Government of the 2nd Dáil

Government of the 2nd Dáil 3rd Ministry
Date formed	26 August 1921
Date dissolved	9 January 1922
People and organisations
Head of government	Éamon de Valera
Head of state	President Éamon de Valera
Total no. of ministers	15 (inc. 9 non-members of cabinet)
Member party	Sinn Féin
Status in legislature	Majority Government
History
Election(s)	1921 general election
Legislature term(s)	2nd Dáil
Predecessor	2nd Ministry
Successor	4th Ministry

Government of the 2nd Dáil 4th Ministry
Date formed	10 January 1922
Date dissolved	9 September 1922
People and organisations
Head of government	Arthur Griffith
Total no. of ministers	14 (inc. 5 non-members of cabinet & 3 assistant ministers)
Member party	Sinn Féin
Status in legislature	Majority Government
History
Legislature term(s)	2nd Dáil
Predecessor	3rd Ministry
Successor	1st Provisional Government

Government of the 2nd Dáil 1st Provisional Government
Michael Collins, W. T. Cosgrave
Date formed	16 January 1922
Date dissolved	30 August 1922
People and organisations
Head of government	Michael Collins (Jan.–22 Aug 1922) W. T. Cosgrave (22–30 Aug 1922)
Head of state	George V
Total no. of ministers	13 (inc. 4 acting ministers)
Member party	Sinn Féin
Status in legislature	Majority Government
History
Legislature term(s)	2nd Dáil
Predecessor	4th Ministry
Successor	2nd Provisional Government of Southern Ireland

The Second Dáil was elected at the 1921 Irish elections on 24 May 1921 and lasted 388 days.

The 3rd Ministry was the Ministry of the Irish Republic that held office from 26 August 1921 – 9 January 1922. It was the appointed soon after the election of the Second Dáil on 24 May 1921.

Contrary to the practice during the first two ministries, when de Valera was re-elected as head of government in 1922 he assumed the title of 'President of the Republic', and therefore explicitly became the republic's head of state, rather than its prime minister. In imitation of the practice in the presidential systems of other nations, the cabinet members of the 3rd Ministry were styled as 'secretaries of state' rather than 'ministers'.

In January 1922 the Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified and some members, including Éamon de Valera, resigned from the cabinet in protest and were not re-elected.

The 4th Ministry was the Ministry of the Irish Republic that held office from 10 January – 9 September 1922. Following the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 7 January 1922, Éamon de Valera resigned in protest and the 3rd Ministry fell. The 4th Ministry, headed by Arthur Griffith, and composed solely of members of the pro-Treaty faction of Sinn Féin, was elected the following day. Six non-cabinet ministers were appointed on 11 January.

Under the terms of the Treaty another cabinet, the Provisional Government, was also established just six days later, under the chairmanship of Michael Collins. The 4th Ministry therefore held office in parallel with the 1st Provisional Government. In August Griffith died of natural causes and Collins was killed in action, however the remaining members of the Ministry remained in office until, on 9 September, the Third Dáil elected a new Ministry under W. T. Cosgrave. Cosgrave took this opportunity to merge the Ministry and the Provisional Government into a single administration, the 2nd Provisional Government. Henceforth the country was governed by only one cabinet.