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The Irish Free State passport and the question of citizenship, 1921–4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Joseph P. O’Grady
Joseph P. O’Grady*
Affiliation:
Department of History, La Salle University, Philadelphia
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Extract

The issue of citizenship played a major role in the negotiations that led to the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921; but that point was overshadowed by the tendency of those who negotiated the treaty (and the authors who have written about it) to see the issue of ‘common citizenship’ as only one point under the heading of allegiance to the crown and membership of the British Empire. That it was a central issue is clear, however, for at one point in the 1921 negotiations Lloyd George asked, ‘to put it bluntly will you be British subjects or foreigners? You must be either one or the other.’ Arthur Griffith, the leader of the Irish delegation, answered: ‘in our proposal we have agreed to “reciprocity of civic rights”. We should be Irish and you would be British and each would have equal rights as citizens in the country of the other.’ That exchange caused the British to ask the Irish for a direct answer to the question, would they ‘acknowledge this common citizenship?’. The Irish, however, only responded with the words, ‘Ireland would undertake such obligations as are compatible with the status of a free partner’ in ‘the community of nations known as the British Commonwealth’. Those words did not satisfy the English negotiators, but in the end the Irish accepted an agreement in which the words ‘common citizenship’ appeared in the oath to the king which all members of Dáil Éireann would have to take. That satisfied the British demands on allegiance to the crown.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 104 , November 1989 , pp. 396 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1989

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References

1 Pakenham, Frank, Peace by ordeal (London, 1935), pp 110-12Google Scholar.

2 Minutes of seventh conference, 24 Oct. 1921, ‘Records of the treaty negotiations’ (S.P.O., DE/304, Dáil Éireann papers); Pakenham, Peace by ordeal, p. 179.

3 The oath, as it appeared in final form in article IV of the treaty, read ‘I ... do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to H.M. King George V, his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations’ (An act to enact a constitution for the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) and for implementing the treaty between Great Britain and Ireland signed at London on the 6th day of December, 1921 (Dublin, Stationery Office, n.d.), p. 27). See Curran, Joseph M., The birth of the Irish Free State, 1921–1923 (University, Ala., 1980), p. 126 Google Scholar.

4 Lloyd George to Griffith, 1 June 1922, Griffith to Lloyd George, 2 June 1922 (S.P.O., S 8955A, Cabinet minutes and papers). See also An act to enact a constitution, p. 7, and Curran, Birth of the Irish Free State, pp 209–12.

5 The Times, 4 Apr. 1935; New York Times, 4 Apr. 1935.

6 Extract from minutes of executive council, 23 Jan. 1923 (S.P.O., S 1971).

7 Extract from minutes, 17 Feb., 21 Feb. 1923; Healy to Devonshire, 2 Mar. 1923 (S.P.O., S 1971).

8 Devonshire to Healy, 27 Mar. 1923 (ibid.).

9 Extract from minutes of executive council, 4 May 1923 (ibid.).

10 Healy to Devonshire, 22 May 1923, Devonshire to Healy, 10 Aug. 1923 (ibid.); Harkness, Restless dominion, p. 70. Harkness first mentions the issue by referring to Desmond FitzGerald’s effort to get the passports printed in Dublin in June 1923, but there is no indication of the exchanges between Dublin and London. Harkness had access to FitzGerald’s papers, but not to the government files in Dublin or London.

11 Healy to Devonshire, 27 Nov. 1923 (S.P.O., S 1971).

12 Minutes, Issue of passport in Dublin, 27 Nov. 1923; Mark Sturges to under secretary of state, Foreign Office, 3 Dec. 1923 (P.R.O., CO. 739/17). Sturges was a member of the Colonial Office staff.

13 Devonshire to Healy, 14 Dec. 1923 (S.P.O., S 1971).

14 FitzGerald to Walsh, 21 Dec. 1923, Explanatory notes, n.d. (ibid.).

15 Curtis to Loughnane, 25 Dec. 1923; Minutes, Issue of passport, 6 Mar. 1924 (P.R.O., CO. 739/26).

16 Secretary of ministry of education to secretary of executive council, 4 Jan. 1924 (S.P.O. S 1971); Loughnane to Curtis, 7 Feb. 1924, Minutes, Issue of passport in Dublin, 8 Feb. 1924 (P.R.O., CO. 739/26).

17 Thomas to Ponsonby, 9 Feb. 1924, Minutes, Issue of passport in Dublin, 8 Feb. 1924 (P.R.O., CO. 739/26). The same letter can be found in F.O. 372/2091.

18 G. Mounsey, Minutes of conversation between Arthur Ponsonby and Desmond Fitz-Gerald, 14 Feb. 1924 (P.R.O., F.O. 372/2091, T. 1490). Mounsey was a member of the Foreign Office staff and attended this meeting obviously to take notes.

19 Ponsonby to Thomas, 16 Feb. 1924 (ibid.).

20 Healy to Thomas, 4 Mar. 1924 (S.P.O., S 1971).

21 Martin, F.X. and Byrne, F.J. (eds), The scholar revolutionary: Eoin MacNeill, 1867–1945, and the making of the new Ireland (Shannon, 1973), pp 214–17 Google Scholar. The boundary commission papers are in S.P.O., S 1801.

22 Vere White, Terence de, Kevin O’Higgins (Tralee, 1966), pp 157-67Google Scholar. O’Higgins was the strongest critic of the army on the executive council.

23 Valiulis, Maryann Gialanella, Almost a rebellion: the Irish army mutiny of 1924 (Cork, 1985)Google Scholar, covers the full story.

24 C. Hathaway to secretary of state, 24 Mar. 1924 (Post Records, Dublin, Department of State, Record Group 84, National Record Center, Washington). Hathaway was the American consul in Dublin with good connexions in the Cosgrave government. For the reaction in both New York and London, see New York Times, 22 Mar. 1924 and The Times (London), 22 Mar. 1924.

25 Hathaway to secretary of state, 24 Mar. 1924 (ibid.).

26 W. Adams, Minutes of description of holder’s nationality on passports issued by the government of the Irish Free State, 27 Mar. 1924 (P.R.O., F.O. 372/2091, T. 3185). Adams was a member of staff in the Foreign Office who took a hard line on the question that the Irish claim violated the treaty. FitzGerald had few kind words for him.

27 ‘History of the affair’, p. 4, Issue of Irish Free State passports, 6 May 1924 (P.R.O., F.O. 372/2091, T. 4525); Martin’ & Byrne, Scholar revolutionary, p. 217. See Jones, to Curtis, , 30 Mar. 1924, in Tom Jones, Whitehall diary, vol. iii, ed. Middlemas, Keith (Oxford, 1971), pp 227-8Google Scholar, for a discussion of these problems in Ireland.

28 ‘History of the affair’, p. 4. The Foreign Office informed the Colonial Office of Macdonald’s reaction to the suggested note to Dublin on 28 Mar.

29 Keith, A.B., Speeches and documents on the British dominions, 1918–1921 (Oxford, 1932), pp 315–21 Google Scholar, for the excerpt from the Proceedings of the imperial conference 1923 (Cmd 1987, London, Stationery Office, 1924), pp 10–15; Harkness, Restless dominion, pp 48–9. This issue also arose in the debate on the liquor treaty. See Dáil deb., vi, 3015, 3035 (9 Apr. 1924).

30 Seanad deb., 1314–28 (3 Apr. 1924).

31 There is no documentary evidence for this, but there is no other explanation for what happened.

32 Dáil deb., vi, 2918–48 (4 Apr. 1924).

33 Irish Times, 5 Apr. 1924; Hathaway to secretary of state, 14 Apr. 1924 (Post Records, Dublin, RG84, National Record Center, Washington); Jones to Curtis, 30 Mar. 1924, in Jones, Whitehall diary, p. 228. Jones told Curtis that ‘McGrath’s secession with 4 or 5 others may, some fear, lead to focusing of certain disgruntled elements’.

34 Healy to Thomas, 7 Apr. 1924 (S.P.O., S 1971). No record has been found of what FitzGerald did between the debate in the Seanad on 3 April and the drafting of the letter of 5 April.

35 Thomas to Healy, 5 Apr. 1924 (ibid.).

36 C.T. Davis to Sir Eyre Crowe, 10 Apr. 1924 (P.R.O., F.O. 372/2091, T. 3769). Davis was on the staff of the Colonial Office.

37 Dáil deb., vi, 3007–54 (9 Apr. 1924); Harkness, Restless dominion, p. 70. Harkness sees the passport issue as part of a larger plan on the part of the Irish to break away from London’s control of the British Empire’s foreign policy. The evidence in this article does not point in that direction.

38 Adams, Minutes, 6 May 1924, ‘History of this affair’, p. 6 (P.R.O., F.O. 372/2091, T. 4525).

39 L.S. Amery to Healy, 27 Nov. 1927 (S.P.O., S 1971). Amery was the colonial secretary in the second Baldwin government.