The Irish Free State

 

Michael Collins (1890-1922)

Born in Cork, Michael Collins was a revolutionary. He took part in the 1916 Rising in Dublin and became head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was part of the delegation that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, the terms of which led to the Irish Civil War in 1922. Collins became the commander-in-chief of the Government forces. He was killed in an ambush in his native Cork in 1922.

Image courtesy of the Michael Collins Centre , Clonakilty, Co. Cork.

Michael Collins (1890-1922)
Image courtesy of the Michael Collins Centre , Clonakilty, Co. Cork.

Michael Collins (1890-1922)

Born in Cork, Michael Collins was a revolutionary. He took part in the 1916 Rising in Dublin and became head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was part of the delegation that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, the terms of which led to the Irish Civil War in 1922. Collins became the commander-in-chief of the Government forces. He was killed in an ambush in his native Cork in 1922.

Image courtesy of the Michael Collins Centre , Clonakilty, Co. Cork.

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The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) (1922–1937) was the name initially given to the Irish State, made up of twenty-six of the thirty-two counties on the island of Ireland after the War of Independence. It was set up under the Anglo-Irish Treaty and signed by British and Irish representatives in London on 6 December 1921.

The Treaty was divisive and caused a split in the Irish independence movement, with those against it wishing for greater sovereignty. Those in favour of the Treaty maintained that it was a step towards greater independence, which would be achieved by more peaceful means. A brief but bloody civil war followed between the two sides, which was won by the Free State forces under Cumman na nGeadheal. The Republican side, which had opposed the Treaty, eventually entered Government as Fianna Fáil under Éamon de Valera in 1932 and was in power for the following sixteen years. In 1937, de Valera replaced the Constitution of the Irish Free State with the Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) and declared Ireland a 'soverign, independent democratic state'.