Free State in 1928
Further reading
- Tim Pat Coogan, Éamon de Valera (ISBN 0-09-175030-X)
- Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins (ISBN 0-09-174106-8)
- Lord Longford, Peace by Ordeal (Though long out of print, it is available in libraries)
- Dorothy McCardlee, The Irish Republic (ISBN 0-86327-712-8)