How the Anglo-Irish Treaty was viewed internationally

Analysis: December 1921 Treaty was one which attracted much international interest, especially throughout the British Empire

By Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh NUI Galway and Liam Weeks, UCC

Strictly speaking, the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed 100 agos was not an international treaty. Instead, it was a domestic political agreement, reached internally within the United Kingdom. However, the Irish government that it created was determined to have it recognised as such and registered it as an international treaty with the League of Nations in 1924.

The Treaty attracted much international interest, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Newfoundland, and South Africa. They were the five dominion states of the British Empire that the Irish Free State took its place alongside when it was established by the Treaty.

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From RTÉ One's Nine News, Anglo Irish Treaty documents go on display in London

Under the Treaty, Irish independence was qualified in two main ways, the already existing Northern Ireland parliament could opt to remain part of the UK, while the rest of Ireland would be a self-governing dominion of the British empire. The latter meant that it would have the substantive political autonomy of a fully independent state, but not the complete sovereignty of one, as it would not be a republic, rather a member state of the British Empire. This made the Irish Free State the sixth dominion of the British Empire and it sent ripples around the other five.

Looking at the Treaty and seeing it through the prism of domestic preoccupations was a consistent theme across all five dominions. Australia and New Zealand were both immediately suspicious of the new dominion that the Treaty established. Both were very British in their orientation and were deeply concerned about the effect that an Irish dominion could have on stability in the British Empire. Saliently, both almost resented their own dominion status because it made them less integrated parts of Britain's world than they had been earlier, as British settler colonies.

From RTÉ Radio 1's Today With Claire Byrne, Diarmuid Ferriter on the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Yet they knew that their loyalty ensured that their independence did not threaten Britain's global ascendancy. The Irish Free State, however, had not been a British settler colony – historical plantations notwithstanding – and its indigenous population, which had not, ultimately, been superseded, had politically and, moreover, militantly asserted its 'disloyalty’ to Britain during the Irish Revolution that led to the Treaty.

Receiving news of the Treaty, the press in Australia and New Zealand was magnanimous: what was good enough for Mother Britain was good enough for it, but news of the opposition to the Treaty in the Dáil, even if it was from a minority, caused paroxysms of outrage. The trust in Britain that it had done the right thing in giving radical Irish nationalists an Irish dominion state was replaced with anger at Irish ingratitude.

While some vicious hostility towards nationalist Ireland was unleashed, Australia and New Zealand were mostly worried that a rogue Irish dominion would be a gamechanger in the imperial context, proving a thorn in Britain’s side at worst and precipitating the abasement of the British Empire at best. Coincidental with the Treaty, the British Empire was transitioning to become the British Commonwealth, which was a looser association than historically, and this unnerved 'British’ Australia and New Zealand. Even on the home front, especially in Australia, empire loyalists perceived challenges to their traditional hegemony and, tellingly, not least from within their Irish communities – which represented one-quarter of the population in Australia.

From RTÉ Radio 1's History Show, Darragh Gannon on the first week of the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations in London in October 1921

In Canada and South Africa, the Treaty was received positively largely because both of these dominions were keen to dilute their British imperial connections. While Australia and New Zealand, had confirmed their loyalty to Britain in their commitment to fighting in the First World War, Canada had emerged from its participation in the war convinced of its own independent standing on the international stage. At the time of the Treaty, it was engaged in a process to develop dominion status to the point where dominions would be recognised officially as Britain’s peers, and in no way its subordinates, in global politics.

South Africa was then led by Afrikaners who were veterans of the Boer wars against Britain only a couple of decades previously and they aligned with Canada in its campaign. In both countries, the Treaty was seen as creating a new dominion that would be their ally as they pursued their domestic agendas for full international recognition.

It is striking that support for the Treaty in Canada even came from empire loyalists. Just as they saw no contradiction between wanting Canada to have full international recognition and their loyalty to the British Empire, they saw no inherent incompatibility between an Irish dominion and the ongoing integrity of the British Empire.

From RTÉ News, Michael Collins; diaries covering the periods immediately before and after the formation of the State have been presented to the State

In Newfoundland, which was a dominion in 1921 but is now part of Canada, opinion on the Treaty was conspicuously different. Newfoundland had a prominent Irish community, which greeted the Treaty enthusiastically.

However, there was also palpable concern that the Irish Free State would seek to move beyond dominion status and to pursue the republic. Newfoundland’s Irish and British communities had embraced a shared identity since the 19th century, and it was felt that the compromise of dominion status had contributed to their reconciliation. With the tricolour flag of the new Irish Free State proclaiming its republican credentials in contrast to the British ensigns of the other dominions, the Newfoundlanders were correct to be concerned.

This piece is based on Birth of a State: the Anglo-Irish Treaty (Irish Academic Press) the recently published book by the authors

Dr Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh is a member of the Social Sciences Research Centre at NUI Galway and history lecturer in the Department of Humanities & Social Science at the Dublin Business School. Dr Liam Weeks is a lecturer in the Department of Government at UCC. He is a former Irish Research Council awardee.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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