First Collins-Craig Pact

Introduction from Chronology

At the urging of Churchill, Collins and Craig meet in London (in Churchill’s office) and make a pact.

This pact  agrees that (1) Craig would do all he could to ensure that Catholics workers expelled from the shipyards would be re-instated and Collins would seek the end of the Belfast Boycott;  (2) They also had discussions on how to settle the boundary issue and agree that the boundary commission would have one representative each from the North and South reporting to Craig and Collins respectively and (3) They agree to try to find “a more suitable system than the Council of Ireland for dealing with the problems affecting all-Ireland”.    This is known as the First Craig-Collins Pact.

Comment

The change in boundary commission (which Collins did without consultation with his cabinet colleagues) greatly concerns border nationalists within the six counties.  Also, Parkinson (2004) comments that the pact “committed the two leaders to political compromises that, in reality, they had little chance of fulfilling”. 

More specifically, Fanning comments that the pact’s provision on the boundary commission was based on diametrically different interpretations of the boundary commission and it collapsed within a week – see Jan-25-22/1.

Parkinson (2020) notes that “Within a fortnight of its [the Pact] being signed, violence in the city [of Belfast] was to rise sharply, culminating in several horrific murders”. 

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