The ‘Inverness Formula’: Lloyd George, Ireland and the First UK Cabinet Meeting outside London

Abstract

On 7 September 1921 a meeting of the United Kingdom’s Cabinet took place outside London for the first time. Besides being remarkable for that reason, the session at Inverness in Scotland was also significant for the future of relationships between Britain and Ireland. Prime Minister Lloyd George was at the height of his career and convened it largely in an effort to advance negotiations with the Irish. He hoped that a peace conference might begin at Inverness later that month. Crowds converged on Inverness Town House for the historic and dramatic Cabinet meeting. Republican couriers ferried messages to and from Éamon de Valera, president of the revolutionary Sinn Féin parliament in Dublin. Some UK government ministers complained about the long round trip from London to Scotland by train. The article analyses the significance of what happened that month, and how an ambiguous form of words that Lloyd George dubbed the ‘Inverness formula’ avoided deadlock and allowed a full Irish peace conference to begin in London in October. This led to the signing of an agreement for a proposed Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921.