The Irish Constitution Explained by Darrell Figgis. Dedicated to Arthur Griffith. Dublin: Mellifont Press, [1922]. First Edition. Pp 100. Frontispiece plate of ‘The Constitution Committee in Session.’ Publisher’s yellow cloth boards, lettered in black. Ex library copy, with ink stamps & with occasional label residue to endpapers. Covers dust soiled, contents pages in good condition.

By 1920 Darrell Figgis was a prominent member of the first Dail and he chaired the committee that drew up the State’s first Constitution. When Michael Collins sat down to sign the new Irish constitution in the Shelbourne Hotel in 1922 the document was largely the work of Darrell Figgis (an event which is commemorated with a plaque in the aptly named Constitution Room of the Shelbourne Hotel).

Following the Civil War Figgis refused to side with either De Valera or Cosgrave and in the 1922 elections ran successfully as an independent for South Dublin. He died tragically in 1925 at the age of 43.