Irish Republic Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
- This article is about the historic Irish Republic, which should not be confused with the modern Republic of Ireland (1949–present), which is often incorrectly referred to as the "Irish Republic"1.
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2 Government 3 War of Independence 4 The Anglo–Irish Treaty 5 See also 6 Footnotes 7 Further reading |
Origins of the Irish Republic
The origins of the Republic dated back to the Easter Rising of 1916, when a small minority of Irish republicans under Pádraig Pearse seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed an Irish Republic. Though this insurrection was crushed — and at the time had little public support — its surviving leaders, notably Eamon de Valera, seized control of a small monarchist party, Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin had wrongly been credited by the British Government and the people with being behind the Rising, and used it as a vehicle to campaign for a Republic. It won a clear majority of (largely uncontested) seats in the 1918 general election and formed the Assembly of Ireland (in Irish, Dáil Éireann) in Dublin. The Dáil first assembled in the Mansion House, Dublin, in January 1919.
The new body passed a series of documents, including:
- A Declaration of Independence;
- A Message to the Nations of the World;
- An interim constitution, called the Dáil Constitution.
Government
The government was initially made up of a ministry or cabinet called the Áireacht, presided over by a Príomh Áire or Prime Minister. An alternative English title, President of Dáil Éireann came to be used, in particular during the second office holder's tour of the United States. The first President of Dáil Éireann was Cathal Brugha, was elected to the post in January 1919 because the person who would have received it, Eamon de Valera was in a British gaol. In April 1919, having escaped, Eamon de Valera was elected to the post, following Brugha's resignation.Initially the Irish Republic had no head of state, not least because Sinn Féin was still badly split between monarchists (led by Arthur Griffith, who had previously campaigned for a dual Anglo–Irish monarchy;) and republicans under de Valera. In August 1921, de Valera had the Dáil upgrade his post to a full head of state, known as President of the Republic.
War of Independence
From 1919 to 1921 the Irish War of Independence was fought, between the guerrilla fighters of the Irish Republican Army (the paramilitary army of the Irish Republic) and British forces, notably the notorious Black and Tans (former soldiers specially recruited, who wore uniforms of black and khaki, hence the name). Both sides carried out brutal murders — The Black and Tans burned entire villages and massacred ordinary civilians, while the IRA burned historic buildings and mounted a form of ethnic cleansing (or religious cleansing) against Protestants, particularly in the Munster area; they even tried to burn down historic Carton House, the home of the eighteenth century Irish patriot and rebel, Lord Edward FitzGerald until a family member reasoned with them.
The largely Catholic police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary found itself caught in the middle; murdered by the IRA as part of the Crown forces, while trying to restrain and halt by brutality of the Black and Tans. By 1921, the IRA, as its senior strategist (and the Irish Republic\'s Minister for Finance) Michael Collins admitted, was on the brink of collapse. Luckily however, the British government did not realise how close they were to victory, and offered a Truce which the astonished Irish leaders accepted.
The Anglo–Irish Treaty
In December 1921, negotiators from the Irish Republic's government, led by Griffith and Collins, and the British Government team under Prime Minister David Lloyd George and including Winston Churchill, signed the Anglo–Irish Treaty;, replacing the Irish Republic with a new dominion called the Irish Free State. The leadership of the Republic split between pro- and anti-Treatyites, the latter under the leadership of resigned president Eamon de Valera. However the public clearly was in favour of the Treaty and the new state; the Civil War ended in 1923.
The Irish Republic had a short existence. It is difficult to work out exactly what public support it had for, of the two elections that took place during its existence, in 1918 and 1921, the former saw most seats won without a contest, while in the latter all seats but four were elected unopposed. Whether that was because of genuine public support or fear of challenging Sinn Féin (and in particular the IRA) is impossible to guess.
Accounts have come to light of by-elections being won by Sinn Féin in 1917 and 1918 because, in one notorious case, a gun was placed to the head of Returning Officer about to announce the victory of a non-Sinn Féin candidate and he was told to 'think again'. (He recounted and 'found' extra votes that 'gave' the seat to Sinn Féin.) A recent Irish academic study, on the basis of examining voting patterns in contested seats, in contested by-elections and in local government elections, concluded that Sinn Féin had the support of somewhere between 45% and 48% of the electorate.
But, given the likelihood that a large proportion of voters supporting the party did not necessarily agree with its policy platform2, it seems likely that probably no more than one in three Irish voters in 1918 supported the idea of a unilateral declaration of independence, with most people ready to accept some form of workable self-government short of an independent republic. Such analysis reflects contemporary records and memories of those who lived in the period, who spoke of the vast majority of people in their areas being either indifferent, unenthuastic or moderate in their views, with only small groups (whether Sinn Féin, the Irish Parliamentary Party or Unionists) being passionately committed to a "cause".
Though the leaders tried to set up a functioning parliament and government, the Irish Republic never was internationally acknowledged as a legitimate régime by any state in the world, apart from the USSR. Efforts by President de Valera in the United States and the Republic's 'ambassador' at the Versailles Peace Conference after World War I, Sean T. O'Kelly to get international recognition failed. According to international law, and even most Irish historians, the "real" government in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 continued to be the British Dublin Castle régime under the Chief Secretary of Ireland and the nominal head the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the King's representative. Even some of those who fought to "preserve the Republic" and abandon the Treaty in the Civil War, most notably Eamon de Valera, later admitted that their opposition to the Treaty and the Irish Free State was a mistake. When asked near the end of his life "What was your biggest mistake?", de Valera answered unambiguously "Opposing the Treaty".
Speaking in the Dáil on April 29 1997, current Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) and leader of the anti-Treaty Fianna Fáil party, Bertie Ahern and the then Taoiseach John Bruton, leader of the pro-Treaty Fine Gael party agreed that as a basis for inclusive comemoration, the date from which Irish independence should be measured isn't the formation of the Irish Republic in 1919, but the December 61922 formation of the Irish Free State, the first internationally recognised, legally legitimate Irish State.
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Footnotes
Further reading