Happy birthday Ireland!

[macliam]

Or at least, Happy Anniversary. 100 years since the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 99 years since the formal creation of an independent ireland.

On this day in 1921, representatives of Dáil Éireann, the parliament established after Sinn Féin's landslide victory in the 1918 general election, met with Crown representatives to sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty, ending the Irish War of Independence.

On the Irish side, the delegation members were:
- Arthur Griffith,(chairman), TD, MP and Foreign Minister
- Michael Collins, TD, MP and Finance Minister
- Robert Barton, TD, MP and Minister for Economic Affairs
- Eamonn Duggan, TD and MP
- George Gavan Duffy, TD and MP

On the British side, the delegation memebers were:
- David Lloyd George (chairman) MP and Prime Minister
- Lord Birkenhead, Lord Chancellor
- Austen Chamberlain, MP and Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons
- Winston Churchill, MP and Secretary of State for the Colonies
- Sir Laming Worthington-Evans Bt, MP and Secretary of State for War
- Sir Gordon Hewart, MP and Attorney General
- Sir Hamar Greenwood, MP and Chief Secretary for Ireland

Among the treaty's main clauses were that:

- Crown forces would withdraw from 26 counties (but not from the 6 Ulster counties).
- Ireland would become a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, like Australia, Canada, etc.
- The King would be Head of State of the new free state, represented by a Governor General.
- Members of the new free state's parliament would be required to take an Oath of Allegiance.
- Northern Ireland (created by a previous Act) could withdraw from the new free state.
- Britain would keep certain"Treaty Ports" for the Royal Navy.
- The new free state would be liable for a proportion of the UK's National Debt
- The treaty would take precedence over the new Constitution of the Irish Free State.

When one of the British signatories complained that he might have signed his political death warrant, Michael Collins responded “I have signed my actual death-warrant.”, due to acceptance of these conditions and acknowledgement of the partition of Ulster. He was right.

On this day in 1922, Saorstát Éireann, (the Irish Free State) came into being - the treaty having been accepted by the majority of TDs, but a sizeable number opposed. This opposition crystalised into the Irish Civil War from June 1922 to April 1923 - so the birth of this new state came at a time of conflict. Nevertheless, Saorstát Éireann lasted until 1937, when a new constitution created the Republic of Ireland and severed ties to the Crown.