The Irish Declaration of Independence of 1919 was a pivotal moment in Ireland’s history, and an important milestone on the country’s road to independence. It was a first step towards the creation of the Irish Free State. More than a symbol, this text marked a real turning point in Irish attitudes at the time. It shows that the Irish will do anything to become an independent nation again.
The declaration was adopted on January 21, 1919 by Dáil Éireann, the legislative assembly of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic. On that day, 27 of the 73 MPs elected in the 1918 general election gathered at the Mansion House in Dublin. It is important to note that these elections saw a landslide victory for the nationalist Sinn Féin party, which was interpreted as a clear mandate for independence.
The Irish Declaration of Independence proclaimed that Ireland was now a sovereign republic, independent of Great Britain. It reaffirmed the Irish people’s right to self-determination and called for the immediate evacuation of British forces from Ireland. The text was both a political act and a declaration of principles, underlining the aspiration to a free and democratic nation.
The declaration was followed almost immediately by the start of the Irish War of Independence, which lasted until 1921. This armed conflict between Irish Republican and British forces was marked by guerrilla warfare, reprisals and violence that left a deep mark on Irish society. Eventually, the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 put an end to the conflict and led to the creation of the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire that had significant autonomy but was not entirely independent.
The 1919 Declaration of Independence remains a powerful symbol of the struggle for Irish independence. It is often cited in discussions of national identity and sovereignty, and continues to be commemorated every year. Although Ireland did not achieve full independence immediately after the declaration, this act laid the foundations for future developments that eventually led to the republic we know today.
In short, the Irish Declaration of Independence of 1919 is a key document that captured a nation’s aspiration for autonomy and freedom, while launching a tumultuous but crucial period in Irish history.
Unanimously proclaimed by the first Dáil Eireann on January 21, 1919.
We, the elected representatives of the Irish people, assembled in the National Assembly:
Whereas the Irish people are by right a free people;Whereas it has never ceased for seven hundred years to repudiate foreign usurpation and has repeatedly repelled it with arms;
Whereas the English government, in this country, is founded today, as always in the past, on force and fraud, and is supported by military occupation in spite of the declared will of the people;
Whereas the Irish Republic was proclaimed in Dublin, on Easter Monday 1916, in the name of the Irish People by the Irish Republican Army;
Whereas it is the firm will of the Irish People to recover and maintain intact their absolute independence in order to advance the common good of their citizens, to restore justice, to provide for the defense of the country, to secure both internal peace and the friendship of all other nations, and they intend to create a national constitution based on the will of the people with equal rights and opportunities for all citizens;
Whereas, at the beginning of a new era in history, the electors seized, in the general election of December 1918, the first opportunity to declare by an overwhelming majority their unshakeable loyalty to the Irish Republic;
We ratify, in the name of the Irish Nation, the establishment of the Republic of Ireland and pledge ourselves and our fellow citizens to make this declaration effective by all means in our power;
We decree that the elected representatives of the Irish People alone are competent to make laws binding on the Irish People, and that the Irish National Assembly is the only body to which the people owe obedience;We solemnly declare that the Government of Ireland by a foreign power is an infringement of our national right which we will never tolerate, and we order the English garrison to evacuate our country;
We demand that our national independence be recognized and supported by all the free nations of the world, and we affirm that this independence is henceforth a prerequisite and essential condition for international peace.
In the name of the Irish people, we humbly place our future in the hands of the Almighty, who gave our fathers their courage and unshakeable steadfastness through the long centuries of relentless tyranny, and, strong in the rightness of the cause they have handed down to us, we call down God’s blessing on this final stage of the struggle we have pledged to lead to freedom.
