Collins' plan to destabilise north and bring Derry to Irish Free State fold died with his death

In the second and final part of our series on the 100th anniversary of the signing of The Anglo-Irish Treaty, Matthew Leslie speaks to Dr Adrian Grant of Ulster University to look at how life changed for people in Derry and how nationalist hopes of the city joining the Irish Free State were raised and then dashed. 

A plan to re-take Derry and the North to fully unite Ireland was drawn up by Michael Collins only to be thwarted by the Irish Civil War.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed 100 years ago today, left Collins and the rest of the Irish signatories in quandary.

Collins described the Treaty giving Ireland 'the freedom to achieve freedom', while others, such as Éamon de Valera, criticised the negotiators – despite he himself choosing to remain in Ireland instead of joining them at Downing Street – for signing a document that retained the oath of allegiance to the King from Irish parliamentarians.

He was also concerned that the new Irish Free State would not have an independent foreign policy due to Britain being awarded strategic ports within Ireland.

Although the partition of the island had already taken place on paper with the Government of Ireland Act in 1920, many were concerned the Treaty would accelerate the Act's progress towards being set in stone for many years to come – more so given the Treaty gave the unionist dominated North an opt-out clause not to become part of the Free State and remain under the United Kingdom's jurisdiction.

No more did this resonant so loudly than Derry which, as a majority nationalist city, found itself under threat of becoming a border town with trade links to neighbouring Co. Donegal under threat.

However, behind closed doors, Collins himself had come up with a long-term strategy which, if he could pull it off, see Derry and the rest of the North rejoin the other 26 counties for a united Ireland.

Dr Adrian Grant of Ulster University said: “The 'Derry Question' never really came up during the negotiations that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

“The negotiations were all very kind of high level and while there would have been talk of border areas and all of that, as far as I'm aware, the actual case of Derry wasn't included.

“Politically, with the debates in the Daíl in Dublin, there was no mention of Derry at all. There was very little about partition or the border. What was concentrated on was the oath of allegiance to the King and the idea of sovereignty.

“Regarding the six counties, there was a bit of a divide in the Republican movement. Some were reconcilled to the fact that partition was going to be part of the solution.

“There were others who were a bit more strategic in how they were thinking. Someone like Arthur Griffith was more willing to accept partition.

“Whereas someone like Michael Collins – who was more a strategic kind of thinker and a military planner as well – was, I think, playing the long game.

“There is evidence to show that while Collins was playing the roles of both diplomat and peacemaker in public – he was the man who defended and signed the Treaty – in the background, he was planning the invasions of the North, planning trouble inside the North and try to destabilise the Northern government.

“So it looks like Collins was publicly saying that partition was a solution and that it was something that everyone had to accept under protest.

“But in reality, and in secret, he was planning to destabilise the North and hope it would collapse pretty soon and then they could pretty much just take it over.”

A destabilisation did take place on Irish soil but not in the way that Collins envisaged.

The Treaty had polarised political and public opinion in the Free State to the point where pro and anti-Treaty sides waged war upon each other.

What became known as the Irish Civil War would see a victory for Collins' pro-Treaty side over the anti-Treaty opponents led by De Valera.

However, Collins would not see the conclusion of the war as he was killed in an ambush in Béal na Bláth, Co. Cork.

And with his death went his plans to restore Derry and the rest of the North under Irish control.

Dr Adrian Grant added: “There was an IRA force in eastern Donegal in 1922. Around March and April of that year, there was a force of northern IRA volunteers from Derry, Tyrone and Belfast who had to escape the North.

“The new state had formed the B-Specials and the RUC and those volunteers felt that had to get out as quickly as they could or they would have been interned.

“They would have found their way to Donegal and forces from the south such as Cork and Kerry also made their way up as well.

“The idea would have been to have them trained and prepared for an invasion of the North.

“Of course it never happened. It all fell apart because this Donegal force was a joint force of pro and anti-Treaty members.

“The whole thing fell apart before it even got started. In June 1922, the Civil War in the south began and those plans for invasions of the North were shelved.

“After Michael Collins died in August 1922, the whole notion of any concentration on partition and ending it went to the grave with him.

“A new leadership came on board in the south and they were a bit more focused on consolidating the new Free State rather than fighting for unity.

“Once the Civil War ended, the Republican movement was thoroughly depleted. For those Republicans in the North who had trained and readied themselves for action, in terms of an invasion of Northern Ireland, were so demoralised by 1923 that it was highly unlikely that there was going to be any form of action.

“For the northern Republican volunteers, a lot of them didn't take a position on the Civil War and declared themselves neutral because that Civil War was not taking place in the six counties.

“They saw it as a 26-county affair plus they were essentially the back-up force for when an invasion from the south did take place.

“A lot of them moved down to the south with some taking up positions with the guards or the Free State Army itself.”

Read more:

Derry "the centre of attention" in the Partition question

When unionists lost control of Derry

Ground shifts away from Derry's nationalists as Partition lines are drawn up

Unionist business sector thwarts nationalist hopes of Derry Boundary Commission reprieve

Economic consequences of partition bite as Derry is isolated from Irish Free State