Provisional Government of Southern Ireland - Name of Provisional Government

Name of Provisional Government

On 23 November Erskine Childers and eight other IRA men appealed for their lives to the civilian judiciary. The Master of the Rolls in Ireland considered the existence of a Provisional Government in Ireland and its authority to act as proposed and execute the nine.

Now we have what is called a Provisional Government in Ireland, and although for the time being it is in a transitional state, it has been formally and legally constituted and derives it validity from the treaty between Great Britain and Ireland and the Act of Parliament confirming that Treaty.,

The Provisional Government styled itself the Provisional Government of Ireland or (Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann in Irish) and overprinted its postage stamps accordingly. It is questionable whether it should not have been the provisional Government of Southern Ireland.

In addition, the Provisional Government is sometimes referred to as having been the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State. In law, the Irish Free State did not exist until 6 December 1922 at which point the Provisional Government ceased to exist (although those who had been its members were on that date elected as the first Executive Council of the Irish Free State).

Notwithstanding the above, to confuse matters somewhat, from 9 September 1922 the provisional Government of Southern Ireland was accountable to a Provisional Parliament – and that Parliament was not a House of the Parliament of Southern Ireland. This is because on 27 May 1922, Lord Fitzalan pursuant to the terms of the Free State (Agreement) Act declared that the Parliament of Southern Ireland was dissolved and he called “a Parliament to be known as and styled the Provisional Parliament ”

Throughout its existence, it was referred to by those who participated in it as Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann, or in English, the Irish Provisional Government.