Anglo‐Irish treaty

Anglo‐Irish treaty (1921), concluding the Anglo‐Irish War. Tortuous preliminary negotiations between de Valera and the prime minister, David Lloyd George, concluded with agreement on a conference in London ‘to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire might best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations’: a formula already incompatible with traditional republican goals. The Irish delegation, headed (following de Valera's contentious decision to remain at home) by Griffith and Collins, was instructed to press for external association, and to ensure that any breakdown came on the question of partition. On 2 November, however, Griffith agreed to accept continued Irish association with crown and Commonwealth in exchange for a promise of ‘essential unity’. When Craig firmly rejected proposals for an all‐Ireland parliament, Lloyd George offered what the Irish delegates allowed themselves to be persuaded was the alternative solution of a boundary commission. The negotiations reached a dramatic climax on 5 December when Lloyd George, offering the threat of a resumption of war balanced by the last minute concession of fiscal autonomy for the new Irish state, demanded immediate agreement on a settlement within the empire. On 6 December the delegates signed a treaty establishing the Irish Free State as a self‐governing dominion within the British Commonwealth.

Back in Ireland, Griffith and Collins defended the treaty as the best settlement that could be obtained under the circumstances. However, it was immediately rejected by de Valera and other Sinn Féin leaders. The main issues of contention were Ireland's continued subordination to the British crown, as represented in the oath of allegiance and the office of governor‐general. Northern Ireland, due mainly to the hopes vested in the Boundary Commission, played little part in the controversy; nor, more surprisingly, did the defence facilities that Britain was to continue to enjoy (see treaty ports). After bitterly divisive debates the Dáil voted on 7 January 1922 to ratify the treaty by a small majority of 64 votes to 57. The refusal of a large section of Sinn Féin and the IRA to accept the settlement laid the foundations for the Civil War that followed six months later. In Britain, despite opposition from Conservative diehards, the treaty was ratified by act of parliament on 31 March 1922. However, Conservative dissatisfaction with the treaty contributed to the downfall of Lloyd George's coalition in October 1922.

Bibliography

Pakenham, Frank , Peace by Ordeal (5th edn., 1992)

Deirdre McMahon