WHAT’S THE STORY?

IT was 100 years ago today on August 16, 1921, that the second Dail Eireann – the Assembly or Parliament of Ireland – was formed in Dublin. The first Dail, which met for the first time in January 1919, is generally seen as the foundation stone of the Irish Republic, but it was the second Dail which achieved and ratified the Anglo-Irish Treaty that brought about the Irish Free State, precursor of the current Republic of Ireland.

The second Dail was thus hugely important in the development of an independent Ireland, not least because it followed the end of the Irish War of Independence and its deliberations foreshadowed the Irish Civil War that would begin the following year. Its most historic achievement, however, was to ensure that 26 counties of Ireland would eventually gain independence. The other six counties on the island would make up Northern Ireland.

HOW DID THE DAIL BEGIN?

AFTER the General Election of December 1918, the 73 elected MPs from Sinn Fein, who had all but wiped out the Unionist Irish Parliamentary Party, refused to take their seats in Westminster. The party had stood on a manifesto commitment to establish the Irish Republic, and on January 21, 1919, the first Dail met in the Mansion House in Dublin as the self-proclaimed and self-determined parliament of Ireland.

Their first move was to promulgate the declaration of Irish independence: “We, the elected Representatives of the ancient Irish people in National Parliament assembled, do, in the name of the Irish nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration effective by every means at our command.”

They added: “We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we will never tolerate, and we demand the evacuation of our country by the English Garrison.”

The UK Government neither recognised the Dail’s declaration of a republic nor withdrew its troops, and the Irish War of Independence began shortly afterwards.

It was bloody and brutal, and the British had no hesitation in pursuing tactics like internment and torture. In a bid to institute home rule rather than Irish independence, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 brought in a Parliament for Southern Ireland and Sinn Fein won 124 of 128 seats unopposed in May 1921, seven of them won by women at a time when only one woman, Nancy Astor, sat in the Commons. Among the intake at the second Dail was Constance Markievicz, who had been elected to Westminster in 1918 but did not take up her seat.

Again, Sinn Feiners refused to take their seats, and set up a second Dail. Sinn Fein leader and president of the Republic, Eamon de Valera, was main speaker on the opening day.

WHAT HAPPENED THAT DAY?

IN the Mansion House in Dublin, the TDs – Teachta Dala or assembly deputies or delegates – met in front of hundreds of onlookers and press.

They duly swore an oath of allegiance, pledging themselves to “support and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic, which is Dail Eireann, against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. First up was Michael Collins, TD for Armagh, who was met with loud applause.

De Valera called for the British to recognise the legitimacy of the Dail and recognise the right to self-determination for Ireland, pointing out that the UK prime minister David Lloyd George had wanted the same for Poland and Belgium.

Century Ireland, produced by RTE, noted recently: “Margaret Pearse, TD for Dublin County and mother of two executed leaders of the 1916 Rising, signed the roll dressed in mourning attire, as did Kate O’Callaghan, TD for Limerick City, whose husband was murdered by crown forces earlier that year.”

It was a powerfully emotive and historic day for Ireland, because here was a parliament which had the most telling endorsement of all – the settled will of the Irish people for independence.

WHAT HAPPENED OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS?

ON August 26, De Valera resigned but was immediately re-elected, this time adopting the title of president of the Republic. Negotiations began with the British government. Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton, Eamonn Duggan and George Gavan Duffy were sent as envoys to a peace conference which produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty. De Valera was not happy with the Treaty, so the new Irish Free State began in 1922 with civil war between those who backed the Treaty and those who did not.