Still at war?

IS our civil war still going on? Maybe we might think so when we listen to politicians but the actual civil war itself never officially ended. There was never a surrender by the Irregulars or a treaty between both sides – they might have thought that the mere mention of a treaty in those distressed times would have been asking for trouble.

The Irregulars called a ceasefire in April 1923 and this was followed by an order to dump arms but that was it. Even though this led to an end to hostilities there was never a negotiated settlement and thus the civil war was never officially ended.

While the majority of the civilian population may have supported the treaty both Sinn Féin and the IRA were seriously divided. The majority of politicians were pro treaty while the majority of the IRA were anti-treaty. Those anti-treaty forces included a large group in Dublin and most of the south-west the most experienced and strongest brigades.

When the treaty was ratified, the anti-treaty IRA were in a very strong position and what was to become known as the National Army was greatly outnumbered. There was a general stand-off between both sides. The new government made great use of this time to strengthen the army with help from Britain and by recruiting new members, many of whom had served with the Allied powers during the Great War. The end result was that when the government decided to move in June 1922, the Irregulars had lost much of their numerical advantage.

Hostilities opened on June 28 and before long, the garrison in the Four Courts were defeated but not before years of historical documents were destroyed.
The IRA structure that had prevailed during the War of Independence worked to the disadvantage of the Irregulars. Many local brigades were independent units with little or no contact with Dublin and very much inclined to “do their own thing”.

There was also an element of rivalry between local groups. The first problem with this was that it prevented those who had fought in the war presenting a united response to the treaty. Then during the civil war, it meant the Irregulars were not really a cohesive force. Because of this the government were able to pick off their strongest locations one by one and within months, controlled almost all the urban areas.

The Irregulars were confined to Munster but gradually that area of control was shrinking. In spite of some of early successes, the power of the army coupled with measures like internment, the death penalty and summary executions ensured that, to all intents and purposes, the civil war was over by the end of 1922.

Nevertheless, resistance continued and Liam Lynch, the commander in chief, refused to contemplate an end to hostilities. Things changed when Lynch was killed in action on the Knockmealdown Mountains. He was replaced by Frank Aiken who ordered a ceasefire on April 30, 1923. This was followed by a letter ordering IRA members to “dump arms”.
The government captured a copy of that letter and when they published it, the civil war was, in effect, over. That letter was published by the government on May 28, 1923 – 80 years ago this week.