LEAVING CERT REVISION
CASE STUDIES AND
DOCUMENTS
The Anglo-Irish Treaty Negotiations,
October – December, 1921
• Preliminary Negotiations, July – Oct 1921
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Preliminary negotiations began between De Valera and Lloyd George.
They met four times in London, after which they wrote.
De Valera wanted a 32 county republic
Lloyd George wanted Ireland to remain within the British Commonwealth as
a dominion
Britain wanted a separate government in Northern Ireland
They wanted to control the naval bases in Ireland for their own defence.
After many disagreements Lloyd George came up with a compromise
wording asking for a meeting to ‘ascertain how the association of Ireland
with the community of nations known as the British Commonwealth may
best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations.’
The Irish Delegation
• Leader of the Delegation: Arthur Griffith
• Michael Collins – reluctant to go, but went from loyalty to Dev
• Robert Barton – extreme Republican
• Eamonn Dugann – Lawyer
• Charles Gavan Duffy – Lawyer
• Erskine Childers – Secretary and ‘observer’.
The British Delegation
• Prime Minister – David Lloyd George
• Minister for War – Winston Churchill
• Conservative Party Leaders – Austen
Chamberlain and Lord Birkenhead
• The unionist were not present, but were the
‘silent ghost’ at the table.
Irish Instructions
• ‘Envoy plenipotentiaries’
BUT
• Told to refer everything back to Dublin
Ambiguous????!!!!!
De Valera
• Why didn’t he go?
• He said:
– I’m head of State
– I’ll control the militant Republicans
– I’ll be a second line of defence
•They said:
•He wanted to avoid the blame when a Republic
wasn’t achieved.
Strengths and Weaknesses
• Weaknesses
• Dev’s absence
• The ambiguous
instructions
• London
• Inexperience of the
Irish delegates
• Strengths
Main Issues
• Constitutional Status
• Partition and unification
• Britain’s defence
If negotiations broke down Ireland wanted to break
on the question of unity, England wanted to break
on the Imperial question, both because of Public
Opinion.
Negotiations
• At first carried out by full delegations then
broke up into sub-committees
• Early agreement on naval bases, trade, and
Irish debt for World War I
• Britain offered the Six Counties if Ireland
would stay in the Empire
• Griffith promised that if ‘essential unity’
were guaranteed he would agree to this.
The North
• The Northern
Unionist under Craig
completely refused
this.
• Lloyd George
proposed a Boundary
Commission
• Ireland couldn’t break
over the ‘Ulster
Question.
Further Negotiations
• Devalera proposed ‘external association’
• Rejected by Britain because it would keep
Ireland out of the Empire
• The Oath was eventually agreed on, which
made the king Head of State and Ireland a
Dominion.
• The North was the last obstacle
Signing
• 6th December 1921
• Lloyd George threatened ‘immediate and
terrible war’
• Griffith signed, then Collins, finally
Duggan, Barton and Gavan Duffy
• Collins writes ‘this morning I have signed
my death warrant’.
Terms of the Treaty
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Dominion Status
Irish Free State
Governor General
Oath of Allegiance
Treaty Ports
Boundary
Commission