Irish Provisional Government, 1922: a case study of economic policymaking in a new state

Abstract

Nationalists believed that Ireland had not thrived economically under the Union. This article explores economic policymaking under the 1922 Provisional Government which administered the 26 counties during the one-year transition phase from British to Irish Free State jurisdiction. It is a case study which examines the fate of pre-independence economic programmes; the reorganisation of the economic portfolios of the civil service; the handling of immediate economic problems; as well as the formulation of plans and priorities for Ireland’s future. The Provisional Government faced an unprecedented array of internal and external problems, in particular the economic depression and deflation in the wake of the First World War (1914–1918); the economic damage of the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921); and the divisive and violent Irish Civil War (1922–3) - the result of rupture in the main nationalist political party, Sinn Féin, over acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty settlement, which provided for the creation of the Irish Free State as a dominion rather than as a fully sovereign republic. Depspite these setbacks, the Provisional Government needed to enforce its authority and demonstrate its ability to govern by being seen to competently address economic issues.