Irish Civil War

The Opposing forces

By contrast, the Free State managed to expand its forces dramatically after the start of the war. Michael Collins and his commanders were able to build up an army which was able to overwhelm the Irregulars in the field. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns, small arms and ammunition were much help to pro-treaty forces. By the end of the war, the Free State Army had swollen to over 55,000 men and 3,500 officers, far in excess of what the Irish state would need to maintain in peacetime. Collins' most ruthless officers and men were recruited from the Dublin "Active Service Unit" (the elite unit of the IRA's Dublin Brigade), which Collins had commanded in the Irish War of Independence and in particular from his assassination unit "The Squad". In the New Irish Army, they were known as the Dublin Guard. Towards the end of the war, they were implicated in some gruesome atrocities against Anti-Treaty guerrillas. Most of the Free State Army's officers were Pro-Treaty IRA officers. However, the bulk of the Free State Army was made up of unemployed Irish ex-servicemen, who had fought in the First World War in the British Army.

The Free State takes major towns

Arthur Griffith

(1871-1922)With Dublin in pro-treaty hands, conflict spread throughout the country, with anti-Treaty forces briefly holding Cork, Limerick and Waterford as part of a self-styled independent "Munster Republic". However, the Anti-Treaty side were not equipped to wage conventional war, lacking artillery and armoured units, both of which the Free State obtained from the British. This meant that the large towns in Ireland were all easily taken by the Free State after only sporadic fighting.

In Limerick, the anti-treaty IRA held four military barracks and most of the town. Fighting broke out between them and Free state units in the city on the 11th of July 1921. On the 17th, General Eoin O'Duffy arrived with 1,500 Free State reinforcments including four armoured cars and an 18 pounder cannon. After three days of street fighting the Republicans evacuated the city and retreated south. Eight Free State troops died in Limerick and up to thirty Republicans. Similarly, Waterford was taken by a Free State column equipped with armour and artillery under General Prout between the 18th and 20th of July at a cost of only ten killed. However, the Free State troops encountered more tenacious resistance in the countryside around Kilmallock, south of Limerick city, when they tried to advance into republican held Munster. Eoin O'Duffy's 1,500 troops were faced with about 2000 anti-Treaty IRA men under Liam Deasy, who had three armoured cars they had taken from the evacuating British troops. Fighting continued here from the 22nd of July until August the 5th, despite the arrival of over 1000 more Free State troops and more armoured cars and cannon. These engagements were the closest thing in the war to a conventional battle and were costly for both sides. Deasy's men were ultimately forced to retreat, however, when Free State forces were landed by sea behind them in Passage West and Fenit in counties Cork and Kerry on the 2nd and 8th of August respectively.

These seaborne landings embarked about 2000 well equipped Free State troops into the heart of the "Munster Republic" and caused the rapid collapse of the Republican position in the south. After some fighting at Rochestown, the badly armed anti-treaty IRA in Cork did not try to resist this offensive, but burned the barracks they were holding and dispersed. On August 10, Cork city was retaken, the last city to fall in the "Munster Republic". Liam Lynch, the Republican commander in chief abandoned Fermoy, the last republican held town, the following day.

Another naval landing, at Clew Bay in Mayo, helped re-take the west of Ireland for the Free State. This force, consisting of 400 Free State soldiers, one cannon and an armoured car under Christopher O'Malley, re-took the Republican held town of Westport and linked up with another Free State column under Sean McEoin advancing from Castlebar.

Government victories in the major towns inaugurated a period of inconclusive guerrilla warfare. Anti-Treaty IRA units held out in areas such as the western part of counties Cork and Kerry in the south, county Wexford in the east and counties Sligo and Mayo in the west. Sporadic fighting also took place around Dundalk, where Frank Aiken and the Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army were based. Aiken originally wanted to stay neutral, but was arrested by Free State troops along with 400 of his men on July 16th 1922. They subsequently broke out of prison in Dundalk and conducted a guerrilla campaign against the Free State along the new Irish border with Northern Ireland.

It took eight more months of intermittent warfare before the war was brought to an end. This period was marked by assassinations and executions of leaders formerly allied in the cause of Irish independence. Commander-in-Chief Michael Collins was assassinated by anti-treaty republicans at Béal na mBláth, near his home in County Cork, in August 19221. Arthur Griffith, the Free State president had also died of a brain haemorrhage ten days before, leaving the Free State government in the hands of William Cosgrave and the Free State Army under the command of General Richard Mulcahy.

In October 1922, Eamonn de Valera and the anti-treaty TDs (members of the Dail Parliament) set up their own "Republican government" in opposition to the Free State. However, by then the anti-Treaty side held no significant territory and De Valera's "government" had no authority over the population. In any case, the IRA leaders paid no attention to it, seeing the Republican authority as vested in their own military leaders.

Michael Collins, as Commander-in-Chief at President Griffith's funeral, one week before his own
Atrocities, executions and the end of the war

The final phase of the Civil War (November 1922-May 1923) degenerated into a series of atrocities that left a lasting legacy of bitterness in Irish politics. On October 15th 1922, the Free State's Provisional Government passed an "Emergency Powers Bill" in the Dail, which allowed for the execution of men captured bearing arms against the state. On November the 17th, four IRA men who were captured with arms were shot by firing squad. On the 24th of November, acclaimed author and treaty negotiator Robert Erskine Childers was executed by the Free State, having been captured in possession of a pistol. Liam Lynch, in response, issued an order to the IRA units under his command that any member of Parliament who had signed or voted for the "murder bill" should be shot on sight. The Anti-Treaty IRA therefore began assassinating TDs who sat in the Dáil, beginning with Sean Hales. A number of other TD's and Senators were also shot and wounded. In response, the Free State announced that it would be shooting IRA prisoners already in its custody in reprisal for future "outrages". Accordingly, on December the 7th 1922, the day after Hales' killing, four prominent Republicans (one from each province), who had been held since the first week of the war - Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows Richard Barett and Joe McKelvey- were executed in revenge for the killing of Hales. In all, the Free State sanctioned 77 official executions of Anti-Treaty prisoners during the civil war - a number that was recalled by Fianna Fail members with bitterness for decades afterwards.

In addition, Free State troops, particularly in County Kerry, where the guerrilla campaign was most bitter, began unofficial killings of captured Anti-Treaty fighters. Several high profile atrocities took place in the month of March 1923. The most notorious example of this occurred at Ballyseedy, where, in reprisal for the killing of five Free State soldiers with booby trap bomb at Knocknagoshel, 9 Republican prisoners were tied to a landmine, which was exploded and the remaining survivors were then machine-gunned, with one of the prisoners Stephen Fuller, escaping to tell of the event afterwards. This was followed by series of similar killings of prisoners by Free State troops in Killarney and Cahersiveen.

Richard Mulcahy - the Free State General who instituted the policy of executions of republican prisoners in reprisal for the murder of elected representatives.The Anti-Treaty IRA were unable to maintain an effective guerrilla campaign, since the great majority of the Irish population did not support them. This was demonstrated in the elections immediately after the civil war, which Cumann na nGaedheal, the Free State party, won easily (See Irish general election, 1923 for the results). The Roman Catholic Church also supported the Free State, deeming it the lawful government of the country, denouncing the Anti-Treaty IRA and refusing to administer the Sacraments to Anti-Treaty fighters. On October 10th 1922, The Catholic Bishops of Ireland issued a formal statement, describing the anti treaty campaign as,

a system of murder and assassination of the National forces without any legitimate authority...the guerrilla warfare now being carried on [by] the Irregulars is without moral sanction and therefore the killing of National soldiers is murder before God, the seizing of public and private property is robbery, the breaking of roads, bridges and railways is criminal. All who in contravention of this teaching, participate in such crimes are guilty of grevious sins and may not be absolved in Confession nor admitted to the Holy Communion if they persist in such evil courses (Coogan, De Valera p344).

This stance would have influenced many Catholic Irish people at the time.

The lack of public support for the Anti-Treaty IRA, the determination of the government to defeat them and their lack of will also contributed to their defeat. By February 1923, republican leader Liam Deasy had already surrendered to Free State forces and called on other republicans to do the same. As the conflict petered out into a de facto victory for the pro-Treaty side, De Valera asked the IRA leadership to call a ceasefire, but they refused. Some historians suggest that the death of Liam Lynch, the intransigent Republican leader, in a skirmish in the Knockmealdown mountains in County Waterford on April 10th, allowed the more pragmatic Frank Aiken, who took over as IRA Chief of Staff, to call a halt to what seemed a futile struggle. Aiken's accession to IRA leadership was followed on the 30th of April by the declaration of a ceasefire on behalf off the anti-treaty forces. Aiken followed this on the 24th of May 1923 by an order to IRA volunteers to dump arms rather than surrender them or continue a fight which they were incapable of winning. Thousands of Anti-Treaty IRA members (including De Valera) were arrested by the Free State forces in the weeks after the end of the war, when they had dumped their arms and returned home.

Attacks on Loyalists

Although the cause of the civil war was the treaty, as the war developed the Irregulars sought to identify their actions with the traditional republican cause of the "men of no property" and the result was that the war also saw large Loyalist landowners, and some not very well-off Protestant Loyalists, attacked and a large number of country estates occupied by small holders. Many, but not all of these people, had supported the Crown forces during the War of Independence. This support was often largely moral, but sometimes it took the form of actively assisting the British in the conflict. This made their situation post-independence difficult, and in the anarchy of the Civil War they became easy targets. Sometimes these attacks had sectarian overtones, although most anti-treaty IRA men made no distinction between Catholic and Protestant supporters of the Irish government. The Free State made efforts to protect Protestants and their property, most notably in County Louth, where a special police force was set up specifically for this purpose. Controversy continues to this day about the extent of intimidation of Protestants at this time.

Cost and results

The Civil War, though short, was bloody. It cost the lives of many senior figures, including Michael Collins. Both sides carried out brutal acts: the anti-treaty forces murdered TDs (MPs) and burned many historic homes (such as the famous Moore Hall in Mayo, because its owner had become a senator); the government executed anti-treaty prisoners, officially and unofficially. The pro-treaty National Army suffered 800 fatalities and perhaps as many as 4000 people were killed in total. As their forces retreated the Irregulars caused much destruction and the economy of the Free State suffered a hard blow in the earliest days of its existence as a result. In addition, about 12,000 Republicans were interned by the end of the Civil War, most of whom were not released until 1924. After Aiken called an end to the Anti-Treaty campaign, up to 8000 IRA prisoners went on hunger strike in protest at their continued detention.

However, it has also been argued that the Irish Civil War could have been far worse than it actually was. The numbers killed were relatively modest by the standards of other contemporary civil wars - for example in Russia and Spain. Moreover, the new Police force, the Civic Guards, was not involved which meant that it was possible for the Free State to establish an unarmed and politically neutral police service after the war.

The fact that the Irish Civil War was fought between Irish Nationalist factions meant that the issue of Northern Ireland was ignored and Ireland was spared what could have been a far bloodier civil war based on ethnic and sectarian lines over the future of Ireland's six north-eastern counties. In fact, because of the Irish Civil War, Northern Ireland was able to consolidate its existence and partition of Ireland was confirmed for the foreseeable future. Collins, up to the outbreak of the civil war and possibly until his death, had been planning to launch a clandestine guerrilla campaign against the Northern state and was funelling arms to the northern units of the IRA to this end. This may have led to open hostilities between north and south had the Irish Civil War not broken out. In the event, it was only after their defeat in the Civil War that anti-treaty Irish Republicans seriously considered whether to take armed action against British rule in Northern Ireland. The northern units of the IRA largely supported the Free State side in the civil war due to Collins's policies and over 1000 of them joined the new Free State's Irish Army.

In 1926, having failed to persuade the majority of the anti-treaty IRA or the anti-treaty party of Sinn Fein of accepting the new status quo as a basis for an evolving Republic, a large faction led by De Valera and Aiken left to resume constitutional politics and to found the Fianna Fáil party. Sinn Fein became a small, isolated poltical party. The IRA, then much more numerous and influential than Sinn Fein, remained associated with Fianna Fail (though not directly) until banned by De Valera in 1935.

W.T. CosgraveHowever, the breakaway IRA continued (and continues in various forms) to exist. Up until the 1980s it still claimed to be the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic declared in 1918 and annulled by the Treaty of 1921. Some people, notably Michael McDowell, claim that this attitude, which dates from the Civil War, still underpins the politics of the Provisional IRA.