Following the tumultuous elections of December 1918 (which saw the victorious Sinn Féin candidates reject the Westminster parliament and declare independence) a separate parliament in Dublin was founded.
The first meeting of "Dáil Éireann" began at 3:30 pm on 21 January in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Dublin. (One of the first engagements of what became the Irish War of Independence also occurred on this day).
The proceedings of the first Dáil were held wholly as Gaeilge (in the Irish language) and translations of the documents were also read out in English and French.
George Noble Plunkett opened the session and nominated Cathal Brugha as acting Ceann Comhairle (chairman or speaker), which was accepted. Father Michael O'Flanagan was called upon to say a prayer.
Twenty-seven Sinn Féin MPs attended. Invitations had been sent to all elected MPs in Ireland but but the Unionists and Irish Parliamentary Party MPs declined to attend. Of the Sixty-nine elected Sinn Féin MPs, thirty-four were in prison, and eight others could not attend for various reasons. Michael Collins and Harry Boland were in England at the time planning Éamon de Valera's prison escape.
The main business of the First Dáil was establishing the Irish Republic. It was outlawed by the British government in September 1919, and thereafter it met in secret. The First Dáil sat 21 times. Following the May 1921 elections, the First Dáil was succeeded by the Second Dáil of 1921–1922.
