FROM THE ARCHIVES:Wartime censorship was still in force in January 1919 when the first meeting of Dáil Éireann took place. This report of the meeting included the phrase "As Passed by Censor" in the headline, suggesting that it was not as originally written. – JOE JOYCE
THERE HAVE been many remarkable assemblies in the spacious Round Room of the Dublin Mansion House from time to time, but that which opened its proceedings yesterday afternoon at 3.30 o’clock possessed many characteristics which rendered it unique.
It was the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly summoned by the Sinn Fein Party. By a striking coincidence, the Mansion House was on the same day the scene of another and very different assembly, called for the purpose of according a public reception to the gallant soldiers of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who have been prisoners of war in Germany.
A city trader who was an interested spectator at the departure of the cheering soldiers and the arrival of the first of the Sinn Feiners in Dawson street made the comment on the scene: “No city in Europe can beat Dublin after all” – which evoked a hearty laugh from the bystanders.
But with the exception of this and a few like incidents, there was little to evoke laughter intentionally, at all events in the proceedings of An Dáil Éireann.
At 3.20 p.m. the space allotted to the public was crowded, and shortly afterwards, there was a cheer from the throng. Up the centre of the room there walked, at a slow and measured pace, and with countenances of funereal solemnity, the members of An Dáil Éireann, some thirty in number, headed by Count Plunkett and Mr. Eoin MacNeill.
On reaching the front row of upholstered seats, Count Plunkett sat solemnly down on the left hand side facing the empty chair; while Mr. MacNeill, with equal solemnity, took his seat on the right.
The remainder of the front row remained unoccupied, the other members solemnly seating themselves in the reserved places behind. A glance at the members of the Assembly showed that, with the exception of Count Plunkett, and Mr. MacNeill, they were all young men, there being no grey hairs among them and very few wrinkled brows.
They all appeared to be more or less keenly conscious of the unaccustomed scrutiny to which they were being subjected, and the majority sat bolt upright.
The tension was somewhat relieved when Count Plunkett rose and formally moved in a few words, spoken in Irish, that Mr. Cathal Burgess [Brugha], the representative of County Waterford, take the chair.
Thereafter, the proceedings, so far as the speeches were concerned, were conducted exclusively in Irish. Mr. Burgess is a young man of athletic build and strong features, and he played a prominent part in . . . 1916.
His first proceeding as Chairman of the Assembly was to call upon Father O’Flanagan to invoke the blessing of the Almighty on their proceeding, a request which the rev. gentleman complied with, the members and spectators standing the while.
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