The Irish Oath of Allegiance () was a controversial provision in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which Irish TDs (members of the Lower House of the Irish Parliament) and Senators were required to swear before taking their seats in Dáil Éireann (Chamber of Deputies) and Seanad Éireann (Irish Senate) before the Constitution (Removal of Oath) Act 1933 was passed on 3 May 1933. The controversy surrounding the Oath was one of the principal issues that led to the Irish Civil War of 1922–23 between supporters and opponents of the Treaty.
Text of the Oath
The Oath was included in Article 17 of the Irish Free State's 1922 Constitution. It read:
The words "allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State" were taken from De Valera's preferred version, which read: "I (name) do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the Irish Free State, to the Treaty of Association, and to recognise the King of Great Britain as Head of Associated States."
The Oath had to be taken in front of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State or some other person authorised by him.
Reaction
Ironically, in view of the opposition expressed to the oath by anti-Treatyites, it was in fact largely the work of Michael Collins, based in its open lines on a draft oath suggested by the President of the Republic, Éamon de Valera, and also on the oath of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In fact, Collins cleared the oath with the IRB before proposing it during the treaty negotiations. By the standards of the oaths of allegiance to be found in other British Commonwealth Dominions, it was quite mild, with no direct personal Oath to the monarch, only an indirect oath of fidelity by virtue of the King's role in the treaty settlement as "King in Ireland", a figurehead position. The public perception among those who were hostile to the treaty was that it was an offensive oath due to its inclusion of the British monarch. In their view:
The oath was an acceptance of a common citizenship between Ireland and Britain under King George and therefore was in total contravention to the oath to the Irish Republic which they had previously taken.
They rebutted the argument that it was simply an oath to the constitution by pointing out that the constitution itself made the King head of state and it was therefore the same as an oath of allegiance to him directly. They felt that the people had voted for a party which claimed it would fight for a full Republic and they could not accept something lesser without a fresh mandate from the people.
In contrast to this Pro-treaty campaigners declared that:
The Oath of Allegiance was actually "true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State" (a line drafted by de Valera in his own proposed oath). The reference to the King involved a promise of fidelity, not an Oath of Allegiance.
The fidelity to the King was not to him as British monarch but "in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of nations", in other words, in his role as the symbol of the Treaty settlement, not as British King.
The Collins 22 Society later said of the anti-treaty position, the idea that the oath "was a direct oath to the Crown [was] a fact demonstrably incorrect by an examination of its wording. But in 1922 Ireland and beyond, it was the perception, not the reality, which influenced public debate on the issue."
As the Oath was effectively to the elected government in the Irish Free State, it was also described as the "Crown in Ireland". Opposition to this was based on the fact that it was not fully discussed and explained before the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in December 1921, and that many of the members of the second Dáil Éireann, elected without opposition in May 1921, had already sworn an Oath to uphold an Irish Republic.