{"id":640858,"date":"2026-08-16T23:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T23:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640858\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T23:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T23:05:15","slug":"michael-collins-faced-closing-window-of-opportunity-to-sign-1921-treaty-says-mcdowell-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640858\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Collins faced closing window of opportunity to sign 1921 Treaty, says McDowell \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Criticism of Michael Collins<\/a> for signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London in 1921 failed to recognise the narrow window of time in which the Irish negotiators were working, Independent Senator Michael McDowell<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

McDowell, who writes an opinion column for The Irish Times, delivered the oration at the annual Collins Griffith<\/a> Commemoration at Glasnevin Cemetery on Sunday. He said detractors of the Treaty \u2013 which led to the foundation of the State but also to a bitter split in the republican leadership \u2013 had not grasped how precarious a position David Lloyd George\u2019s Liberal government found itself in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe very precarity of the Lloyd George coalition, and the very real probability of the Conservative and Unionist Party becoming the sole and utterly hostile interlocutor with Irish nationalism \u2013 as happened not much later in 1922 \u2013 were well known to Collins and Griffith. So were the implications,\u201d said McDowell. <\/p>\n

\"ProfProf Michael Laffan, historian and author, delivers an address at the grave of former President Arthur Griffith at Glasnevin Cemetery on Sunday. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times<\/p>\n

\"TheThe annual national commemoration honouring General Michael Collins and President Arthur Griffith took place at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on Sunday. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times<\/p>\n

\"OfficialsOfficials and relatives at the annual commemoration honouring General Michael Collins and President Arthur Griffith at Glasnevin Cemetery. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times<\/p>\n

\u201cThey clearly understood that the substance of Irish independence might so easily have trickled away through the hesitant fingers of Ireland\u2019s leaders if it were rejected by reference to its form rather than its substance. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey understood the responsibility that lay on those who had to choose between establishing Irish independence or joining the long line of patriots who had failed to deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDowell argued that Collins and President Arthur Griffith had envisaged the development of Ireland\u2019s modern democracy. He said its success in many ways may even have surpassed what they regarded as its potential at the time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Criticism of Michael Collins for signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London in 1921 failed to recognise the narrow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[271028,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5001,54811,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-640858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-arthur-griffith","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-michael-collins","tag-michael-mcdowell","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117107697256683868","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}