Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland, but by 1920 its functional control was limited to only 21 of Ireland's 32 counties, and British state forces maintained a presence across much of the north-east, as well as Cork, Dublin and other major towns. The republic was strongest in rural areas, and through its military forces was able to influence the population in urban areas that it did not directly control.
Its origins date back to the Easter Rising of 1916, when Irish republicans seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The rebellion was crushed, but the survivors united under a reformed Sinn Féin party to campaign for a republic. In the 1918 United Kingdom general election, the party won a clear majority of the constituencies in Ireland; in many seats Sinn Féin candidates did not face meaningful opposition. The Sinn Féin winners did not take their seats in the U.K. parliament, but instead gathered in Dublin on 21 January 1919 to form the first Dáil of Ireland. Republicans then established a government, a court system and a police force. At the same time, the Irish Volunteers, who came under the control of the Dáil and became known as the Irish Republican Army, fought against British state forces in the Irish War of Independence.
The War of Independence ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed on 6 December 1921 and narrowly approved by Dáil Éireann on 7 January 1922. A Provisional Government was set up under the terms of the treaty, but the Irish Republic nominally remained in existence until 6 December 1922, when 26 of the island's 32 counties became a self-governing British dominion called the Irish Free State. The island had been partitioned by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and the six counties of Northern Ireland, which had been partitioned so as to create and ensure a unionist majority, exercised their right under the treaty to opt out of the Free State, and remain in the United Kingdom.
Name
In English, the revolutionary state was to be known as the "Irish Republic". Two different Irish language titles were used: Poblacht na hÉireann and Saorstát Éireann, based on two alternative Irish translations of the word "republic". The word poblacht was newly coined by the writers of the Easter Proclamation in 1916. Saorstát was a compound word, based on the Irish words saor and stát. Its literal translation was "free state". The term Poblacht na hÉireann is the one used in the Proclamation of 1916, but the Declaration of Independence and other documents adopted in 1919 used Saorstát Éireann.Saorstát Éireann was adopted as the official Irish title of the Irish Free State when it was established at the end of the Irish War of Independence, although this Free State was not a republic but a form of constitutional monarchy within the British Empire. Since then, the word saorstát has fallen out of use as a translation of "republic". After the Irish state had changed its name to "Ireland", in 1949 the description of the state was declared "Republic of Ireland", while in Irish it was translated as Poblacht na hÉireann.
In his memoir, Winston Churchill gives an account of the first meeting of Éamon de Valera with David Lloyd George on 14 July 1921, at which Churchill was present. Lloyd George was a native speaker of Welsh and a noted Welsh linguist, and as such was interested in the literal meaning of Saorstát. De Valera replied that it meant 'Free State'. Lloyd George asked, "What is your Irish word for Republic?" After what Churchill characterized as some delay and no reply from de Valera, Lloyd George commented: "Must we not admit that the Celts never were Republicans and have no native word for such an idea?"
Lord Longford gives a different account in Peace by Ordeal: "The only doubt in de Valera's mind, as he explained to Lloyd George, arose from the current dispute among Gaelic purists whether the idea Republic was better conveyed by the broader 'Saorstát' or the more abstract 'Poblacht'."
Establishment
In 1916, nationalist rebels participating in the Easter Rising issued the Proclamation of the Republic. By this declaration, they claimed to establish an independent state called the "Irish Republic", and proclaimed that the leaders of the rebellion would serve as the "Provisional Government of the Irish Republic" until it became possible to elect a national parliament. The Easter Rising was short-lived, largely limited to Dublin and, at the time it occurred, enjoyed little support from the Irish general public.The leaders of the Easter Rising had proclaimed a republic. Arthur Griffith's Sinn Féin organisation, which had favoured the establishment of a form of dual monarchy between Ireland and Britain, had not taken part in the Rising. In 1917, Griffith's Sinn Féin and republicans under Éamon de Valera came together to form the new Sinn Féin Party. A compromise was reached at the 1917 Ard Fheis, where it was agreed that the party would pursue the establishment of an independent republic in the short term, until the Irish people could be given the opportunity to decide on the form of government they preferred. This agreement was subject to the condition that if the people chose monarchy, no member of the British royal family would be invited to serve as monarch.
In the 1918 general election, candidates of the radical Sinn Féin party—including many who had participated in the 1916 rebellion—issued a manifesto which included the statement: "Sinn Féin aims at securing the establishment of that Republic". It also said it would boycott the British Parliament and instead unilaterally establish a new Irish assembly in Dublin. Sinn Féin candidates won a large majority of the seats: 73 out of 105, 25 of them uncontested. On 21 January 1919, 27 of them gathered in the Mansion House in Dublin to establish Dáil Éireann. Thirty-five other members were recorded as being fé ghlas ag Gallaibh and another four as ar díbirt ag Gallaibh. Thirty-seven others were recorded as not being present, these were mainly from the northern six counties that would later form Northern Ireland. At this meeting, the Dáil adopted the Irish Declaration of Independence. Because of the Easter Proclamation of 1916, the Dáil retrospectively established the Irish Republic from Easter 1916.
On the same day as the Declaration of Independence was issued, two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary escorting a cartload of gelignite were killed in the Tipperary Soloheadbeg Ambush, carried out by members of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, led by Dan Breen and Seán Treacy. This ambush had not been ordered by the Dáil, but the course of events soon drove the Dáil to recognise the Volunteers as the army of the Irish Republic, and so the Soloheadbeg incident became the opening incident of the undeclared Anglo-Irish War between the Volunteers and Great Britain. Breen later recalled: "Treacy had stated to me that the only way of starting a war was to kill someone, so we intended to kill some of the police."
The decision to establish a republic in 1919, rather than any other form of government, was significant because it amounted to a complete repudiation of all constitutional ties with Great Britain, and set the party against any compromise that might involve initial self-government under the Home Rule Act 1914 or continued membership of the British Empire. One obstacle to this decision—that the Unionists of the north-east had long indicated that they would never participate in any form of a republic—was left unresolved, the six north-eastern counties remaining part of the United Kingdom under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and later the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Institutions of government
Dáil Éireann
The central institution of the republic was Dáil Éireann, a unicameral assembly formed by the majority of Irish Members of Parliament elected in the 1918 general election. Two further general elections called by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the head of the British Dublin Castle administration, were treated by nationalists as elections to the Dáil. The Second Dáil comprised members returned in the 1921 elections for the Parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland; the Third Dáil was elected at the 1922 general election as the "provisional parliament" of "Southern Ireland", as provided for by the Anglo-Irish Treaty.At its first meeting the Dáil adopted a brief, provisional constitution known as the Dáil Constitution, as well as a series of basic laws, notably the Democratic Programme. It also passed a Declaration of Independence.
Ministry
The Dáil Constitution vested executive authority in a cabinet called the Ministry of Dáil Éireann. The Ministry was answerable to the Dáil which elected its head, known initially as the president of Dáil Éireann. He in turn appointed the ministers. According to the original version of the constitution enacted in January 1919, there were to be four ministers:In April 1919, the ministry was increased in size to not more than nine ministers. In August 1921, it was changed again with the title President of the Republic used, suggesting a position of head of state. A ministry of six was created. These were:
A number of previous cabinet ministers, notably Constance Markievicz, were demoted to under-secretary level.
The Ministry met as often as secrecy and safety allowed.