I.

Introduction

Irish Free State (1922-1937), Irish dominion of the Commonwealth of Nations established by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. In 1937 it became the independent state of Éire (later the Republic of Ireland). The Free State was composed of 26 of the counties on the island of Ireland; it did not include the six northern counties that became Northern Ireland.

The establishment of the Irish Free State was the culmination of the Irish Revolution (1912-1922), in which Irish nationalists conducted a guerrilla campaign to convince the British to allow Ireland an independent government. The revolution ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which created the Irish Free State.

II.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Founding of the Free State

The Anglo-Irish Treaty did not deliver a completely independent Irish republic, however. Under the treaty, the Irish Free State was to remain a part of the British Empire, which meant that its leaders would still be required to swear allegiance to the British Crown. In addition, the treaty left several strategically important ports in Ireland in British hands, and required the Free State to take responsibility for a portion of the war debt of the United Kingdom. It also allowed the six counties of Northern Ireland to withdraw from the Free State within a month of its foundation if they desired—which they did the day after the Free State was established.

The treaty was debated extensively in the Dáil Eireann, the congress that the revolutionary forces had established in Dublin during the revolution. The debate split both Sinn Féin, the political party that had worked for Irish independence, and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which had fought the British during the Irish Revolution. The primary cause of the split was the issue of allegiance to the British Crown. Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin members continued to demand an autonomous republic with no reference to the British king or empire in its constitution.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was finally accepted by the Dáil on January 7, 1922, and a provisional government led by Michael Collins was established. The anti-Treaty grouping refused to recognize the provisional government, and on June 28, 1922, Collins’s government ordered the army of the Free State to attack the anti-Treaty rebels; this was the beginning of the Irish Civil War.

The constitution of the Irish Free State was drafted by members of the Dáil in mid-1922, and after approval by the British Parliament, went into effect on December 6. The British king remained head of state, but his representative in the Free State, the governor-general, was an Irishman and a commoner. Members of the Irish parliament, which under the new constitution contained two houses (the Dáil and the Seanad, or senate), swore an oath of allegiance to the British king, but only in his capacity as the head of the association of nations then known as the British Commonwealth. The style of this oath preserved the republican principle of deriving authority from the people rather than from the British Crown.

III.

The Cosgrave Governments

Following the death in August 1922 of Collins in an ambush near Bandon, County Cork, William Cosgrave took over as chairman of the provisional government. His pro-Treaty party was in power from 1923 to 1932 and achieved considerable success in building a new state and establishing democratic institutions that mirrored the British ones that had preceded them. The civil service structure was taken over in its entirety from the British, and new departments of finance and defence were established. The Free State army and police force were restructured and enlarged. The judicial system was reorganized, but British law and its structures were retained.

Cosgrave’s governments worked to obtain greater freedom for the Free State within the Commonwealth. They resolved conflicts with Britain, including one over the question of the Free State’s responsibility for Britain’s war debt, and took a series of measures to strengthen the economy. One was the construction of a hydroelectric project on the River Shannon. The government believed these changes would aid the Free State’s trade and increase the chances of unification with Northern Ireland.

The Free State joined the League of Nations in 1923, and the following year it became the first Commonwealth nation to send its own ambassador to Washington, D.C. The Free State’s delegations also played crucial roles in the Imperial Conferences of Commonwealth countries in 1926, 1929, and 1930. Their efforts contributed to the passing of the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which enabled the Commonwealth’s members to pass legislation independently of the British Parliament. In effect, this gave the Free State the power to withdraw from the Commonwealth and overturn the 1921 treaty if it so desired.

IV.

Fianna Fáil Government

By 1932 Cosgrave’s popularity had waned. His governments were financially conservative and had failed to cope with domestic problems that resulted from the world economic crisis of the early 1930s (see Great Depression). In 1932 Cosgrave’s government was defeated by Fianna Fáil, an offshoot of the anti-Treaty faction, led by Eamon De Valera. Following the elections, Fianna Fáil formed its first government with the support of the Labour Party. It immediately began the process of consolidating its position in power, and less than a year after taking office, De Valera called a snap election and was returned to power with the first majority government in the history of the state.

After gaining office, De Valera immediately began the process of making the Free State both economically and governmentally independent from Britain. In 1932 he initiated a tariff war with Britain by withholding interest payments on land that had been purchased by Irish farmers from the British government. Though the tariff war damaged the Free State economy in the short term, De Valera later introduced measures intended to build up the economy and increase its self-sufficiency. These included higher income taxes for the wealthy, high protective tariffs, and government control of foreign capital invested in Irish industry.

The Fianna Fáil government faced two internal threats—one from the IRA and the other from some of Cosgrave’s supporters who organized themselves as the Blueshirt organization and adopted the trappings of continental fascism. In 1933 violence between the IRA and the Blueshirts and between the Blueshirts and the police escalated. De Valera used special legislation to suppress the activities of the Blueshirts, first banning the organization outright, and then establishing a special military court to deal with Blueshirt members. Though the Blueshirts repeatedly changed the name of their organization, first to the Young Ireland Association and then to the League of Youth, the groups were banned immediately by the government each time. The government bans on the organization along with growing discontent within the group led to a series of internal feuds, and the Blueshirts disintegrated in 1934 and 1935. After 1933 the IRA became increasingly critical of De Valera’s failure to deliver an independent Irish republic. In 1935 De Valera severed his ties with the IRA and invoked the same legislation against them that he had used earlier against the Blueshirts. Those members who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the state under Fianna Fáil were imprisoned.

V.

The End of the Free State

De Valera worked to remove British influence in the Free State’s government. In 1933 he abolished the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. The office of governor-general was ignored by the new administration and finally abolished in 1936. The Free State senate, which had opposed and delayed these moves, as well as special legislation to suppress the Blueshirts, was effectively abolished in 1935. In 1936 De Valera removed all references to the British king in the Free State constitution.

During the following year, he worked exhaustively on a new constitution, which was passed by referendum on June 1, 1936. The new constitution established a president as head of state and created a republic in all but name. Under the new constitution, Éire, as the Free State became known, remained a member of the British Commonwealth until 1949, when it was officially declared the Republic of Ireland.