Provisional Government of Southern Ireland

The provisional Government of Southern Ireland^[1] () was the provisional government for the administration of Southern Ireland between 16 January 1922 and 6 December 1922. The government was effectively a transitional administration for the period between the ratifying of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the establishment of the Irish Free State.^[2] Its legitimacy was disputed by the Anti-Treaty delegates to Dáil Éireann.

Formation

The Provisional Government was constituted on 14 January 1922 ?at a meeting of members of the Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland?. That meeting was not convened as a meeting of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland nor as a meeting of the Dáil. Instead, it was convened by Arthur Griffith as ?Chairman of the Irish Delegation of Plenipotentiaries? (who had signed the Treaty) under the terms of the Treaty.^[3] Notably it was not convened by Lord Fitzalan, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 was the office-holder with the entitlement to convene a meeting of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland.

In any event, at the ?meeting? the Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified by the Irish side in accordance with the Treaty, the Provisional Government was elected and Michael Collins was appointed its Chairman. The Provisional Government took up Office two days later on 16 January 1922 when Collins took control of Dublin Castle from the British administration.

Notwithstanding its establishment in January 1922, the British Government had not formally transferred any powers to the Provisional Government. The British Government could only do so when the British Parliament had approved the Anglo-Irish Treaty. This was done on 29 March 1922 under the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 (12 & 13 Geo. 5. c.4.).^[4] The following day by Order in Council a range of governmental powers were transferred to the Provisional Government by the British Government. The several members of the Provisional Government were accordingly re-appointed on that date and these appointments were formally announced in the Dublin Gazette a few days later.^[5]

Handover of Dublin Castle

One of the earliest and most remarkable events in the short life of the Provisional Government was the handover of Dublin Castle to the Provisional Government. For centuries Dublin Castle was the symbol, as well as the citadel, of British rule in Ireland.^[6] Its transfer to the representatives of the Irish people was greatly welcomed in Dublin. It was regarded as a significant outward and visible sign that British rule was ending.^[7] The handover of Dublin Castle occurred on 16 January 1922.^[8] The following is a summary of the account of what happened provided by The Times:^[9]

On leaving the Castle the members of the Provisional Government again received a great ovation from a largely augmented crowd. They returned to the Mansion House from where the Chairman of the Provisional Government, Michael Collins issued the following statement (referring to nothing less than a surrender of the Castle):^[11]

Accountability

There was never again ?a meeting of members of the Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland? after 14 January 1922 and neither the Treaty nor the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 provided that the Provisional Government was or would be accountable to any such body. On 27 May 1922 Lord Fitzalan, in accordance with the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 formally dissolved the Parliament of Southern Ireland and by proclamation called ?a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament?.^[13] Under the terms of the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922, the Provisional Government did become accountable to that Parliament. Therefore, between its formation on 14 January 1922 and 19 September 1922 (when the Provisional Parliament first met) it appears that the Provisional Government was responsible to no Parliament at all.^[14]

However, as its members were also members of the Republican Dáil and that Parliament did hold meetings during that period, to a degree the Provisional Government was in practice held accountable to that body. The Dáil had no legitimacy in British law and under its own laws was the parliament to which another government was accountable ? the Aireacht (Irish Republic Government). The constitutional uniqueness of the situation was such that the viceroy Viscount Fitzalan remained in his post undisturbed for months, and in the summer of 1922 he frequently held military reviews of departing British soldiers in the Phoenix Park outside the then Viceregal Lodge.

Name of Provisional Government

Postage stamps of the government consisted of overprinted British stamps. The text in traditional Irish orthography reads Ríaltas Sealadach na hÉireann 1922 and translates as Provisional Government of Ireland 1922

In addition, the Provisional Government is sometimes referred to as having been the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State. In law, the Irish Free State did not exist until 6 December 1922 at which point the Provisional Government ceased to exist (although those who had been its members were on that date elected as the first Executive Council of the Irish Free State).

Notwithstanding the above, to confuse matters somewhat, from 9 September 1922 the provisional Government of Southern Ireland was accountable to a Provisional Parliament ? and that Parliament was not a House of the Parliament of Southern Ireland. This is because on 27 May 1922, Lord Fitzalan pursuant to the terms of the Free State (Agreement) Act declared that the Parliament of Southern Ireland was dissolved and he called ?a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament [of what was not stated]?^[15]

Throughout its existance, it was referred to by those who participated in it as Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann, or in English, the Irish Provisional Government.^[16]

Background

Under the Irish Republic's Dáil Constitution adopted in 1919, Dáil Éireann continued to exist after it had ratified the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In protest at the ratification, Éamon de Valera resigned the presidency of the Dáil then sought re-election from among its members (to clarify his mandate), but Arthur Griffith defeated him in the vote and assumed the presidency. (Griffith called himself President of Dáil Éireann rather than de Valera's more exalted President of the Republic.)

Most of the Dáil Ministers such as Reverend Christopher McCarthy became concurrently Ministers of this Provisional Government. Michael Collins became Chairman of the Provisional Government (i.e. prime minister). He also remained Minister for Finance of Griffith's republican administration. An example of the complexities involved can be seen even in the manner of his installation. In theory he was a Crown-appointed prime minister, installed under the Royal Prerogative. To be so installed, he had to formally meet the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent (the head of the British administration in Ireland). According to republican history, Collins met Fitzalan to accept the surrender of Dublin Castle, the seat of British government in Ireland. According to British constitutional theory, he met Fitzalan to 'kiss hands' (the formal name for the installation of a minister of the Crown), the fact of their meeting rather than the signing of any documents, duly installing him in office.

There was no other legal mechanism for the transfer of power than kissing hands, as the British "Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922" that covered the transition was passed in March and only came into force on 1 April 1922.

Anti-treatyites, having opposed the Treaty in the Dáil, withdrew from the assembly and, having formed an opposition "republican government" under Éamon de Valera, began a campaign from March 1922 that led to the start of the Irish Civil War on 28 June.

By mid-1922, Collins in effect laid down his responsibilities as President of the Provisional Government to become Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, a formal structured uniformed army that formed around the pro-Treaty IRA. As part of those duties, he travelled to his native County Cork. En route home on 22 August 1922, at Béal na mBláth (an Irish language placename that means 'the Mouth of Flowers'), he was killed in an ambush. He was 31 years old. After Collins' and Griffith's deaths in August 1922, W. T. Cosgrave became both Chairman of the Provisional Government and President of Dáil Éireann, and the distinction between the two posts became irrelevant. In December 1922, both Southern Ireland and the Irish Republic were replaced by the Irish Free State, with executive authority nominally vested in the King, but exercised by a cabinet called the Executive Council, presided over by a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council.