'Not a bonfire, not a flag, not a hurrah' - how a vague Treaty lead to civil war

Though the Treaty of 1921 gave Ireland an independence that had eluded previous generations, the oath of fidelity to the British king was seen by many as a betrayal, write Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh and Liam Weeks

(Left to right) R.C. Barton, Eamon De Valera, Count Plunkett, Arthur Griffiths and Austin Stack, having had talks with the British Government on the formation of an Irish Free State, return to Ireland in 1921. The Treaty stopped short of a republic. The name for what had been called ‘Southern Ireland’ under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act was to be the Irish Free State. Photo: PA

The difficult circumstances under which the Anglo-Irish Treaty was negotiated in 1921 impacted severely on its legacy.

The domestic and international press, not to mention foreign governments, welcomed the agreement, partly because it was sold as an end to the Irish conflict.