98 years ago today on 5 December 1921 after protracted negotiations, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George gave the Irish parliamentary representatives a deadline to accept or reject the terms of the proposed Anglo-Irish treaty. In the words of Lloyd George, rejection 
would mean "immediate and terrible war". Lloyd George told Collins that if they did not accede to the treaty, Britain would recommence hostile activities. In what was seen as an extremely hostile meeting with much debate about the status of the north of Ireland and Loyalist
reaction Lloyd George stated ‘that he had always taken it that Arthur Griffith spoke for the Delegation’, that the Irish representative were all plenipotentiaries with full authority to agree the Treaty & that it was now a matter of peace or war. Lloyd George required that every
Irish delegate should sign the document and recommend it, or there was no agreement. He said that the British as a body had "hazarded their political future and (the Irish) must do likewise and take the same risks" and that that those who were not for peace must take full
responsibility for the war that would immediately follow refusal by any Delegate to sign the Articles of Agreement. They finally signed in the early hours of the following morning. What followed is a matter of history. A divided Irish parliament, a bitter civil war, partition of
the island of Ireland and a century of strife and conflict.
One has to wonder, if a mediator had been available (think of the ilk of the late Mo Mowlam) would history have turned out differently.
One has to wonder, if a mediator had been available (think of the ilk of the late Mo Mowlam) would history have turned out differently.
