Declaration of War, January 1919.
[Note
added by Michael Purcell 2010------In the General Election of
December 1918, Sinn Fein won 73 of the 105 Irish seats in the
British Parliament. Sinn Fein decided to establish an Irish
Parliament to be known as The Dáil. The first meeting of the First
Dáil, which lasted two hours, was held in the Mansion House, Dublin
on the 21st January 1919, (although the attack was not ordered by
the Dáil the meeting took place on same day as the Soloheadbeg
Ambush ) as the Sinn Fein President, Eamon de Valera was interred in
a British prison, Cathal Brugha presided, addressing the Dáil he
stated ---Deputies you understand from what we are about to declare
that we are now done with England. This was considered by many as
tantamount to a declaration of war against England, in fact "War"
was not officially declared by the Dáil until March 1921. The
following is a short extract from , "Ireland's Declaration of
Independence " issued by The First Dáil on 21st January 1919.]
From a Poster in the PPP. (In Irish and in
English).
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
"Whereas the Irish people is by right a free people: And whereas
for seven hundred years the Irish people has never ceased to
repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign
usurpation; And whereas English rule in this country is, and always
has been based upon force and fraud and maintained by military
occupation against the declared will of the people:
And whereas the
Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday , 1916, by
the Irish Republican army, acting on behalf of the Irish people: And
whereas the Irish people is resolved to secure and maintain its
complete independence in order to promote the common weal, to
re-establish justice , to provide for future defence, to ensure
peace at home and good will with all nations, and to constitute a
national policy based upon the people's will, with equal right and
equal opportunity for every citizen:
And whereas at the threshold of
a new era in history the Irish electorate has in the General
Election of December 1918, seized the first occasion to declare by
an overwhelming majority its firm allegiance to the Irish Republic:
Now , therefore , we , the elected Representatives of the ancient
Irish people in National Parliament assembled, do, in the name of
the Irish nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic and
pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration effective
by every means at out command: We solemnly declare foreign
government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which
we will never tolerate, and we demand the evacuation of our country
by the English Garrison:
We claim for our national independence the
recognition and support of every free nation in the world, and we
proclaim that independence to be a condition precedent to
international peace hereafter : In the name of the Irish People we
humbly commit our destiny to Almighty God Who gave our fathers the
courage and determination to persevere through long centuries of a
ruthless tyranny, and strong in the justice of the cause which they
have handed down to us, we ask His Divine blessing on this the last
stage of the struggle we have pledged ourselves to carry through to
freedom."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The above is a true and
accurate transcript of the original document.
- Transcribed by M. Purcell c2010.
- Old newspapers in the PPP.