Qualla: Irish Free State https://qualla.com/irish-free-state en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/7/x/irish-free-state-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Irish Free State https://qualla.com/irish-free-state Irish Free State: Introduction https://qualla.com/irish-free-state/ Photo credit Sheila1988, CC BY-SA 4.0. Michael Collins called the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 "the freedom to achieve freedom." Eamon de Valera called it a betrayal worth fighting a civil war over. They were both right. The Irish Free State that came into existence on 6 December 1922 - a dominion of the British Empire comprising twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties, with the king still nominally on the throne and parliamentarians required to swear fidelity to him - was a fragile compromise that immediately fractured. The brothers and former comrades who had fought side by side in the War of Independence now turned their guns on each other, and the new state was born into a civil war it would win at a cost it would never quite finish counting.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/7/x/irish-free-state-wp/gc7x-irish-free-state-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Irish Free State: The Oath That Split a Country https://qualla.com/irish-free-state/ Photo credit Mucklagh, CC BY-SA 4.0. Members of the new Dail were required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Free State constitution and to declare fidelity to King George V. The wording was carefully drafted, largely by Michael Collins himself, partly drawn from a draft suggested by de Valera before the negotiat...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/7/x/irish-free-state-wp/gc7x-irish-free-state-the-oath-that-split-a-country.mp3 0:06 2 full Irish Free State: Dominion Status, Tested https://qualla.com/irish-free-state/ Photo credit Peter Clarke, Public domain. On paper the Free State was a constitutional monarchy. A governor-general represented the king, the Oireachtas (parliament) consisted of king plus Dail plus Seanad, and the Treaty allowed Britain to keep three strategic Treaty Ports on the Irish coast. In practice the W. T. Cosgr...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/7/x/irish-free-state-wp/gc7x-irish-free-state-dominion-status-tested.mp3 0:06 3 full Irish Free State: De Valera Dismantles the Crown https://qualla.com/irish-free-state/ Photo credit BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives, CC BY 2.0. De Valera entered office in February 1932 and began removing, piece by piece, the elements of the Treaty he had spent a civil war opposing. He abolished the Oath of Allegiance in 1933 - the policy was so obvious that Cosgrave had planned to do it himself had he won. He abolished ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/7/x/irish-free-state-wp/gc7x-irish-free-state-de-valera-dismantles-the-crown.mp3 0:06 4 full Irish Free State: Bunreacht na hEireann https://qualla.com/irish-free-state/ Photo credit Emihunty, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1937 de Valera presented an entirely new constitution to the Dail. Bunreacht na hEireann - the Constitution of Ireland - was put to a plebiscite on 1 July 1937, the same day as a general election, and a relatively narrow majority approved it. It came into force on 29 December ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/7/x/irish-free-state-wp/gc7x-irish-free-state-bunreacht-na-heireann.mp3 0:06 5 full Irish Free State: Freedom to Achieve Freedom https://qualla.com/irish-free-state/ Photo credit Peter Clarke, CC BY-SA 3.0. Look back at the fifteen years between 6 December 1922 and 29 December 1937 and the through line is incremental. The Free State was, structurally, a compromise; what its leaders did with that compromise was extract every degree of latitude available. Collins's phrase about "freed...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/7/x/irish-free-state-wp/gc7x-irish-free-state-freedom-to-achieve-freedom.mp3 0:06 6 full