The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State

Description

I tell you this early morning I signed my death warrant.
Michael Collins on the day that the Anglo-Irish Treaty was concluded, 6 December 1921

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 was narrowly accepted by the revolutionary Dáil Éireann in January 1922, splitting Sinn Féin irrevocably and leading to the Irish Civil War, a rupture that still defines the Irish political landscape almost one hundred years on.

Drawing together the work of a diverse range of scholars, who each re-examine this critical period in Irish political history from a variety of fascinating perspectives, The Treaty addresses the vexed question of the vote itself – how political factions were represented and how they fashioned their fervent rhetoric – and the enduring shockwaves it sent through Irish society.

Table of Contents

Foreword ~ Nora Owen

Introduction ~ Liam Weeks and Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh

1. ‘Stepping Stones to Freedom’: Pro-Treaty Rhetoric andStrategy During the Dáil Treaty Debates ~ Mel Farrell

2. ‘We Should for the Present Stand Absolutely Aloof’: Home Rule Perspectives on the Treaty Debates ~ Martin O’Donoghue

3. Republican Representations of the Treaty. ‘A Usurpation, Pure and Simple’ John Dorney

4. ‘Merely Tuppence Half-Penny Looking Down on Tuppence’? Class, the Second Dáil and Irish Republicanism ~ Brian Hanley

5. ‘Between two Hells’: The Social, Political and Military Backgrounds and Motivations of the 121 TDs Who Voted For or Against the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922 ~ Eunan O’Halpin and Mary Staines

6. Debating not Negotiating: The Female TDs of the Second Dáil ~ Sinéad McCoole

7. ‘An Idea Has Gone Abroad that All the Women Were Against the Treaty’: Cumann na Saoirse and Pro-Treaty Women, 1922-1923 ~ Mary McAuliffe 

8. Leaders or Followers? Sinn Féin, the Split and Representing the Farmers in the Treaty Debates ~ Tony Varley

9. ‘More than Words’: A Quantitative Text Analysis of the Treaty Debates ~ Liam Weeks, Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh, Slava Mikhaylov and Alexander Herzog

10. The Treaty: A Historical and Legal Interpretation ~ Laura Cahillane and Paul Murray

11. Conclusion ~ Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh and Liam Weeks 

About the Editors

Liam Weeks is a lecturer in the Department of Government & Politics, University College Cork, and is author of All Politics is Local: A Guide to Local Elections in Ireland (with Aodh Quinlivan, 2009), Radical or Redundant? Minor Parties in Irish Political Life (co-edited with Alastair Clark, 2012) and Independents in Irish Party Democracy (2017).

Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh is a lecturer in the Department of Humanities & Social Science, Dublin Business School, and is author of Irish Agriculture Nationalised: The Dairy Disposal Company and the Making of the Modern Irish Dairy Industry (2014) and Developing Rural Ireland: A History of the Irish Agricultural Advisory Services (forthcoming, 2019).