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In 1921, elections were held for the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. In reality, no contests occurred. All 128 MPs were returned unopposed - Sinn Féin won all 124 seats for geographic constituencies, whilsts Unionists won the four seats for graduates of Dublin University. The Irish Republic chose to regard that election as elections to the Second Dáil. The 124 Sinn Féin candidates elected, plus the Sinn Féin members elected to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland elected at the same time, assembed as the Second Dáil.

In June 1921, the House of Commons, together with the appointed Senate, formally assembled in the Royal College of Science , now Government Buildings, in Merrion St., for a state opening by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent.

In reality only four unionist MPs and a handful of appointed senators, turned up. Parliament was suspended.

The House of Commons of Southern Ireland came back into being later, as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The Treaty was submitted to two bodies, the Second Dáil, whose approval gave it legitimacy in the eyes of nationalist Ireland, and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, which had legitimacy according to British constitutional theory, it being a creation of the King-in-Parliament. Both parliaments then chose their own governments, a republican administration under President of Dáil Éireann, Arthur GriffithArthur Griffith rt O Griobhtha in Irish) ( March 31, 1871 August 12, 1922) was the founder and first leader of Sinn Fein. He served as President of Dail Eireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations that pro and a Provisional GovernmentIn the Easter Rising in Dublin on 24 April 1916, the proclamation read by Padraig Pearse was headed and signed as being issued by the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic . The rising lasted five days and only controlled a few occupied buildings. under Michael CollinsMichael Collins ( October 16, 1890 August 22, 1922), an Irish revolutionary leader, served as Minister for Finance in the Irish Republic, as a member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, as Chairman of the Provisional Govern. The duality was represented by the meeting of Provisional Prime Minister Michael Collins and the Lord Lieutenant, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent. According to Irish republican history, Collins was 'accepting the surrender of Dublin Castle', where the meeting occurred. In contrast, in British political theory, Fitzalan met Collins to kiss hands , (ie to formally install him as a Minister of the Crown).

The House of Commons of Southern Ireland, having chosen Collins' government, was then dissolved and replaced by a new united parliament, called alternatively the Constituent AssemblyA Constituent Assembly is a body elected with the express and limited purpose of drafting, and in some cases, adopting a constitution. It may refer to either of the following: The National Constituent Assembly formed in 1789 during the French Revolution T (ie. a parliament with the authority to create a constitution), the Third Dáil or the Provisional ParliamentThe Third Dail was the incarnation of Dail Eireann that existed from 9th September, 1922 until 9th August 1923. The Third Dail was also known as the Constituent Assembly and the Provisional Parliament . After 6th December, 1922 it served as the lower hous, depending on whose political theory one accepts. The unique status of this parliament was shown in the fact that it was presided over by the Ceann Comhairle (pronounced, keaun corrle), the title given to the speaker in Dáil Éireann yet received messages from the Lord Lieutenant. Some anti-treaty deputies challenged the exact status of the assembly; whether it was a Dáil or a successor to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. The deaths of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins led to the merging of their offices under the united leadership of W.T. Cosgrave. With the coming into being of the Irish Free State and its constitution in December 1922, all previous administrations and parliaments, both nationalist and created by British law, ceased to exist.