Author Description

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to the creation of an independent Irish state, but also a devastating Civil War that defined Irish politics for decades. Divisive as it proved to be, the signing of the Treaty on 6 December 1921 is a key milestone in modern Irish history. The original Irish copy of the Treaty is retained in the collections of the National Archives in Dublin, which marked the centenary of its signing with the landmark exhibition The Treaty, 1921: Records from the Archives, presented in partnership with the Office of Public Works, the National Library of Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy, whose Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (DIFP) project played a central role as a partner in the exhibition, developing the exhibition text and co-curating the structure and content with the National Archives. With the Treaty as the centrepiece, the exhibition placed significant documents from the collections of the National Archives on public display for the first time, along with material from the collections of the Military Archives, Dublin, and UCD Archives. The Treaty of 1921 is perhaps the most famous and important document in modern Irish history. How was it negotiated? Who signed it? What was life like for the Irish delegation that went to London to conclude it? Using the documentary record that they left behind, much of it published here for the first time, this lavishly illustrated book, based on the original exhibition, explores the world that the Irish delegation lived in for seven fateful weeks in 1921, and how the Treaty that they negotiated came into being.