X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Irish Free State


Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh

They received a small amount of money from the Irish Free State but reluctantly acknowledged the Minister of Education in Belfast's power to get support.

Irish Land Commission

After the Partition of Ireland the Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1922 abolished many all-island offices, including the Land Commissioners, effective from the the creation of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922.

Statute Law Revision Act 2009

The Statute Law Revision Act 2009 followed on from the Statute Law Revision Act 2007 which reviewed Public General Acts applying to Ireland that were enacted before the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.

Una Troy Walsh

Writing under the pen name of "Elizabeth Connor", she began her career in 1936 with the publication of the novel Mount Prospect which was banned in the Irish Free State.


1921 in Northern Ireland

The main points of the agreement include the creation of an Irish Free State within the Commonwealth, an Oath of Allegiance to the Crown and the Royal Navy will be able to use certain Free State ports.

Duke of Leinster

After nearly a century as the headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society, which held its famed Spring Show and Horse Show in its grounds, Oireachtas Éireann, the two chamber parliament of the new Irish Free State, rented Leinster House in 1922 to be its temporary parliament house.

George Joynt

Although not a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), he believed in the organization's intention of overthrowing both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland and re-establishing the Irish Republic declared in 1919.

Irish National War Memorial Gardens

W.T. Cosgrave, president of the Irish Free State Executive Council then appointed Cecil Lavery to set up a "War Memorial Committee" to advance the memorial process.

John Lumsden

In 1923, after the establishment of the Irish Free State, Sir John wrote to the President of the Council of the Irish Free State to start the process of breaking the Brigade away from the control of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of the St John of Jerusalem.

Kilmichael Ambush

In 1926, on behalf of the Guthrie family, Kevin O'Higgins, Irish Free State Minister for Home Affairs, interceded with the local IRA, after which Guthrie's remains were disinterred and buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard at Macroom.

Laurence O'Neill

He was elected to the Irish Free State Seanad Éireann at a by-election on 20 June 1929 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice.

Local government in the Republic of Ireland

The geographic remit of the Irish Free State, which was established pursuant to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, was confined to twenty-six of the traditional counties of Ireland and thus included 27 administrative counties.

Maurice Healy

Maurice (junior) moved to England after the founding of the Irish Free State where he was both a successful lawyer, and a broadcaster for the BBC during the early years of World War II.

Poë-Domvile baronets

It was created on 2 July 1912 for Hutcheson Poë, subsequently Lord Lieutenant of Queen's County (1920–22) and a Senator of the Irish Free State (1922–24).

St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland

The first division founded in what was to later become the Irish Free State was the Dublin (St James's Gate) Ambulance Division, formed in 1903 at the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate in Dublin, under the guidance of Dr. (later Sir) John Lumsden.

William Conyngham

Conyngham is most famous today for having presented the Trinity College Harp to Trinity College Dublin; from 1922 the harp was used as the model for the insignia of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland.


see also

James McNeill

When the first governor-general of the Free State, Timothy Michael Healy retired in December 1927, James McNeill was proposed as his replacement by the Irish government of W. T. Cosgrave and duly appointed by King George V as Governor-General of the Irish Free State.

Lord High Constable

The Lord High Constable of Ireland, office abolished after the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922

President of the Executive Council

The President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, Head of government of the Irish Free State (1922–37), in fact the president of the Irish Free State

Supreme Court of the Irish Free State

Though the Irish Free State and its constitution were abolished with the commencement of a new constitution, the Constitution of Ireland on 29 December 1937, the Free State Supreme Court continued in existence as the provisional supreme court of the new state until 1961 when the new Supreme Court of Ireland, which had been created in 1937, was formally brought into being.