Anglo-Irish Treaty

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London by British government representatives, including David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, and an Irish delegation that included Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, and it ended the Irish War of Independence. It created the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, while Northern Ireland could opt out of it, which it did. The treaty required an oath of allegiance to the Crown, and Britain kept control of certain naval ports. The Dáil approved it narrowly in January 1922, splitting Sinn Féin, and anti-treaty republicans under Éamon de Valera rejected it, leading to the Irish Civil War of 1922–23. The Free State came into being in December 1922, and was replaced by a new constitution in 1937 and the Republic in 1949.

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