Ireland 1922 Features

Introducing Ireland 1922: Independence, Partition, Civil War

The year 1922 marked the beginning of the final phase in Ireland’s revolution: it saw the ratification of the...

4 January 1922: The Treaty Debates

By Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid On 4 January 1922 the cool concrete façade of Earlsfort Terrace in...

7 January 1922: The Ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty

By Richard Bourke The ‘Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland’ were signed at...

16 January 1922: The ‘Surrender of Dublin Castle’

By Martin Maguire In the history of the Irish revolution of 1916–21 it is the IRA campaign that attracts most...

19 January 1922: Dedication of the John Nicholson Statue, Lisburn

By Michael Silvestri On 19 January 1922 the town of Lisburn in Northern Ireland unveiled a statue to an imperial icon and...

21 January 1922: The Irish Race Congress

By Darragh Gannon On 21 January 1922 John Whelan arrived from Java for the Irish Race Congress in Paris. It was held...

25 January 1922: Premiere of Swan Hennessy's Second String Quartet, Paris

By Harry White ‘In my early Dublin days’, the English composer (and Master of the King’s...

1 February 1922: Frank Walsh’s American Imperialism

By David Brundage On 1 February 1922 the Irish American political reformer Frank P. Walsh published an article in the liberal US...

2 February 1922: The Publication of ‘Ulysses’

By Elaine Sisson James Joyce’s Ulysses was published on his 40th birthday, 2 February 1922. In the Circe episode, it...

5 February 1922: Cumann na mBan Opposes the Anglo-Irish Treaty

By Marie Coleman On Sunday, 5 February 1922, Cumann na mBan held a special convention in the Round Room of Dublin&rsquo...

6 February 1922: Pius XI Ascends to the Papacy

By Laura McAtackney Pius XI’s papal reign (1922–39) officially began on 6 February 1922. It may seem an unlikely event...

12 February 1922: The Nicholson Revival

By Andrew R. Holmes Against the backdrop of sectarian violence, economic depression and attempts to consolidate the new state of...

25 February 1922: Publication of the ‘Free State’ Newspaper

By Ciara Meehan Before the physical fighting of the civil war began, a propaganda war was fought by those divided...

2 March 1922: Countess Markievicz Defends Female Citizenship

By Aidan Beatty On 2 March 1922 Constance Markievicz, by then a strongly anti-Treaty member of the Dáil, addressed her...

3 March 1922: Closing Border Roads

By Peter Leary At 11 p.m. on Friday, 3 March 1922, a party of B-Specials (a section of the Ulster Special Constabulary)...

4 March 1922: The Wife of a Plasterer Tells the Archbishop of Dublin a Secret

By Lindsey Earner-Byrne Dear Archbishop I humbly ask pardon for the liberty I take of writing to you + also hope...

17 March 1922: St Patrick’s Day, New York City

By Enda Delaney On 17 March 1922 over 50,000 people marched in the New York St Patrick’s Day parade, sending a...

17 March 1922: ‘Wading Through Blood’ in Thurles

By David McCullagh If the Volunteers of the future tried to complete the work the Volunteers of the last four...

24 March 1922: The McMahon Murders

by Laurence Marley Despite the truce between Crown forces and the IRA in July 1921, violence intensified in Belfast that summer,...

30 March 1922: The Craig-Collins Pact

By Tim Wilson ‘Peace is today declared.’ Rising in the House of Commons late on the evening of 30...

1 May 1922: Dublin Corporation Calls for the Censorship of Films

by Kevin Rockett On 1 May 1922 the motion that ‘Dáil Éireann be asked to appoint a Board...

22 May 1922: The Forcible Hair Cutting of the Cullen Sisters of Keenaghan, Co. Tyrone

by Mary McAuliffe In June 1922 a brutal outrage that occurred in the townland of Keenaghan, in the parish of Killyman,...

25 May 1922: The First Anniversary of the Burning of the Custom House

by Lisa Godson On Thursday, 25 May 1922 the first anniversary of the IRA’s ‘taking’ of the Custom...

29 May 1922: The Arrest of John O Donnell

by Anne-Marie McInerney On 29 May 1922 John O Donnell was arrested following a crackdown on republican and nationalist activists in Northern...

3 June 1922: James Craig Advocates Flying the Flag

by Stephen O’Neill On touring Belfast in the turbulent June of 1922, an English visitor to the city suggested...

12 June 1922: George V Receives the Colours of Disbanded Irish Regiments

by Heather Jones ‘The ceremony was one of the most touching that I ever beheld’, recalled John Fortescue,...

28 June 1922: The Assault on the Four Courts

by John Borgonovo The Irish civil war began on 28 June 1922 when the National Army attacked the forces of the IRA...

7 July 1922: Free State Forces Attack Skeog House

by Breandán Mac Suibhne On Wednesday, 6 May 1981, the Detroit Free Press sent staff reporter Robert H. Emmers to...

13 July 1922: Jim Larkin Lectures Irish Republicans in Canada

by Patrick Mannion On 13 July 1922 the newly established Irish Republican League of Canada (IRL) organised a lecture by Irish republican...

3 August 1922: The Abandoned Tailteann Games

By Paul Rouse The plan was a clear one: on 3 August 1922 the new Irish Free State would stage the opening...

9 August 1922: The Battle for Cork

By Joanna Brück and Damian Shiels On Wednesday, 9 August 1922, an Irish Free State soldier named Flood was shot...

9 August 1922: The Reopening of Clery’s Department Store

By Fionnuala Walsh On Wednesday, 9 August 1922, an advertisement for Clery’s department store adorned the full front page of...

12 August 1922: Death of a Statesman

By Eunan O’Halpin Arthur Griffith’s sudden death at the age of just 51 on 12 August 1922 was an...

13 August 1922: The Destruction of Mitchelstown Castle

By Terence Dooley On 13 August 1922 Mitchelstown Castle in Cork became the largest Irish country house to be destroyed during the...

17 August 1922: The Disbandment of the Royal Irish Constabulary

By Brian Hughes On 17 August 1922 Joseph Cashman photographed a small crowd of men and women outside Dublin Castle. Three were...

26 August 1922: The Killing of Seán Cole and Alf Colley

By Brian Hanley Dublin on Saturday, 26 August 1922 was a city in mourning. In City Hall thousands filed past the body...

5 September 1922: John Lavery presents his painting, ‘Michael Collins , love of Ireland’

by Róisín Kennedy On 5 September 1922 John Lavery presented his painting, ‘Michael Collins, Love of Ireland...

12 September 1922: The Dáil Debates Unemployment

by Jason Knirck At a sitting of the third Dáil on 12 September 1922, as the government’s handling...

22 September 1922: The Publication of Liam Mellows’s ‘Notes From Mountjoy’

by Gavin Foster On 22 September 1922, roughly three months into the Irish civil war, both the Irish Independent and the Freeman...

7 October 1922: The Killing of Teenagers Eamonn Hughes, Brendan Holohan and Joseph Rogers

by Anne Dolan In the early morning of 7 October 1922 a dairyman found the bodies of two ‘respectably-dressed men’...

10 October 1922: The Bishops Condemn the Republican Campaign

by Daithí Ó Corráin On 10 October 1922 the Irish Roman Catholic hierarchy issued a pastoral letter that strongly...

23 October 1922: The Burning of Tullamaine Castle

by Gemma Clark ‘Another Tipperary castle destroyed’, reported the Nenagh Guardian on 23 October 1922, detailing the burning, during the...

4 November 1922: Mary MacSwiney’s Hunger Strike

By Diarmaid Ferriter The imprisonment and three-week hunger strike of Mary MacSwiney, which began in Dublin on 4 November 1922, generated national...

30 November 1922: Cumann na mBan’s Telegram to W.T. Cosgrave

By Dianne Hall As the news of the deteriorating condition of Mary MacSwiney reached Australia in November 1922, the Sydney Ethna...

6 December 1922: The Irish Free State Constitution Becomes Law

by Bill Kissane The constitution of the Irish Free State became law on 6 December 1922. Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish...

7 December 1922: Ulster Opts Out of the Irish Free State

by Robert Lynch On the evening of 7 December 1922 the prime minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, set sail from Belfast...

8 December 1922: The Mountjoy Executions

by Seán Enright The execution without trial of Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barrett and Joe...

22 December 1922: Patrick Hogan’s Memorandum on Land Seizures

By Heather Laird On 22 December 1922 Patrick Hogan, minister for agriculture in the Irish Free State government, sent a Cabinet memorandum...

27 December 1922: The Occupation of the Irish Consulate, New York

By John Gibney On the morning of Wednesday, 27 December 1922 the former independent nationalist and Sinn Féin MP and...

Epilogue: Forgetting 1922

By Guy Beiner 1922 is a worthy candidate for the most undeservedly forgotten year in contemporary Irish history. Yet, it is...

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