Anglo-Irish Treaty

The treaty was signed in London by representatives of the British government and envoys plenipotentiary of the Irish Republic (i.e., negotiators empowered to sign a treaty without reference back to their superiors) on December 6, 1921. Three-fold ratification of the treaty by Dáil Éireann, the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and the British Parliament was required. The Irish side were split on the Treaty, and it was only narrowly ratified in the Dáil. Though duly enacted, the split produced the Irish Civil War which was ultimately won by the pro-treaty side.

Negotiators of the Treaty

The negotiators included

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• David Lloyd George, MP (British Prime Minister)
• Lord Birkenhead
• Winston Churchill
• Austen Chamberlain
• Sir Gordon Hewart
• Arthur Griffith (Chairman of the Irish delegation)
• Michael Collins, TD (Irish Republic's Minister for Finance and head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood).
• Robert Barton
• E.J. Duggan
• Charles Gavan Duffy

(Robert Erskine Childers, the author of the Riddle of the Sands and former Clerk of the British House of Commons served as one of the secretaries of the Irish delegation. Tom Jones was one of Lloyd George's principal assistants, and described the negotiations in his book Whitehall Diary.)

Related Topics:
Robert Erskine Childers - Tom Jones

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