Tag: Irish Free State

#OTD in 1922 – Craig-Collins Pact was signed in London. The Irish Free State formally recognised Northern Ireland government.

30/03/2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, concerned that violence in the north of Ireland would cause the collapse of the new Northern Ireland administration, organised a meeting in London between Michael Collins and Sir James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, both to try to stop the IRA violence which Collins had been tacitly encouraging […]

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#OTD in 1922 – The IRA kidnaps more than forty loyalists activists and ‘B’ Specials.

07/02/2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

In mid-January 1922 the Monaghan football team was arrested in the North on their way to play Derry in the final of the Ulster Championship. On 7 February the IRA responded by kidnapping forty-two prominent loyalists in Fermanagh and Tyrone and held them as hostages. A party of eighteen armed B-Specials, when travelling by train […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Cumann na mBan votes overwhelmingly to reject the Treaty.

05/02/2023.Reading time 1 minute.

On 7 January 1922 the Anglo-Irish Treaty was approved by the Second Dáil by a close vote of 64–57. On 5 February a convention was held to discuss this, and 419 Cumann na mBan members voted against as opposed to 63 in favour. In the ensuing Civil War, its members largely supported the anti-Treaty Republican […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Michael Collins takes over control of Dublin Castle from the British authorities on behalf of the new Irish Free state.

16/01/2023.Reading time 1 minute.

Dublin Castle originally built as a defensive fortification during the Norman period, evolved into the seat of British power, housing the mechanisms of the British government in Ireland. The Lord Lieutenant or the Viceroy of Ireland, the representative of the British crown, resided in the Castle. Parliament and the royal courts also took place in […]

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#OTD in 1937 – The new Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) repealed the 1922 Constitution, and came into effect on this date.

29/12/2022.Reading time 1 minute.

The Irish Constitution, accepted by national vote in July became law at midnight. The constitution echoed much of the thinking of Éamon de Valera. Much of the development and drafting of the constitution was done by John J. Hearne, Éamon de Valera’s confidante and advisor. Hearne went on to become first Irish ambassador to the […]

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#OTD in 1922 – The last British troops leave the Free State.

17/12/2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

They are the remnants of a 5,000 strong garrison maintained up to that point in Dublin, commanded by Nevil Macready. Last British troops leave the twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State. It appears to have been a friendly farewell, even while Ireland was embroiled in its own Civil War. The Union Jack was lowered […]

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#OTD in 1936 – In the wake of the abdication of Edward VIII, the Dáil passes legislation removing the King from the Irish Constitution and abolishing the position of Governor General.

12/12/2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was pursuing a divorce of her second. Police detectives following Simpson reported back that, while involved with Edward, she was also involved with a married […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Robert Erskine Childers was executed by a Free State firing squad at 7am in Dublin.

24/11/2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Nationalist, Robert Erskine Childers, author of Riddle of the Sands, arms smuggler, father of the fourth president of Ireland Erskine Childers was executed by Free State government for carrying an unlawful weapon at 7am in Dublin (as well as eight other IRA members). Childers supported the Anti-Treaty forces in the vicious Irish civil war which […]

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#OTD in 1922 – Four Anti-Treaty IRA men from Dublin, who were captured with weapons in Co Wicklow, are shot by firing squad.

17/11/2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

In the first use of the powers enacted under the Public Safety Act, five Anti-Treaty IRA fighters who had been captured with arms in Co Wicklow were shot by firing squad in Dublin. On 19 November, three more Anti-Treaty IRA men were executed, also in Dublin. On 24 November, Robert Erskine Childers, an acclaimed author […]

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#OTD in Irish History | 17 November:

17/11/2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

1814 – Joseph Finegan, a Confederate general in the American Civil War, is born in Clones, Co Monaghan. 1852 – Sligo-born Brigadier Michael Corcoran’s Irish Legion is mustered into the Federal service; it is involved in the defense of Washington D.C. 1869 – For nearly 150 years, the Suez Canal has played a vital role […]

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