Irish Revolution

Sinn Fein wanted a united Irish republic totally independent of the British Empire. The British were willing to concede home rule to Ireland with full military and financial autonomy, but demanded that Ireland stay within the empire. Fearing defeat if war resumed and believing that they had gained the maximum concessions from the British, the Irish delegates, led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London on December 6, 1921.

The treaty offered self-government in what was to be called the Irish Free State, which would remain a member of the British Empire. As such, the Free State’s leaders would still be required to swear allegiance to the British crown. The treaty allowed the six counties of Northern Ireland that had been created by the 1920 Government of Ireland Act to withdraw from the Free State within a month of its foundation if they desired—which they did the day after the Free State was established. In addition, the treaty left several strategically important ports in Ireland in British hands and required the Free State to take responsibility for a portion of Britain’s war debt.

The treaty was debated extensively in the Dáil. The debate split both Sinn Fein and the IRA into pro- and anti-Treaty factions. It was the issue of allegiance to the British crown and not partition that contributed most significantly to the split. Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein extremists continued to demand an autonomous republic with no reference to the British king or empire in its constitution.

The treaty was accepted by the Dáil on January 7, 1922, and the Irish Free State was established. However, the anti-Treaty IRA refused to recognize the provisional government of the Free State led by Michael Collins. On June 28, 1922, Collins’s government ordered the army of the Free State to attack the anti-Treaty rebels; this was the beginning of the Irish Civil War, which lasted until May 1923.