Provisional Government of Ireland (1922)

The Provisional Government took up office two days later on 16 January 1922 when British administration handed over Dublin Castle to Collins in person.

[1][2][3] Section 1(2) of the Act provided that for the purposes of giving effect to Article 17 of the Treaty: The Act did not give a name to that Parliament but said that in matters within the jurisdiction of the Provisional Government (i.e. only certain matters concerning Southern Ireland), it would have power to make laws in like manner as the Parliament of the Irish Free State when constituted.

[15] Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann also appeared at the head of High Court proceedings, with the approval of the British government (and to the chagrin of Sir Thomas Molony, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland).

From early morning a dense crowd collected outside the gloomy gates in Dame Street, though from the outside little can be seen of the Castle, and only a few privileged persons were permitted to enter its grim gates… [At half past 1] members of the Provisional Government went in a body to the Castle, where they were received by Lord FitzAlan, the Lord Lieutenant.

The Lord Lieutenant congratulated … expressed the earnest hope that under their auspices the ideal of a happy, free, and prosperous Ireland would be attained… The proceedings were held in private, and lasted for 55 minutes, and at the conclusion the heads of the principal administrative departments were presented to the members of the Provisional GovernmentThe following officiaI communique was afterwards issued from the Castle:[19] In the Council Chamber at Dublin Castle this afternoon His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant received Mr. Michael Collins as the head of the Provisional Government provided for in Article 17 of the Treaty of December 6.

Mr. Collins handed to the Lord Lieutenant a copy of the Treaty, on which the acceptance of its provisions by himself and his colleagues had been endorsed and other members of the Provisional Government were then introduced.

He wished them every success in the task that they had undertaken, and expressed the earnest hope that under their auspices the ideal of a happy, free, and prosperous Ireland would be attained.On leaving the Castle the members of the Provisional Government again received a great ovation from a largely augmented crowd.

Members of the Provisional Government proceed to London immediately to meet the British Cabinet Committee to arrange for the various details of handing over.

-George R.There was never again "a meeting of members of the Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland" after 14 January 1922 and neither the Treaty nor the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 provided that the Provisional Government was or would be accountable to any such body.

[21] In November 1922, when refusing a writ of habeas corpus for Erskine Childers and eight other IRA men who had been sentenced to death by a court-martial established by the Provisional Government, the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Charles O'Connor, considered the existence of a Provisional Government and its authority to act as proposed and execute the nine.

In the summer of 1922 he frequently held military reviews of departing British soldiers in the Phoenix Park outside the then Viceregal Lodge.

Anti-treatyites, having opposed the Treaty in the Dáil, mostly withdrew from the assembly and, having formed an opposition "republican government" under Éamon de Valera, began a political campaign from March 1922.

At the same time the powerful IRA Army Executive divided, and its anti-Treaty members refused to be bound by the Dáil vote that had ratified it.

On his way home on 22 August 1922, he was killed in an ambush at Béal na mBláth (an Irish language placename that means 'the Mouth of Flowers').

After Collins' and Griffith's deaths in August 1922, W. T. Cosgrave became both Chairman of the Provisional Government and President of Dáil Éireann, and the distinction between the two posts became irrelevant.

This undeclared conflict was formally ended by the "Craig-Collins Agreement" of 30 March 1922,[25] but Collins continued to supply arms until shortly before his death in August 1922.

A major concern was the welfare of Catholics in Northern Ireland, who were distrustful of the Ulster Special Constabulary that was formed in late 1921 to deal with the IRA there.