Parliament of Southern Ireland
The Parliament of Southern Ireland was a Home Rule legislature established by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was designed to legislate for Southern Ireland,[2][3] a political entity[a] which was created by the British Government to solve the issue of rising Irish nationalism and the issue of partitionism, while retaining the whole of Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.
Parliament of Southern Ireland
Senate,
House of Commons
64 Senators
128 members of parliament (MPs)
1921 Irish elections (first & last)
The parliament was bicameral, consisting of a House of Commons (the lower house) with 128 seats and a Senate (the upper house) with 64 seats.[4] The parliament as two houses sat only once, in the Royal College of Science for Ireland in Merrion Street. Due to the low turnout of members attending, the parliament was adjourned sine die and was later officially disbanded by the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922.
Abolition[edit]
The Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 was passed on 31 March 1922 by the British Parliament. It gave the force of law to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which was scheduled to the Act.[28][29][30] Section 1(2) of the Act provided that for the purposes of giving effect to Article 17 of the Treaty the Parliament of Southern Ireland would be dissolved within four months from the passing of the Act. The Parliament of Southern Ireland ceased to exist on 27 May 1922, when Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, formally dissolved it and by proclamation called "a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament".[31] An election to this Provisional Parliament was held on 16 June 1922. On 6 December 1922, the Constitution of the Irish Free State came into force and Southern Ireland ceased to form part of the United Kingdom. The Oireachtas of the Irish Free State was a bicameral parliament consisting of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.