Irish Free State

The Irish Free State (Irish: Saorstát Éireann) was (1922–1937) the name of the state comprising the 26 of Ireland's 32 counties which were separated from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Irish Free State Agreement (or Anglo-Irish Treaty) signed by British and Irish Republic representatives in London on December 6, 1921. The Irish Free State came into being in December 1922, replacing two co-existing but nominally rival states, the de jure Southern Ireland, which had been created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and which from January 1922 had been governed by a Provisional Government under Michael Collins and the de facto Irish Republic under the President of Dáil Éireann, Arthur Griffith, which had been created by Dáil Éireann in 1919. (In August 1922, both states in effect merged with the deaths of their leaders; both posts came to be held simultaneously by W.T. Cosgrave.)

Additional reading

• Tim Pat Coogan, Eamon de Valera (ISBN 009175030X)
• Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins (ISBN 0091741068)
• Lord Longford, Peace by Ordeal (Universally regarded by all sides as THE definitive account of the Treaty negotiations. Though long out of print, it is available in libraries)
• Dorothy McCardle, The Irish Republic (no ISBN details available. May be out of print. A classic 'old-style' republican analysis published in the 1960s with a pro-de Valera slant)