Video
This short animated film tells the story of the circumstances that drove the members of the first Dáil to set up an independent parliament.
Read more
Essay
One of the first tasks facing the Ministry of Local Government after its establishment was to win over the loyalty of the various local councils to the cause of the Republic.
Read more
Essay
The plan to seek international recognition of an independent Irish Republic was the cornerstone of the strategy pursued by the First Dáil.
Read more
Essay
Nationalists of all stripes had long cherished the idea of establishing a “native” system of justice.
Read more
Picture essay
As part of the digitisation project, thousands of papers have been cleaned, flattened and repaired.
Read more
Essay
The attempt by Ireland to gain recognition of its independence by way of an appeal to the Versailles Peace Conference is one of the many neglected aspects of the revolutionary decade of 1912-23.
Read more
Audio recording
"England has killed another son for Ireland to mourn. She has robbed another woman of the joy of her life, and made another orphan sad for the father she must never know."
Read more
Essay
What transpired in the Mansion House on 21 January 1919 was the very definition of sedition. It might seem surprising that the British authorities in Ireland allowed the inaugural meeting of Dáil Éireann to happen at all.
Read more
Essay
At the opening session of the Second Dáil on 16 August 1921, the President of Dáil Éireann, Eamon de Valera, looked back on the work of the First Dáil. He gave his account of the establishment of the Dáil, the disappointment of the Paris Peace Conference and the rationale for his negotiations with the British Government following the July truce.
Read more
Essay
The administrative and procedural records of the First and Second Dáileanna help tell the story of the early Dáil and its Ministries.
Read more
Essay
The scale of the task being undertaken and the obstacles in the Dáil’s path were immense. The failure to achieve their ultimate goals should not blind one to the intellectual feat inherent in setting those goals in the first place.
Read more
Essay
The Democratic Programme was intended to be, and remains, the definitive statement of the aims of the revolutionary movement in the field of social policy.
Read more
Essay
The Declaration of Independence was one of the three texts that were at the heart of the proceedings of the first public sitting of Dáil Éireann.
Read more
Picture essay
When the Parliament of Ireland was abolished, the lack of a parliament in Ireland became the focus of Irish politics for more than a century.
Read more
Essay
In its conception Eamon de Valera’s mission to America in 1919-20 dovetailed perfectly with the two principal goals of the separatist movement.
Read more
Essay
Of all the endeavours by the First Dáil, perhaps none was more important or successful than the work to promote the republican cause through the national and international media.
Read more
Essay
Local government represented one of the undoubted success stories of the First Dáil, notwithstanding many problems and with certain minor reservations.
Read more
Essay
"On the 11th November, 1919, as I was leaving 76, Harcourt Street, to go to the Sinn Féin Bank, I observed that there was a raid on the Sinn Féin Headquarters at No. 6."
Read more
Essay
The inaugural sitting of Dáil Éireann on 21 January 1919 marked a moment when scores of newspapers across a disunited kingdom competed to capture what often is called “the first draft of history.”
Read more
Essay
The numerous foreign journalists present at the sitting of the First Dáil were somewhat baffled by the fact that the proceedings were carried out through Irish.
Read more
Audio recording
"No, the Irish do not hate England. The Irish desire peace with England and with the rest of the world. It is not the Irish who are disturbing the world peace."
Read more
Picture essay
By 1918, a general election in Britain and Ireland was long overdue. The previous one had been held in 1910, but with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 the Government’s term had been extended.
Read more