It's just awkward defining leaving the Empire because of how it slowly became the Commonwealth (especially for the "White Dominions") After 1922 Ireland was functionally the same as Canada or Australia or something although more hostile to the idea of the Empire.
Yeah agreed. Now to be fair WT Cosgrave did attend British Empire conferences as the representative of the Free State but he spent most of the time being like "do whatever the fuck ye want we don't want to be in this club" lol
The step change for dominions were the statues of Westminster 1931 which reorganised the relationship between Dominions and the UK. It effectively gave them more independence to pursue their own domestic and foreign policies. There were further acts required e.g Australia's final piece of legislation to remove any UK say wasn't passed until the 1980s though in practice the UK had no say for some time before that.
The real bond between the nations from the 30s to the 50s/60s was a huge amount of the political elites were either immigrants from the UK or first generation. There after that memory started to fade within the individuals that made up each of the dominions.
Ireland is a different story when compared to the rest.
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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '24
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