Anglo-Irish Treaty

Page from a draft of the Treaty, as annotated by Arthur Griffith

Among the treaty's main clauses were that:[3][4]

• Crown forces would withdraw from most of Ireland.
• Ireland was to become a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, a status shared by Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.
• As with the other dominions, the King would be the Head of State of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) and would be represented by a Governor General (see Representative of the Crown).
• Members of the new free state's parliament would be required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Irish Free State. A secondary part of the oath was to "be faithful to His Majesty King George V, His heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship".
• Northern Ireland (which had been created earlier by the Government of Ireland Act) would have the option of withdrawing from the Irish Free State within one month of the Treaty coming into effect.
• If Northern Ireland chose to withdraw, a Boundary Commission would be constituted to draw the boundary between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.
• Britain, for its own security, would continue to control a limited number of ports, known as the Treaty Ports, for the Royal Navy.
• The Irish Free State would assume responsibility for a proportionate part of the United Kingdom's debt, as it stood on the date of signature.
• The treaty would have superior status in Irish law, i.e., in the event of a conflict between it and the new 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State, the treaty would take precedence.

The negotiators included:

British side

Portrait	Name	Portfolio
	David Lloyd George (delegation chairman) MP for Caernarvon Boroughs	Prime Minister
	Lord Birkenhead	Lord Chancellor
	Austen Chamberlain MP for Birmingham West	Lord Privy Seal Leader of the House of Commons
	Winston Churchill MP for Dundee	Secretary of State for the Colonies
	Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Bt MP for Colchester	Secretary of State for War
	Sir Gordon Hewart MP for Leicester East	Attorney General
	Sir Hamar Greenwood MP for Sunderland	Chief Secretary for Ireland

Irish side

Portrait	Name	Portfolio
	Arthur Griffith (delegation chairman) TD for Cavan and Fermanagh and Tyrone (MP for East Cavan and North West Tyrone)	Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
	Michael Collins TD for Armagh and Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West (MP for South Cork)	Secretary of State for Finance
	Robert Barton TD for Kildare–Wicklow (MP for West Wicklow)	Secretary of State for Economic Affairs
	Eamonn Duggan TD for Louth–Meath (MP for South Meath)
	George Gavan Duffy TD for Dublin County (MP for South Dublin)

Providing secretarial assistance were:

• For the British:
  • Thomas Jones
  • Lionel George Curtis
• For the Irish:
  • Erskine Childers
  • Fionán Lynch
  • Diarmuid O'Hegarty
  • John Smith Chartres

Robert Barton was the last surviving signatory. He died on 10 August 1975 at the age of 94.

Notably, the President of the Irish Republic Éamon de Valera did not attend.

Winston Churchill held two different roles in the British cabinet during the process of Irish independence: until February 1921 he had been Secretary of State for War (minister for the Army) hoping to end the Irish War of Independence; from then on, as Secretary of State for the Colonies (which included dominion affairs), he was charged with implementing the treaty and conducting relations with the new state.

Erskine Childers, the author of The Riddle of the Sands and former Clerk of the British House of Commons, served as one of the secretaries of the Irish delegation. Thomas Jones was one of Lloyd George's principal assistants, and described the negotiations in his book Whitehall Diary.

Éamon de Valera, who, as President of the Irish Republic, opposed the Treaty

De Valera sent the Irish plenipotentiaries to the 1921 negotiations in London with several draft treaties and secret instructions from his cabinet. Pointedly the British side never asked to see their formal accreditation with the full status of plenipotentiaries, but considered that it had invited them as elected MPs "to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations". This invitation in August 1921 had been delayed for over a month by a correspondence in which de Valera argued that Britain was now negotiating with a sovereign state, a position Lloyd George continually denied.[5]

In the meantime, de Valera had been elevated to President of the Republic on 26 August, primarily to be able to accredit plenipotentiaries for the negotiations, as is usual between sovereign states.[6] On 14 September all the Dáil speakers unanimously commented that the plenipotentiaries were being sent to represent the sovereign Irish Republic, and accepted de Valera's nominations without dissent, although some argued that de Valera himself should attend the conference.[7]

On 18 September Lloyd George recalled that:[2]

From the very outset of our conversations [in June 1921] I told you that we looked to Ireland to own allegiance to the Throne, and to make her future as a member of the British Commonwealth. That was the basis of our proposals, and we cannot alter it. The status which you now claim in advance for your delegates is, in effect, a repudiation of that basis. I am prepared to meet your delegates as I met you in July, in the capacity of 'chosen spokesmen' for your people, to discuss the association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth.

On 29 September Lloyd George reiterated to de Valera that recognition of the Irish republic was "a recognition which no British Government can accord", and he repeated his invitation for talks on "ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations", to start in London on 11 October, which was tacitly accepted by the Irish side.[8] On 7 October de Valera signed a letter of accreditation as "President" on behalf of the "Government of the Republic of Ireland", but the letter was never requested by the British side.[9] Both the Irish and British sides knew that, in the event of failure, the truce agreed in July 1921 would end and the war would inevitably resume, a war that neither side wanted. Three months had passed by with nothing agreed.

The ambiguous status of the plenipotentiaries was to have unforeseeable consequences within the Nationalist movement when it divided over the treaty's contents in 1921–22. Plenipotentiaries usually have full powers to handle negotiations as they see fit, but de Valera had given them instructions to refer back to his cabinet on any "main question" and with "the complete text of the draft treaty about to be signed", which created difficulties. Subsequently, the anti-treaty side felt that the plenipotentiaries from the existing sovereign republic had somehow been persuaded to agree to accept much less. The pro-treaty side was to argue that after 11 October the negotiations had been conducted on the understanding that, even though the British were not negotiating with a sovereign state, the agreement was a significant first step towards Irish sovereignty.

Days after the truce that ended the Anglo-Irish War, de Valera met Lloyd George in London four times in the week starting 14 July.[10] Lloyd George sent his initial proposals on 20 July that were very roughly in line with the treaty that was eventually signed.[11] This was followed by months of delay until October, when the Irish delegates set up headquarters in 22 Hans Place, Knightsbridge.

The first two weeks of the negotiations were spent in formal sessions. Upon the request of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, the two delegations began informal negotiations, in which only two members of each negotiating team were allowed to attend. On the Irish side, these members were always Collins and Griffith, while on the British side, Austen Chamberlain always attended, though the second British negotiator would vary from day to day. In late November, the Irish delegation returned to Dublin to consult the cabinet according to their instructions, and again on 3 December.[12] Many points still had to be resolved, mainly surrounding the form of an oath to the monarch, but it was clear to all the politicians involved by this stage that a unitary 32-county Irish Republic was not on offer.

Crowds holding a prayer vigil outside Whitehall, while negotiations are underway inside

When they returned, Collins and Griffith hammered out the final details of the treaty, which included British concessions on the wording of the oath and the defence and trade clauses, along with the addition of a boundary commission to the treaty and a clause upholding Irish unity. Collins and Griffith in turn convinced the other plenipotentiaries to sign the treaty. The final decisions to sign the treaty was made in private discussions at 22 Hans Place at 11:15am on 5 December 1921. The Treaty was signed soon after 2 in the morning on 6 December, in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing St.[13]

Michael Collins later claimed that at the last minute Lloyd George threatened the Irish delegates with a renewal of "terrible and immediate war"[14] if the Treaty was not signed at once. This was not specifically called "a threat" in an Irish memorandum about the close of negotiations.[15] Barton noted that:

At one time he [Lloyd George] particularly addressed himself to me and said very solemnly that those who were not for peace must take full responsibility for the war that would immediately follow refusal by any Delegate to sign the Articles of Agreement.

Éamon de Valera called a cabinet meeting to discuss the treaty on 8 December, where he came out against the treaty as signed. The cabinet decided by four votes to three to recommend the treaty to the Dáil on 14 December.[16]

The contents of the treaty divided the Irish Republic's leadership, with de Valera leading the anti-treaty minority. The Treaty Debates were difficult but also comprised a wider and robust stock-taking of the position by the contending parties. Their differing views of the past and their hopes for the future were made public. The focus had to be on the constitutional options, but little mention was made of the economy, nor of how life would now be improved for the majority of the population. Though Sinn Féin had also campaigned to preserve the Irish language, very little use was made of it in the debates. Some of the female TDs were notably in favour of continuing the war until a 32-county state was established. Much mention was made of "700 years" of British occupation. Personal bitterness developed; Arthur Griffith said of Erskine Childers: "I will not reply to any damned Englishman in this Assembly", and Cathal Brugha reminded everyone that the position of Michael Collins in the IRA was technically inferior to his.

The main dispute was centred on the status as a dominion (as represented by the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity) rather than as an independent republic, but the Partition of Ireland was a significant matter for dissent. Ulstermen like Seán MacEntee spoke strongly against the partition clause.[17] The Dáil voted to approve the treaty but the objectors refused to accept it, leading eventually to the Irish Civil War. MacEntee was among their leaders.

Members of the Irish negotiation committee returning to Ireland in December 1921

Under the terms of the treaty, it required approval by:

1. the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and
2. a "meeting summoned for the purpose [of approving the Treaty] of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland". This referred to the persons elected at the 1921 Irish elections called under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. This "parliament" had never in fact come into operation;[18] of the 128 members elected, the 124 Sinn Féin candidates refused to sit in the House, instead forming (along with some of the Northern representatives) an alternative parliamentary assembly, the Second Dáil, which claimed to represent all of Ireland.

The British House of Commons approved the treaty on 16 December 1921 by a vote of 401 to 58.[19] On the same day the House of Lords voted in favour by 166 to 47.[20]

The Dáil approved the new treaty after nine days of public debate on 7 January 1922, by a vote of 64 to 57, but it was not the assembly specified in the treaty. Therefore, its approval of the treaty was not enough to satisfy the requirements of the treaty. The "meeting" required under the terms of the treaty was therefore convened. It formally approved the treaty on 14 January 1922. The "meeting" itself had a somewhat ambiguous status, not being convened or conducted in accordance with the procedures established for the House of Commons, nor being declared a session of Dáil Éireann. Anti-treaty members of the Dáil stayed away, meaning only pro-treaty members and the four elected unionists (who had never sat in Dáil Éireann) attended the meeting. Those assembled overwhelmingly approved the treaty, nominated Michael Collins for appointment as chairman of the provisional government and immediately dispersed with no parliamentary business taking place. This was the nearest that the House of Commons of Southern Ireland ever came to functioning; no other meeting ever took place, but the vote on 14 January, in strict compliance with the treaty wording, allowed the British authorities to maintain that the legal niceties had been observed.

In terms of the ratification of the treaty, the treaty required that "necessary legislation" be enacted to ratify it. The legislation required was enacted solely by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The legislation enacted to do so was the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 which became law on 31 March 1922.[21][22][23]

On 11 July 1924, the treaty was registered at the League of Nations by the Irish Free State.[24]

British cavalry soldiers leaving Ireland, 1922

The split over the treaty led to the Irish Civil War (1922–23). In 1922, its two main Irish signatories, Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, both died. Birkenhead reportedly said on signing the treaty: "Mr Collins, in signing this Treaty I'm signing my political death warrant", to which Collins is said to have replied, "Lord Birkenhead, I'm signing my actual death warrant."[31] Collins was killed by anti-treaty republicans in an ambush at Béal na Bláth in August 1922, ten days after Griffith's death from heart failure which was ascribed to exhaustion. Both men were replaced in their posts by W. T. Cosgrave. Two of the other members of the delegation, Robert Barton and Erskine Childers, sided against the treaty in the civil war. Childers, head of anti-treaty propaganda in the conflict, was executed by the free state for possession of a pistol in November 1922.

The treaty's provisions relating to the monarch, the governor-general, and the treaty's own superiority in law were all deleted from the Constitution of the Irish Free State in 1932, following the enactment of the Statute of Westminster by the British Parliament. By this statute, the British Parliament had voluntarily relinquished its ability to legislate on behalf of dominions without their consent. Thus, the Government of the Irish Free State was free to change any laws previously passed by the British Parliament on their behalf.

Nearly 10 years earlier, Michael Collins had argued that the treaty would give "the freedom to achieve freedom". De Valera himself acknowledged the accuracy of this claim both in his actions in the 1930s but also in words he used to describe his opponents and their securing of independence during the 1920s. "They were magnificent", he told his son in 1932, just after he had entered government and read the files left by Cosgrave's Cumann na nGaedheal Executive Council.

Although the British Government of the day had, since 1914, desired home rule for the whole of Ireland, the British Parliament believed that it could not possibly grant complete independence to all of Ireland in 1921 without provoking huge sectarian violence between overwhelmingly Protestant Irish Unionists and overwhelmingly Catholic Irish Nationalists. At the time, although there were Unionists throughout the country, they were concentrated in the north-east and their parliament first sat on 7 June 1921. An uprising by them against home rule would have been an insurrection against the "mother county" as well as a civil war in Ireland. (See Ulster Volunteers.) Dominion status for 26 counties, with partition for the six counties that the Unionists felt they could comfortably control, seemed the best compromise possible at the time.

In fact, what Ireland received in dominion status, on par with that enjoyed by Canada, New Zealand and Australia, was far more than the Home Rule Act 1914, and certainly a considerable advance on the home rule once offered to Charles Stewart Parnell in the nineteenth century albeit at the cost of the exclusion of Northern Ireland. Even de Valera's proposals made in secret during the Treaty Debates differed very little in essential matters from the accepted text, and were far short of the autonomous 32-county republic that he publicly claimed to pursue.[32]

The solution that was agreed had also been on Lloyd George's mind for years. He met Tim Healy, a senior barrister and former nationalist MP, in late 1919 to consider his options. Healy wrote to his brother on 11 December 1919: "Lloyd George said that, if he could get support for a plan whereby the six counties would be left as they are, he would be ready to give the rest of the country Dominion Home Rule, free from Imperial taxation, and with control of the Customs and Excise."[33] Healy considered that the idea had foundered on de Valera's insistence on having an all-Ireland republic, months before the war of independence became seriously violent in mid-1920.

Lloyd George had supported the 1893 Home Rule Bill and the slow process of the 1914 Home Rule Act, and liaised with the Irish Convention members in 1917–18. By 1921 his coalition government depended on a large Conservative majority, and collapsed during the Chanak crisis in October 1922.

• Anglo-Irish Treaty Dáil vote
• Irish Civil War
• Irish Free State
• Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)
• Other treaties between Britain and Ireland:
  • Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement (1938)
  • Sunningdale Agreement (1973)
  • Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985)
  • Good Friday Agreement (1998)
  • St Andrews Agreement (2006)

• Lord Beaverbrook (1963). The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George. London: Collins.
• Winston Churchill, The World Crisis; the Aftermath (Thornton 1929) pp. 277–352.
• Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins (1990) (ISBN 0-09-174106-8)
• Tim Pat Coogan, De Valera (1993) (ISBN 0-09-175030-X)
• Knirck, Jason K. (2006). Imagining Ireland's Independence: The Debates Over the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742541481.
• Fair, John D. "The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921: Unionist Aspects of the Peace". Journal of British Studies 12#1, 1972, pp. 132–149. online
• Knirck, Jason K. Imagining Ireland's independence: the debates over the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).
• Knirck, Jason K. "The dominion of Ireland: the Anglo-Irish Treaty in an imperial context." Éire-Ireland 42.1 (2007): 229–255.
• Nicolson, Harold. King George V (1953) pp 344–362. online
• Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, Peace By Ordeal (Cape 1935)
• Charles Townshend, "The British Campaign in Ireland 1919-1920", Oxford University Press, 1975, ISBN 019 821874 5

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anglo-Irish Treaty.

• Anglo-Irish Treaty eBook Archived 21 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine (links to EPUB and .mobi formats) Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Royal Irish Academy
• Treaty exhibition Archived 23 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine – National Archives of Ireland.
• Dáil Debates on Oireachtas website
• Debates online at University College Cork.