{"id":4926,"date":"2022-01-07T09:35:52","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T09:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=4926"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:08:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:08:21","slug":"the-ratification-of-the-treaty-7-january-1922","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/the-ratification-of-the-treaty-7-january-1922\/","title":{"rendered":"THE RATIFICATION OF THE TREATY 7 JANUARY 1922"},"content":{"rendered":"

100 years ago today<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ratification of the Treaty 7 January 1922<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Durney<\/strong><\/p>\n

D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann met to debate the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the Council Chamber of UCD, then at Earlsfort Terrace (now the National Concert Hall), on 14 December 1921 for eight days and another five days in January. The debate broke for Christmas and renewed again in the new year. On 3 January 1922 the D\u00e1il resumed the Treaty debate, while outside Earlsfort Terrace, crowds chanted \u2018Ratify! Ratify!\u2019 The first speaker was Kildare TD Art O\u2019Connor who posed the question as to whether the Treaty was one of duress or consent. O\u2019Connor, first elected as a Sinn F\u00e9in TD in the general election of 1918, spoke very eloquently:<\/p>\n

‘I am going to try to set a good example at this renewed session of An D\u00e1il by being very brief in what I have got to say \u2026. I must say that the Treaty has suffered from its advocates both within this assembly and without it. I have been listening to the debates for several days and I have been unable to discover whether the Treaty is a Treaty by consent, or whether it is a Treaty signed under duress. To my mind it would make a big difference to this assembly if we knew definitely which was which \u2013 whether this assembly is being asked to go into the British Empire with its head up or whether it is being forced into the British Empire.’<\/p>\n

After Art O\u2019Connor quoted James Connolly when he said that it is not the extent of the step at all that matters, but it is the direction of the step, he was interrupted by Michael Collins who said to cheers from his supporters, \u2018That\u2019s the stuff. Hear, Hear. Good for Connolly.\u2019 O\u2019Connor then retorted, \u2018Yes, you can applaud that because you think it suits your policy or is your policy. Yes, wrap as much of that soft soldier in as you possibly can because the result will prove that it is a step backward. It is a step off the solid rock. You are in the swamp, and you will be swamped.\u2019 Collins replied that he \u2018was often in a swamp and I did not get many to pull me out\u2019, to which O\u2019Connor said, \u2018I would like to give you a long stick to pull you out, because I am sorry you are in it, and going into it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Asked by Se\u00e1n Milroy, TD for Cavan and Fermanagh & Tyrone, what his constituents thought O\u2019Connor replied,<\/p>\n

‘\u2026 My constituents gave me a definite mandate in 1918, and they renewed that mandate last May. And my mandate was to the best of my ability I should support the Republican Government in this country. I have not changed. I told them they could change. Perhaps they have changed, but I will not change. I told them a couple of months ago when I spoke to them publicly that I would not change; they could change if they chose. I will vote against this Treaty because the acceptance of it would mean the death knell of this D\u00e1il and Republic.’<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
South Kildare TD Art O’Connor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Treaty debate lasted to 7 January 1922 with many deep and moving speeches. However, it was a bad-tempered debate. Cathal Brugha mocked Collins\u2019 stirring position as \u2018the man who won the war\u2019, while Constance Markievicz called Collins and his colleagues \u2018oath breakers and cowards\u2019. Collins in response labelled \u00c9amon de Valera and Erskine Childers as \u2018foreigners, Americans, English\u2019 and their supporters as \u2018deserters all to the Irish nation in her hour of need\u2019. Before the final vote was taken de Valera uttered a last protest saying, \u2018That document will rise in judgement against the men who say there\u2019s only a shadow of difference\u2019, while Michael Collins cried out, \u2018Let the Irish nation judge us now and for future years.\u2019 Then the vote was taken. Sixty-four voted for the Treaty while fifty-seven voted against, a majority of seven in favour of the Treaty. De Valera declared he would resign as Chief Executive and spoke of four years of \u2018magnificent discipline in our nation\u2019. Then as he said movingly, \u2018The world is looking at us now\u2026\u2019 he broke down as tears overcame him.<\/p>\n

The ratification of the Treaty was supported by the Catholic Church, local authorities and nearly every newspaper in the country, including the nationalist papers The Leinster Leader<\/em> and The Nationalist & Leinster Times<\/em> and the conservative Kildare Observer<\/em>. Cardinal Michael Logue, Catholic primate of all Ireland, suggested that opponents of the Treaty did nothing \u2018but talk and wrangle for days about their shadowy republic and their obligations to it\u2019. The Kildare Observer<\/em> noted in its editorial of 14 January 1922 that too much had been made of the people\u2019s mandate for a Republic and the question of the Treaty and the establishment of an Irish Free State needed to be put before the people. In the end, it was the Irish people, for many reasons, who would give their greatest support to the ratification of the Treaty in the general election of June 1922.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

100 years ago today The ratification of the Treaty 7 January 1922 James Durney D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann met to debate the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the Council Chamber of UCD, then at Earlsfort Terrace (now the National Concert Hall), on 14 December 1921 for eight days and another five days in January. The debate broke for Christmas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-decade-of-centenaries"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8073,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions\/8073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}