100 years after the Free State abandoned the north, what has changed? |
It’s exactly 100 years, give or take a couple of days, since the Free State abandoned the north.
On December 7 1925, WT Cosgrave moved the second reading of the Irish Agreement Bill in the Dáil.
It was a rushed job, just as the so-called ‘negotiations’ in London had been the previous month, after the collapse of the Boundary Commission.
Cosgrave and his Executive Council couldn’t wait to leave the fiasco behind them.
Brian Feeney: 100 years after the Free State abandoned the north, what has changed?
Alex Kane: Himself alone – what really made David Trimble tick?
After that none of them lifted a finger to help northern nationalists, and so it has remained ever since.
At the talks in London, according to the diary of deputy cabinet secretary Tom Jones, it seems that Kevin O’Higgins, Vice-President of the Executive Council, was the only person who pleaded for some measures to be written in to safeguard northern nationalists, especially from repression by B Special uniformed unionist thugs.
His pleas fell on deaf ears. Craig, the author of so much violence and mayhem against Catholics, was immovable.
WT Cosgrave was President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State until 1932 Picture: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)In his speech to the Dáil, Cosgrave said there was “no written........