Third Dáil

The Third Dáil, was both the Provisional Parliament or the Constituent Assembly of Southern Ireland from 9 August to 6 December 1922; and the lower house (Dáil Éireann) of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State from 6 December 1922 until 9 August 1923.

Election of the Third Dáil/Provisional Parliament

The elections to the Third Dáil took place on 16 June 1922. They occurred under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Unlike the Second Dáil, which was notionally elected by the whole island of Ireland, the Third Dáil would not include members elected from Northern Ireland. Since the election of the Second Dáil in 1921, Sinn Féin, the only political party represented in the Dáil, had split into pro and anti-treaty factions and these two factions became the major contestants of the 1922 elections. Despite a pact between the two factions, the elections were therefore effectively a de facto referendum on the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The pro-treaty side won a majority of seats and the anti-treaty faction boycotted the assembly, refusing to recognise the body as the legitimate heir to the Second Dáil, and the Civil War broke out shortly afterwards.