Editing Irish Declaration of Independence

{{Short description|1919 document which declared the Irish Republic's independence from the United Kingdom}}
{{Distinguish|Proclamation of the Irish Republic}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
[[File:Irish Declaration of Independence.jpg|thumb|Cover page of the Declaration]]
The '''Declaration of Independence''' ({{langx|ga|Forógra na Saoirse}}, {{langx|fr|link=no|Déclaration d'indépendance}}) was a document adopted by [[Dáil Éireann (1919-1922)|Dáil Éireann]], the revolutionary parliament of the [[Irish Republic]], at its first meeting in the [[Mansion House, Dublin]], on 21 January 1919. It followed from the [[Sinn Féin]] [[Sinn Féin Manifesto 1918|election manifesto]] of December 1918. Texts of the declaration were adopted in three languages: [[Irish language|Irish]], English and French.

==Scope==
The [[Irish Republic]] claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of [[Ireland]]. The declaration made no mention of the independence of the 32-county geographic island, just the independence of the "Irish nation" or "Irish people". It was rivalled by the British administration of the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]], but as the [[Irish War of Independence]] went on, it increased its legitimacy in the eyes of most Irish people. It was taken over by the [[Irish Free State]] in 1922, after the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]].

Under [[international law]], the declaration satisfied the principle of the "[[declarative theory of statehood]]," but in 1919 almost all [[State (polity)|states]] followed the "[[constitutive theory of statehood]]" and therefore did not recognise the Irish Republic.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

==Ratification of 1916 Proclamation==
By the Declaration of Independence, the Dáil ratified the earlier [[Proclamation of the Irish Republic]] of [[Easter Rising|Easter 1916]]. This proclamation had not been adopted by an elected body but merely by the Easter rebels claiming to act in the name of the Irish people. Unlike the proclamation, the Declaration of Independence was followed by the establishment of some ''de facto'' political organs. In its crucial line the declaration pronounced that:

{{blockquote|..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 our command}}

==English garrison==
{{blockquote|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.}}

Differing meanings were given to the occupying 'English garrison'. This was the closest that the Irish Republic came to declaring war on Britain in January 1919, arguing that an invasion had taken place, and therefore any military action from then on was to remove the invaders. The government in London refused to take this as a [[declaration of war]], considering that it was worded for an Irish audience. When the Irish War of Independence started with some [[Soloheadbeg Ambush|haphazard shootings]] on the same day at [[Soloheadbeg]], [[County Tipperary]], it was treated by the British as a police matter. The Dáil had no claim to control the [[Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) until the latter swore an oath of allegiance to it in August 1920.<ref>C. Younger, Ireland's Civil War (London 1968) p103</ref>

==700 years==
{{blockquote|And Whereas for seven hundred years the Irish people has never ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign usurpation.}}

This was based on the 'apostolic succession' of revolts against the English and later, British administrations, placing the last fully free Ireland in the Gaelic world of about the 1160s, before the [[Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland]] of 1168–71. The declaration saw the wars and revolts of [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|1594–1603]], [[Irish Confederate Wars|1641–50]], [[Williamite War in Ireland|1689–91]], [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|1798]], [[Irish Rebellion of 1803|1803]], [[Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848|1848]], [[Fenian Rising|1867]] and [[Easter Rising|1916]] as a continuing attempt at regaining Irish self-government, with or without links to the crown.

==Aim of international recognition==
{{main|Irish Republic#Recognition}}
{{blockquote|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:}}

An important element in the 1918 Sinn Féin election manifesto was to secure recognition at the forthcoming peace conference that would end the [[World War I|World War of 1914 to 1918]]. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] of the United States had suggested that the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Versailles Peace Conference]] would be inclusive and even-handed, but his "[[Fourteen Points]]" had called for "equal weight" between parties at arbitration in article 5, and not outright declarations of independence.

In June 1920, a "Draft Treaty between the new [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] and the Republic of Ireland" was circulated in Dublin. [[E. H. Carr]], the historian of early [[Bolshevik|Bolshevism]], considered that "... the negotiations were not taken very seriously on either side."<ref>Carr, E. H., ''The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–23, vol. 3'' Penguin Books, London, 4th reprint (1983), pp. 257–258. The draft treaty was published for propaganda purposes in the British document ''Intercourse between Bolshevism and Sinn Féin'' of 1921 ([[Command paper|Cmd]] 1326).</ref> The RSFSR was a [[pariah state]] at the time.

==See also==
{{Campaignbox Irish independence}}
On the same day the [[First Dáil]] adopted the:
* [[Dáil Constitution]]
* [[Message to the Free Nations of the World]]
* [[Democratic Programme]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|Irish Declaration of Independence|Irish Declaration of Independence}}
*Official texts from [[Wikisource]]:
**[[oldwikisource:Faisnéis Neamhspleádhchuis|Faisnéis Neamhspleádhchuis]] {{in lang|ga}}
**[[wikisource:Irish Declaration of Independence|Irish Declaration of Independence]] (in English)
**[[:fr:s:Déclaration d’Indépendance (Irlande)]] {{in lang|fr}}

[[Category:Declarations of independence|Ireland]]
[[Category:Political history of the Republic of Ireland]]
[[Category:History of Ireland (1801–1923)]]
[[Category:1919 in Ireland]]
[[Category:1919 documents]]