There are only two signed copies of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and neither is the same. Therein hangs a tale about the chaos surrounding the fateful signing of the document which set up the Irish State at 2.15am on December 6th, 1921.
Just three of the Irish delegates made it to Downing Street – Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Robert Barton. The other two – Eamonn Duggan and Charles Gavan Duffy – were still back at 22 Hans Place, the Irish delegation’s headquarters, mulling their options.
The three signatories arrived back to Hans Place in the early hours with the partially signed document, to which Duggan and Gavan Duffy added their names. Duggan departed on the early morning train to Holyhead with the signed copy.
By the time the British realised they needed a copy for their records, Duggan was gone so his signature was cut and pasted from a menu card. The rough outline is still apparent 100 years on.
The British copy of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which is in the UK national archives in Kew, went on public display for the first time at an event in the Irish Embassy in London to mark the centenary of the Treaty. It is in a room along with Sir John Lavery’s paintings of the signatories.
It was the first, and perhaps the last, time that the families from the British and Irish sides of the Treaty negotiations came together in one place. Prior to the gathering they visited an exhibition on the Treaty at the British Academy, which will be transported to Dublin for the centenary in December.
Differing memories
The Treaty is remembered differently in both countries. For Britain, it was the end of a long difficulty, or so they thought, for the Irish it led to Civil War and division which lasted for generations.
Dr Ronan Fawsitt, a grandson of Diarmaid Fawsitt, who served as an economic adviser to Barton, was one of the instigators of the reunion. Dr Fawsitt, a GP in Kilkenny, said the generation involved in the Treaty negotiations were traumatised by the fact it led to civil war.
“We know that transferred down the generations through epigenetics so it is really interesting that we have had 100 years of silence about the effect of trauma on the delegates,” he said. “Today by the descendents coming together and talking about it, it is quite liberating. The solution to trauma is to make connections.”
There are only three children of those directly involved in the negotiations who are still alive. Dr Diarmaid Lynch (91) also has the double distinction that both his parents were involved in the Irish delegation. His father Fionan and mother Bridget did much of the logistical planning for the 70 strong Irish delegation.
“We tried to get our father to talk about it and he said there was enough written about it already,” he said. “When it came to the Treaty, he was a pragmatist and the idealists were going against it. My view is that idealists failed to see that a republic wasn’t possible and the pragmatic answer was the right one.”
Hesitant
Among the British relatives
