User:Jnestorius/Anglo-Irish Treaty Dáil vote


 * Anglo-Irish Treaty Dáil vote

Dáil Éireann voted on 7 January 1922 to approve the Anglo-Irish Treaty which had been signed in London on 6 December 1921. The vote was 64 in favour, 57 against, with the Ceann Comhairle and 3 other TDs not voting. The contentious debate lasted from 14 December 1921 until the day of the vote; the outcome split the Sinn Féin party and led to the Irish Civil War from June 1922 to May 1923.

Background
The Second Dáil was formed by the Sinn Féin candidates elected in June 1921 in simultaneous elections to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and the House of Commons of Northern Ireland. Unionist and Nationalist Party members elected were invited to the Dáil but did not recognise it as legitimate. 124 of 128 members returned for Southern constituencies, and 6 of 52 for Northern constituencies, were from Sinn Féin. 125 different Sinn Féin candidates were elected, including five returned for both a Northern and a Southern constituency. The election happened shortly before a truce on 12 July 1921 marked the end of fighting in Irish War of Independence between the Irish Republican Army, loyal to the Dáil, and security forces of the United Kingdom. In September confidential negotiations began between the British government and plenipotentiaries authorised by the Dáil ministry. In the early hours of 6 December 1922, both teams of negotiators signed "Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland", commonly called the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It envisaged the creation of an "Irish Free State", a political compromise between Irish nationalism and British unionism. When the details of the Treaty were published, Sinn Féin supporters were divided between moderates, who saw it as an honourable stepping stone towards ultimate full independence, and diehards, who saw it as a betrayal of the party's Republican principles. The Dáil reassembled on 14 December to debate ratification of the Treaty.

Votes
Of the 125 Teachtaí Dála (TDs), 121 voted on 7 January: 64 in favour of the Treaty and 57 against. In accordance with standing orders, Ceann Comhairle Eoin MacNeill (elected for both Londonderry and National University of Ireland) had only a casting vote, which was not required. MacNeill ruled that the four other TDs who had been elected for two constituencies would each cast only one vote; of the four, Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, and Seán Milroy voted for the Treaty, and Éamon de Valera against. Three TDs eligible to vote did not do so:
 * Frank Drohan resigned his seat on 5 January 1922, because he was personally anti-Treaty while his local Sinn Féin Comhairle Ceanntair was pro-Treaty.
 * Laurence Ginnell (anti-Treaty) was absent
 * Thomas Kelly (pro-Treaty) was ill

The following table lists all members of the Dáil on 5 January 1922; how they voted in the Treaty ratification; what party they stood for in the subsequent general elections of 1922, 1923, and June 1927, and whether they were elected; and any part they played in the Civil War of 1922–23.
 * Notes:

Elections Ireland
References from the Elections Ireland website:

Category:1922 in Ireland Category:Assembly votes Category:Irish Free State