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CC 333 2019
2 euro coin
BU Main coin Bank issue
2 Euro BU
Ireland · 100th anniversary of the first sitting of Dáil Éireann
Mintage991,000
Issue date21 Jan 2019
Edge lettering2 ★ ★ × 6, alternating upright/inverted
Market price€6.99
Issue occasion
The commemorative coin marks the 100th anniversary of Dáil Éireann, the Irish Parliament, which was constituted on 21 January 1919. The design depicts its first session, held exclusively in Irish, beneath the dome of the Round Room in the Mansion House. At the centre are the words “An Chéad Dáil” in traditional uncial script, with the year “1919” above and “ÉIRE 2019” below.
The design
The design depicts the first session of Dáil Éireann in the so-called Round Room. The Irish parliament was constituted on 21 January 1919, and the session was held exclusively in the Irish language to emphasise the symbolic nature of the gathering. The large Round Room of Mansion House rises above the gathering of the country’s first elected Dáil. The words “An Chéad Dáil” in the centre of the coin and the year “1919” at the top are struck in traditional uncial script. At the bottom, the name of the country and the year of issue can be read: “ÉIRE 2019”.
The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the coin’s outer ring.
The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the coin’s outer ring.
Background on the topic
The establishment of the first Dáil was preceded by the British general election of December 1918. The republican party Sinn Féin won 73 of the 105 Irish seats. Its elected members had announced that they would not take up their mandates in the Parliament in Westminster, but would instead establish their own representative assembly in Ireland. Unionist MPs and the remaining representatives of the Irish Parliamentary Party did not participate; moreover, numerous Sinn Féin members were in custody.
The assembly adopted a declaration of independence, a provisional constitution and a socially oriented “Democratic Programme”. In an address to the free nations of the world, it also sought international recognition for an Irish republic. This recognition was not forthcoming, however, and the British government did not regard the new parliament as a legitimate state institution. On the same day, members of the Irish Volunteers attacked members of the Royal Irish Constabulary in County Tipperary. The Soloheadbeg ambush is often regarded as the beginning of the Irish War of Independence, but it had not been ordered by the Dáil.
The conflict led, via the truce and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, to the establishment of the Irish Free State (Irischer Freistaat) in 1922. The treaty question divided the republican movement and culminated in the Irish Civil War. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. The present-day Dáil is the directly elected lower house of the Oireachtas, which also comprises Seanad Éireann and the President of Ireland.
Mansion House has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin (Oberbürgermeister von Dublin) since the early 18th century. The Round Room was built in 1821 on the occasion of the visit of King George IV. The fact that a hall created for a British monarch later served as a meeting place for a republican representative assembly gives the building an additional historical dimension.
The choice of the anniversary as the occasion for the coin thus refers to the parliamentary and state origins of present-day Ireland. The focus is not on an individual politician, but on the establishment of an independent Irish representative assembly.
The assembly adopted a declaration of independence, a provisional constitution and a socially oriented “Democratic Programme”. In an address to the free nations of the world, it also sought international recognition for an Irish republic. This recognition was not forthcoming, however, and the British government did not regard the new parliament as a legitimate state institution. On the same day, members of the Irish Volunteers attacked members of the Royal Irish Constabulary in County Tipperary. The Soloheadbeg ambush is often regarded as the beginning of the Irish War of Independence, but it had not been ordered by the Dáil.
The conflict led, via the truce and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, to the establishment of the Irish Free State (Irischer Freistaat) in 1922. The treaty question divided the republican movement and culminated in the Irish Civil War. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. The present-day Dáil is the directly elected lower house of the Oireachtas, which also comprises Seanad Éireann and the President of Ireland.
Mansion House has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin (Oberbürgermeister von Dublin) since the early 18th century. The Round Room was built in 1821 on the occasion of the visit of King George IV. The fact that a hall created for a British monarch later served as a meeting place for a republican representative assembly gives the building an additional historical dimension.
The choice of the anniversary as the occasion for the coin thus refers to the parliamentary and state origins of present-day Ireland. The focus is not on an individual politician, but on the establishment of an independent Irish representative assembly.
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