First meeting of the two month negotiations commences at 11.00am. The Irish delegation which had arrived in London two days previously to a rapturous reception from their exiled kinfolk consisted of Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith (Chairman of the delegation), Robert Barton (Minister for Economic Affairs), George Gavan Duffy and Eamonn Duggan, The delegates were styled ‘Envoys Plenipotentiary’ and given power to “‘negotiate and conclude … a treaty or treaties of settlement, association and accommodation between Ireland and the community of nations known as the British Commonwealth.”

Photo: Michael Collins