1922-1949
If You read my last article (Cheerio chaps) well i’m not sure how you feel about its contents, If i reflect on the time i was digging this stuff up, I remember being completely dumbfounded, although I was never truly aware of how much Irish history was a part of my personal identity up to that point, that became very evident to me. The hardest part for me was overcoming my pre held beliefs.If you’re still reading i guess the best thing for us to do is begin.
Ireland did not militarily defeat Britain in the war of independence and although the thought that we did used to make my blood run green and my hair stand on end, it’s just not true. Britain was the worlds largest super power at that time. not only militarily but financially, it had huge influence around the globe, The declaration of independence was not recognised by any other nation, with the exception of Russia who had just undergone Bolshevik revolution, cyka blyat!. The Irish delegation were summoned to London under the threat of annihilation and forced to sign a British proposal. Griffith & Collins had very little to trade in these so called Treaty negotiations. The Free State’s creation was a direct result of the 1921 Treaty(treaty text available on the page) included in the text of the treaty was the 1920 Government of Ireland Act (UK).It was in no way an independent state, it wasn’t created by the people for the people, it was Home Rule, the new state was born from the British statute book.
The Players
Something rarely discussed in Irish History or Politics, at the time of the treaty there were 2 distinct groupings of Irish people, there were those who had acted for the British administration in Ireland and those who had acted against it, I doubt many civil servants or those attending trinity suffered any hunger in the 1840’s, they lived in Georgian houses in leafy suburbs, they attended university, they took up posts in the civil services or the courts. These were the people who had administered Ireland through the 1800’s, It’ would have been natural that these people would have more in common with London counterparts than tenant farmers in Kerry. A book I read titled “The civil service and the revolution 1912 -1938,shaking the bloodstained hand of Mr. Collins (not a big admirer of Collins then lol) lays out how a well educated group of people, bound together by self interest, fear of the natives & experience, began a type of counter revolution to insulate themselves, it culminates in the establishment of the 1937 constitution. I will have a lot to say about the constitution in my next installment. The Author begins…… “This book began as research into two contradictory accounts of the process by which an Irish State replaced the British State in Ireland.” I had no idea there were contradictory accounts, I had paid attention in History class, they kept that quite for a century? he quotes Kevin O’Higgins account of the formation of the state
there was no State and no organized forces. The Provisional Government was
simply eight young men in the City Hall standing amidst the ruins of one administration with the foundations of another not yet laid, and with wild men screaming through the keyhole. No police force was functioning through the country, no
system of justice was operating, the wheels of administration hung idle battered
out of recognition by the clash of rival jurisdictions.
and as a contradictory statement he quotes Joseph Brennan a senior civil servant who had served in the British administration of Ireland
The passing of the State services into the control of a native Government, however
revolutionary it may have been as a step in the political development of the
nation, entailed, broadly speaking, no immediate disturbance of any fundamental kind in the daily work of the average Civil Servant. Under changed masters the
main tasks of administration continued to be performed by the same staffs on the
same general line of organisation and procedure.
So for the civil service it was business as usual, they’d had a century of running Ireland like a penal colony on behalf of the British and i guess they just carried on doing what they knew best! Government would have a master & servant approach, Nothing would essentially change.
the Government of Ireland in 1922 consisted of a rag tag army made up of volunteers who’d been turned against their own brothers all of whom no doubt suffering PTSD, another group of PTSD sufferers in the Dail with no clue about how a government works, on the other side were the actual working parts of government, the civil service & the judiciary staffed by the aforementioned group of Irish people, it’s not hard to see how this is gonna play out…….. remember the great oil giveaway, remember the royal visit without any consultation, remember paying for your kids to emigrate after the euro famine of 2008, remember no consultation or legal recourse over the bailout, remember the public being barred from participating in the states centenary celebration of the rebellion, remember the Irish government sent the Wolfe Tones “come out you black & Tans” to No1 because they tried to commemorate the tans & RIC. remember the endless scandals overlapping because there was no accountability???????This was not a result of incompetence, it’s the nature of the beast, Currently the defence forces are complaining that they can’t function due to the civil service smothering them, they claim the civil service inserted itself into the rank structure, the fact is it has always been like this, this was the civil services distrust of what was left of the volunteers, recent EU & UN obligations have just brought them to light There’s little doubt that deVelera played a huge part, he oversaw the creation of our phoney little republic, many far more informed people than me have written about him, it would be hubris to try but there was a man who acted in some contradictory ways, we may judge him by his actions in the coming articles.
The Setting
The free state had acquired dominion status in the Empire, somewhat of a demotion when you consider Ireland had been made a full partner in 1801 (Act of Union) but we know how that worked out……… the events of the war of independence sent shockwaves through the Empire, in 1926 the imperial conference, attended by 5 prominent Irish political figures & an entourage of civil servants, most notable was a man named John Hearne, a civil servant who had served before the handover, he is significant because he is ultimately credited with advising & writing the ’37 constitution not deVelera. The imperial conference was significant because it brought about the Balfour declaration, the balfour declaration was a softening of the grip on the Empire, Britain had given Ireland the illusion of some form of independence and to deter future problems in its other colony’s it seems like it was a logical move from their perspective to roll it out as policy.
1931 Act of Westminster
This act was just a slightly modified version of the treaty already granted to the Free State, significantly the act allowed for the Oath to be dropped which had been a bone of contention, while the act was not formally adopted in the free state the permission had already been granted in the act. The British found the oath removal to be “morally objectionable but legally permitted by the Statute of Westminster.”. The removal of the Oath was not a unilateral action on the part of the state, it did not signify some next level of independence, the natives were being led up a path by a pied piper.
Republic of Ireland Act 1948
There are 2 legal requirements for a crime “Mens Rea and Actus Reus” (unless you’re in an Irish court) they are the intention & the act itself, From my perspective, this act of the Dail is the Mens Rea, the intention to deceive. the act states
1.—The Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, 1936 (No. 58 of 1936), is hereby repealed.
2.—It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland.
3.—The President, on the authority and on the advice of the Government, may exercise the executive power or any executive function of the State in or in connection with its external relations.
4.—This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Government may by order appoint.
5.—This Act may be cited as The Republic of Ireland Act, 1948.
I don’t know if you know anything about legal language but does the sentence seem a little convoluted to you? It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland. why not just declare Ireland a republic? a description is subjective and not a statement of objective fact, it is an opinion, In the following year the Irish act was clarified for the international community by the Brits,
Ireland Act 1949(UK)
2, Republic of Ireland not a foreign country.
(1)It is hereby declared that, notwithstanding that the Republic of Ireland is not part of His Majesty’s dominions, the Republic of Ireland is not a foreign country for the purposes of any law in force in any part of the United Kingdom or in any colony, protectorate or United Kingdom trust territory, whether by virtue of a rule of law or of an Act of Parliament or any other enactment or instrument whatsoever, whether passed or made before or after the passing of this Act, and references in any Act of Parliament, other enactment or instrument whatsoever, whether passed or made before or after the passing of this Act
If you are like me you’re probably hung up on the same words “Republic of Ireland is not a foreign country for the purposes of any law” It appears it was all just window dressing, 17th century Britain still exists & functions on its royal charters, Titled British lords & their estates frequently pop up in the media, the councils created to manage their estates are more powerful than ever. If there’s a snag in the HSE or dept. of education, it’s probably because a hospital or university invoked its royal charter to ward off unwanted legislation, On top of that we have all the institutions created as a result of the Act of Union, the civil service, kings inns, the law society, these institutions control & staff our permanent government, they don’t care what way you vote, they & their institutions are insulated under the constitution they created for themselves, they made up some bunk about about independence & republics so we’d all play along in their penal island legal fantasy.
CronyIsland 