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8 July 1999 Edition

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Remembering the Past: The Mansion House `Irish Assembly'

By Aengus O Snodaigh

The victory of Count Plunkett in February set the scene for other electoral contests by republicans later that year and early in 1918 and it and other by-election victories that year led in no small degree to the re-awakening of Ireland's national spirit and to the awesome general election victory in December 1918 which resulted in An Chéad Dáil Éireann in January 1919.

While the broad-front committee which had organised Count Plunkett's election campaign had worked effectively together, the election had exposed a major weakness among republicans, the lack of an agreed programme.

Count Plunkett identified this and with Rory O'Connor called a national convention to clarify which policy would drive the national movement, republicanism reinforced by physical force or Arthur Griffith's and early Sinn Féin's less radical dual-monarchy strategy.

Delegates from 70 public bodies, including Board of Erin, Cumann na mBan, National Aid Association, Irish Nation League, the Irish Volunteers, and 1,000 delegates including 150 clergymen and members of Count Plunkett's Liberty Clubs were there in numbers. (Plunkett had set up the clubs after the election to espouse the republican cause, which he believed Sinn Féin was not committed to.)

While the meeting proved inconclusive, the delegates in the Mansion House failing to unite around a single programme or a single party, a committee was set up to pursue this agenda in the coming months. At the conclusion, the conference released a declaration. It was based on the 1916 Proclamation and would be the basis itself for future declarations including the famous Declaration of Independence in 1919 and said:

``That we proclaim Ireland to be a separate nation.

``That we assert Ireland's right to freedom from all foreign control, denying the authority of any foreign parliament to make laws for Ireland.

``That we affirm the right of the Irish people to declare their will as law and enforce their decisions in their own land without let or hindrance from any country...

``That we declare that Ireland has never yielded, but has ever fought against foreign rule.

``That we hereby bind ourselves to use every means in our power to attain complete liberty for our country.''

The national committee or Mansion House Committee, as it became known, was comprised of George Plunkett; Arthur Griffith; Father Michael O'Flanaghan; Alderman Tom Kelly; Stephen O'Meara; Thomas Dillon; William O'Brien; Helena Moloney; Sean Milroy, Countess Plunkett and Sean Brown.

The first meeting of the Mansion House Committee was held in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin, just as preparations were underway to contest another by-election this time on May 9 1917. The Mansion House conference was held on April 19 1917, 82 years ago.

(more on 1917 electoralism next week)

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