ABSTRACT
In the debate over the treaty that would create the new Irish Free State, the Sinn Fein assembly probably confirmed the view of those in Britain who had always believed that the Irish were unsuited for self-government. Men and women who had endured months and years of adversity together while fighting the common foe of English rule were seen shouting abuse at one another during the so-called treaty debate in the Dáil. Ultimately, the treaty was ratified by the narrow margin of 64 to 57, and that divisive schism within the Irish nationalist movement actually foreshadowed what were to become permanent political alignments. The divisions that separated the treaty party (Cumann na nGaedhael from 1923 to 1933 and Fine Gael thereafter) from the anti-treaty party (which retained the name Sinn Féin until 1926, when de Valera founded Fianna Fáil) were not temporary disagreements. Their differences have endured to the present day.
