The Irish Civil War 1922–23 by Peter Cottrell

Author:Peter Cottrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Irish Civil War 1922–23
ISBN: 9781472810335
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

The guerrilla war, 19 August 1922–24 May 1923

The guerrilla phase was the longest and in many respects the bitterest stage of the civil war. In all it would last nine months and see an Irish government’s frustration manifest itself in a willingness to act ruthlessly.

Although the fall of Cork did much to undermine the Republican cause the Provisional Government suffered a double blow when Griffith died of a brain haemorrhage on 12 August and Collins was killed in an IRA ambush on 22 August at Béal na mBláth, Co. Cork. No one really knows who fired the fatal shot but the most likely candidate is an ex-British soldier, Denis ‘Sonny’ O’Neill, who was one of the IRA ambushers.

Mulcahy replaced Collins as Commander in Chief, whilst Cosgrave and Kevin O’Higgins provided the civilian leadership of the Provisional Government. All three men envisaged a democratic Ireland with an apolitical army and police serving the Irish people. Consequently all three viewed the Republicans as traitors who sought to destroy their fledgling democracy.

O’Higgins believed that ‘soldiers make bad policemen’ but had to accept that until the Civic Guards established themselves the State had no alternative but to use the army to maintain law and order. Ironically, according to Dalton, the Republican guerrillas placed the NA ‘in the same position as the British were a little over a year ago’.

Much as the British had before them, the Provisional Government also resorted to harsh legislation to justify their activities against the IRA. The Provisional Government ceased to be ‘Provisional’ in September 1922 when it oversaw the merger of the Southern Irish Parliament and the Dáil, which became its lower chamber, and approved the Saorstát Constitution. The Senate created by the Government of Ireland Act also continued to act as the upper chamber, providing a forum for Southern Unionists to participate in government. One of its first acts was to pass the Public Safety Act giving emergency powers to the NA. By December the Saorstát had been formally established in British and Irish law and Tim Healy KC was appointed Governor-General.

Unlike the British administration the new Dublin government enjoyed the popular support of the Irish public so when its forces carried out reprisals in response to IRA attacks they tended to be against individuals rather than against property. The emergency powers granted to the NA under the Public Safety Act and, ironically, the still extant Restoration of Order in Ireland Act allowed them to court martial and execute anyone caught illegally carrying weapons.

The first executions took place on 17 November when four Irregulars – Peter Cassidy, James Fisher, John Gaffney and Richard Twohig – were shot in Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin. The policy was controversial from the start and Labour TD Tom Johnson protested but was told by Mulcahy that stern measures were necessary against those ‘assassins and wreckers who would destroy the country’. On 24 November Childers was shot under the provisions of the Public Safety Act.

Dalton was uncomfortable with this policy and asked Mulcahy if he was expected to execute the 1,800 Irregulars he had incarcerated in Cork Prison.

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