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The record of the first Dáil debates
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Extract
With the Act of Union and the consequent disappearance of the College Green legislature, the Irish parliamentary tradition was subsumed into the broader Westminster framework. When the tradition re-emerged in an Irish context, it appeared as a curious combined product of the Westminster experience and of events which had little to do with any kind of parliament. In regard to its early political existence and experience, Dáil Éireann’s most obvious historical forerunner was the Jacobite parliament of 1689, which had its being in a state of open warfare with a rival political establishment and whose legitimacy and legality were largely of its own making. The critical difference between the two, from the historical viewpoint, was, of course, the apparent victory of the Dáil’s military supporters in December 1921. With victory came ultimate legitimacy, legality and some public credibility. From a purely administrative angle, this was also the moment when Dáil documents ceased to be merely propaganda material or, in more sensitive instances, evidence sought by Castle intelligence agents. Henceforth they would be important sources of the new state’s constitutional authority, and precedents for future legal and administrative practices.
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References
1 The bulk of surviving Dáil documents from this period include the minutes of the Dáil cabinet; the files of the Dáil secretariat (including correspondence between ministers and with nationalist bodies in America); draft copies of Dáil debates together with some background memoranda; records of the Comptroller and Auditor General relating to Dáil ministers (estimates, accounts, vouchers, etc.). The most complete collection of this material is to be found in the National Archives of Ireland, Dublin, where it is filed and catalogued (and henceforth referred to) under the prefix DE. Copies of various documents (and sometimes original related material) can be found amongst the papers of individual Dáil ministers, including Ernest Blythe, Peter Galligan, Michael Hayes and Eoin Mac Néill (all on deposit at the Department of Archives, University College, Dublin).
Despite the considerable quantity of republican documents seized by the crown forces during the Anglo-Irish War, relatively little material of this kind is now to be found in British official archives. P.R.O. files CO 904/168/1-2 give a flavour of what once may have been a voluminous dossier.
2 Éireann, Dáil, Minutes of proceedings of the first parliament of the Republic of Ireland, 1919-1921: officialrecord (Stationery Office, Dublin, n.d.), p. 31.Google Scholar
3 DE 4/2/1.
4 DE 2/440.
5 DE 2/522A.
6 DE 4/4/1A.
7 O’Kelly to Diarmuid [O’Hegarty?], 29 Apr. 1919 (DE 4/2/2).
8 DE 2/10. Kathleen Napoli McKenna, who co-edited the Irish Bulletin, published part of her story in the Irish Times, 24, 27 Dec. 1979.
9 Ruanaidhe na hAireachta [O’Hegarty] to Comerford, 29 Aug. 1921 (DE 2/502).
10 Comerford to Ruanaidhe na hAireachta [O’Hegarty], 2 Sept. 1921 (ibid.).
11 DE 2/10. For the counterfeit Bulletin and its background see Boyce, D. G., Englishmen and Irish troubles: British public opinion and the making of Irish policy, 1918-22 (London, 1972), pp 83–102 Google Scholar; Townshend, Charles, The British campaign in Ireland, 1919-21: the development of political and military policies (Oxford, 1975), pp 67, 189Google Scholar. See also Jeffery, Keith, ‘British military intelligence following World War I’ in Robertson, K. G. (ed.), British and American approaches to intelligence (London, 1987), pp 72-3.Google Scholar
12 I am grateful to Dr Thomas P. O’Neill for information on this point and that in n. 14, and to Patrick Melvin of the Oireachtas Library for his efforts in regard to publication dates.
13 Eireann, Dáil, Official report: debate on the treaty between Great Britain and Ireland signed in London on 6th December 1921 (Talbot Press, Dublin, n.d.).Google Scholar
14 Eireann, Dáil, Official report for periods 16th August 1921 to 26th August 1921, and 28th February 1922 to 8th June 1922, with index (Stationery Office, Dublin, n.d.)Google Scholar. (This contains indexes to the volumes listed above at nn 2 and 13.) It was Eamon de Valera’s wish that the set should never be allowed to go out of print.
15 Information received from a present-day Dáil stenographer.
16 Private sessions of second Dáil: minutes of proceedings 18 August 1921 to 14 September 1921 and report of debates 14 December 1921 to 6 January 1922, ed. and with introduction by O’Neill, Thomas P. (Dublin, [1972]).Google Scholar
Thanks are due to Professor Brian Farrell for advice and guidance at an early stage, and to the British Academy for a grant in aid of research.