FIRST DAIL. Faisnéis Neamhspleádhchuis. Declaration of Independence. Scéal ón Dáil chum Saor-Náisiún an Domhain. Message to the Free Nations and Democratic Programme. Adopted by Dail Eireann in the Mansion House, Dublin, Tuesday 21st January 1919 [DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE]

With a list of 26 members present headed by Cathal Brugha [many others were unable to attend due to arrest by the British authorities]. Original printed stapled wrappers. No printer identified. pp. 12. Text in Irish and English. Staples a little rusted, otherwise a fine copy of an exceedingly rare item, which was energetically suppressed by the British.
Not in Carty.
The First Dail was a convocation of Irish representatives elected at the [United Kingdom] general election of November 1918, called to meet in Dublin instead of at the British Parliament at Westminster. In spite of sustained interference by the British authorities, it established a Government and a system of courts and finances that steadily took root among the people, gradually developing a functioning basis for the independence formally achieved in 1922. The Declarations printed in this rare pamphlet are a development of the Proclamation of the Provisional Government of 1916, with this important distinction: that they were voted by an Assembly with a clear democratic mandate, which even the British could not deny. A rare, important and impressive document.
“The Nation of Ireland having proclaimed her national independence, calls, through her elected representatives in Parliament assembled in the Irish Capital on January 21st, 1919, upon every free nation to support the Irish Republic by recognising Ireland’s national status, and her right to its vindication at the Peace Congress. Nationally, the race, the language, the customs and traditions of Ireland are radically distinct from the English: Ireland is one of the most ancient nations of Europe, and she has preserved her national integrity, vigorous and intact, through seven centuries of foreign oppression: she has never relinquished her national rights, and throughout the long era of English usurpation she has in every generation, defiantly proclaimed her inalienable right of nationhood down to her last glorious resort to arms in 1916”

[L4 File E]