3 December 1925: The Boundary Commission, set up under the Treaty to finalise the Border, was scrapped and a financial settlement was agreed between the British and Irish Governments instead covering various aspects of Anglo-Irish affairs. The Commission’s findings had been fatally undermined when the Morning Post newspaper leaked its results. This clearly showed that only minor adjustments in the Border were to be expected. It was in effect a Fiasco for the Irish Free State and the hopes of the Irish People.

The Free State President W.T. Cosgrave [above] could only hope to salvage something from the wreckage in what was in effect a damage limitation exercise. He defended his handling of the subsequent negotiations that saw the abrogation of the debts due to Britain under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 (aka ‘the Treaty’) as a good deal. He stated in the parliament of the Free State that:

I had only one figure in my mind and that was a huge nought. That was the figure I strove to get, and I got it.

 

He was also of the opinion that any further pressing of territorial claims on the North could inflame the more reactionary elements of Unionism in a situation in which he would be powerless to intervene. Thus ended the one and only attempt at repartition since the Country was split in two.