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In the Easter Rising in Dublin on 24 April 1916, the proclamation read by Padraig Pearse was headed and signed as being issued by the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. The rising lasted five days and only controlled a few occupied buildings.
The Provisional Government of Ireland was (under British constitutional theory) the transitional government of Southern Ireland in 1922 from the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty to the creation of the Irish Free State.
Under the Irish Republic's Dáil Constitution adopted in 1919, Dáil Éireann continued to exist after the Treaty. De Valera resigned the presidency and sought re-election (in an effort to destroy the Treaty just approved by the Dáil), but Arthur Griffith defeated him in the vote and assumed the presidency. (Griffith called himself President of Dáil ÉireannThe head of government under the Dail Constitution adopted by the First Dail of the Irish Republic in January 1919. Known variously as the Priomh Aire (literally "prime minister") and President of Dail Eireann. The latter version was preferred by the seco rather than de Valera's more exalted President of the Republic.)
However that government or ÁireachtThe ireacht was the name of the cabinet or ministry in the Dail Constitution passed by the First Dail of the Irish Republic in January 1919. Consisted of a Priomh Aire or prime minister, also called 'President of Dail Eireann' and ministers. The Priomh Ai had no legal status in BritishThe word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK): i. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 1927), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ( 1801- 1927) or the United Kingdom of Great Britain ( 1707- 1801). constitutional law, so another co-existent government emerged, in theory answerable to the House of Commons of Southern IrelandHouse of Commons of Southern Ireland was the lower house of the Irish parliament created by the Government of Ireland Act, passed in 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. The Act created two partitioned Irish states, Northern Ireland and Southern Ir. Michael CollinsMichael Collins ( October 16, 1890 August 22, 1922), an Irish revolutionary leader, served as Minister for Finance in the Irish Republic, as a member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, as Chairman of the Provisional Govern became Chairman of the Provisional Government (i.e. prime minister). He also remained Minister for Finance of Griffith's republican administration. An example of the complexities involved can be seen even in the manner of his installation. In theory he was a Crown-appointed prime minister, installed under the Royal PrerogativeThe Royal Prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognised in common law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the Crown alone. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government are possesse. To be so installed, he had to formally meet the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent (the head of the British administration in Ireland). According to republican history, Collins met Fitzalan to accept the surrender of Dublin Castle, the seat of British government in Ireland. According to British constitutional theory, he met Fitzalan to 'kiss hands' (the formal name for the installation of a minister of the Crown), the fact of their meeting rather than the signing of any documents, duly installing him in office.
Anti-treatyites, having opposed the Treaty in the Dáil, withdrew from the assembly and, having formed an opposition 'republican government' under Eamon de Valera, began a campaign that led to the Irish Civil War. By mid- 1922, Collins in effect laid down his responsibilities as President of the Provisional Government to become Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, a formal structured uniformed army that formed from the remnants of the Old IRA. As part of those duties, he travelled to his native Cork. En route home through County Cork on August 22 1922, at Beal na mBlath (an Irish language term that means 'the Mouth of Flowers'), he was killed in an ambush, probably by a ricocheting bullet. He was not yet 32 years old.
After Collins's and Griffith's deaths in August 1922, W.T. Cosgrave became both Chairman of the Provisional Government and President of Dáil Éireann, and the distinction between the two became increasingly confused and irrelevant. In December 1922, both Southern Ireland and the Irish Republic were replaced by the Irish Free State, with executive authority nominally vested in the King, but exercised by a cabinet called the Executive Council, presided over by a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council.
