Parliament of Southern Ireland
The Parliament of Southern Ireland was a Home Rule legislature set up by the British government in 1920 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It was meant to govern Southern Ireland while Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. The parliament was bicameral, consisting of a 128-seat House of Commons and a 64-seat Senate.
The two houses met only once, on 28 June 1921, at the Royal College of Science for Ireland (now Government Buildings) in Merrion Street. The session was adjourned sine die because very few members attended.
Elections and representation: The last election for the House of Commons was held on 24 May 1921. All 128 MPs were returned unopposed: Sinn Féin won 124 seats in borough and county constituencies plus the university seats, and four seats for Dublin University went to Unionists. The Senate was poorly attended and effectively never functioned; its first meeting had about 15 members and it sat only three times. The voting system for the Commons used single transferable vote (STV).
Leadership: Gerald Fitzgibbon served as the first and last Speaker of the House of Commons for this parliament, and Sir John Ross was the last Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Dissolution and aftermath: The Parliament was dissolved on 27 May 1922 by the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 led to the creation of a Provisional Government under Michael Collins. A meeting of Southern Ireland MPs in January 1922 ratified the Treaty, but the Parliament itself did not continue. Later that year, the Irish Free State was established, and Southern Ireland ceased to be part of the United Kingdom. Its successor legislative bodies were the Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann of the Irish Free State.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:25 (CET).