Griffith’s Letter
of Undertakings
Introduction from Chronology
Griffith and Collins meet with Birkenhead in his office in the
British House of Lords at midday to discuss Griffith's letter (which, as noted,
was now coming from the full delegation). Birkenhead tries to get
Griffith and Collins to make changes to the letter on the Crown and Empire
passages but they do not agree.
Griffith and Collins had a further meeting at 6.45pm with Llyod
George and Birkenhead (and possibly Chamberlain). The meeting lasted two hours. The British
delegates got Griffith and Collins to agree to a number of changes to the
letter. The two most important were (1) the phrase describing Ireland's
association with the Commonwealth as a "free partnership with the British
Commonwealth" was changed to “free partnership of Ireland with the other
states associated within the British Commonwealth" and that he was
prepared “to recommend that Ireland should consent to the recognition of the
Crown as head of the proposed association of free States” (2) the Irish position on Ulster which ruled
out any association if unity was denied was changed to “I stated that this
attitude of mine was conditional on the recognition of the essential unity of
Ireland”.
With some effort, Griffith got the consent of the full delegation
to the changes (Barton and Gavan Duffy only giving consent reluctantly) and it
was sent to Llyod George 11.00pm on the evening of November 2nd. Full
text of letter given in Macardle. (Even though
Griffith got the consent of the full delegation to the letter, he still wrote
it in the first person.)
Griffith sends the letter to de Valera the following day - See
Nov-03-21/1
Macardle says that Barton
and Gavan Duffy (and Childers) considered resigning but did not as they believed the final decision would rest with the cabinet in
Dublin. Gavan Duffy went to Dublin to
protest to de Valera about only Griffith and Collins negotiating with the
British but de Valera declines to intervene.
Comment
Curran argues that the
phrase "a free partnership of Ireland with the other states associated
within the British Commonwealth" is not consistent with external
association and “The obvious interpretation of this phrase put Ireland inside
the Empire” (Curran J M (1980), pg 98). On the
other hand, it could also be interpreted that Ireland was in partnership with
the states of the British Commonwealth from
outside.
However, Pakenham agrees with Cullen’s
interpretation. He says that “Everyone
who believes himself capable of interpreting non-technical phraseology must
judge for himself whether here there is even ambiguity. For our part, we can see no sense in the
clause, unless it is a promise by Griffith, provided that he is be satisfied on
other points including “essential unity”, to recommend Ireland’s inclusion
within the Empire as a partner like the other Dominions” (Pakenham (1967), pgs 163-164).
Pakenham goes on to say “Griffith clearly did not realise that the
clause could bear the interpretation that to us seems inescapable. He was
trying to be clever, to shake hands across the boundary line, and he was pulled
over without noticing it. In a sense, no
doubt, he was completely uncompromised by his letter; … Yet it was manoeuvres
such as these that the Irish position was gradually undermined” (Pakenham
(1967), pg 164).
As noted above, the phrase “"a free partnership of
Ireland with the other states associated within the British Commonwealth"
is open to other interpretations than given by Cullen and Pakenham
especially as
the “other states” are “within the British Commonwealth” which could be
interpreted as implying that Ireland is without the British Commonwealth. However, Pakenham is undoubtedly
correct when he says that the British delegation (and Llyod George in
particular) were manoeuvring the Irish delegation towards language that was
more suitable to them on the “Crown and Empire” issue while making promises on
the “Ulster” and “essential unity” issues that, in all likelihood, they had no
intention of fulfilling. In other words,
it is highly that the Irish delegation (and Griffith in particular) was being
‘played’.