The Centenary of the First Dail

On the 21st January 1919 elected members of Dail Eireann met for the first time. In December 1918, 73 Sinn Fein candidates, 26 Unionists and 6 Irish Parliamentary Party candidates were elected to represent the people of Ireland. Sinn Fein campaigned on a ticket that committed them to abstaining from the British Parliament in London and instead to set up an assembly in Dublin – Dail Eireann.

Only 27 of the 73 Sinn Fein candidates were listed as present at the first meeting. 34 were listed as being “imprisoned by the foreigners”, 3 as being “deported by the foreigners” and 5 were listed as “absent”. The 26 Unionists and 6 members of the IPP were “absent”.

Two Sinn members, Michael Collins and Harry Boland, were marked present but they in fact were in England organizing the escape from prison of Eamon DeValera.