#OnThisDay 1922 Saorstát Éireann, the Irish Free State, officially came into being. It had dominion status within the British Commonwealth with an Oath of Allegiance to the British monarch. For one day it was the whole island before Northern Ireland opted out.
#OnThisDay 1921 Michael Collins & the Irish delegates sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty ending the War of Independence. Many saw it as a stepping stone to complete independence, others as a stab in the back. Collins stated
“I have signed my own death warrant”.
#OnThisDay 1921 Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith & the other Irish plenipotentiaries are issued an ultimatum by British Prime Minister Lloyd George to sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Lloyd-George warned “immediate and terrible war” if they did not sign.
#OnThisDay 1920 Thomas Hand was shot dead when his house was surrounded by Black and Tans in Skerries, Dublin. Hand was branch secretary in the ITGWU, fought with Thomas Ashe in 1916 & was interned in Frongoch. He was also a judge the Republican courts.
#OnThisDay 1887 Winifred Carney was born in Bangor, Co.Down. Carney was a trade unionist, suffragist & a revolutionary. She joined Cumann na mBan, was the first woman in the GPO during the 1916 Rising & steadfastly refused to leave wounded Connolly’s side.
The Irish at War 