The Irish Convention: 1917-18

Although largely regarded as a failure, the Irish Convention of 1917, might, had it been successful, have resulted in a totally different Ireland to the one which has emerged. It was an attempt to solve the apparently intractable Irish Question. This book, originally published in 1970, describes the debates which took place. These debates provide an anthology of Irish political thinking, and the committee proceedings offer interesting examples of negotiating techniques, Lloyd George intervening with consummate skill. The author concludes that the Convention may be dismissed as a failure, but that its work formed a stage in the evolution of the Irish settlement of the early 1920s.

R. B. McDowell (1913-2011) was an Irish historian and Professor Emeritus of History at University College, Dublin.