The Anglo-Irish Treaty

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Through the course of this investigation an attempt will be made to answer the following question: “To what extent did the Anglo-Irish Treaty lead to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in 1922?” The examination of the number of issues in the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in 1921, which caused disagreements; the most evident terms being the Oath of Allegiance to the British crown, the partition of Ireland into North and South and the spilt of the nationalist movements, shall be conducted to come to a decisive conclusion. In addition, to an emphasis put forth to within the time frame of the date of signature 1921 till the start of the civil war mid-1922.

To come to an accurate conclusion, an in-depth evaluation including the origin, purpose, value and limitation, as seen in Section C, of the following sources; The Irish Civil War 1922-23 by Peter Cottrell and Tim Pat Coogan’s The Irish Civil War shall be conducted to find the liability each the source. As well as, a thorough analysis of the two books, will allow their significance to the investigation show.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was agreed between the Sinn Fein (equivalent of the Irish Republican party) representatives and the British government on the 6th of December 1921 (Coogan, Morrison 24). The signing of the Treaty led to hostile debates in the Dail (Irish Parliament) before being accepted by a slight majority, 64 in favour to 57 against, in January 1922 (David). The divisions in the Sinn Fein ‘spilled’ over into nationalist movements and into the ranks of the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A) (Cottrell 30, Walsh).

Upon the treaty’s agreement, Éamon de Valera resigned as President of the Irish Republic and fail to be re-elected in the general elections of 1922 (Leeson). Ha...

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... Pub., 2008. Print.

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