Forum / Treaty Commemoration Issue

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December, 1946 FORUM — TREATY COMMEMORATION ISSUE COLLINS AND GRIFFITH TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THIS number of "Forum" commemorates the signing of the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland on December 6, 1921. That Treaty was the first political victory the native Irish people ever won since the Norman invasion. It was won as a result of such a unity and such a combined effort as had never before been known in Ireland. In one number of a monthly journal, we could not hope to do justice to the achievement itself and die to the mind who made it possible. But we do try to tell something of those who signed the Treaty, brought it home, stood over itself and died to the mind that the right of the Irish people to try to accept it. They and their successors created modern Irish institutions of Government for the first time in history. These institutions, as General MacEoin so clearly indicates, have withstood many strains and have served the Irish people well. About the Treaty itself, and the negotiations preceding it, there was raised a veritable fog of words. But time has dissipated the fog and in the light of our knowledge and experience in 1946, certain facts stand out clearly. * * * * * A VICTORY in arms for the Anti-Treaty Party would not have meant a Republic for Ireland or for any part of it. It would have meant that the victorious Anti-Treaty Party which either had to win a fight against the British, or start negotiations for a new Treaty. But how could the broken and depleted Irish ranks hope to resume the which the fight with the United Forces of 1921 had been unable to carry to victory, for surely the acceptance of a Truce in July, 1921, meant that victory had not and could not be won in arms, and how could Dail Eireann, weakened by death and disunion, negotiate a better Treaty than Griffith and Collins victory brought back? But national foresight and commonsense played no part in the Anti-Treaty programme. Nor would an Anti-Treaty party have given a United Ireland. Nothing could have done that in 1922 but the acceptance and the working of the Treaty in good faith and with all the strength and the vigilance which a united people and a united Parliament could have brought to bear upon the problem. The Anti-Treaty Party had no solution for Partition. Since they came into office more than fourteen years ago, they have done no single act which brings the re-union of Ireland nearer. * * * * * IN the circumstances of 1921, after fighting, burnings, executions, and reprisals, no sane man could have expected a joyful unanimous acceptance of any possible agreement—that is, of any agreement which, in their mood of 1921, British statesmen would sign. . . . After all, they were not a beaten foe. It might, indeed, be argued that, taking the long national view, a Party in Ireland which would criticise and vote against a settlement would be desirable. But that Party—in the best national interest—would need to be strictly constitutional. It would bow to t…