In early 1919 Irish nationalist candidates who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 by a massive majority refused to recognise the London parliament and instead established an independent legislature in Dublin called “Dail Eireann”.

At its first meeting on 21 January 1919, 100 years ago this week, it adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Democratic Programme. It was the first meeting of the parliament of the revolutionary, all-Ireland Irish Republic.