CHAPTER 1
âStepping Stones to Freedomâ:
Pro-Treaty Rhetoric and
Strategy During the DĂĄil
Treaty Debates
Mel Farrell
In the early hours of 6 December 1921, realpolitik collided with the aspirations of revolutionary Sinn FĂ©in. For four years, the party had stood for Irelandâs full independence as a 32-county republic. Since its breakthrough in the December 1918 general election, the party defied British authority by abstaining from Westminster, issuing a declaration of independence, and establishing an underground counter-state. Sinn FĂ©in had also ignored the British governmentâs first attempt at a peace settlement, the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, which partitioned the island into âNorthernâ and âSouthernâ Ireland with limited âhome ruleâ parliaments established in Belfast and Dublin. However, at the negotiating table in 1921, a Sinn FĂ©in delegation felt compelled to conclude a peace treaty that gave those twenty-six counties of âSouthern Irelandâ self-government as an Irish free state with dominion status and that recognised the right of âNorthern Irelandâ to âopt outâ, with a boundary commission to determine the border between the two jurisdictions. Moreover, the Treaty stipulated that members of the Free State parliament would have to swear an oath of fidelity to the British monarch. While these terms were repugnant to most Sinn FĂ©iners, the leaders of the Irish delegation, Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, emphasised the documentâs potential. For Collins, in particular, the Treaty offered Ireland its first real step on the road to full independence. By mid-December, he and Griffith had to go before the DĂĄil to convince Sinn FĂ©inâs elected representatives that they had made the correct decision.
While the broader pro-Treaty case has been examined by numerous scholars of the Irish Revolution, this chapter will examine the rhetoric and strategies deployed by pro-Treaty Sinn FĂ©iners during the acrimonious DĂĄil debates on the settlement.1 While attitudes to the Treaty remained in flux in the aftermath of 6 December, two distinct factions began to crystallise around leading members of the DĂĄil. Griffith and Collins each had their loyalists and this chapter will focus on pro-Treaty contributors representing both moderate (Kevin OâHiggins, Patrick Hogan and W.T. Cosgrave) and more hard-line, militarist-republican opinion (SeĂĄn Mac Eoin, Eoin OâDuffy and SeĂĄn Hales) within the DĂĄil. As John Regan observed, these moderates and hard-liners joined together to support Collins and Griffith âon the promise that one day they would advance together toward the republicâ.2
When the debate commenced, a pro-Treaty majority was by no means a foregone conclusion. Sitting in judgement were the elected representatives of one party â Sinn FĂ©in. The party was a broad church representing a wide range of Irish nationalist opinion. Launched by Griffith in 1905 as a âdual-monarchistâ party, Sinn FĂ©in was reconstituted in October 1917 in order to accommodate republicans. Some of the more militant newcomers bore a deep distrust of the moderate tendencies of the partyâs founders.3 Leading up to the debates, the partyâs leader, and symbolic head of the Irish Republic, Ăamon de Valera, had already landed a heavy blow by denouncing the Treaty out of hand and voting against it in cabinet. However, de Valeraâs opposition to the Treaty was somewhat compromised by his own refusal to join the delegation in London.4 Moreover, much of the DĂĄilâs new intake of TDs, elected to the Second DĂĄil in May 1921, were intimately acquainted with the Easter Rising and the Anglo-Irish War, either as participants or as relatives of prominent republican figures. Therefore, the Second DĂĄil was representative of a more hard-line, republican position than the First DĂĄil. December 1918 had coincided with the âWilsonian Momentâ and there were hopes that Irelandâs case would be heard at the Paris Peace Conference. By May 1921, however, the context had changed. The principle of âself-determinationâ was applied in central and eastern Europe, not Ireland, while close to thirty months of guerrilla warfare and British reprisals had hardened attitudes on both sides. With 128 seats available in the May 1921 elections to the proposed âSouthernâ Ireland parliament, Sinn FĂ©in needed candidates and turned to individuals who were prominent in the revolutionary war. As such, the new DĂĄil was strongly representative of the militarist-republican wing of the movement with a number of TDs representing brigades and divisions as much as their constituents.5 Therefore, in order to win the DĂĄil vote, Collins, Griffith and their lieutenants effectively had to challenge de Valeraâs authority, counter republican accusations that their bargain was a betrayal of those who had fought and died for full independence, and demonstrate that beneath the Treatyâs repugnant trappings of British imperialism, lay a document of some potential. In succeeding, they built a pro-Treaty coalition â including moderate Sinn FĂ©iners and militarist republicans â held together by Collinsâs âstepping stones to freedomâ interpretation of the settlement. During the Free Stateâs formative years, Cumann na nGaedheal would struggle to hold that coalition together.
Free State or Republic?
Given their role in determining revolutionary Sinn FĂ©inâs position on the Anglo-Irish settlement of 1921, the DĂĄil Treaty debates are of singular importance in the emergence of modern Irish democracy. Veteran Home Rule Party politician Tim Healy was rather captivated by the Treaty debates, remarking that it was âmore interesting to me than thousands of debates I have heard in the House of Commonsâ and declaring that the âability displayed on both sidesâ gave him âgreat hope and encouragement as to the futureâ.6 While an ex-constitutionalist like Healy could regard the Treaty settlement as a âhappy solutionâ to the Anglo-Irish conflict, it was clear in December 1921 that a large number of DĂĄil deputies â and quite possibly a majority â were of a different opinion.7 Although the DĂĄil vote on 7 January 1922 revealed a pro-Treaty majority of seven, it was widely believed that the Treaty would have been narrowly defeated had the vote been taken before Christmas.8 This serves to underline both the effectiveness of the pro-Treaty partyâs strategy and the impact of public opinion.
As it set out to secure DĂĄil endorsement for the âArticles of Agreementâ, the emerging pro-Treaty party faced a number of serious obstacles. In order to secure DĂĄil backing for the Treaty, these would have to be overcome. These difficulties centred on the make-up of the DĂĄil itself, the stark divisions that had emerged in the Sinn FĂ©in leadership, and the reality that some elements of the Treaty settlement were objectionable to most Sinn FĂ©iners, whether moderate or republican. Many advocates of the Treaty were themselves uncomfortable with its imperial trappings. Since the cabinet had split narrowly in favour of the Treaty (by four votes to three), it was widely acknowledged that the DĂĄil vote was in the balance.9 Collins and Griffith needed to demonstrate that the Treaty, despite its trappings of British imperialism, could in fact be congruent with the aspirations of the revolutionary period: full independence, Irish unity and the Republic. In that context, the Treatyâs insistence on a boundary commission and dominion status were undoubtedly vexed issues for Sinn FĂ©in. However, the most divisive issue of all proved to be the stipulation that Free State parliamentarians swear an oath before taking their seats. The wording of the oath, which was finally agreed on the morning of 5 December, called for âfaith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free Stateâ, and that members of the DĂĄil be âfaithful to His Majesty King George V, his Heirs and Successorsâ as head of the British Commonwealth.10 In an irony that would not have been lost on its supporters in the DĂĄil, when the terms of the Anglo-Irish settlement were debated in the House of Commons on 14 December â a debate covered extensively in the Irish press â the ambiguous wording of the oath proved one of its more contentious issues.11 Tory die-hards preferred an unambiguous expression of allegiance to the Crown, while there were concerns that the formation of an Irish Free State would weaken Britainâs hold on the empire. Unionist leader Sir Edward Carson wondered why the new Irish state needed an army âunless it is to invade us?â and went so far as to describe the Treaty as âan abject humiliationâ for Britain.12 Other Tory die-hards talked of the betrayal of southern unionists and âthe surrender of the rights of the crown in Irelandâ.13
For anti-Treatyites in Sinn FĂ©in, the oath was both a recognition of the British Crown in Ireland and a contravention of their own oath to the Republic. They argued, therefore, that the Treaty was a surrender to Bri...