First Meeting of Dáil Ēireann
Introduction from Chronology
The First meeting of Dáil Éireann
takes place in the Round Room of the Mansion House in Dublin. Of the 69
Sinn Féin MPs elected only 27 TDs were present.
36 MPs were “Fé ghlas
an Gallaibh” (including de Valera and Griffith) and
another 4 were “Ar díbirt
ag Gallaibh”.
Cathal Brugha elected Acting President of the Ministry
pro tempore and Sean T. O'Kelly as Ceann Comhairle (Speaker).
More Detail
Sinn Féin won 73 seats but because of dual mandates,
69 representatives were returned. Of the 69 returned, 27 attended the first
meeting of the Dáil.
Of the remainder, 40 were in prison or deported (“Fé
ghlas ag Gallaibh” nó “Ar díbirt
ag Gallaibh”), five were abroad on official business
(including Collins and Boland – see below) and two were ill. About 70 foreign journalists attended.
The proceedings of the first Dáil are opened with
prayers by Fr Michael O’Flanagan from Roscommon. The Declaration of Independence is read in
Irish by Cathal Brugha; in
English by Eamonn Duggan and in French by George Gavan Duffy. (English
text of Declaration given in Macardle (1999), pgs 272-274.) The Dáil also passed a Constitution of
Dáil Eireann and a Message to the Free Nations of the World. The text of the
latter is read in Irish by Scelig; in English by Robert
Barton and in French by Count Plunkett. (The English text of both are given as the Appendices 9 and 10 in Macardle.)
A demand in the Message to the Free Nations of the
World says that Ireland should have a seat at the Peace Conference.
The Dáil appoints three delegates to the Versailles
Peace Conference. They are de Valera, Griffith and Plunkett. Sean T. O’Kelly is
appointed as Envoy of the Government of the Irish Republic and is sent to
Paris.
They also adopt a Democratic Programme which among
other things states that “all rights to private property must be
subordinated to the public right and welfare” and goes on to say that it will
be the first duty of the government of the Republic “… to secure that no child
shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food or clothing or shelter, but all
shall be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper
education and training” (Macardle (1999), pg 275). The Democratic Programme is read in Irish by
Piaras Béaslaí and by Tom
Kelly in English.
They hold a private session the following day. Along with Brugha
as Acting President, four ministers are appointed: Eoin MacNeil (Finance); Michael Collins (Home
Affairs); Richard Mulcahy (Defence) and Count Plunkett (Foreign Affairs).
Viewing proceedings from across Dawson St. are
Colonel Wedgeworth Johnstone, Chief Commissioner of
the DMP and James Byrne, Inspector General of the RIC.
Of the five abroad on business, Michael Collins and
Harry Boland were in England planning de Valera’s escape from Lincoln Jail –
see Feb-03-19/1.
Minutes
of the meeting of the Dáil on the 21st January are available here: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1919-01-21/ - Minutes of
the meeting of the Dáil on the 22nd January are available here: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1919-01-22/
Comments
The
Democratic Programme was largely drafted by Labour Party leader Tom Johnson with the assistance of
William O’Brien. Mitchell writes
“According to Sean T. O’Kelly, there was wide disagreement within the Sinn Féin
leadership concerning the Johnson draft and, on the eve of the opening of the
Dáil, Boland told him to take it home and overnight weave together an
acceptable statement. In the process he
modified but did not eliminate the strongly socialist assumptions in Johnson’s
draft” (Mitchell (1995), pg.
15). According to Daly, it is generally
seen as a reward for the Labour Party for not
contesting the 1918 General Election (Daly (2017), pg
335). For more on the Democratic Programme, see
O’Donnell (2017), pgs 344-345
Mitchell notes that the
Constitution of Dáil Éireann did not mention that the
new polity was a republic but that the Declaration of Independence and the
Message to the Free Nations of the World did say that the new body was housed
with the framework of a republic (Mitchell (1995), pg. 13). Daly agrees and notes that, while
the Declaration of Independence and the Democratic Programme
refer to the Irish Republic, the provisional constitution did not and this
reflected the ambiguity of the 1917 Sinn Féin Convention (Daly (2017), pg 339.) Figgis argues that it was a tactical
mistake to declare independence as the claim to the Versailles Peace Conference
would have carried more weight if the decision had not been made in advance and
only if the appeal to the Peace Conference failed was a republic to be declared
(Figgis 1927, pgs 229-233). Also, Figgis argues that the more moderate
Sinn Féin leaders (such as de Valera, Griffith and Mac Neill) were in jail due
to the ‘German Plot’ and this left Sinn Féin in the hands of a more republican
leaders such as Brugha, Collins, Harry Boland and
Diarmuid O’Hegarty.
However, Mitchell
argues that “By mid-January it must have been clear to [the Sinn Féin leaders]
that the British government could easily block any consideration of the Irish
case in Versailles. Furthermore, it
could privately advise one and all that it was in the process of preparing a
new scheme for Irish government, so there was no need to drag the matter in at
this time” (Mitchell (1995), pg 14).