On 5 December 1921 Éamon de Valera gave a speech (in what is now The Strand Hotel on the Ennis Road) cautioning against optimism in the peace process. A few hours later in London, Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, granting limited independence to the southern portion of Ireland as the Irish Free State, while retaining the six counties of Northern Ireland. The treaty also gifted the ports of Berehaven, Cobh and Lough Swilly to the United Kingdom as UK sovereign bases, while annuities would continue to be paid to the British government in lieu of money loaned to Irish tenants under various land acts. De Valera and others virulently opposed the treaty's compromises. The scene was set for the civil war.