COLLINS, Michael, Original Photograph of the Irish Delegation. The Makers of the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland. The Signatories of the Articles of Agreement. Seated: Arthur Griffith, Chairman of the Delegation; Eamonn John Duggan; Michael Collins and Robert Barton. Standing: Erskine Childers; Gavan Duffy and John Smith Chartres.

200 x 150mm. A few creases. In fine condition.

After weeks of negotiations the treaty was signed on 6 December 1921. The agreement, between the
British government and representatives of secessionist Ireland, was signed in the aftermath of the truce
which ended the Irish War of Independence.
A year earlier Westminster had passed the Government of Ireland Act which saw the creation of two
governments - one in Belfast with jurisdiction over the six north-eastern counties and the other in
Dublin, which was given control over the remaining 26 counties. Both had very limited devolved
powers, which were more acceptable to unionists, who were happy to remain under control from
Westminster, than many Irish nationalists.
In October 1921, negotiations between the British government and a Sinn Fein delegation, which
included Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, began. Collins, widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most
charismatic political leaders, was a reluctant Sinn Fein delegate during the treaty negotiations. After
weeks of negotiations an ultimatum was delivered by British Prime Minister Lloyd George - sign the
text of the Treaty as it stood or refuse to sign and face the consequences of an immediate resumption of
war.
Those who favoured acceptance argued that the powers it granted made it worthy of support; that it
would lead to Irish unity; that it had the support of most Irish people and that the only alternative to it
was renewed war with Britain.
Under the treaty, southern Ireland became a self-governing “dominion” within the confines of the
British Empire. Complete independence in its domestic affairs meant the ‘Irish Free State’ had the
power to levy all taxes, regulate foreign trade and form an army. But there was still one important thing
missing for many nationalists. The treaty’s opponents criticised it most for failing to do ‘the
fundamental thing’ - grant Ireland a republic; the English monarch would remain monarch of Ireland,
with government there still conducted in its name.
However, Collins stated that it provided Ireland not with “the ultimate freedom that all nations desire,
but the freedom to achieve it”. The divisions the treaty caused within Irish republicanism had enduring
consequences, including the civil war which waged from 1921 to 1923 and claimed the lives of over
5,000 people, including Michael Collins. It remained a sensitive issue for those on both sides of the
treaty divide for many of the 100 years which followed.
Arthur Griffith (1871-1922) was the head of the Irish delegation to London and more than anyone else
he was responsible for them signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Griffith was the founder of Sinn Féin in
1905 and advocated abstentionism from Westminster, the establishment of an independent Irish
parliament in Dublin and the setting up of a counter state. Griffith was the most anxious to reach a
settlement during the negotiations and told the British he would sign even if his colleagues would not.
He declared that he would “not break on the crown”, but he was outmanoeuvred by British prime
minister David Lloyd George in agreeing to a vague Border Commission to deal with the Ulster
question. Griffith died in August 1922 from a heart attack at the age of 51.
Michael Collins (1890-1922) known as the “Big Fellow”, has cast the longest of shadows on Irish
history. He is less of an historical figure now and more of a revolutionary and Hollywood hero (thanks
to the eponymous movie). His premature death in August 1922 robbed the country of one of its most

dynamic characters. Collins was a reluctant member of the London delegation and felt, not unfairly,
that he was being set up by de Valera knowing the republic was unobtainable. Collins knew better than
any of the other delegates that the IRA was in no position to resume the War of Independence. He
chillingly recounted that, in signing the Treaty, he had signed his own death warrant.”
Robert Barton (1881-1975) was an unlikely revolutionary coming from a landed and wealthy Protestant
family who owned the well-known French wine company, Barton & Guestier. He went to Rugby
School and then to Oxford University. He served in the first World War where two of his brothers were
killed. He was converted to Irish nationalism after the Easter Rising. Barton was the most reluctant
Irish signatory of the Treaty and had to be cajoled to sign. He was faced on one side by Griffith,
Collins and Duggan and on other by his cousin, Erskine Childers, the secretary of the Irish delegation,
who urged him not to sign. His actions during the negotiations caused Lloyd George to describe him as
that “pipsqueak of a man”. Having signed the Treaty, Barton repudiated it during the Civil War and
Childers was executed after being found in Barton’s home with a firearm.
Éamonn Duggan (1874-1936) was the lowest profile of the Treaty signatories on the Irish side. He was
a lawyer by training and after fighting in the Rising, he was a key conduit between the Irish side and
the British government during the truce and subsequent negotiations. He accompanied de Valera to
London, where they met with Lloyd George in July 1921. According to Robert Barton, Duggan could
not be found when it came to signing the Treaty at 2am and his signature had to be cut from a menu
card he had signed, and pasted into the document. Whether true or not, Duggan was one of the most
staunch defenders of the Treaty and went on to become a senior minister in the Cumann na nGaedheal
government.
George Gavan Duffy (1882-1951) was the eldest son of the Young Irelander Charles Gavan Duffy who
went on to be the premier of Victoria in Australia. Gavan Duffy was born and brought up in England
and France. As a lawyer his involvement with Irish nationalist politics began when he acted for Roger
Casement in his trial for treason in 1916. An urbane polyglot, he represented Ireland at the Paris Peace
Conference though the Irish delegation failed to get a hearing. De Valera nominated him as part of the
Treaty delegation. He signed the document reluctantly, concluding he could see “no rational
alternative”. He went on to become a High Court judge.
John Smith Chartres (1862-1927) was an Irish civil servant, diplomat and revolutionary. He was born
in Birkenhead, Wirrall, England, son of John Smith Chartres, staff surgeon in the British army, and
formerly of 30 Great Charles St., Dublin, and Margaret Chartres (née Henry) of Clones, Co.
Monaghan. The Chartres family, originally French Huguenots, had been established in Ireland since
c.1650. Chartres became involved in Irish politics in 1917, when on meeting Arthur Griffith he agreed
to contribute articles to Griffith’s newspaper Nationality. Fired by the heroism and idealism of 1916, he
adopted the pseudonym ‘HI’ (haud immemor, ‘let them not be forgotten’). These articles so aped
Griffith’s style that, when pressed for time, Griffith would publish articles by ‘HI’ under his own name.
Political journalism for Griffith was soon augmented by gun-running for Michael Collins, and in 1918
Collins recruited Chartres as an informant.
He took up the position of second secretary to the Irish treaty delegation. In the London negotiations he
sat between Griffith and Collins, and opposite Lloyd George. Aged 59, he was the oldest member of
the Irish delegation. He attended all but one of the seven plenary conferences, and was also present at
the only meeting of the committee on financial relations. He contributed five personal memoranda for
the Irish delegation, and in cooperation with Erskine Childers made a major contribution to four
official Irish memoranda. As a lawyer, Chartres was given the key task of drafting the constitutional
terms for Ireland’s relationship with the British crown.