1922 ELECTION PACT?
The First Irish Free State General Election June 16, 1922
COLLINS – De VALERA ELECTION PACT
Irish News, Belfast. 22 May, 1922
THE AGREEMENT—At the conclusion… the Speaker said: Arising out of the first matter… I have to read the following statement signed by Mr. Eamon De Valera and Mr. Michael Collins:—
20.5.1922
We are Agreed:
- That a National Coalition Panel for this third Dail, representing both parties in the Dail, and in the Sinn Fein organisation be sent forward on the ground that the national position requires the entrusting of the Government of the country into the joint hands of those who have been the strength of the national situation during the last few years, without prejudice of their respective positions.
- That this Coalition Panel be sent forward as from the Sinn Fein Organisation, the number from each party being their present strength in the Dail.
- That the candidates be nominated through each of the existing Party Executives.
- That every and any interest is free to go up and contest the election equally with the National-Sinn Fein Panel.
- That constituencies where an election is not held shall continue to be represented by their present Deputies.
- That after the election the Executive shall consist of the President, elected as formerly, the Minister of Defence representing the Army, and nine other Ministers, five from the majority party and four from the minority party, each party to choose its own nominees. The allocation will be in the hands of the President.
- That in the event of the Coalition Government finding it necessary to dissolve, a General Election will be held as soon as possible on adult suffrage.
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POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENTS following the Collins-De Valera Pact [25.6.1922]
LEADERS’ APPEAL for SUPPORT OF NATIONAL PANEL
The Coalition Agreement was unanimously accepted by Dail Eireann and endorsed by the Ard Fheis of Sinn Fein, because in the circumstances it was considered that the cooperation it provided for was the best means of ensuring peaceful and ordered Government within the nation, and of securing it against the perils which threatened from without.
The terms of the Agreement explicitly safeguard
the right of all sections of the community, but in view of the fact that one of the most obvious aims of the Agreement was the avoidance of electoral contests, which could not fail at present to engender bitterness and promote discord and turmoil, the signatories had hoped that the spirit of the Pact would have ensured that such contests would be reduced to a minimum.
It must must be remembered that the country is still in a transition stage, and to act as if a stable condition had been reached is impossible, and in the national interest, unsound.
Many of the dangers which threaten can be met only by keeping intact the forces which constituted the national resistance in recent years.
We are confident that this does not need further emphasis from us, that the nation will comprehend and the spirit which suggested and underlies the Agreement will find a response from all sections.
MICHEAL O COILAIN
EAMON De VALERA
Irish Independent, 9.6.1922
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A UNITED DAIL brought Ireland’s cause to the threshold of complete victory. A UNITED DAIL will achieve that victory, which is the only guarantee of national peace and prosperity for every class. IF YOU WANT PEACE you will get it by supporting the men who have shown their readiness to sacrifice themselves for THE IRISH NATION AS A WHOLE. VICTORY FOR THE UNITED NATIONAL PANEL and PEACE WITH VICTORY. Cumann na Poblachta.
Irish Independent, 10.6.1922
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THE ENGLISH ARE FURIOUS WITH THE COLLINS-De VALERA PACT Because the English fear Irish unity. Will you play the Enemies Game and destroy the Pact, or will you stand by the Pact and vote for the Sinn Fein Panel? DO YOU WANT PEACE? You won’t get it by voting for a Dail of warring sections and interests. You will get it by voting for the SINN FEIN PANEL, which will secure United Effort from the forces of Irish Nationality.
PEACE, STABILITY, ORDER can only be secured by the two effective national forces united by the Collins-De Valera Pact. YOUR ONLY SECURITY AGAINST “THE NATION’S ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC”.
Cumann na Poblachta.
Irish Independent, 12.6.1922
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Collins’ speech at end of the campaign. 14 June,1922
Cork Examiner, 15 June, 1922
I want to thank you heartily for the welcome you have given me—(‘You deserve it well’ and cheers). It is the second time I have had the pleasure of having such a welcome from you, and I am glad to know that nothing I have done since I was here last has made me fall in your estimation. On an evening like this it would be a poor return from me to keep you standing in the rain (Voice: ‘You are quite welcome’, and cheers)—while I talked to you. My position is fairly well known to you, and to everyone in Ireland—(Voices: ‘And so is yourself’).
You here are facing an election on Friday, and I am not hampered now by being on a platform where there are Coalitionists. I can make a straight appeal to you citizens of Cork to vote for the candidates you think best of—to vote for the candidates whom the electors of Cork will the carry on best in the future the work of the citizens of Cork want carried on. When I spoke in Dublin I put it as gravely as I could that the country was facing a very serious situation, and if that situation is to be met as it should be met, the country must have the representatives that it wants (cheers) and with that I shall keep you no longer. You understand fully what you have to do and I will depend on you to do it (loud and prolonged cheers).
Cork Examiner, 15 June, 1922
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In the ensuing election (16.6.1922) pro-Treaty candidates polled 239,193 votes, anti-Treaty polled 133, 864. Labour Party, Farmers and non-aligned candidates polled 247,276 votes.
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CUMANN NA POBLACHTA. Republican League; Political Party founded be Eamon De Valera in March 1922.
It was supported principally by opponents of the Treaty. Following the defeat of the Republican cause in the civil war, the Party became absorbed in Sinn Fein. The majority of Cumann members rallied behind De Valera when he founded a new Republican party, Fianna Fail, in May, 1926.
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“WHITEHALL was very angry over the Collins/De Valera Pact. It was not just an electoral agreement made between parties, but was an act of survival of the pre-Treaty Dail, which threatened to make the Treaty innocuous. And it was an act of disobedience by the Treatyites—and by Collins against Griffith. And it was an act of sovereignty by a subordinate.
“It seems that Whitehall understood that the Treatyites, even though they duly assembled as the Parliament of Southern Ireland—and got established in Provisional authority under British law—needed to operate through the illegal Assembly, the Dail, in order to secure their position.
” They were, in a sense, entryists in the Dail, using it for an ulterior purpose.
“But the Dail was, after all, their native habitat, and they were influenced by it, rather than influencing it.
“Under anti-Treaty influence they arranged, in the interest of maintaining national cohesion, to hold the Treaty Election, with the Treaty relegated to the background, to return a Coalition Government in which anti-Treatyites would hold a substantial minority of the Ministries.
” That was rebellion in British eyes.
“The Treatyites had been put in Office to break the national cohesion that obliged Britain to negotiate, not to reinforce it.
” Collins had got his majority for the Treaty with his idea of “freedom to achieve freedom”, and his image of a steppingstone on the way to the Republic.
” He undertook, during the six months of Provisional authority, to draw up a Constitution for the Free State which would lead it back towards the Republican position. The new Constitution was being finalised around the time of the Election.
“If the Election had been held as agreed by the Dail, and a Coalition Government installed, the British purpose in making the ‘Treaty’ would have been largely negated. And, if Britain then decided to recover the situation by going to war, the war would have been more nakedly an act of aggression (being against a Government that it had itself put into power, armed, and financed), than in December.
“Collins was called to Whitehall to account for his actions. I once came across a letter in the British archives from him to Whitehall, complaining about the obvious way they were pulling his strings. But I assumed that they did this deliberately to aggravate the situation.
“Peaceful acceptance of the ‘Treaty’ in a way that left the national movement intact, and strengthened, would not have been in its interest—and, as one great British statesman explained: Britain has no friends in the world, only interests.
“Collins returned from London on the eve of the Election and made a speech which has been said to have ended the Pact. What he actually said does not warrant that description, and, in any case, it was not in the paper until the morning of the Election. Nevertheless, Collins is usually said to have ended the Pact and turned the Election into a plebiscite on the Treaty.
“The Election was held on 16th June1922. The new Dail did not meet until September. What it did meet, it did not quite know what it was.
“Griffith had been prevented by Collins from calling the Election as a ‘Treaty Election. And Collins certainly did not call it as a Free State election. It had the appearance of being a series of By-Elections held in the 26 Counties within a continuing Dail, leaving the Six County TDs in place.
“The ‘Civil War’ was launched on 28thJune, 12 days after the Election, while the Dail was in abeyance. It was launched by Collins with borrowed British guns, after he had been given an ultimatum by Whitehall that the British Army would act if he did not. Whatever was the case on December 6th, 1921, there is no doubt that on the 28th, when Collins fired on republicans occupying the Four Courts, he acted in response to a British threat.
“The point is that the ‘Civil War’ was not caused by opposition to the Treaty.
“The Anti-Treaty Party had made an agreement with the Treaty Party to operate a Coalition National Government with it, leaving ideological concerns over the Treaty aside.
“This did not suit the British interest and, amidst the accidents that are always happening in politics, Whitehall found one which gave it leverage on Collins.
“By making the Election Pact, Collins took his first step along the Stepping Stones back to the Republic—and he fell off.
”Brendan Clifford.(See Irish Political Review-DECEMBER, 2021-p21/25—An Indispensable source into Irish/European history and current politics—(https://irishpoliticalreview.com)**********************
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