Sinn Féin Ard Fheis
Introduction from Chronology
At Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, pro- and anti-Treaty sides agree that (a)
no election would be held in next three months; (b) that the Dáil would
continue to function as before Treaty and (c) new constitution would be put to
the people at same time as they would be asked to vote on Treaty.
More Detail
Denis McCullough tells the Ard
Fheis that “While they were making up their minds on the Treaty their people in
the North were being murdered day by day”. Phoenix says that
the pleas of the 300 Ulster delegates to maintain unity (in the face of the
violence directed against nationalists in the north-east) were one of the main
factors influencing the compromise outlined above. Hopkinson says that
there was an implicit assumption that the new constitution would be republican
in character.
Quoting Kissane, Ferriter points out that “three months was a long time to
allow events to drift”. This is
especially true given the febrile atmosphere at this time.