Southern Ireland - 1921 General Election

1921 General Election

In reality, however, while Northern Ireland did become a functioning entity, with a parliament and government that existed until 1972, Southern Ireland never did. An Irish Republic had been proclaimed by the parliament known as Dáil Éireann, formed by Sinn Féin MPs elected from Ireland in the United Kingdom general election in 1918. The first general election to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland in 1921 was used by Sinn Féin to produce a new Dáil: the Second Dáil. Sinn Féin won 124 of the 128 seats, all without contest. (The other four were won by Dublin Unionists.) When the new Parliament of Southern Ireland was called into session in June 1921, only the four Unionist members of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, and a handful of appointed senators, turned up in the Royal College of Science in Dublin, where the meeting was scheduled to take place; the others convened elsewhere as the Dáil.