CHAPTER LXXXI

AFTER THE TREATY

THE Treaty was signed on behalf of Ireland by Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Robert Barton, Eamonn Duggan, and George Gavan Duffy. The first three were Ministers of the Irish Executive Council.

The delegates returned to find the Dail already split-those members who were in favor of the Treaty on one side and those opposed on the other. President de Valera, heading the opposition, opposed the Treaty because of (1) the Partition clause (2) the inclusion of an oath of allegiance to the King of England (3) the appointment of a Governor General to represent the British King in Dublin (4) the retention by the British of certain Irish ports, which were to be used by the British fleet as naval bases.

The proponents of the Treaty held it would be madness to reject it because, while Ireland was too exhausted to continue the fight now, it gave Ireland an immensely greater measure of independence than had ever been offered in any Home Rule bill, involving complete control of Local Government, education, customs and excise, police force, and a limited army.

Arthur Griffith believed that the Boundary clause in the Treaty would end partition. He pointed out that a vote taken in the sixcounty area would deprive the Northern government of two whole counties, Tyrone and Fermanagh, one-half of two other counties, South Down and South Armagh, and the City of Derry. He argued that without these areas the Northern government could not carry on. Later it transpired that he had been privately assured by Lloyd George that this would be the outcome.1

During the weeks that intervened, between the return of the deputation to Ireland on December 8, 1921, and the day the Dail voted on the Treaty, January 6, 1922, bitter debates took place. During that time President de Valera introduced an alternative to the Treaty, which was afterwards known as Document No. 2. This document was in essence a re-draft of External Association pro

1 Five years before, in 1916, on occasion of a threatened Home Rule Act, Lloyd George had written to Sir Edward Carson, the Orange leader, "we must make it clear that Ulster does not, whether she wills it or not, merge with the rest of Ireland."

posals which the Cabinet had unanimously approved and with which the delegation had gone to London. Mr. de Valera's purpose in presenting this document was to save the unity of Sinn Fein, and avoid dissension within the country; but after little debate this document was laid aside entirely and thenceforth the issue was declared to be between the Treaty "Free State," and an independent Republic.

The vote, taken on January 7, 1922, revealed 64 of the deputies in favor of the Treaty and 57 against.

The pro-Treaty party, under Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, became known henceforth as the Free State party, the antiTreaty party as Republicans.

A provisional government was formed with Arthur Griffith as President, Michael Collins as Minister of Finance, William Cosgrave as Minister for Local Government, George Gavan Duffy as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin O'Higgins as Minister for Economic Affairs, and Richard Mulcahy as Minister for Defense.

On January 14, on the summons of Arthur Griffith, the 64 proTreaty members of the Dail and the four pro-British members from Trinity College met to form a Provisional Government and officially approve the Treaty. The anti-Treaty members did not attend. Deputies from the six counties were excluded from the meeting. This Provisional Government gave place, twelve months after the signing of the Treaty, to the Government of the Irish Free State.

Evacuation of British troops from the twenty-six counties was begun at once, also disbanding of the disreputable Irish Constabulary, and evacuation of the hated Auxiliaries and bloody-handed Black and Tans.

An Irish police force, the Civic Guard, was formed. Reorganization began within the Irish Republican Army-which was split into two factions, for and against the Treaty. The pro-Treaty portion was absorbed into the Free State army, now professional. The others formed anti-Treaty units, bringing with them their arms. The former formidable I. R. A. had become two armies.

During the first six months of 1922 the country gradually drifted into Civil War. Dissension between the two great groups in the twenty-six counties was aggravated by daily reports from the partitioned area of persecution of Catholic Nationalists there by the Constabulary, and Orangemen.

Prior to the General Election of June, 1922, a pact had been signed between Eamonn de Valera and Michael Collins.

The pact proposed union of all members of the old Sinn Fein

party, and government by a coalition. The idea was that if, after elections, the coalition government could not agree in the Dail on the Treaty and the Constitution, then there should be another general election, fought on these two matters. In the interim there would have been time for relatively calm discussion and thought. In any case, peace would have been assured. It was also agreed in the pact that the new cabinet would consist of five pro-Treaty and four Republican members, as well as the President, who would be elected by the Dail, and the Minister of Defense, who would be elected by the army, which left a good possibility that he would be a Republican. On the evening before elections the pact was repudiated, or broken, in speeches made by Free State candidates, (Michael Collins, for example, made a speech in Cork repudiating the pact) and when results of the election were published the Free State party hailed them as being a victory for the treaty, instead of for coalition and peace. De Valera waited for word from Michael Collins to submit the names of Republican nominees to the Coalition cabinet. This word never came. Thus the pact was broken. The elections returned 58 pro-Treaty members, 36 Republicans, 17 Labor members, 4 Unionists (pro-Britishers), 7 Farmers' Party Members, and 6 Independents, making a total of 128.

On the morning of the day the elections were held the Free State Constitution was published, and few of the electors had seen it before voting. It was radically different from the draft which had been sent from Dublin to London. It retained and extended all the imperial powers which were embodied in the Treaty. In England it was held as a triumph of British diplomacy. Its terms convinced the Republicans of the impossibility of agreement being reached between them and the Free State party.

Republican troops had occupied the Four Courts and other public buildings in Dublin in April and were entrenched there. On June 26 came what amounted to an ultimatum from Winston Churchill, speaking for the British Parliament, demanding that the Provisional Government should immediately dislodge the Irish Republican Army from these positions. The Free State troops

1 "The presence in Dublin," said Churchill, "of a band of men styling themselves the Headquarters of the Republican Executive is a gross breach and defiance of the Treaty. The time has come when it is not unfair, premature or impatient for us to make this strengthened Irish government and new Irish parliament, a request in express terms that this sort of thing must come to an end. If it does not come to an end, if through weakness, want of courage, or some other even less creditable reason, it is not brought to an end, and a speedy end, then it is my duty to say, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, that we shall regard the Treaty as having been formally violated, that we shall take no steps to carry out or legalize its further stages, and that we shall assume full liberty of action in any direction that may seem proper

opened fire on the Four Courts on June 26, the siege lasted two days and ended in the burning of the building. Over one hundred prisoners surrendered, including Rory O'Connor, Director of Engineering for the I. R. A., and Liam Mellows, Director of Purchases.

The government troops then concentrated their attack on a block of Dublin hotels where the Republicans had their headquarters, near the ruined Four Courts. The fighting lasted five days longer, and ended with the defeat of the Republicans and the death of gallant and beloved Cathal Brugha, who refused to surrender. By now hundreds of Republicans had been arrested and imprisoned by their old comrades.

The fighting continued intermittently throughout the country until May, 1923, when de Valera called on the remnant of the Republicans to cease fire-but, despite this, many small bodies of them perseveringly carried on a harassing guerilla warfare.

In August, 1922, Arthur Griffith, President of the Dail, died suddenly. A few days later, Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Free State forces, was killed in an ambush in Cork. During the succeeding months seventy-seven Republican prisoners were executed-some in reprisal for the shooting of Government supporters, but most of them for their continuation of the fight. They included Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, and Erskine Childers.

The first meeting of the newly elected Dail was held under heavy guard in the autumn of 1922. In September was begun the formulation of the Free State Constitution.

According to the Constitution, the Irish Free State was declared a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, the Legislature was to consist of two houses, a Lower house or Dail; an Upper house or Seanad. All bills were to be submitted to the Britishappointed Governor General to receive the Royal assent. And this Governor General had the right to summon and dissolve the Legislature. The oath of allegiance to the King of England was made obligatory for all Dail members. An Executive Council was to be appointed. A Court of Appeal was set up but with right of final appeal to the English Privy Council.

William Cosgrave, who had been chosen as Vice President by Arthur Griffith, was President of this Dail. Cabinet members were Kevin O'Higgins, Richard Mulcahy, Ernest Blythe, Desmond Fitzgerald, and Patrick Hogan.

The Republican party did not take their seats in this Dail as they refused to take the oath of allegiance-so from 1923 to 1927

the Government party functioned without opposition except from a small Labor group and a few pro-British Independents.

During this time the new police force was strengthened, a permanent army was established, sugar-beet growing was introduced, the scheme for harnessing the Shannon for electric power was undertaken, there were put in force many measures for the development and furtherance of Irish agriculture, and of Irish industries.

In 1924, in accordance with the terms of the Treaty, a Boundary Commission was set up for altering or confirming the provisional boundary between "Northern" Ireland and the Free State. It consisted of Mr. Justice Feetham of South Africa, Chairman appointed by the British Government; Professor Eoin MacNeill, representing the Free State; and Mr. J. R. Fisher, a well-known Ulster Unionist. The last mentioned was appointed by the British Government when the Northern Government refused to appoint a member; or to "yield one inch of ground." After protracted secret meetings Eoin MacNeill resigned in disgust, and the two British appointees in November, 1925, issued their finding-no change was to be made in the boundary. The result had a stunning effect on four-fifths of the people of Ireland. Their hopes had been high that the application of the plebiscite would have ended partition, but no plebiscite was held.

As "compensation" to the Free State for the loss of territory involved, Great Britain waived her claim to exact from the 26 counties "their proportion" of England's National Debt, and declared the Free State to be free of all commitments except her own borrowings.

It transpired later that the Free State leaders made with the British Government an agreement (never presented to the Dail) whereby the Free State would continue to pass into the British Exchequer an annual payment of nearly six million pounds, largely made up of the land annuities; though Britain had previously abrogated her claim to these annuities under the Home Rule Bill passed in 1920, but refused by Ireland, and so never put in force.

Many who had supported the Treaty party now withdrew that support on the grounds that the status of the Free State had become less privileged than that of Canada.

The situation was aggravated by the continuing bitterness between the Government party and the Republicans, and by the severe agricultural depression-which was a part of the prevailing world depression.

The Free State government made repeated assertions of its independence of Britain. Thus, as a successor to the first Governor