Everything about House Of Commons Of Southern Ireland totally explained
House of Commons of Southern Ireland was the lower house of the
Irish parliament created by the
Government of Ireland Act, passed in 1920, during the
Irish War of Independence. The Act created two partitioned Irish states,
Northern Ireland and
Southern Ireland, each with their own two chamber assemblies, a House of Commons and a
Senate.
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
Dublin University. 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.
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.
In contrast the Senate assembled three times, though its chairman, the
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was too ill to attend.
The House of Commons of Southern Ireland came back into being later, as a result of the
Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The Treaty was submitted to two bodies, the
Second Dáil, whose approval gave it legitimacy in the eyes of
nationalist Ireland, and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, which had legitimacy according to British constitutional theory, it being a creation of the
King-in-Parliament. Both parliaments then chose two governments which worked hand-in-hand, a
Republican administration under the
President of Dáil Éireann,
Arthur Griffith and a
Provisional Government under
Michael Collins. The duality was represented by the meeting of Provisional Prime Minister Michael Collins and the Lord Lieutenant,
Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent. From the republican viewpoint, Collins was accepting the surrender of Dublin Castle, where the meeting occurred. In contrast, in British political theory, Fitzalan met Collins to kiss hands, (for example to formally install him as a
Minister of the Crown).
The House of Commons of Southern Ireland, having chosen Collins' government, was then dissolved and replaced by a new united parliament, called alternatively the
Constituent Assembly (for example a parliament with the authority to create a constitution), the
Third Dáil or the Provisional Parliament, depending on whose political theory one accepts. The unique status of this parliament was shown in the fact that it was presided over by the
Ceann Comhairle, the title given to the speaker in Dáil Éireann yet received messages from the Lord Lieutenant. Some anti-treaty deputies challenged the exact status of the assembly; whether it was a Dáil or a successor to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. The deaths of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins led to the merging of their offices under the united leadership of
W. T. Cosgrave. With the coming into being of the
Irish Free State and its constitution in December
1922, all previous administrations and parliaments, both nationalist and created by British law, ceased to exist.
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