[COLLINS & GRIFFITH] A rare poster of Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Sean MacEoin (The Blacksmith of Ballinalee), Richard Mulcahy and President De Valera. The medallion portraits within a...

[COLLINS & GRIFFITH] A rare poster of Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Sean MacEoin (The Blacksmith of Ballinalee), Richard Mulcahy and President De Valera. The medallion portraits within a Celtic decorated border and the landscape portrait of De Valera is against a draped tricolour and sunburst. Framed. 30.5 x 30.5cm. In August 1921, de Valera secured Dáil Éireann approval to change the 1919 Dáil Constitution to upgrade his office from prime minister or chairman of the cabinet to a full President of the Republic. Declaring himself now the Irish equivalent of King George V, he argued that as Irish head of state, in the absence of the British head of state from the negotiations, he too should not attend the Treaty Negotiations at which British and Irish government leaders agreed to the effective independence of twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties as the Irish Free State, with Northern Ireland choosing to remain under British sovereignty. It is generally agreed by historians that whatever his motives, it was a mistake for de Valera not to have travelled to London. A rare and interesting item.

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