Dev/Collins Pact

jos28

Having a bit of bother understanding the Dev/Collins Pact and the significance of it. Could some kind person explain it to me please (in words of one syllable )

patsman07

My understanding of it is that the pact was agreed for the 1922 election. It meant that existing Sinn Fein TD's would run un-opposed despite the fact that the treaty had torn the party in two. This meant that deV could keep the large minority of anti-treaty sinn fein TD's that he led. Had the pact not have happened, he would probably have lost out badly to pro-treaty opponents. Collins was desperate to avoid civil war and the pact was a measure to appease his anti-treaty oppponents.