Editing Michael Collins (Irish leader) (section)

===Treaty debates===
This remark encapsulated his acknowledgement that the Treaty was a compromise that would be vulnerable to charges of "sell-out" from purist Republicans. It did not establish the fully independent republic that Collins himself had shortly before demanded as a non-negotiable condition. The "physical force republicans" who made up the bulk of the army which had fought the British to a draw would be loath to accept dominion status within the [[British Empire]] or an [[Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)|Oath of Allegiance]] that mentioned the King. Also controversial was the British retention of [[Treaty Ports (Ireland)|Treaty Ports]] on the south coast of Ireland for the [[Royal Navy]]. These factors diminished Irish sovereignty and threatened to allow British interference in Ireland's foreign policy. Collins and Griffith were well aware of these issues and strove tenaciously, against British resistance, to achieve language which could be accepted by all constituents. They succeeded in obtaining an oath to the Irish Free State, with a subsidiary oath of fidelity to the King, rather than to the king unilaterally.

Éamon de Valera, the President of the Dáil objected to the Treaty on the grounds that it had been signed without cabinet consent and that it secured neither the full independence of Ireland nor Irish unity.<ref>Frank Pakenham, Peace by Ordeal, (1972), p209-211</ref> Collins and his supporters argued that de Valera had refused strenuous pleas from Collins, Griffith and others to lead the London negotiations in person. He had refused the delegates' continual requests for instruction, and in fact, had been at the centre of the original decision to enter negotiations without the possibility of an independent republic on the table.<ref name="Coogan, TP Michael Collins 1990"/>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}<ref name="ReferenceI">O'Broin, Leon. ''Michael Collins'', Dublin, Gill & MacMillan 1980</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}

The Treaty controversy split the entire nationalist movement. Sinn Féin, the Dáil, the IRB and the army each divided into pro- and anti-Treaty factions. The Supreme Council of the IRB had been informed in detail about every facet of the Treaty negotiations and had approved many of its provisions, and all but one voted to accept the Treaty – the single exception being [[Liam Lynch (Irish republican)|Liam Lynch]], later Chief-of-Staff of the anti-Treaty IRA.<ref>Coogan, ''Michael Collins'', pp. 236–76.</ref>

The Dáil debated the Treaty bitterly for ten days until it was approved by a vote of 64 to 57.<ref>[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-001/ Debate on the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland...] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329053956/http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-001/ |date=29 March 2017 }} from University College Cork</ref> Having lost this vote, de Valera announced his intent to withdraw his participation from the Dáil and called on all deputies who had voted against the Treaty to follow him. A substantial number did so, officially splitting the government.

A large part of the Irish Republican Army opposed the Treaty and in March 1922 voted at an Army Convention to reject the authority of the Dail, Collins' GHQ and to elect their own Executive. Anti-Treaty IRA units began to seize buildings and take other guerrilla actions against the Provisional Government. On 14 April 1922, a group of 200 anti-Treaty IRA men occupied the [[Four Courts]] in Dublin under [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]], a hero of the War of Independence. The Four Courts was the centre of the Irish courts system, originally under the British and then the Free State. Collins was charged by his Free State colleagues with putting down these insurgents, however, he resisted firing on former comrades and staved off a shooting war throughout this period.<ref name="ReferenceJ">Provisional Government minutes, Public Records Office, Dublin</ref><ref name="ReferenceK">O'Donoghue, Florence. ''No Other Law'', Dublin, Irish Press, 1954</ref>

While the country teetered on the edge of civil war, continuous meetings were carried on among the various factions from January to June 1922. In these discussions, the nationalists strove to resolve the issue without armed conflict. Collins and his close associate, [[Teachta Dála]] (TD) Harry Boland were among those who worked desperately to heal the rift.<ref name="Coogan, TP Michael Collins 1990"/>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}<ref>Fitzpatrick, David. ''Harry Boland's Irish Revolution'', Cork, Cork University Press, 2003</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}

To foster military unity, Collins and the IRB established an "army re-unification committee", including delegates from pro- and anti-Treaty factions. The still-secret Irish Republican Brotherhood continued to meet, fostering dialogue between pro- and anti-Treaty IRA officers. In the IRB's stormy debates on the subject, Collins held out the Constitution of the new Free State as a possible solution. Collins was then in the process of co-writing that document and was striving to make it a republican constitution that included provisions that would allow anti-Treaty TDs to take their seats in good conscience, without any oath concerning the Crown.<ref name="ReferenceK"/>