Ирландияның үшінші Дáil-і: 1922-1923 жылдардағы парламенттік кезең

Dáil Éireann as it convened from 9 September 1922 until 9 August 1923

The Third Dáil was elected at the general election held on 16 June 1922. This election was required to be held under the Anglo Irish Treaty signed on 6 December 1921. It first met on 9 September and until 6 December 1922, it was the Provisional Parliament or the Constituent Assembly of Southern Ireland. From 6 December 1922, it was the lower house (Dáil Éireann) of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State, until its dissolution on 9 August 1923.

The election to the Third Dáil took place on 16 June 1922. It occurred under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Unlike the Second Dáil, which included members from the whole island of Ireland, the Third Dáil did not include members elected from Northern Ireland. Since the largely uncontested election of the Second Dáil in 1921, the Anglo Irish Treaty had been negotiated, and Sinn Féin—the only political party represented in the Dáil—had split into pro and anti Treaty factions; these two factions became the major contestants of the 1922 election, and other parties stood for the first time. On 20 May Arthur Griffith read out to the Second Dáil the agreed pre election Sinn Féin "Pact", and also declared new elections for the constituencies of the former Southern Ireland, and this was agreed to unanimously. Griffith could not call elections in Northern Ireland because of the Treaty provision that: no election shall be held for the return of members to serve in the Parliament of the Irish Free State for constituencies in Northern Ireland. Despite the pact between the two Sinn Féin factions, the elections were seen by many as an endorsement of the Anglo Irish Treaty, and a draft of the proposed Constitution of the Irish Free State was published in the week before election as an example of the work under way. The pro treaty side won a majority of seats; the anti treaty faction boycotted the new assembly, refusing to recognise the body as the legitimate heir to the Second Dáil, and the Irish Civil War broke out shortly afterwards.

Under the Treaty, procedures were set in place to merge the republican and British systems. Initially both remained separate to validate the Treaty from their own perspectives. The Second Dáil and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland both voted separately to ratify the Treaty. Each house chose distinct and separate governments but which substantially overlapped in membership. Arthur Griffith was elected as President of Dáil Éireann on 10 January 1922 and formed a new Ministry of Dáil Éireann, while Michael Collins was appointed as Chairman of the Provisional Government on 16 January 1922 and formed the Provisional Government of Ireland. The Proclamation by the Provisional Government which called the body stated that it was made "pursuant to the provisions of an Act entitled the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act, 1922". On 12 August, Arthur Griffith died of natural causes and on 22 August Michael Collins was assassinated. On 25 August, W. T. Cosgrave was appointed to succeed Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government. He formed the 2nd Provisional Government on 30 August.

The Third Dáil was first due to meet on 1 July. It was prorogued on five occasions, with its first meeting successively postponed to 15 July, to 29 July, to 12 August, to 16 August, and finally to 9 September. On this date, W. T. Cosgrave was appointed as President of Dáil Éireann. He formed the 5th Ministry of Dáil Éireann, with the same membership as the 2nd Provisional Government. Whether the new house, the Third Dáil/Provisional Parliament, was a republican parliament or crown assembly was queried by some anti Treaty Irish republicans. Laurence Ginnell turned up in the assembly to demand an answer as to which category, crown or republic, it belonged. The Ceann Comhairle read a message from Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord FitzAlan "conveying to this Parliament his very best wishes", which suggests that both the Lord Lieutenant and the Ceann Comhairle considered this body one convened under the terms of the Treaty rather than Dáil of the Irish Republic.

The Constitution of the Irish Free State provided, within its own articles, that it would not come into effect until it had been adopted by both the British Parliament and the Third Dáil, which it referred to as the "constituent assembly". The Third Dáil adopted the Constitution of the Irish Free State on 25 October 1922. The document was then enacted by the British Parliament by the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 and came into force on 6 December. The new constitution used the name Dáil Éireann for the house of representatives of a new parliament called the Oireachtas. However it provided that until the first elections to this new lower house the "constituent assembly" would exercise "all the powers and authorities" conferred on the "new" Dáil Éireann. The Third Dáil therefore functioned as a legislative lower house from December 1922 until it was dissolved on 9 August 1923 before the 1923 general election. The Fourth Dáil was convened on 19 September 1923. The numbering system of Dála begins with the First Dáil convened in January 1919.