House of Commons of Southern Ireland

The Royal College of Science for Ireland
The location for the first official meeting of both Houses. Now Irish Government Buildings

The House of Commons of Southern Ireland was established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was the lower house of parliament of Southern Ireland. Southern Ireland, like Northern Ireland was formally established in May 1921 but Southern Ireland had a much shorter life, being superseded by the Irish Free State in December 1922.

Elections

In 1921, elections were held for the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. In reality, no contests occurred. All 128 MPs were returned unopposed - Sinn Féin won all 124 seats for geographic constituencies, whilst Unionists won the four seats for graduates of University of Dublin. The Irish Republic chose to regard that election as elections to the Second Dáil. The 124 Sinn Féin candidates elected, plus the Sinn Féin members elected to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland elected at the same time, assembed as the Second Dáil.

First and only meeting

In June 1921, the House of Commons, together with the appointed Senate, formally assembled in the Royal College of Science, now Government Buildings, in Merrion St., for a state opening by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent.

In reality only four unionist MPs attended. Having elected Gerald Fitzgibbon to be Speaker, the House adjourned sine die. This was the only formal meeting of the House of Commons.

In contrast the Senate assembled three times^{[citation needed]}, though its chairman, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was too ill to attend.

The Mansion House
Members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland (not the Commons itself) assembled here to ratify the Treaty.

"Meeting" approves Treaty

It is sometimes reported that the House of Commons of Southern Ireland approved the Anglo-Irish Treaty. This however, is not correct. The Treaty (and the formation of a Provisional Government of Southern Ireland) were matters approved on 14 January 1922 “at a meeting of members of the Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland”. That meeting was not a meeting of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. Rather, it was a meeting of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. Notably, the meeting was:

• convened by Arthur Griffith as “Chairman of the Irish Delegation of Plenipotentiaries” (who had signed the Anglo Irish Treaty) under the terms of the Treaty.^[1]
• not convened by Lord Fitzalan, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 was the office-holder with the entitlement to convene a meeting of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland.

The meeting, on 14 January 1922 in the Mansion House, attended by six four pro-Treaty MPs and 4 MPs Trinity College, Dublin, duly ratified the Treaty and nominated Michael Collins for appointment as Chairman of the Provisional Government. Collins was installed in his post by the Lord Lieutenant in Dublin Castle on 16 January.^[2]

Abolition in May 1922

On 27 May 1922 (some months before the establishment of the Irish Free State) Lord Fitzalan, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in accordance with the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 formally dissolved the Parliament of Southern Ireland and by proclamation called “a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament”.^[3] From that date, the Parliament of Southern Ireland ceased to exist.

See also

• Parliament of Northern Ireland, set up simultaneously to legislate for Northern Ireland.

Footnote

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