The Sinn Fein leader, Eamonn de Valera, became the first Prime Minister of the Irish Free State.
The UK was renamed 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' to reflect the change. To oversee that the 2 Irish states got along, a Council of Ireland was set up to manage relations. The British believed that the 2 Parliaments would soon settle their differences and agree to unite, and the Council of Ireland was to oversee this reunification as well. However, in the end, the Council of Ireland never met.
The government announced freedom of religion for all citizens and a new flag was adopted for the country to reflect this. The three vertical bands of colour were orange (Protestants) green (Catholics) and white (peace between them). .
All during this period, the leader of the anti-treaty Republicans, Eammon de Valera was in the sidelines. He was against the way that Irish MPs still swore allegiance to the King of England and that the Free State was part of the British Commonwealth. In 1930 the Free State joined with Canada and South Africa, (two other Commonwealth nations), and managed to force Britain into passing a law that permitted them to repeal any law that the UK had passed for them before granting independence. This meant that, in theory, the Free State government could repeal the Anglo-Irish Treaty and become fully independent.
In the 1932 General Election Fianna Fail swept to power in the Irish Free State and Eamonn de Valera, the leader of Fianna Fail, became Prime Minister. Despite gloomy predictions, the country did not erupt into civil war and Cosgrave gave up power without a fight. de Valera immediately adopted policies designed to cut all ties with the UK. He abolished the "land annuities" in 1932 and the Dail's Oath to the King of England in 1933. Also in 1933, he reduced the powers of the British governmental representative in Ireland (and in fact abolished the post in 1937).
