By Brian Igoe
By Brian Igoe
Ireland spent the next fifty years growing up, from adolescence to adulthood, a process which had taken England four hundred years. And she did it very well indeed.
But now, and from now, we must make a distinction between Ireland, by which I refer to the Free State, ire in Irish; and Northern Ireland, often mistakenly called Ulster. Certainly Northern Ireland is in Ulster, but Ulster, the Province, is not all in Northern Ireland because Counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are in Southern Ireland. And perversely, the northernmost part of the island of Ireland is in the South. Ah well, that's Ireland.
The pro-Treaty party, the majority wing of the old Sinn Fin party, was now called Cumann na nGaedheal . The name actually came from a party founded by Griffith in 1900 and subsequently merged into Sinn Fin. They would later become Fine Gael. The leaders had of course been Collins and Griffith, both now dead, so the mantle fell upon William Thomas Cosgrave.
That is the first paragraph of the chapter, which then goes on to look at Sinn Fin, Minister for Local Government, Cumann na nGaedheal Government in 1923, self-governing dominion within the British Empire, like Canada or Australia or New Zealand, Garda Sochna (Civic Guards), Free Trade, Kevin O'Higgins, anti-Treaty IRA extremists, Oath of Allegiance, De Valera, Fianna Fil, Labour Party, Treaty Ports, a new Constitution, Governor-General, President, Taoiseach, Senate, Catholic Church, Northern Ireland, Second World War, General Election of 1948, Fianna Gael, the Labour Party, John A. Costello, a Republic, December 1948, Republic of Ireland, the Ireland Act of 2nd June 1949, Northern Ireland.
The Book is called 'The Story of Ireland'.
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