Editing Southern Ireland (1921–1922) (section)

==1921 parliamentary elections==
{{main|1921 Irish elections}}
While Northern Ireland did become a functioning entity, with a parliament and government that existed until 1972, Southern Ireland's Parliament, although established legally, never functioned (for example, it never passed an Act). The [[House of Commons of Southern Ireland]] met just once with only four members present. An [[Irish Republic]] had been proclaimed by the parliament known as [[Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic)|Dáil Éireann]], formed by [[Sinn Féin]] [[Member of parliament|Members of Parliament]] (MPs) elected from Ireland in the United Kingdom [[1918 Irish general election|general election of 1918]]. [[1921 Irish elections|Parliamentary elections]] in Ireland, effected by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, were held during May 1921. The first general election to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland in 1921, and the simultaneous general election to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, was used by Sinn Féin to produce a single extrajudicial parliament, the [[Second Dáil]]. In the Southern Ireland constituencies Sinn Féin won 124 of the 128 seats, all without contest, while in the contested elections in Northern Ireland constituencies it secured six of the 52 seats, another six going to non-Sinn Féin nationalists. (The other four Southern seats were won by [[Unionism in Ireland|Unionists]] from [[Dublin]] and the [[Dublin University (constituency)|Dublin University]] constituency, who along with the forty Unionists elected in the North refused to participate with the Second Dáil.) When the new Parliament of Southern Ireland was called into session on 28 June 1921, only the four Unionist members of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, and a few appointed senators, arrived in the [[Government Buildings|Royal College of Science]] in Dublin, where the meeting was scheduled to occur; most of the other members met elsewhere as the Dáil.