The Tripartite Agreement and the Final Irish Border Settlement

The Irish History Boys · Dec 4, 2025 · 49m

Following the leak of the Boundary Commission's report, the high-stakes Tripartite Agreement of 1925 established that the border would remain unchanged, ensuring Northern Ireland conceded no territory.

In exchange for accepting the existing boundary, the Irish Free State was relieved of its crippling obligation to pay a share of the UK's imperial debt, estimated at roughly £150 million.

However, W.T. Cosgrave’s government faced severe backlash and a major political crisis for prioritising this financial reprieve over the interests of Northern nationalists, who were effectively abandoned by…