Book review: The battle to birth a republic

David McCullagh shows that time and time again, the aspiration of a 32-county state was set aside for the expediency of advancing “Free State” independence.

• From Crown to Harp: How The Anglo-Irish Treaty was undone 1922-1949
• David McCullagh 
• Gill Books, €26.99

Every day, day, on every news bulletin, we hear the phrase “Republic of Ireland”. This title for our country is now taken for granted. 

Yet, until Easter Monday, April 18, 1949, when Ireland formally withdrew from the British Commonwealth, the description “Republc of Ireland” was just a dream.

In From Crown to Harp, the story of Ireland’s development from dominion to republic is diligently outlined by David McCullagh. 

This book concentrates on the high-level talks and negotiations that took place along the way; the quest for a negotiated republic beginning at the treaty negotiations of 1921 and ending on Easter Monday 1949. 

A date specifically chosen — much to the annoyance of the British government — to align with the 33rd anniversary of the 1916 rising.

From Crown to Harp is an absorbing tale. It shows that over 27 years, the objective of a sovereign republic was fought out at hundreds of meetings with the British. 

At these meetings, winning arguments over syntax, or the difference in the use of the words “of” and “from”, were often interpreted as a major diplomatic victory or loss.

These tiny wins however, did not capture the Irish public’s imagination; perhaps because from 1921 until the 1950s, Ireland was dirt poor. 

Apart from a significant programme of house building, and the building of Ardnacrusha Dam, there was very little to suggest the country had any wealth. 

Our chief export was people; those who were forced to go, as well as those who were left behind, were not too concerned about the use of prepositions.

But every small diplomatic victory counted when it came to finally severing the connections between the Irish Free State and the British Commonwealth and its primary symbol, the monarchy.

Britain fought every advance that successive Irish governments tried to make. 

Britain’s principal concerns were defence and the fact that other countries within the commonwealth — chiefly, India, Canada, and South Africa — were also looking for more autonomy and recognition.

McCullagh summed up the Dominion Conference of 1926: “South Africa wanted an explicit statement of Dominion equality; Canada wanted the governor-generalship reformed; Ireland wanted anachronisms that implied subordination removed; Australia and New Zealand wanted things to stay the same; and nobody cared what Newfoundland wanted.”

It is a measure of how successfully Ireland had developed its international relations within the Commonwealth that by 1948, The Bombay Chronicle said: “Ireland was like the lotus in the mud pond, which lives and thrives in the mud and yet remains untouched and unspoiled by it.”

Ireland’s negotiation of the 1921 Treaty was at best naïve. This is understandable given the lack of experience that the negotiators possessed. 

Throughout the book, McCullagh chronicles and explains each victory that the Free State governments won to show how far Ireland had come.

During the 1920s, the Cosgrave years, Sinn Féin — and later Fianna Fáil — criticised the government for inaction. 

But when Fianna Fáil entered government in 1932, the taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, admitted he was surprised at how much the Cosgrave governments had achieved.

Fine Gael — as Cumann na nGaedheal had become — sneered in turn at de Valera and Fianna Fáil’s efforts throughout the early 30s.

The 1937 Constitution and other gains achieved during the war years of the early 1940s meant that Ireland was, in many ways, a republic before taoiseach John A Costello’s dramatic announcement that Ireland intended to leave the commonwealth in Ottawa, Canada, in September 1948. The formalities of this announcement were then concluded on Easter Monday, 1949.

There was one big casualty in all of these advances; the nationalist community within the North. 

McCullagh shows that time and time again, the aspiration of a 32-county state was set aside for the expediency of advancing “Free State” independence.

One of the major takeaways from this fascinating book is that the pro- and anti-treaty parties put considerable energy into criticising each other’s efforts during the 27 years of the progression from crown to harp. 

It makes one wonder: How much more could have been achieved if the two sides had worked together towards the common goal of a 32-county Ireland and where we might be now if they had.