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1925 Irish Confirmation of Agreement Act - Artificial Partition Boundary reaffirmed. - In the Irish Free State (26 Counties) Douglas Hyde the original non - Catholic President of the Gaelic League became a Senator and Sean Lemass became the T.D. for Dublin City until 1969. - Construction was started on the Ard na Crusha Electricity Power Station. - George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) who had assisted in founding the Fabian Society in 1884, and was a successful music and drama critic, with a passion for social reform, whose personal fame had begun to spread in 1904, and was heavily involved in political activities, also won the monetary Nobel Peace Prize for Literature this year, which he was to give away.

March: The Sinn Fein Party held their Convention and Eamonn de Valera tried to convince them to stand for the elections and take up their seats, which they rejected, so he resigned from his position with them.

March 9th: In the Bye - Elections held on this date there was a definite leaning towards the Sinn Fein Party when 2 Republicans won seats from the Irish Free State Government who were still under the leadership of William Cosgrave from the Fine Gael Party, giving them a total of 48 seats but they still would not attend the Irish Free State Parliament as they had to take the Oath of Allegiance to the British King to take up their seats. The Anti - Treaty IRA Irregular members meanwhile were determined to severe their connection of any further control from the illegal Emergency Republican Government, which was previously set up by Eamonn de Valera. Frank Aiken took it upon himself to resign as the Emergency Republican Government's Minister of Defence but still retained the position of their Chief of Staff and owing to retaining this position he was nevertheless still able to sign an agreement with Eamonn de Valera that the IRA Irregulars were still under the control of the illegal Emergency Republican Government while Sean Lemass took over his previous position as their Minister for Defence.

April: James Craig the Official Unionist leader in the Stormont Government in the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province held General Elections there once again for the 52 seats in their House of Commons and 32 of the seats were won by the Official Unionists, with another 4 seats won by Independent Unionists, the Irish Nationalists won 10 seats while the Sinn Fein Party there won only 2. Previously the Irish Nationalists had also refused to take up their seats in this Parliament in protest of the sham of a Parliament that it was but this time Joseph Devlin the Irish Nationalist leader led his small Nationalist Party into the new Stormont Parliament to try and make a difference. By standing in these elections the Sinn Fein Party had split the vote in Co. Fermanagh and Co. Tyrone giving the Official Unionists gains there also.

The Anti - Treaty IRA Irregulars were now also moving completely away from the Sinn Fein Party who they believed were not doing enough to bring about the reunification of the 32 Counties in Ireland and were carrying out destruction of British Imperial Empire statues and memorials throughout Ireland.

May 16th: Eamonn de Valera was now out of any office in the Sinn Fein Party and he wanted desperately to get into the Irish Free State Parliament so he made his next move by founding the Fianna Fail Party - Warriors of Destiny - at the La Scala Theatre in Dublin to try and gain his ambition now of gaining entrance into the Irish Free State Parliament.

June 20th: Maurice Twomey now took over as the editor of the IRA newspaper An Phoblacht - The Republic.

November 17th: The illegal Emergency Republican Government had been previously set up by Eamonn de Valera, in opposition to the legitimate elected government of the Irish Free State, to keep the momentum of an actual Irish Republic alive but at the IRA Convention a new Constitution was put forward and adopted by the members who were by now to be independent of the illegal Emergency Republican Government who would no longer have the right of any control over them. Another motion was introduced also stating that the IRA, the Sinn Fein Party and the Eamonn de Valera's new Fianna Fail Party should unite for the coming Irish Free State elections but a proviso was put in that they were still not to take up their seats in the Dail Eireann - Irish Assembly - until they had the majority of the members there. The Fianna Fail Party under the leadership of Eamonn de Valera would not agree to this amendment so Peadar O Donnell who had Marxist leanings wanted the Anti - Treaty IRA to become purely a military group and be separated out from the political Sinn Fein Party altogether so that it could be more open to political discussion.

November 20th: The Sinn Fein Party held it's Ard Fheis - Convention - were it was decided not to make any changes to it's policies to gain political office when Father Michael O Flanagan put forward the Amendment of, "No attendance at the Parliament that was previously set up by British Government Law," which was accepted by a 5 vote margin of 223 votes to 218. In a further effort to try and encourage them to take up the seats in the Dail Eireann - Irish Assembly - Eamonn de Valera put it to them that the Oath of Allegiance to the British King was really the only obstacle now really stopping them from entering the Irish Free State Parliament. Because of the close vote the Amendment put forward by Father Michael O Flanagan was to show that change was coming and eventually bring about the setting up of 3 different bodies, which was to include the Saor Eire Party, which was never able to accomplish anything, the Republican Congress, which was to further split the Anti - Treaty IRA in half and the Fianna Fail Party under Eamonn de Valera who would eventually gain the Government of Ireland and also disown the IRA.

November 21st: Eamonn de Valera realising their was to be no change of policy in the political Sinn Fein Party ranks then made his next move towards gaining political office by resigning from the Sinn Fein Party altogether, which was to allow him to push on with his own political agenda and his own political Fianna Fail Party.

December: The Partition Border Commission previously set up in regards to the Artificial Border imposed by the British Government on the whole 9 Counties of the Ulster Province had basically now collapsed and the Irish Free State Government under William T. Cosgrave entered into a Tripartite Agreement of Dublin, Belfast and Britain for the Artificial Partition Boundary to remain unaltered for the time being in lieu of any liability under Clause V, which was a financial arrangement in the original Anglo - Irish Treaty. They also agreed at the same time to abolish the Council of Ireland under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which was to have acted in an advisory capacity in regards to administration problems applicable to both sides of the Artificial Border only if the two British Government's Artificially Partition Parliaments had agreed to the proposition.

The rift in the Irish Free State (26 Counties) now became greater between all of the parties there and Eamonn de Valera seeking a political opportunity once again came out stronger against the Irish Free State Government under their leader William T. Cosgrave and the Cuman na Gael Party for accepting the Artificial Border Partition as this action had removed any chance at that stage of keeping the whole 32 Counties of Ireland united.

December 7th: Eamonn de Valera invited all the dead set Irish Republican Deputies who had been elected to the Irish Free State Parliament in Dublin to meet at the Shelbourne Hotel to attend a conference instigated by the Irish Labour Party with the intention of discussing the Artificial Partition Border results but the Labour leaders also tried to get the Sinn Fein Party members to enter the Irish Parliament at Leinster House but they still refused to take up their seats due to the Oath of Allegiance to the British King.

    The Irish Free State Parliament was also meeting this same day for the 2nd Reading of the Border Partition Bill so the Irish Republicans met instead at the Rotunda in Dublin from were they issued a statement of opposition to the Artificial Border Partition result and some members of the Irish Free State Government were to also break away from the government over their previous acceptance of the Artificial Border Partition and went on to form the Clann Eireann.
      Meanwhile the Irish Nationalists in the 6 Counties also Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province who were now still under the control of the Official Unionists and the British Government decided to enter the Belfast Assembly at Stormont as they too were now well aware that there would be no re - unification of Ireland in the foreseeable future.

+On to 1926 - 1927

Situated on the western bank of the Hunter River, midway between Muswellbrook and Denman the doorway to the Heart of Australia's "Horse Capital" in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales., Australia.

John & Sue Markham

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