Pact Election

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History

Taking Sides? How voters responded to the "pact election"

Both pro- and anti- Treaty candidates agreed not to make the Treaty a key part of their campaigns in the 1922 general election. A lofty idea - so how did the "pact election" work in practice? Bill Kissane explains.
History • 13 Jun 22

Practicalities of the future: the 1922 Constitution Committee

We might think the Irish constitution was created in 1937, but in 1922 a committee gathered to draft what would be the country's first constitution. As the National Archives' collection of the Committee's papers reveals, it would be a difficult job.
History • 13 Jun 22

Class warfare: was there a social basis to the Civil War divide?

The victory of the pro-Treaty Free State has been viewed by some as a triumph of bourgeois Ireland over the "men of no property". But what does the Civil War really tell us about social fractures in the early 1920s? Gavin Foster explains.
History • 13 Jun 22

The 1922 'Pact' Election

In June 1922, the people of Ireland went to the polls. Collins and De Valera signed a pact that candidates on both sides would not fight the campaign as pro- or anti-Treatyites. Did it work?
History • 16 Jun 22

Press, Propaganda and the Treaty split

In 1922, the Irish media overwhelmingly supported the Treaty. What effect did that have on the Civil War? Donal Ó Drisceoil explains.
History • 15 Jun 22

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