Darragh Gannon suggests the mixed reception this "Cuban policy" received among Dáil members foreshadowed the Treaty split of 1921–1922.
2", of which articles 2 to 6 described the "Terms of Association":[8] De Valera, a former mathematics teacher, used Venn diagrams and other graphs to illustrate the relationships he envisaged between Ireland and the Commonwealth.
[9] Michael Collins, one of the Treaty signatories, claimed that this document was not the work of de Valera and that identifying its (non-Irish) author was not difficult: "Dominionism tinges every line.
[11][12] A journalist reporting on the Dáil debate said of de Valera's presentation, "One felt, however, we were entering the region of pure casuistry, nebulous, unpalpable and unreal.
[15] In the Irish Civil War, he was nominal leader of the anti-Treaty side, although the military force was led by republicans who regarded external association as an unacceptable compromise.
Cardinal Michael Logue, Ireland's Catholic primate, condemned the anti-Treaty side:[16] In June 1922, UK prime minister David Lloyd George sought clarification from the pro-Treaty Provisional Government that was drafting the Constitution of the Irish Free State; one question was:[17] Arthur Griffith's answer was:[17] The pro-Treaty Cumann na nGaedheal party formed the Executive Council of the Irish Free State until 1932 and participated in the Commonwealth's Imperial Conferences.
[30] De Valera told the Dáil in 1945:[31] By contrast, Nicholas Mansergh wrote in 1948, "External association has never been put into practice because the United Kingdom and the oversea dominions have never recognized that it exists.