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The Anglo-Irish Treaty

© Viola Ashford

Ireland's 'Bloody Sunday', made notorious, partly through the song of U2, occurred on January 30, 1972. On this day the British army fired into a crowd of 30,000 people marching in Derry to protest the internment of political activists. 13 people died and 17 wounded.

Not many people realise, however, that this was, in fact, Ireland's second 'Bloody Sunday'. The first occurred as long ago as November 21, 1920 when the infamous Black and Tans fired on a crowd innocently watching a football match on a lazy Sunday at Croke Park. This was, however, in retaliation for the assassination of 14 British officers by Michael Collin's army which effectively destroyed the British Secret Service in Ireland.

Acts like these by the Black and Tans had turned public opinion strongly against the English treatment of the Irish, even in England itself.

In 1921 the war between Great Britain and Ireland which had begun in 1919 ended, with neither side winning. A truce was declared and Treaty negotiations for an independent Ireland began. Ireland had already annoyed the British Parliament by declaring itself a 32-county Republic (this included the great bone of contention, Ulster) with Eamon de Valera as President. Lloyd George, known as 'the Welsh Wizard', was head of a Coalition with a Unionist majority strongly opposed to independence.

The Irish delegation consisted of Michael Collins, the famous Irish fighter, Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton, Duffy and Duggan. There was hostility between Collins and De Valera, who refused to go, even though he was a skilled politician, knowing that the British would never agree to the Irish terms. He did not want to be associated with anything less than an independent Republic. Michael Collins would be the 'scapegoat'.

The highly experienced, skilled and powerful English team consisted of Lloyd George, Austen, Chamberlain, Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill. Many of these men had no love for the Irish, who had little chance against them.

The English were adamantly opposed to an Irish republic and wanted the Irish to agree to Dominion status, signing an oath of allegiance and the exclusion of six counties of Ulster. Although the terms of the draft Treaty were supposed to be presented to the Irish Cabinet before it was signed, there was little time for this. The Irish Cabinet had refused the terms once, but Lloyd George, having reached an impasse, threatened war if the Treaty was not signed. The terms were not presented to the Irish again - the threat of war was the clincher for Collins and Griffith, who believed that the Irish could not win an all-out war against the British.