1921–1922 → First Michael Collins Upper house Senate Date dissolved December 6, 1922 | Capital Dublin Last W.T. Cosgrave Founded 3 May 1921 | |
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Government Devolved parliamentary legislature within constitutional monarchy | ||
Southern Ireland (Irish: Deisceart Éireann) was the larger of the two parts of Ireland that were created when Ireland was partitioned under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It comprised 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland or about five-sixths of the area of the island, whilst the remaining six counties in the northeast of the island formed Northern Ireland. Southern Ireland included County Donegal, despite it being the largest county in Ulster and the most northerly county in all of Ireland.
Contents
- Home Rule and Partition
- Government of Ireland Act 1920
- Parliamentary elections 1921
- Treaty and Free State
- References
The Act of 1920, which came into force on 3 May 1921, was intended to create two self-governing territories within Ireland, each with its own parliament and governmental institutions, and both remaining within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It also contained provisions for co-operation between the two territories and for the eventual reunification of Ireland. However, in the 1921 elections for Southern Ireland's House of Commons, Sinn Féin candidates were returned unopposed in 124 of the 128 seats, and ignored the parliament, assembling instead as the Second Dáil. The "Parliament of Southern Ireland"—consisting of the four unionist members—met only once. Continuing unrest led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Provisional Government which administered Southern Ireland from 16 January 1922 to 5 December 1922: effectively a transitional administration for the period between the ratifying of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the establishment of the Irish Free State. Its legitimacy was disputed by the Anti-Treaty delegates to Dáil Éireann.
Southern Ireland, as a political entity, was superseded by the Irish Free State (which later became the independent state of Ireland) on 6 December 1922.
Home Rule and Partition
The Government of Ireland Act 1920, also known as the Fourth Home Rule Act, was intended to provide a solution to the problem that had bedevilled Irish politics since the 1880s, namely the conflicting demands of Irish unionists and nationalists. Nationalists wanted a form of home rule, believing that Ireland was poorly served by Parliament at Westminster, Government at Whitehall and by that government's Irish offshoot, the Dublin Castle administration. Many unionists feared that a nationalist government in Dublin would impose tariffs that would unduly hit the north-eastern counties of the province of Ulster, which were not only predominantly Protestant but also the only industrial area of a largely agricultural island. They also feared a nationalist government could discriminate against Protestants after gaining political power over their interests in Ireland. Unionists imported arms and assorted weapons from Germany and established the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) to prevent Home Rule in Ulster. In response to this, nationalists also imported arms and set up the Irish Volunteers. Partition, which was introduced by the Government of Ireland Act, was intended as a temporary solution, allowing Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland to be governed separately as regions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. One of those most opposed to this partition settlement was the leader of Irish unionism, Dublin-born Sir Edward Carson, who felt that it was wrong to divide Ireland in two, and felt this would badly affect the position of southern and western unionists.
Government of Ireland Act 1920
The Government of Ireland Act, passed at the end of December 1920, envisaged that Southern Ireland would have the following institutions:
It was also envisaged that Southern Ireland would share the following institutions with Northern Ireland:
The Council of Ireland was to be established "with a view to the eventual establishment of a Parliament for the whole of Ireland", but it never came into being.
Parliamentary elections, 1921
While Northern Ireland did become a functioning entity, with a parliament and government that existed until 1972, Southern Ireland's Parliament, although legally established, never functioned (for example, it never passed an Act). The House of Commons of Southern Ireland met just once with only four members present. An Irish Republic had been proclaimed by the parliament known as Dáil Éireann, formed by Sinn Féin Members of Parliament (MPs) elected from Ireland in the United Kingdom general election in 1918. Parliamentary elections under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 were held in May 1921. The first general election to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland in 1921, and the simultaneous general election to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, was used by Sinn Féin to produce a single extrajudicial parliament, the Second Dáil. In the Southern Ireland constituencies Sinn Féin won 124 of the 128 seats, all without contest, while in the contested elections in Northern Ireland constituencies it secured six of the 52 seats, another six going to non-Sinn Féin nationalists. (The other four Southern seats were won by Unionists from Dublin and the University of Dublin, who along with the forty Unionists elected in the North declined to participate in the Second Dáil.) When the new Parliament of Southern Ireland was called into session on 28 June 1921, only the four Unionist members of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, and a handful of appointed senators, turned up in the Royal College of Science in Dublin, where the meeting was scheduled to take place; most of the other members met elsewhere as the Dáil.
Treaty and Free State
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was further ratified on the Irish side on 14 January 1922 by "a meeting summoned for the purpose [of approving the Treaty] of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland" The treaty, in specifying a "meeting of members", did not say that the treaty needed to be approved by the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as such. The difference is subtle but was fully grasped by those who entered the treaty. Hence, when that "meeting" was convened, it was convened by Arthur Griffith in his capacity as "Chairman of the Irish Delegation of Plenipotentiaries" (who had signed the Treaty). Notably, it was not convened by Viscount FitzAlan, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, was the office-holder with the entitlement to convene a meeting of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland.
The Provisional Government envisaged under the treaty was constituted on 14 January 1922 at the above-mentioned meeting of members of the Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland. It took up office two days later when Michael Collins became Chairman of the Provisional Government. Collins took charge of Dublin Castle at a ceremony attended by Lord FitzAlan. The new government was not an institution of Southern Ireland as envisaged under the Government of Ireland Act. Instead, it was a government established under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and was a necessary transitional entity before the establishment of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922.
Southern Ireland was self-governing but was not a sovereign state. Its constitutional roots remained the Acts of Union, two complementary acts, one passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, the other by the Parliament of Ireland.
On 27 May 1922 (some months before the establishment of the Irish Free State) Lord FitzAlan, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in accordance with the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 dissolved the Parliament of Southern Ireland and by proclamation called "a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament". From that date, the Parliament of Southern Ireland ceased to exist. With the establishment of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922 under the terms of the treaty, Southern Ireland ceased to exist.