Reluctant Dominion

I.  The British Commonwealth of Nations [link]

colonial conferences:
1887, 1894, 1902, 1907, 1911, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1930, 1937

Jan Smuts (PM, South Africa)

Imperial War Cabinet (1917-1918)

Balfour Declaration (1926):
"autonomous communities…equal in status, in no way subordinate…in any aspect of their
domestic or external affairs though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely
associated as a member of the British Commonwealth"

II. Eamon de Valera [bio]
   

Fianna Fail (1926)
   
1932 election victory

goals and policies:

A) economic self sufficiency

Economic War (1932-1938)

B) move toward constitutional independence

Statute of Westminster (1931)
   
abdication crisis (1936)
       
Constitutional Amendment Act
       
External Relations Act

> "external association"

III.  World War II and the emergence of the Irish Republic

Irish neutrality

interparty government (1948) under John Costello

repeal External Relations Act

Republic of Ireland Act

withdrawal from the Commonwealth

Government of Ireland Act (1949)

Irish state no longer part of the CW

special citizenship status

"Republic of Ireland"

status of Northern Ireland

George VI to Presdient Sean O'Kelly (Apr 1949)