View source for Irish Civil War

{{Short description|1922–1923 conflict between factions of the IRA}}
{{Distinguish|The Troubles}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=December 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Irish Civil War
| partof            = the [[Irish revolutionary period]]
| image             = Secret Destination (6233259813).jpg
| image_size        = 300px
| caption           = [[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]] soldiers armed with [[Lewis gun|Lewis machine guns]] aboard a troop transport during the Civil War
| date              = 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=06|day1=28|year1=1922|month2=05|day2=24|year2=1923}})
| place             = [[Irish Free State]]
| territory         = Consolidation of the [[Irish Free State]]
| result            = Pro-Treaty victory
| combatant1        = {{flag|Irish Free State}}<br>(pro-Treaty forces)
----
'''Military support:'''<br>{{flag|United Kingdom}}
| combatant2        = {{flagdeco|Ireland}} [[Anti-Treaty IRA]]<br>(anti-Treaty forces)
| commander1        = ''Military commanders:''{{ubl|style=margin-bottom: 1em|[[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]]{{KIA}}|[[Richard Mulcahy]]|[[Eoin O'Duffy]]}}
''Political leaders:''{{ubl|[[Arthur Griffith]] [[Death by natural causes|#]]|[[W. T. Cosgrave]]|[[Kevin O'Higgins]]}}
| commander2        = ''Military commanders:''{{ubl|style=margin-bottom: 1em|[[Liam Lynch (Irish republican)|Liam Lynch]]{{KIA}}|[[Frank Aiken]]|[[Ernie O'Malley]]}}
''Political leaders:''{{ubl|[[Éamon de Valera]]}}
| units1            = {{ubl|[[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]]|[[Criminal Investigation Department (Ireland)|CID]] (including the [[Citizens' Defence Force]])|[[Garda Síochána#History|Civic Guards]]}}
| units2            = {{ubl|[[Irish Republican Army (1922–69)|Anti-Treaty IRA]] (officially termed the [[Irregulars]]){{efn|The term "Irregulars" was first coined by [[Piaras Béaslaí]] and made compulsory for newspapers by Béaslaí as the Director of Communications of the Free State.}}|''Partly involved'':{{ubl|[[Cumann na mBan]]|[[Fianna Éireann]]|[[Irish Citizen Army]]|[[Irish Republican Police]]}}}}
| strength1         = {{ubl|National Army: c. 55,000 soldiers and 3,500 officers by end of the war|Air Service: 10 planes|CID: 350}}
| strength2         = c. 15,000
| casualties1       = 637 Irish National Army killed<ref name="Bielenberg">{{cite web |last1=Bielenberg |first1=Andy |title=The Irish Civil War Fatalities Project: death and killing in the Civil War |url=https://www.rte.ie/history/civil-war-fatalities/2024/0306/1436312-death-and-killing-in-the-irish-civil-war/ |website=rte.ie |date=6 March 2024 |publisher=[[RTÉ]] |access-date=29 April 2024 |ref=Bielenberg |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429095157/https://www.rte.ie/history/civil-war-fatalities/2024/0306/1436312-death-and-killing-in-the-irish-civil-war/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
| casualties2       = 426+ killed<ref name=LastPost>{{cite book | title=The Last Post | publisher=National Graves Association | year=1985 | oclc=64552311 | pages=130–154}}</ref>
| casualties3       = Civilians: 336 killed<ref name="Bielenberg" />
| notes             = 
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Irish Civil War}}
{{Campaignbox Irish independence}}
}}

The '''Irish Civil War''' ({{langx|ga|Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann}}; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923)<ref>{{cite web |title=The Troubles |url=https://claregalway.galwaycommunityheritage.org/content/category/topics/1916-and-the-troubles |website=Claregalway Historical Society Sharing our historical & cultural heritage |access-date=28 August 2018 |archive-date=31 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231072229/https://claregalway.galwaycommunityheritage.org/content/category/topics/1916-and-the-troubles |url-status=live}}</ref> was a conflict that followed the [[Irish War of Independence]] and accompanied the establishment of the [[Irish Free State]], an entity independent from the [[United Kingdom]] but within the [[British Empire]].

The civil war was waged between the [[Provisional Government of Ireland (1922)|Provisional Government of Ireland]] and the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Anti-Treaty IRA]] over the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]]. The Provisional Government (which became the Free State in December 1922) supported the terms of the treaty, while the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty Dáil vote#Anti-Treaty|anti-Treaty opposition]] saw it as a betrayal of the [[Irish Republic]] proclaimed during the [[Easter Rising]] of 1916. Many of the combatants had fought together against the British in the [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] during the War of Independence and had divided after that conflict ended and the [[Irish Republican Army and the Anglo-Irish Treaty|treaty negotiations began]].

The Civil War was won by the pro-treaty [[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]], who first [[Battle of Dublin|secured Dublin]] by early July, then [[Irish Free State offensive|went on the offensive]] against the anti-Treaty strongholds of the south and west, especially the '[[Munster Republic]]'. All urban centres had been captured by the National Army by late August. The [[guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War]] lasted another 10 months, before the IRA leadership issued a "dump arms" order to all units, effectively ending the conflict. The National Army benefited from substantial quantities of weapons provided by the British government, particularly artillery and armoured cars.

The conflict left Irish society divided and embittered for generations. Today, the three largest [[List of political parties in the Republic of Ireland|political parties]] in [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] are direct descendants of the opposing sides in the war: [[Fine Gael]], from the supporters of the pro-Treaty side; [[Fianna Fáil]], the party formed from the bulk of the anti-Treaty republicans by [[Éamon de Valera]]; and [[Sinn Féin]], comprising the minority of anti-Treaty republicans who refused to join any partitionist party.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kissane|first=Bill|title=The Politics of the Irish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50JqW4FIYnYC&pg=PA11-IA1|year=2005|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-927355-3|page=11|access-date=16 October 2015|archive-date=30 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230102726/https://books.google.com/books?id=50JqW4FIYnYC&pg=PA11-IA1|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Background==

===The treaty and its consequences===
The [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] was agreed upon to end the 1919–1921 [[Irish War of Independence]] between the [[Irish Republic]] and the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]. The treaty provided for a self-governing Irish state, having its own army and police. The treaty also allowed [[Northern Ireland]] (the six north-eastern counties{{spaced ndash}}[[County Fermanagh|Fermanagh]], [[County Antrim|Antrim]], [[County Tyrone|Tyrone]], [[County Londonderry|Londonderry]], [[County Armagh|Armagh]] and [[County Down|Down]]{{spaced ndash}} where collectively the majority population was of the [[Protestant]] religion)<ref>{{cite web|title=Belfast County Borough Religious Census 1926|url= http://histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/AssociatedPageBrowser?path=Browse&active=yes&mno=234&tocstate=expandnew&display=sections&display=tables&display=pagetitles&pageseq=27&assoctitle=Census%20of%20Northern%20Ireland,%201926|website= Hist pop |access-date=1 August 2014|archive-date=11 August 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140811125733/http://histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/AssociatedPageBrowser?path=Browse&active=yes&mno=234&tocstate=expandnew&display=sections&display=tables&display=pagetitles&pageseq=27&assoctitle=Census%20of%20Northern%20Ireland,%201926 |url-status= live}}</ref> to opt out of the new state and return to the United Kingdom{{spaced ndash}}which it did immediately. With the [[Partition of Ireland]] a [[The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)|two-year period]] of [[Communal violence|communal conflict]] took place within the newly formed Northern Ireland. Rather than creating the independent [[republic]] for which nationalists had fought, the Irish Free State would be a [[British Dominions|dominion]] of the [[British Empire]] with the [[British monarchy|British monarch]] as [[head of state]], in the same manner as [[Canada]] and [[Australia]].<ref name=treaty-text>{{Cite web |url= https://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html|title=Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Series: Anglo-Irish Treaty: Text of. |website= National archives |access-date=23 August 2019|archive-date= 3 May 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210503063039/https://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The British suggested dominion status in secret correspondence even before treaty negotiations began, but [[Sinn Féin]] leader [[Éamon de Valera]] rejected the dominion.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-007/text001.html|title=Official Correspondence relating to the Peace Negotiations June–September, 1921| publisher = UCC |access-date=26 November 2009|archive-date= 30 March 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170330215533/http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-007/text001.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The treaty also stipulated that members of the new Irish [[Oireachtas of the Irish Free State|Oireachtas]] (parliament) would have to take the following "[[Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)|Oath of Allegiance]]":
{{Blockquote|I... do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of nations.<ref name=treaty-text/>}}

This oath was highly objectionable to many Irish Republicans. Furthermore, the [[partition of Ireland]], which had already been decided by the Westminster parliament in the [[Government of Ireland Act 1920]], was effectively confirmed in the Anglo-Irish treaty. The most contentious areas of the Treaty for the IRA were the disestablishment of the Irish Republic declared in 1919, the abandonment of the [[Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic)|First Dáil]],<ref>{{cite book | last= Younger | first=Calton | title=Ireland's Civil War | publisher=Fontana | location=London | year=1988 |edition= 6th | isbn=978-0-00-686098-3 | pages=233–35}}</ref> the status of the [[Irish Free State]] as a dominion in the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] and the British retention of the strategic [[Treaty Ports (Ireland)|Treaty Ports]] on Ireland's south western and north western coasts which were to remain occupied by the [[Royal Navy]]. All these issues were the cause of a split in the IRA and ultimately civil war.

[[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], the Irish finance minister and [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] (IRB) president, argued in the [[Dáil Éireann]] that the treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire and develop, but the freedom to achieve freedom".<ref name="Oireachtas 1">{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1921-12-19/2/#spk_11|title=Dáil Éireann debate - Monday, 19 Dec 1921: Debate on Treaty|website=www.oireachtas.ie|access-date=18 September 2022|archive-date=24 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824023005/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1921-12-19/2/#spk_11|url-status=live}}</ref> However, those against the treaty believed that it would never deliver full Irish independence.{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | pp=174–184}}<ref name="Oireachtas 2">{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-01-10/2/|title=Dáil Éireann debate -Tuesday, 10 Jan 1922: Election of President|website=www.oireachtas.ie|access-date=18 September 2022|archive-date=31 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831094244/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-01-10/2/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Split in the Nationalist movement===
{{See also|IRA and the Anglo-Irish Treaty}}
The split over the Treaty was deeply personal. Many on both sides had been close friends and comrades during the War of Independence. This made their disagreement all the more bitter. On 6 January 1922, at the [[Mansion House, Dublin]], [[Austin Stack]], Home Affairs minister, showed president de Valera the evening news announcing the signing of the Treaty: de Valera merely glanced at it; when [[Eamonn Duggan]], part of the returning Irish delegation, handed him an envelope confirming it, he pushed it aside. De Valera had held secret discussions with UK Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] from 14 to 21 July in London. Collins, also part of the delegation, supposed (with others) that these discussions confirmed the earlier correspondence, i.e. no British acceptance of a Republic. De Valera, Stack and Defence minister [[Cathal Brugha]] had then all refused to join the delegation to London.{{sfn | Taylor | 1958| pp=114–115}} Collins wrote that his inclusion as a plenipotentiary was "a trap" of de Valera's which he was forewarned of, argued against, but walked into anyway, "as a soldier obeying his commanding officer."{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | pp=158, 163}} [[Arthur Griffith]], the delegation chairman, had made a similar comment about obeying orders to de Valera himself.{{sfn | Taylor | 1958| p=116}} Mutual suspicion and confusion pertained; the delegation was unclear about the cabinet's instructions and individually became burdened to the point of breakdown.{{sfn | Taylor | 1958| pp=116–117, 147, 158–159}} Collins expected the blame for the compromise within the Treaty and wrote: "Early this morning I signed my death warrant."{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | p=170}} Notwithstanding this, he was frustrated and at times emotional when de Valera and others refused to support the Treaty and friendships died.{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | pp=170–174}}

[[File:Hogan's Flying Column.gif|thumb|[[Third Tipperary Brigade]] Flying Column No. 2 under [[Seán Hogan]] during the War of Independence. Most of the IRA units in Munster were against the treaty.]]

Dáil Éireann (the parliament of the Irish Republic) narrowly passed the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64 votes to 57 on 7 January 1922. Following the Treaty's ratification, in accordance with article 17 of the Treaty, the British-recognised [[Provisional Government of the Irish Free State]] was established. Its authority under the Treaty was to provide a "provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval" before the establishment of the Irish Free State. In accordance with the Treaty, the British Government transferred "the powers and machinery requisite for the discharge of its duties". Before the British Government transferred such powers, the members of the Provisional Government each "signified in writing [their] acceptance of [the Treaty]".

Upon the Treaty's ratification, de Valera resigned as [[President of the Irish Republic|President of the Republic]] and failed to be re-elected by an even closer vote of 60–58. He challenged the right of the Dáil to approve the treaty, saying that its members were breaking their oath to the Irish Republic. Meanwhile, he continued to promote a compromise whereby the new Irish Free State would be in "[[external association]]" with the British Commonwealth rather than be a member of it (the inclusion of [[Republics in the Commonwealth of Nations|republics within the Commonwealth of Nations]] was not formally implemented until 1949).

In early March, de Valera formed the [[Cumann na Poblachta]] ('Republican Association') party while remaining a member of Sinn Féin, and commenced a speaking tour of the more republican province of [[Munster]] on 17 March 1922. During the tour he made controversial speeches at [[Carrick on Suir]], [[Lismore, County Waterford|Lismore]], [[Dungarvan]] and [[Waterford]], saying at one point, "If the Treaty were accepted, the fight for freedom would still go on, and the Irish people, instead of fighting foreign soldiers, will have to fight the Irish soldiers of an Irish government set up by Irishmen." At [[Thurles]] several days later he repeated this imagery, and added that the IRA "would have to wade through the blood of the soldiers of the Irish Government, and perhaps through that of some members of the Irish Government to get their freedom."{{sfn|Hopkinson|1988|p=71|ps=: de Valera stated in a speech in Killarney in March 1922, that if the Treaty was accepted by the electorate,<br />"IRA men will have to march over the dead bodies of their own brothers. They will have to wade through Irish blood."}}

In a letter to the ''[[Irish Independent]]'' on 23 March, de Valera accepted the accuracy of their report of his comment about "wading" through blood, but deplored that the newspaper had published it.<ref>J.J. O'Kelly ([[Sceilg]]) ''A Trinity of Martyrs'', Irish Book Bureau, Dublin; pp. 66–68. "Sceilg" was a supporter of de Valera in 1922.</ref>

More seriously, many [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) officers were also against the treaty, and in March 1922 an ad hoc Army Convention repudiated the authority of the Dáil to accept the treaty. In contrast, the Minister of Defence, [[Richard Mulcahy]], stated in the Dáil on 28 April that conditions in Dublin had prevented a Convention from being held, but that delegates had been selected and voted by ballot to accept the Oath.<ref name=MulcahyReplyH>{{cite web|url=http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 28 April, 1922 - Mr. McEntee's 10 questions of 28 April|date=2007-10-24|website=oireachtas-debates.gov.ie|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024022948/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|archive-date=2007-10-24|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-08-24|quote=(h) Was this amended Constitution to be submitted to a specially summoned Convention of the Irish Volunteers for acceptance or rejection by that Organisation? As a fact was that Convention held?"<br> MR. MULCAHY: "...(h) It was proposed to submit the proposed Constitution to a specially summoned Convention of the Irish Volunteers. That Convention was not held because no single member of the Volunteer Executive of the time would recommend the holding of that Convention in the circumstances that then existed in Dublin. Delegates for this Convention were actually selected but the Convention was not held. Ballot papers were circulated to the delegates and a vote was taken as far as the question of the Oath was concerned. As far as this question was concerned, the amendment to the constitution was accepted.}}</ref> The anti-Treaty IRA formed their own "Army Executive", which they declared to be the real government of the country, despite the result of the [[1921 Irish elections|1921 general election]]. On 26 April Mulcahy summarised alleged illegal activities by many IRA men over the previous three months, whom he described as 'seceding volunteers', including hundreds of robberies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204260010.html|title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 26 April, 1922 - Appendix to Report|date=2011-06-07|website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607140253/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204260010.html|archive-date=7 June 2011|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> Yet this fragmenting army was the only police force on the ground following the disintegration of the [[Irish Republican Police]] and the disbanding of the [[Royal Irish Constabulary]] (RIC).

By putting ten questions to Mulcahy on 28 April, [[Seán MacEntee]] argued that the Army Executive had acted continuously on its own to create a republic since 1917, had an unaltered constitution, had never fallen under the control of the Dáil, and that "the only body competent to dissolve the Volunteer Executive was a duly convened convention of the Irish Republican Army" – not the Dáil. By accepting the treaty in January and abandoning the republic, the Dáil majority had effectively deserted the Army Executive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 28 April, 1922 - Mr. McEntee's 10 questions of 28 April|date=2007-10-24|website=oireachtas-debates.gov.ie|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024022948/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|archive-date=2007-10-24|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> In his reply, Mulcahy rejected this interpretation.<ref name=MulcahyReplyH /> Then, in a debate on defence, MacEntee suggested that supporting the Army Executive "even if it meant the scrapping of the Treaty and terrible and immediate war with England, would be better than the civil war which we are beginning at present apparently".<ref>{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 28 April, 1922 - Department of Defence. | website=oireachtas-debates.gov.ie | date=2007-10-23 | url=http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280004.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023220225/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280004.html | archive-date=23 October 2007 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> MacEntee's supporters added that the many robberies complained of by Mulcahy on 26 April were caused by the lack of payment and provision by the Dáil to the volunteers.

===Occupation of the Four Courts===
On 14 April 1922, 200 Anti-Treaty IRA militants, with [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]] as their spokesman, occupied the [[Four Courts]] and several other buildings in central Dublin, resulting in a tense stand-off.<ref>[[Tim Healy (politician)|Tim Healy]] wrote of the occupation in late March: "The Freeman published, on 26 March, an account of the secret debate of the mutineers supplied by the Provisional Government, whereupon Rory O'Connor sallied from the Four Courts and smashed its machinery. He had been levying toll on the civil population for weeks."</ref>{{sfn | Younger | 1968 | pp=258–259 |ps=: Younger gives the date as 14 April.}} These anti-treaty Republicans wanted to spark a new armed confrontation with the British, which they hoped would unite the two factions of the IRA against their common enemy. However, for those who were determined to make the Free State into a viable, self-governing Irish state, this was an act of rebellion that would have to be put down by them rather than the British.

Arthur Griffith was in favour of using force against these men immediately, but Michael Collins, who wanted at all costs to avoid civil war, left the Four Courts garrison alone until late June 1922. By this point, the Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party had secured a large majority in the general election, along with other parties that supported the Treaty. Collins was also coming under continuing pressure from London to assert his government's authority in Dublin.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=111|ps=: "The British (after the election) drew what appeared to them to be the obvious conclusion that it was time for the Provisional Government to assert its authority."}}

===Delay until the June election===
Collins established an "army re-unification committee" to re-unite the IRA and organised an election pact with de Valera's anti-treaty political followers to campaign jointly in the Free State's [[1922 Irish general election|first election in 1922]] and form a coalition government afterwards. He also tried to reach a compromise with anti-treaty IRA leaders by agreeing to a republican-type constitution (with no mention of the British monarchy) for the new state. IRA leaders such as [[Liam Lynch (general)|Liam Lynch]] were prepared to accept this compromise. However, the proposal for a republican constitution was vetoed by the British as being contrary to the terms of the treaty and they threatened military intervention in the Free State unless the treaty were fully implemented.<ref>[[Helen Litton]], ''The Irish Civil War, an Illustrated History'', p. 63, "Collins was summoned to London&nbsp;... and informed that the draft constitution would have to be altered to acknowledge the authority of the Crown, to include an Oath and to recognise Northern Ireland"</ref>{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=107|ps=: Winston Churchill told a concerned House of Commons&nbsp;... that a Republic could not be tolerated. He warned that, 'in the event of such a Republic, it will be the intention of the Government to hold Dublin as one of the preliminary essential steps to military operations'.}} Collins reluctantly agreed. This completely undermined the electoral pact between the pro- and anti-treaty factions, who went into the Irish general election on 16 June 1922 as hostile parties in some constituencies, both calling themselves Sinn Féin.<ref> Hopkinson, 1988, p. 110</ref>

The Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party claimed the election with 239,193 votes to 133,864 for Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin. A further 247,226 people voted for other parties, most of whom supported the Treaty. Labour's 132,570 votes were ambiguous with regard to the Treaty. According to Hopkinson, "Irish labour and union leaders, while generally pro-Treaty, made little attempt to lead opinion during the Treaty conflict, casting themselves rather as attempted peacemakers."{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=46}} The election showed that a majority of the Irish electorate accepted the treaty and the foundation of the Irish Free State, but de Valera, his political followers and most of the IRA continued to oppose the treaty. De Valera is quoted as saying, "the majority have no right to do wrong".{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=297}} From the anti-treaty perspective the election was held under the British threat of a war of reconquest and therefore was not a free contest. In this view, the pro-treaty position expressed as republican leader Liam Mellows put it 'not the will of the people, but the fear of the people'.<ref>Bill Kissane, ''The politics of the Irish civil war'' | 2005 | p. 183</ref>

Meanwhile, under the leadership of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, the pro-treaty Provisional Government set about establishing the Irish Free State, and organised the [[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]] – to replace the IRA – and a new police force. However, since it was envisaged that the new army would be built around the IRA, Anti-Treaty IRA units were allowed to take over British barracks and take their arms. In practice, this meant that by the summer of 1922, the Provisional Government of [[Southern Ireland (1921–1922)|Southern Ireland]] controlled only Dublin and some other areas like [[County Longford]] where the IRA units supported the treaty. Fighting ultimately broke out when the Provisional Government tried to assert its authority over well-armed and intransigent Anti-Treaty IRA units around the country – particularly a hardliner group in Dublin.

===Assassination of Field Marshal Wilson===
Field Marshal [[Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet|Henry Hughes Wilson]], a prominent security adviser to the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|James Craig]], was shot dead by IRA men on his own doorstep in London on 22 June 1922, with no responsibility for the act being publicly claimed by any IRA authority.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=112|ps=: "Joe Sweeney, the pro-treaty military leader in [[Donegal (town)|Donegal]], recorded meeting Collins shortly after the assassination. He told Ernie O'Malley, 'Collins told me he had arranged the shooting of Wilson... he looked very pleased'. Frank Thornton, one of Collins' old Squad, recalled that the killing was carried out on the direct orders of GHQ. Mick Murphy, of Cork no 1 Brigade, said that when in London he had been asked to take part in the plot, explaining, 'they had instructions then from Michael Collins to shoot Wilson' ... statements from Collins' intelligence agents point to fresh instruction being given in June. It is clear also that [Reginald] Dunne [the assassin] and spent some time closeted with him."}}{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=229 |ps=: "Evidence has since come to light proving it was Collins, enraged by Wilson's role in the north, who ordered the killing".}}{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | p=29 |ps=: "It is probable that the execution of the ... field marshal was ordered by Collins"}}{{disputed inline|Collins' role in the assassination of Henry Wilson and the latter's role in attacks on Northern Irish Catholics.|date=October 2012}} [[Winston Churchill]] assumed that the Anti-Treaty IRA were responsible for the shooting and warned Collins that he would use British troops to attack the Four Courts unless the Provisional Government took action.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=114|ps=: [After the assassination of Wilson] "A letter was sent to Collins stating that the Four Courts occupation and the 'ambiguous position' of the IRA could no longer be tolerated."}} In fact, the British cabinet actually resolved to attack the Four Courts themselves on 25 June, in an operation that would have involved tanks, [[howitzer]]s and aeroplanes. However, on the advice of General [[Nevil Macready]], who commanded the British garrison in Dublin, the plan was cancelled at the last minute. Macready's argument was that British involvement would have united Irish Nationalist opinion against the treaty, and instead Collins was given a last chance to clear the Four Courts himself.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | pp=115–116}}

==Course of the war==
{{See also|Timeline of the Irish Civil War}}

===Fighting in Dublin===
{{Main|Battle of Dublin}}

[[File:Four Courts Conflagration.jpg|thumb|The Four Courts along the [[River Liffey]] quayside. The building was occupied by anti-treaty forces during the Civil War, whom the National Army subsequently bombarded into surrender. The Irish national archives in the buildings were destroyed in the subsequent fire. The building was badly damaged but was fully restored after the war.]]
On 26 June anti-treaty forces occupying the Four Courts kidnapped [[JJ "Ginger" O'Connell]], a general in the National Army, in retaliation for the arrest of Leo Henderson.{{sfn | O'Malley | 1978 | p=117}} Collins, after giving the Four Courts garrison a final (and according to [[Ernie O'Malley]], only){{sfn|O'Malley|1978|p=95}} ultimatum to leave the building on 27 June, decided to end the stand-off by bombarding the Four Courts garrison into surrender. The government then appointed Collins as Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. This attack was not the opening shot of the war, as skirmishes had taken place between pro- and anti-treaty IRA factions throughout the country when the British were handing over the barracks. However, this represented the 'point of no return', when all-out war was effectively declared and the Civil War officially began.{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | p=22 |ps=: In clashes between pro- and anti-treaty fighters prior to 28 June, eight men had been killed and forty-nine wounded.}}

Collins ordered Mulcahy to accept a British offer of two 18-pounder field [[artillery]] for use by the new army of the Free State, though General Macready gave just 200 shells of the 10,000 he had in store at Richmond barracks in Inchicore. The anti-treaty forces in the Four Courts, who possessed only small arms, surrendered after three days of bombardment and the storming of the building by Provisional Government troops (28–30 June 1922). Shortly before the surrender, a massive explosion destroyed the western wing of the complex, including the [[Irish Public Record Office]] (PRO), injuring many advancing Free State soldiers and destroying the records. Government supporters alleged that the building had been deliberately mined.<ref>[[Tim Healy (politician)|Tim Healy]] memoirs (1928), chapter 46.</ref> Historians dispute whether the PRO was intentionally destroyed by mines laid by the Republicans on their evacuation, or whether the explosions occurred when their ammunition store was accidentally ignited by the bombardment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cottrell |first=Peter |title=The Irish Civil War 1922–23 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |year=2008 |series=ESSENTIAL HISTORIES |volume=70 |page=40 |isbn=978-1-84603-270-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn22MvnyW2QC&q=%22mines+under+the+public+records+office%22&pg=PA40 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=179|ps=: The Republican garrison had converted this part of the Four Courts into a munitions factory with the cellars underneath being used to store explosives. The Free State bombardment caused a fire which reached the cellars and the consequent explosion destroyed priceless historical records and documents, some of them dating back to the twelfth century.}} Coogan, however, asserts that two lorry-loads of [[gelignite]] was exploded in the PRO, leaving priceless manuscripts floating over the city for several hours afterward.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coogan|first=Tim Pat|title=Michael Collins: A Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/michaelcollinsbi00coog|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=Arrow|isbn=978-0-09-968580-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/michaelcollinsbi00coog/page/332 332]}}</ref>

Pitched battles continued in Dublin until 5 July. IRA units from the Dublin Brigade, led by [[Oscar Traynor]], occupied [[O'Connell Street]] – provoking a week's more street fighting and costing another 65 killed and 280 wounded. Among the dead was Republican leader Cathal Brugha, who made his last stand after exiting the Granville Hotel. In addition, the Free State took over 500 Republican prisoners. The civilian casualties are estimated to have numbered well over 250. When the fighting in Dublin died down, the Free State government was left firmly in control of the Irish capital and the anti-treaty forces dispersed around the country, mainly to the south and west.

===The opposing forces===
[[File:An2bappeal2bfrom2bdan2bbreen.jpg|thumb|Dan Breen's appeal to Free State troops]]
The outbreak of the Civil War forced pro- and anti-treaty supporters to choose sides. Supporters of the treaty came to be known as "pro-treaty" or later Free State Army, legally after 1923 the National Army, and were often called "Staters" by their opponents. The latter called themselves Republicans and were also known as "anti-treaty" forces or "Irregulars", a term preferred by the Free State side. This nomenclature, however, may be confusing. The civil war was fought by republicans on both sides who disagreed on how best to achieve the republic. For example, Collins and many of his closest comrades started the war committed to the goals of the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]]. 

The Anti-Treaty IRA claimed that it was defending the Irish Republic declared in 1916 during the [[Easter Rising]], confirmed by the First Dáil and invalidly set aside by those who accepted the compromise of the Free State. Éamon de Valera stated that he would serve as an ordinary IRA volunteer and left the leadership of the anti-treaty Republicans to Liam Lynch, the [[list of IRA Chiefs of Staff|IRA Chief of Staff]]. De Valera, though the Republican President as of October 1922, had little control over military operations.<ref>Charles Townshend, ''The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence 1918–1923'' (2014), pp. 439–441</ref> The campaign was directed by Liam Lynch until he was killed on 10 April 1923, and then by Frank Aiken from 20 April 1923.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=256}}

[[File:Prisoner (6417469255).jpg|thumb|left|National Army soldiers escorting an IRA prisoner]]
The Civil War split the IRA. When the Civil War broke out, the Anti-Treaty IRA (concentrated in the south and west) outnumbered pro-Free State forces by roughly 12,000 men to 8,000. Moreover, the anti-treaty ranks included many of the IRA's most experienced guerrilla fighters.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=127|ps=: Both are National Army estimates but there were not precises figures for either force at that point.}} The paper strength of the IRA in early 1922 was over 72,000 men, but most of them were recruited during the truce with the British and fought in neither the War of Independence nor the Civil War. According to Richard Mulcahy's estimate, the Anti-Treaty IRA at the beginning of the war had 6,780 rifles and 12,900 men.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 22">Cottrell, Peter ''The Irish Civil War, 1922–23'', London: Osprey, 2008, p. 22.</ref>

However, the IRA lacked an effective command structure, a clear strategy and sufficient arms. As well as rifles they had a handful of machine guns and many of their fighters were armed only with [[shotgun]]s or handguns. They also took a small number of [[Armored car (military)|armoured cars]] from British troops as they were evacuating the country. Finally, they had no artillery of any kind. As a result, they were forced to adopt a defensive stance throughout the war.

By contrast, the Free State army funded by the British managed to expand its forces dramatically after the start of the war. Collins and his commanders were able to build up an army that could overwhelm their opponents in the field. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns, small arms and ammunition were of much help to pro-Treaty forces. The British delivered for instance, over 27,000 rifles, 250 machine guns and eight 18-pounder artillery pieces to the pro-treaty forces between the outbreak of the Civil War and September 1922.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=127b}} The National Army amounted to 14,000 men by August 1922, was 38,000 strong by the end of 1922,{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=136}} and by the end of the war had grown to 55,000 men and 3,500 officers, far in excess of what the Irish state would need to maintain in peacetime.{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | p=36}} The Free State army was able to absorb experienced soldiers from the recently disbanded Irish regiments in the British army. These soldiers provided invaluable specialist skills for the new army.[[File:Irish soldiers during the Civil War.jpg|thumb|right|National Army soldiers during the Civil War]]Like the Anti-Treaty IRA, the Free State's National Army was initially rooted in the IRA that fought against the British.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 23">Cottrell, Peter ''The Irish Civil War, 1922–23'', London: Osprey, 2008, p. 23.</ref> Collins' most ruthless officers and men were recruited from the Dublin Active Service Unit (the elite unit of the IRA's Dublin Brigade) and from Collins' Intelligence Department and assassination unit, [[The Squad (Irish Republican Army unit)|The Squad]]. In the new National Army, they were known as the [[Dublin Guard]].<ref>Charles Townshend, ''The Republic, The Fight For Irish Independence'', p. 394</ref> Towards the end of the war, they were implicated in some notorious atrocities against anti-treaty guerrillas in [[County Kerry]].<ref>Tom Doyle, ''The Civil War in Kerry'': "summary executions and reprisal killings of republicans had been the norm in the county as early as August 1922, when the Squad cohort in the Dublin Guard returned and resorted to tried and tested methods in their war against the republicans". p. 320</ref> Up to the outbreak of Civil War, it had been agreed that only men with service in the IRA could be recruited into the National Army.<ref>Kieran Glennon, ''From Pogrom to Civil War, Tom Glennon and the Belfast IRA'', p. 141</ref> However, once the war began, all such restrictions were lifted. A 'National Call to Arms' issued on 7 July for recruitment on a six-month basis brought in thousands of new recruits.{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | pp=67–68}} Many of the new army's recruits were veterans of the [[British Army]] in [[World War I]], where they had served in [[Irish military diaspora#'Irish' named 1922 disbanded units of the British Army|disbanded Irish regiments]] of the British Army. Many others were raw recruits without any military experience. The fact that at least 50% of the other ranks had no military experience in turn led to ill-discipline becoming a major problem.<ref>Cottrell, Peter ''The Irish Civil War, 1922–23'', London: Osprey, 2008, pp. 23–24.</ref>

A major problem for the National Army was a shortage of experienced officers.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 23"/> At least 20% of its officers had previously served as officers in the British Army, while 50% of the rank-and-file of the National Army had served in the British Army in World War I.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 23"/> Former British Army officers were also recruited for their technical expertise. A number of the senior Free State commanders, such as [[Emmet Dalton]], [[John T. Prout]] and [[W. R. E. Murphy]], had seen service as officers in World War I, Dalton and Murphy in the British Army and Prout in the US Army. The Republicans made much use of this fact in their propaganda – claiming that the Free State was only a proxy force for Britain itself. However, the majority of Free State soldiers were raw recruits without military experience, either in World War I or the Irish War of Independence. There were also a significant number of former members of the British Armed Forces on the Republican side, including such senior figures as [[Tom Barry (soldier)|Tom Barry]], David Robinson and [[Erskine Childers (author)|Erskine Childers]].{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | pp=37–38}}

===Free State takes major towns===
{{Main|Irish Free State offensive}}
[[File:Armoured Car, Passage West, Cork (6652701421).jpg|thumb|A National Army [[Peerless armoured car]] in Passage West, August 1922]]
With Dublin in pro-treaty hands, conflict spread throughout the country. The war started with the anti-treaty forces holding [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Limerick]] and Waterford as part of a self-styled [[Munster Republic]]. However, since the anti-treaty side were not equipped to wage conventional war, Lynch was unable to take advantage of the Republicans' initial advantage in numbers and territory held. He hoped simply to hold the Munster Republic long enough to force Britain to renegotiate the treaty.{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | p=193}}

The large towns in Ireland were all relatively easily taken by the Free State in August 1922. Collins, Richard Mulcahy and [[Eoin O'Duffy]] planned a nationwide Free State offensive, dispatching columns overland to take Limerick in the west and Waterford in the south-east and seaborne forces to take counties Cork and Kerry in the south and [[County Mayo|Mayo]] in the west.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | pp=160–161}}{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | pp=130–131}} In the south, landings occurred at [[Union Hall, County Cork|Union Hall]] in Cork and [[Fenit]], the port of [[Tralee]], in Kerry. Limerick fell on 20 July, Waterford on the same day and Cork city on 10 August after a Free State force landed by sea at [[Passage West]]. Another seaborne expedition to Mayo in the west secured government control over that part of the country. While in some places the Republicans had put up determined resistance, nowhere were they able to defeat regular forces armed with artillery and armour. The only real conventional battle during the Free State offensive, the [[Battle of Killmallock]], was fought when Free State troops advanced south from Limerick.<ref>John Borgonovo, ''The Battle for Cork'', pp. 108–109</ref>{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | pp=130–131}}

===Guerrilla war===
{{Main|Guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War}}
Government victories in the major towns inaugurated a period of [[guerrilla warfare]]. After the fall of Cork, Lynch ordered IRA units to disperse and form [[flying column]]s as they had when fighting the British. They held out in areas such as the western part of counties Cork and Kerry in the south, [[county Wexford]] in the east and counties [[County Sligo|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, and Dublin, where small-scale but regular attacks were mounted on Free State troops.

August and September 1922 saw widespread attacks on Free State forces in the territories that they had occupied in the July–August offensive, inflicting heavy casualties on them. Collins was killed in an ambush by anti-treaty Republicans at [[Béal na Bláth]], near his home in County Cork, in August 1922.<ref name="fn_1">In the 1996 film ''[[Michael Collins (film)|Michael Collins]]'', de Valera meets the killer of Collins prior to the ambush that leads to his death. However, although de Valera was in the area at the time, he is not thought to have ordered the assassination.</ref> Collins' death increased the bitterness of the Free State leadership towards the Republicans and probably contributed to the subsequent descent of the conflict into a cycle of atrocities and reprisals. Arthur Griffith, the Free State president, had also died of a brain haemorrhage ten days before, leaving the government in the hands of W.T. Cosgrave and the Free State army under the command of General Richard Mulcahy. For a brief period, with rising casualties among its troops and its two principal leaders dead, it looked as if the Free State might collapse. However, as winter set in, the Republicans found it increasingly difficult to sustain their campaign, and casualty rates among National Army troops dropped rapidly. For instance, in County Sligo, 54 people died in the conflict, of whom all but eight had been killed by the end of September.<ref>Michael Farry, ''The Aftermath of Revolution: Sligo 1921–23''</ref>

In the autumn and winter of 1922, Free State forces broke up many of the larger Republican guerrilla units – in Sligo, Meath and Connemara in the west, for example, and in much of Dublin city.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freewebs.com/duleekmonument/meathhistory19221958.htm |title=Duleek Hunger Strike Monument |access-date=2009-01-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808224831/http://www.freewebs.com/duleekmonument/meathhistory19221958.htm |archive-date=8 August 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.curragh.info/articles/executions.htm |title=Civil War Executions |work=curragh.info |access-date=7 February 2009 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205161507/http://www.curragh.info/articles/executions.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Elsewhere, anti-treaty units were forced by lack of supplies and safe-houses to disperse into smaller groups, typically of nine to ten men. Despite these successes for the National Army, it took eight more months of intermittent warfare before the war was brought to an end.

By late 1922 and early 1923, the anti-treaty guerrilla campaign had been reduced largely to acts of sabotage and destruction of public infrastructure such as roads and railways.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=199}} It was also in this period that the Anti-Treaty IRA began [[Destruction of country houses in the Irish revolutionary period|burning the homes]] of Free State Senators and of many of the Anglo-Irish landed class.

In October 1922, de Valera and the anti-treaty [[Teachtaí Dála]] (TDs) 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.

===Atrocities and executions===
{{Main|Executions during the Irish Civil War}}
[[File:Ballyseedy monument.jpg|thumb|Memorial to the Republican soldiers executed by Free State forces at [[Ballyseedy]], [[County Kerry]], designed by [[Yann Goulet]]]]
On 27 September 1922, three months after the outbreak of war, the Free State's Provisional Government put before the Dáil an Army (Emergency Powers) Resolution endorsing the establishment of military courts and tribunals by the Army Council. Sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Public Safety Bill" or "Emergency Powers Act", the Army Resolution was not law, it was a resolution passed by parliament endorsing the measures the pro-treaty army was implementing in the war under martial law since July. Consequently, "Public Safety Act" or "Emergency Powers Act" is not recorded on the Irish Statute book.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1922 |title=Acts of the Oireachtas 1922 |url=https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1922/act |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240818111800/https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1922/act/ |website=Irish Statute Book |archive-date=18 August 2024 }}</ref> These pieces of "legislation" are alone the invention of Irish historians.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dungan |first=Myles |author-link=32 mins |date=4 December 2022 |title=RTE The History Show |website=[[RTÉ.ie]] |url=https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/the-history-show/2022/1204/1339952-the-history-show-sunday-4-december-2022/ |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240823145155/https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/the-history-show/2022/1204/1339952-the-history-show-sunday-4-december-2022/ |archive-date=23 August 2024 |access-date=20 August 2024 }}</ref> The fictitious "Acts" nevertheless play an important role in the Irish state's foundation myth, dividing civil war violence into bogus legal and illegal categories.{{Attribution needed|reason=Pov pushing?|date=September 2025}} 

The Army Resolution recognised the military courts and tribunals established in the army to impose life imprisonment, as well as the death penalty, for 'aiding or abetting attacks' on state forces, possession of arms and ammunition or explosive 'without the proper authority' and 'looting destruction or arson'.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=The Government's Executions Policy During the Irish Civil War 1922–1923|url=http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/4069/1/The_Government's_Executions_Policy_During_the_Irish_Civil_War_1922_-_1923_(Breen_Murphy_-_62129007).pdf|publisher=National University of Ireland Maynooth|date=2010|degree=PhD|language=en|first=Breen Timothy|last=Murphy|pages=70–72, 302–4|access-date=30 April 2019|archive-date=12 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212131245/http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/4069/1/The_Government%27s_Executions_Policy_During_the_Irish_Civil_War_1922_-_1923_%28Breen_Murphy_-_62129007%29.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

The final phase of the Civil War degenerated into a series of atrocities that left a lasting legacy of bitterness in Irish politics. The Free State began executing Republican prisoners on 17 November 1922, when five IRA men were shot by firing squad. They were followed on 24 November by the execution of acclaimed author and treaty negotiator [[Erskine Childers (author)|Erskine Childers]]. In all, out of around 12,000 Republican prisoners taken in the conflict, 81 were officially executed by the Free State.<ref>Murphy, Government Policy of Executions, pp. 299–300.</ref>

The Anti-Treaty IRA in reprisal assassinated TD [[Seán Hales]] on 7 December 1922. The next day four prominent Republicans held since the first week of the war — [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]], [[Liam Mellows]], [[Richard Barrett (Irish republican)|Richard Barrett]] and [[Joe McKelvey]] — were executed in revenge for the killing of Hales. In addition, Free State troops, particularly in County Kerry, where the guerrilla campaign was most bitter, began the [[summary execution]] of captured anti-treaty fighters. The most notorious example of this occurred at [[Ballyseedy]], where nine Republican prisoners were tied to a [[land mine|landmine]], which was detonated, killing eight and only leaving one, [[Stephen Fuller]], who was blown clear by the blast, to escape.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=241}}

The number of "unauthorised" executions of Republican prisoners during the war has been put as high as 153.<ref>Todd Andrews, ''Dublin Made Me'', p. 269</ref> Among the Republican reprisals were the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins's father and W. T. Cosgrave's uncle in February 1923.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=191}}

The IRA were unable to maintain an effective guerrilla campaign, given the gradual loss of support. The [[Catholic Church]] also supported the Free State, deeming it the lawful government of the country, denouncing the IRA and refusing to administer the [[Sacrament]]s to anti-treaty fighters. On 10 October 1922, the Catholic Bishops of Ireland issued a formal statement, describing the anti-treaty campaign as:

{{Blockquote|[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 grievous sins and may not be absolved in [[Confession (religion)|Confession]] nor admitted to the [[Holy Communion]] if they persist in such evil courses.<ref>Tim Pat Coogan, ''De Valera'', p. 344</ref>}}

The Church's support for the Free State aroused bitter hostility among some republicans. Although the Catholic Church in independent Ireland has often been seen as a triumphalist Church, a recent study has found that it felt deeply insecure after these events.<ref>{{cite book |last=McMahon |first=Deirdre |title=''The Politician – A Reassessment'' |series=Studies |page=346 |editor=Noel Barber S.J. |date=Winter 1998 |volume=87 |id=348}}</ref>

===End of the war===
By early 1923, the offensive capability of the IRA had been seriously eroded and when, in February 1923, the Republican leader [[Liam Deasy]] was captured by Free State forces, he called on the republicans to end their campaign and reach an accommodation with the Free State. The State's executions of anti-treaty prisoners, 34 of whom were shot in January 1923, also took its toll on the Republicans' morale.

In addition, the National Army's operations in the field were slowly but steadily breaking up the remaining Republican concentrations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://homepage.eircom.net/~150/page46.html|title=Phoenix Publishing|work=eircom.net|access-date=7 February 2009|archive-date=5 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005072013/http://homepage.eircom.net/~150/page46.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | pp=235–236}}

March and April 1923 saw this progressive dismemberment of the Republican forces continue with the capture and sometimes killing of guerrilla columns.<ref>Tom Doyle, ''The Civil War in Kerry'', p. 300</ref> A National Army report of 11 April stated, "Events of the last few days point to the beginning of the end as a far as the irregular campaign is concerned".{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988}}{{Page needed|date=August 2019}}<!-- Commented out: [[File:Aiken.jpg|thumb|right|[[Frank Aiken]], anti-treaty IRA leader who called an end to their campaign in May 1923, effectively ending the civil war]] -->

As the conflict petered out into a ''de facto'' victory for the pro-treaty side. The Anti-Treaty IRA executive (senior commanders) met on 24 March 1923 in [[County Waterford]] to discuss the war's future. Tom Barry proposed a motion to end the war, but it was defeated by 6 votes to 5.<ref>Macardle, pp. 843-844.</ref> Éamon de Valera was allowed to attend, after some debate, but was given no voting rights.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=237}}

Lynch, the Republican leader, was killed in a skirmish in the [[Knockmealdown Mountains]] in County Tipperary on 10 April. On 11 April six more Volunteers were executed in [[Tuam]], County Galway.<ref>Macardle, p. 845</ref> The National Army had extracted information from Republican prisoners in Dublin that the IRA Executive was in the area and as well as killing Lynch, they also captured senior anti-treaty IRA officers [[Dan Breen]], [[Todd Andrews]], [[Seán Gaynor]] and [[Frank Barrett (IRA)|Frank Barrett]] in the operation. 

It is often suggested by historians including Professor Michael Laffan of [[University College Dublin]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://historyhub.ie/theirishrevolution|title=The Irish Revolution|date=13 March 2016|access-date=24 July 2023|archive-date=24 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230724173906/https://historyhub.ie/theirishrevolution|url-status=live}}</ref> that the death of Lynch 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 30 April by the declaration of a suspension of military activities; on 24 May 1923, he issued a ceasefire order to IRA volunteers. They were to dump arms rather than surrender them or continue a fight that they were incapable of winning.{{sfn | O'Malley |1978 |pp=222, 229}}

==Aftermath of the ceasefire==
Éamon de Valera supported the order, issuing a statement to Anti-Treaty fighters on 24 May:

{{Blockquote|Soldiers of the Republic. Legion of the Rearguard: The Republic can no longer be defended successfully by your arms. Further sacrifice of life would now be in vain and the continuance of the struggle in arms unwise in the national interest and prejudicial to the future of our cause. Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic.<ref>Thomas E. Hachey, ''The Irish Experience: A Concise History'', pp. 170–1</ref>}}

The Free State government had started peace negotiations in early May, which broke down.<ref>{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 3 - 10 May, 1923 - Finance Bill, 1923. – Adjournment Motion—Peace Proposals. | website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie | date=2005-11-22 | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0003/D.0003.192305100011.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051122063716/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0003/D.0003.192305100011.html | archive-date=22 November 2005 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> The [[High Court of Justice in Ireland]] ruled on 31 July 1923 that a state of war no longer existed, and consequently the internment of Republicans, permitted under [[common law]] only in wartime, was now illegal.<ref name="Hederman47">{{cite book |volume=Pn.12224 |series=Official publications |last1=Hederman |first1=Anthony J. |author2=Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts, 1939–1998 and Related Matters |title=Report |location=Dublin |publisher=Stationery Office |date=2002 |url=http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/hederman%20report.pdf/Files/hederman%20report.pdf#page=49 <!-- hi-res scan at http://opac.oireachtas.ie/Data/Library3/Library2/DL030867.pdf is larger file --> |page=47, §4.2 |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=11 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911062112/http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/hederman%20report.pdf/Files/hederman%20report.pdf#page=49 |url-status=live}}</ref> Without a formal peace, holding 13,000 prisoners and worried that fighting could break out again at any time, the government enacted two Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Acts on 1 and 3 August 1923, to permit continued internment and other measures.<ref name="Hederman47"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/28/enacted/en/html |title=Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Act, 1923 |date=1 August 1923 |work=[[Irish Statute Book]] |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=2 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302112806/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/28/enacted/en/html |url-status=live}}; {{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/29/enacted/en/html |title=Public Safety (Emergency Powers) (No. 2) Act, 1923 |date=3 August 1923 |work=Irish Statute Book |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=2 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302111015/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/29/enacted/en/html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1923062600024?opendocument |title=PUBLIC SAFETY (EMERGENCY POWERS) BILL, 1923. – SECOND STAGE. |date=26 June 1923 |work=Dáil Éireann debates |publisher=Oireachtas |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=8 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308223411/http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1923062600024?opendocument |url-status=live}}</ref> Thousands of Anti-Treaty IRA members (including de Valera on 15 August) were arrested by the Free State forces in the weeks and months after the end of the war, when they had dumped their arms and returned home.

[[1923 Irish general election|A general election]] was held on 27 August 1923, which [[Cumann na nGaedheal]], the pro-Free State party, won with about 40% of the first-preference vote. The Republicans, represented by Sinn Féin, won about 27% of the vote. Many of their candidates and supporters were still imprisoned before, during and after the election.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=262}}

In October 1923, around 8,000 of the 12,000 Republican prisoners in Free State gaols went on [[1923 Irish Hunger Strikes| a hunger strike which lasted for 41 days]]. Among those who died were [[Denny Barry]], [[Joseph Whitty]] and [[Andy O'Sullivan (Irish Republican)|Andy O'Sullivan]])<ref>[[Peadar O'Donnell|O'Donnell, Peadar]] ''The Gates Flew Open'' (1932), ch. 34–38.</ref> However, most of the women prisoners were released shortly thereafter and the hunger strike helped concentrate the Republican movement on the prisoners and their associated organisations. In July, de Valera had recognised the Republican political interests lay with the prisoners and went so far as to say:

{{Blockquote|The whole future of our cause and of the nation depends in my opinion upon the spirit of the prisoners in the camps and in the jails. You are the repositories of the NATIONAL FAITH AND WILL.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=268}}}}

==Attacks on former Unionists==
{{See also|Destruction of country houses in the Irish revolutionary period|Irish Unionist Party#Southern Unionists}}
Although the cause of the Civil War was the Treaty, as the war developed the anti-treaty forces sought to identify their actions with the traditional Republican cause of the "men of no property" and the result was that large [[Anglo-Irish]] landowners and some less well-off [[Irish Unionist Alliance#Southern Unionists|Southern Unionists]] were attacked. A total of 192 "stately homes" of the old landed class and of Free State politicians were destroyed by anti-treaty forces during the war.{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=431}}

The stated reason for such attacks was that some landowners had become Free State senators. In October 1922, a deputation of Southern Unionists met W. T. Cosgrave to offer their support to the Free State and some of them had received positions in the State's [[Upper house]] or [[Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State)|Senate]].{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=195}} Among the prominent senators whose homes were attacked were: Palmerstown House near [[Naas]], which belonged to the [[Earl of Mayo]], [[Moore Hall, County Mayo|Moore Hall]] in Mayo, [[Horace Plunkett]] (who had helped to establish the rural co-operative schemes), and Senator [[Henry Guinness]] (which was unsuccessful).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.IrelandOldNews.com/Dublin/1923/MAR.html |title=Ireland Newspaper Abstracts |work=irelandoldnews.com |access-date=25 September 2021 |archive-date=26 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326071312/http://www.irelandoldnews.com/Dublin/1923/MAR.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Also burned was Marlfield House in [[Clonmel]],<ref>{{cite web | title=#OTD in 1923 – Anti-Treaty forces burn the home of Free State Senator John Philip Bagwell at Marlfield, Clonmel, Co Tipperary | website=Stair na hÉireann/History of Ireland | date=2018-01-09 | url=https://stairnaheireann.net/2018/01/09/otd-in-1923-anti-treaty-forces-burn-the-home-of-free-state-senator-john-philip-bagwell-at-marlfield-clonmel-co-tipperary-including-the-extensive-library-built-up-by-his-father-historian/ | access-date=2019-08-24 | archive-date=24 August 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824034531/https://stairnaheireann.net/2018/01/09/otd-in-1923-anti-treaty-forces-burn-the-home-of-free-state-senator-john-philip-bagwell-at-marlfield-clonmel-co-tipperary-including-the-extensive-library-built-up-by-his-father-historian/ | url-status=live}}</ref> the home of Senator [[John Philip Bagwell]], with its extensive library of historical documents. Bagwell was kidnapped and held in the [[Dublin Mountains]], but later released when reprisals were threatened.<ref>{{cite web | title=DCU chronology of Events | website=webpages.dcu.ie | date=January 1923 | url=http://webpages.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/january_1923.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070827034941/http://webpages.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/january_1923.htm | archive-date=27 August 2007 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gregory|first=IAP|title=Lady Gregory's Journals: Book one to twenty-nine, 10 October 1916 – 24 February 1925|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwlaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA661|year=1978|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-519886-7|access-date=23 August 2019|archive-date=28 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228193421/https://books.google.com/books?id=HwlaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA661|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 31 January, 1923 - Adjournment of the Dail. – Proclamation re Kidnapping. | website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie | date=2011-06-07 | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0002/D.0002.192301310015.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607121637/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0002/D.0002.192301310015.html | archive-date=7 June 2011 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref>

However, in addition to their allegiance to the Free State, there were also other factors behind Republican animosity towards the old landed class. 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. Such attacks should have ended with the [[Truce of 11 July 1921]], but they continued after the truce and escalated during the Civil War. In July 1922, Con Moloney, the IRA Adjutant General, ordered that unionist property should be seized to accommodate their men.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=195}} The "worst spell" of attacks on former unionist property came in the early months of 1923, 37 "big houses" being burnt in January and February alone.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=195}}

Though the [[Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903]] allowed tenants to buy land from their landlords, some small farmers, particularly in Mayo and Galway, simply occupied land belonging to political opponents during this period when the RIC had ceased to function.<ref>{{cite book |title=Evidence on conditions in Ireland: comprising the complete testimony, affidavits and exhibits ... |editor=Albert Coyle |publisher=American Commission on Conditions in Ireland |location=Washington |year=1921 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZhnAAAAMAAJ |access-date=17 August 2009 |archive-date=26 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226052719/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZhnAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1919, senior Sinn Féin officials were sufficiently concerned at this unilateral action that they instituted [[Dáil Courts|Arbitration Courts]] to adjudicate disputes. Sometimes these attacks had sectarian overtones, although most IRA men made no distinction between Catholic and Protestant supporters of the Irish government.

The IRA burnt an [[orphanage]] housing Protestant boys near Clifden, County Galway in June 1922, on the ground that it was "pro-British". The 60 orphans were taken to [[Devonport, Plymouth|Devonport]] on board a Royal Navy destroyer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://saoirse32.dreamwidth.org/5626120.html|title=SAOIRSE32 - Images of orphans burned out during Civil War uncovered|website=saoirse32.dreamwidth.org|access-date=28 April 2019|archive-date=28 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428134026/https://saoirse32.dreamwidth.org/5626120.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Controversy continues to this day about the extent of intimidation of Protestants at this time. Many left Ireland during and after the Civil War. Dr Andy Bielenberg of [[University College Cork|UCC]] considers that about 41,000 who were not linked to the former British administration left Southern Ireland (which became the Irish Free State) between 1919 and 1923.<ref>Irish Times, 16 October 2009, p. 15. The number of 41,000 emigrants lies within the fall of 106,000 southern Protestants between the 1911 and 1926 censuses, that include war dead, economic migrants and employees of the former administration.</ref> He has found that a "high-water mark" of this 41,000 left between 1921 and 1923. In all, from 1911 to 1926, the Protestant population of the 26 counties fell from some 10.4% of the total population to 7.4%.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=195}}

==Foreign support==
The Civil War attracted international attention which led to various groups expressing support and opposition to the anti-treaty side. The [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] in its journal ''The Communist'' wrote "The proletarians of the IRA have the future of Ireland in their hands. If the Irish Labour Party would only dare! A mass movement of the Irish workers in alliance with the IRA could establish a Workers' Republic now".<ref>"Up the Rebels!" in ''The Communist''</ref> They were also supported by the [[Communist International]] (Comintern) which on 3 January 1923 passed a resolution stating it "sends fraternal greetings to the struggling Irish national revolutionaries and feels assured that they will soon tread the only path that leads to real freedom – the path of Communism. The CI will assist all efforts to organise the struggle to combat this terror and to help the Irish workers and peasants to victory."<ref>Communist International Resolution on the Terror in Saorsát Éireann, Workers' Republic, 6 January 1923</ref>

The majority of Irish-Americans supported the treaty, including those in [[Clann na Gael]] and [[Friends of Irish Freedom]]. However anti-treaty republicans had control of what was left of Clann na Gael and the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic so they supported the anti-treaty side during the war.<ref>{{cite book|last=McMahon|first=Paul|title=British Spies and Irish Rebels: British Intelligence and Ireland, 1916–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vAF8TMJhyKsC&pg=PA115|year=2008|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-1-84383-376-5|page=115|access-date=20 August 2019|archive-date=25 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225194959/https://books.google.com/books?id=vAF8TMJhyKsC&pg=PA115|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Consequences==

===Casualties===
The Civil War, though short, was bloody. It cost the lives of many public figures, including Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Arthur Griffith and Liam Lynch. Both sides carried out brutal acts—the anti-treaty forces killed a TD and several other pro-Treaty politicians and burned many homes of senators and Free State supporters; while the government executed anti-treaty prisoners, officially and unofficially.
[[File:Red Cross Ambulance during Irish Civil War.jpg|thumb|right|Red Cross ambulance passing the G.P.O. on Sackville Street]]
The 2023 Irish Civil War Fatalities Project, a [[University College Cork]] research project funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bielenberg |first1=Andy |title=The Irish Civil War Fatalities Project |url=https://www.ucc.ie/en/theirishrevolution/irish-civil-war-fatalities-project/ |website=ucc.ie |publisher=[[University College Cork]] |access-date=29 April 2024 |archive-date=29 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429085336/https://www.ucc.ie/en/theirishrevolution/irish-civil-war-fatalities-project/ |url-status=live }}</ref> has calculated that the pro-treaty forces suffered 637 fatalities from all causes.<ref name="Bielenberg" /> Both the project and the Republican roll of honour, compiled in the 1920s, calculate that 426 anti-Treaty IRA Volunteers were killed between January 1922 and April 1924.<ref name=LastPost/> It has, however, been suggested that the anti-treaty forces' true death toll was higher.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | pp=272–273b|ps=: "There are no means by which to arrive at even approximate figures for the dead and wounded. Mulcahy stated that around 540 pro-Treaty troops were killed between the Treaty's signing and the war's end; the government referred to 800 army deaths between January 1922 and April 1924. There was no record of overall Republican deaths, which appear to have been very much higher. No figure exists for total civilian deaths."}} For total combatant and civilian deaths, figures of 1,426 in the Free State and 1,485 for the island of Ireland have been calculated by the 2023 project.<ref name="Bielenberg" /> A 2012 county-by-county study suggested a death toll of just under 2,000.<ref>A study of Dublin found 258 deaths, while a study of County Tipperary found 126 deaths. Taken together with counties Cork, Kerry, Sligo, Kildare and Offaly, this gives a confirmed death toll of 857 in seven of the Free State's 26 counties, but also in the most violent theatres of the Civil War.{{pb}}{{ cite web
| website = The Irish Story
| first = John | last = Dorney
| date = 2012
| title = Casualties of the Irish Civil War in Dublin
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130907050714/http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/06/19/casualties-of-the-irish-civil-war-in-dublin/#.WQSq49y1vIV
| archive-date= 7 September 2013
| url = http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/06/19/casualties-of-the-irish-civil-war-in-dublin/#.WQSq49y1vIV}}{{pb}}{{cite web
| website= The Irish Story
| title = Civil War casualties in County Tipperary
| first = John | last = Dorney
| date = 2017
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170429030935/http://www.theirishstory.com/2017/04/28/civil-war-casualties-in-county-tipperary/#.WQSq0Ny1vIU
| archive-date= 29 April 2017
| url = http://www.theirishstory.com/2017/04/28/civil-war-casualties-in-county-tipperary/#.WQSq0Ny1vIU
}}</ref> In the decades following the Civil War, exaggerated casualty figures as high as 4,000 were suggested,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dillon |first1=Eoin |title=Now for the Split |url=https://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/Olive/APA/INA/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IPR%2F1988%2F10%2F15&id=Ar02107&sk=32362C1F&viewMode=image |access-date=29 April 2024 |work=[[Irish Press]] |date=15 October 1988}}</ref> though these numbers are generally accepted to be too high.<ref>Gemma Clark, Everyday violence in the Irish Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Clark writes, 'The Irish Civil War was not as bloody as was once proclaimed. Figures for combined pro and anti-Treaty losses of 4,000 have recently been replaced with more conservative estimates'. p.3</ref>

The [[Garda Síochána]] (new police force) was not involved in the war,<ref>A total of 2 Garda were killed by anti-treaty insurgents during the Irish Civil War and a total of 7 Garda were killed post Civil War by anti-treaty insurgents 1926–1940 see [[List of Gardaí killed in the line of duty]]</ref> which meant that it was well placed to develop into an unarmed and politically neutral police service after the war. It had been disarmed by the Government in order to win public confidence in June–September 1922<ref>Fearghal McGarry, ''Eoin O'Duffy: A Self Made Hero'', p. 116, "The recommendation that the force be disarmed [in June 1922]... ensured that it would not be deployed against the anti-treatyites in the impending civil war."</ref> and in December 1922, the IRA issued a General Order not to fire on the Civil Guard.<ref>Tom Garvin, 1922, ''The Birth of Irish Democracy'', p. 111</ref> The [[Criminal Investigation Department (Ireland)|Criminal Investigation Department]], or CID, a 350-strong, armed, plain-clothed Police Corps that had been established during the conflict for the purposes of counter-insurgency, was disbanded in October 1923, shortly after the conflict's end.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.esatclear.ie/~garda/issues.html|title=Sorry this website is moved to PoliceHistory.com|work=esatclear.ie|access-date=7 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918072938/http://www.esatclear.ie/~garda/issues.html|archive-date=18 September 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Economic costs===
The economic costs of the war were also high. As their forces abandoned their fixed positions in July–August 1922, the Republicans burned many of the administrative buildings and businesses that they had been occupying. In addition, their subsequent guerrilla campaign caused much destruction, and the economy of the Free State suffered a hard blow in the earliest days of its existence, as a result. The material damage caused by the war to property in the Free State has been estimated to be in the region of £50 million in 1922.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McElhatton |first=Shane |date=2022-06-28 |title=100 years since beginning of Irish Civil War |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0627/1307135-civil-war-centenary/ |work=RTÉ |access-date=29 June 2022 |archive-date=29 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220629184026/https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0627/1307135-civil-war-centenary/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This is equivalent to about £2.2 billion, or €2.6 billion worth of damage in 2024 values.

Particularly damaging to the Free State's economy was the systematic destruction of railway infrastructure and roads by the Republicans. In addition, the cost to the Free State of waging the war came to another £17 million (£718m or €883m in 2022 values). By September 1923, Deputy Hogan estimated the cost at £50 million.<ref>{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 5 - 19 September, 1923 - The Adjournment.—Position of Anti-Treaty Deputies. | website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie | date=2011-06-07 | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0005/D.0005.192309190009.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607140928/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0005/D.0005.192309190009.html | archive-date=7 June 2011 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> The new State ended 1923 with a budget deficit of over £4 million (£168m or €196m in 2022 values).{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=273}} This weakened financial situation meant that the new state could not pay its share of Imperial debt under the treaty. This adversely affected the [[Boundary Commission (Ireland)|boundary negotiations]] in 1924–25, in which the Free State government acquiesced that border with Northern Ireland would remain unchanged in exchange for forgiveness of the Imperial debt. Further, the state undertook to pay for damage caused to property between the truce of July 1921 and the end of the Civil War; W. T. Cosgrave told the Dáil:

{{Blockquote|Every Deputy in this House is aware of the complaint which has been made that the measure of compensation for post-Truce damage compares unfavourably with the awards for damage suffered pre-Truce.<ref>{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 13 - 07 December, 1925 - Treaty (Confirmation of Amending Agreement) Bill, 1925. | page=1313 | website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0013/D.0013.192512070003.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607082625/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0013/D.0013.192512070003.html | archive-date=7 June 2011 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref>}}

===Political results===
The fact that the Irish Civil War was fought between Irish Nationalist factions meant that the sporadic conflict in Northern Ireland ended. Collins and Sir James Craig signed an agreement to end it on 30 March 1922,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sarasmichaelcollinssite.com/mcccagreement.htm|title=Craig-Collins Agreement|work=sarasmichaelcollinssite.com|access-date=7 November 2010|archive-date=16 July 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716070253/http://sarasmichaelcollinssite.com/mcccagreement.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> but, despite this, Collins covertly supplied arms to the Northern IRA until a week before his death in August 1922.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/why-the-big-fellow-has-little-to-teach-political-parties-in-modern-ireland-2307165.html|title=Why 'The Big Fellow' has little to teach political parties in modern Ireland|work=Independent.ie|access-date=7 November 2010|archive-date=2 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102114020/http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/why-the-big-fellow-has-little-to-teach-political-parties-in-modern-ireland-2307165.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Because of the Irish Civil War, Northern Ireland was able to consolidate its existence and the partition of Ireland was confirmed for the foreseeable future. The continuing war also confirmed the northern Unionists' existing stance against the ethos of all shades of nationalism. This might have led to open hostilities between North and South had the Irish Civil War not broken out. Indeed, the [[Ulster Special Constabulary]] (the "B-Specials") that had been established in 1920 (on the foundation of Northern Ireland) was expanded in 1922 rather than being demobilised.

In the event, it was only well 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 first serious suggestion to do this came in the late 1930s). The northern units of the IRA largely supported the Free State side in the Civil War because of Collins's policies, and over 500 of them joined the new Free State's National Army.

The cost of the war and the budget deficit it caused was a difficulty for the new Free State and affected the Boundary Commission negotiations of 1925, which were to determine the border with Northern Ireland. The Free State agreed to waive its claim to predominantly Nationalist areas in Northern Ireland and in return its agreed share of the Imperial debt under the 1921 Treaty was not paid.{{sfn | Younger | 1968 | p=516}}<ref name="fn_5">{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 13 - 07 December, 1925 - Treaty (Confirmation of Amending Agreement) Bill, 1925. | website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie | date=2011-06-07 | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0013/D.0013.192512070003.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607082625/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0013/D.0013.192512070003.html | archive-date=7 June 2011 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref>

[[File:WTCosgrave2.jpg|thumb|right|[[W. T. Cosgrave]]]]
In 1926, having failed to persuade the majority of the Anti-Treaty IRA or the anti-treaty party of Sinn Féin to accept 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. Whereas Fianna Fáil was to become the dominant party in Irish politics, Sinn Féin became a small, isolated political party. The IRA, then much more numerous and influential than Sinn Féin, remained associated with Fianna Fáil (though not directly) until banned by de Valera in 1935.

In 1927, Fianna Fáil members took the Oath of Allegiance and entered the Dáil, effectively recognising the legitimacy of the Free State.{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=333}} The Free State was already moving towards independence by this point. Under the [[Statute of Westminster 1931]], the British Parliament gave up its right to legislate for members of the British Commonwealth.{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=338}} When elected to power in 1932, Fianna Fáil under de Valera set about dismantling what they considered to be objectionable features of the treaty, abolishing the Oath of Allegiance, removing the power of the Office of [[Governor-General of the Irish Free State|Governor General]] (British representative in Ireland) and abolishing the Senate, which was dominated by former Unionists and pro-treaty Nationalists.<ref>John Coakley, Michael Gallagher, ''Politics in the Republic of Ireland'' (1999) {{ISBN|0-415-22194-3}} pp.73–4</ref> In 1937, they passed a new [[Constitution of Ireland|constitution]], which made a [[President of Ireland|President]] the head of state, did not mention any allegiance to the British monarch, and which included a territorial claim to Northern Ireland. The following year, Britain returned without conditions the seaports that it had kept under the terms of the treaty.<ref>Coakley, Gallagher, ''Politics in the Republic of Ireland'', p. 75</ref> When the [[Second World War]] broke out in 1939, the state was able to demonstrate its independence by [[The Emergency (Ireland)|remaining neutral]] throughout the war, although Dublin did to some extent tacitly support the Allies.<ref name=robertcole>{{cite book|last=Cole|first=Robert|title=Propaganda, Censorship and Irish Neutrality in the Second World War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wu_bOQiXGs4C&pg=PR9|year=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-2277-1|page=9|access-date=16 October 2015|archive-date=28 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228140720/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wu_bOQiXGs4C&pg=PR9|url-status=live}}</ref> Finally, in 1948, a coalition government, containing elements of both sides in the Civil War (pro-treaty [[Fine Gael]] and anti-treaty [[Clann na Poblachta]]) left the British Commonwealth and described the state as a republic in [[The Republic of Ireland Act 1948]].{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=391}} By the 1950s, the issues over which the Civil War had been fought were largely settled.

==Legacy and memory==
As with most civil wars, the internecine conflict left a bitter legacy, which continues to influence Irish politics to this day. The two largest political parties in the republic through most of its history (except for the [[2011 Irish general election|2011]] and [[2020 Irish general election|2020 general elections]]) were Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the descendants respectively of the anti-treaty and pro-treaty forces of 1922. Until the 1970s, almost all of Ireland's prominent politicians were veterans of the Civil War, a fact which poisoned the relationship between Ireland's two biggest parties. Civil War veterans include Republicans Éamon de Valera, Frank Aiken, Todd Andrews and [[Seán Lemass]]; and Free State supporters W. T. Cosgrave, Richard Mulcahy and [[Kevin O'Higgins]].<ref name="fn_2">Seán Lemass's brother Noel, a captain in the Anti-Treaty IRA, was abducted and shot by Free State forces in July 1923, two months after the war had ended. His body was dumped in the [[Wicklow Mountains]], near Glencree, where it was found in October 1923. The spot where his body was found is marked by a memorial. O'Higgins was the Minister for Economic Affairs in the Free State government and was hated by Republicans for having been in favour of the execution of prisoners during the Civil War. His elderly father was killed by republicans during the war. O'Higgins himself was assassinated on his way to [[Mass (liturgy)|mass]] in 1927 by Anti-Treaty IRA members. His killing precipitated a government clampdown on the IRA and forced Fianna Fáil to take the Oath of Allegiance in order to contest elections.</ref>{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=333b }}

[[File:Juno and the Paycock Movie Poster.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Alfred Hitchock's 1930 [[Juno and the Paycock (film)|film version]] of O'Casey's play]]

Moreover, many of these men's sons and daughters also became politicians, meaning that the personal wounds of the civil war were felt over three generations. In the 1930s, after Fianna Fáil took power for the first time, it looked possible for a while that the Civil War might break out again between the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|IRA]] and the pro-Free State [[Blueshirts]]. This crisis was averted, and by the 1950s violence was no longer prominent in politics in the Republic of Ireland. However, the breakaway IRA continued (and continues in various forms) to exist. It was not until 1948 that the IRA renounced military attacks on the forces of the southern Irish state when it became the Republic of Ireland. After this point, the organisation dedicated itself primarily to the end of British rule in Northern Ireland. Nonetheless, the [[IRA Army Council]] continued to make claim to be the legitimate Provisional Government of the Irish Republic declared in 1916 and annulled by the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.<ref>{{cite web | last=Melaugh | first=Dr Martin | title=Events: Text of Irish Republican Army (IRA) 'Green Book' (Book I and II) | website=CAIN | url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/ira_green_book.htm | access-date=2019-08-24 | archive-date=4 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304204642/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/ira_green_book.htm | url-status=live}}</ref>

===Fictional accounts===
According to  Edward Quinn, the play "[[Juno and the Paycock]]" by [[Seán O'Casey]] is a tragicomedy that criticises the civil war and the foolishness that led to it.  Irish writer [[James Stephens (author)|James Stephens]] says the play's theme is an "orchestrated hymn against all poverty and hate."<ref>Edward Quinn, ''History in Literature: A Reader's Guide to 20th Century History and the Literature It Inspired'' (2004), pp. 184–185.</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Footnotes===
{{Notelist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{Cite web|url=https://celt.ucc.ie//published/E900003-001/|title=Debate on the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, signed in London on the 6th December 1921: Sessions 14 December 1921 to 10 January 1922|website=celt.ucc.ie|access-date=2019-08-23|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803232548/https://celt.ucc.ie/published/E900003-001/|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|title=A record of some mansions and houses destroyed 1922–23|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MTm0HAAACAAJ|year=1924|publisher=The Irish Claims Compensation Association}}{{Dead link|date=August 2019|fix-attempted=yes}}
* {{Cite web|url=http://bobrowen.com/nymas/irishcivilwar.html|title=The Irish Civil War 1922–23 – A Study of the Conventional Phase|last=Walsh|first=Paul V|year=1998|website=NYMAS|access-date=2019-08-23|archive-date=18 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218151253/http://bobrowen.com/nymas/irishcivilwar.html|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Collins|first=Mary Elizabeth|title=Ireland 1868–1966|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JgkAAAACAAJ|year=1993|publisher=Educational Company of Ireland|isbn=978-0-86167-305-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Coogan|first=Tim Pat|title=De Valera: long fellow, long shadow|url=https://archive.org/details/devaleralongfell00coog|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=Hutchinson|isbn=978-0-09-175030-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Dolan|first=Anne|title=Commemorating the Irish Civil War: History and Memory, 1923–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iS_3r0vHMxsC|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-02698-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Harrington|first=Niall C.|title=Kerry Landing, August, 1922: An Episode of the Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-q0MAQAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Anvil Books|isbn=978-0-947962-70-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Hopkinson|first=Michael|title=Green Against Green: The Irish Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kp5nAAAAMAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Gill and Macmillan|isbn=978-0-7171-1202-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Neeson|first=Eoin|title=The Civil War, 1922–23|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eq4MAQAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Poolbeg|isbn=978-1-85371-013-1}}
* {{cite book|last=O'Connor|first=Frank|title=The Big Fellow: Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution|publisher=Corgi Books|year=1969|orig-date=1937}}
* {{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Rex|title=Michael Collins|publisher=Four Square Books|year=1958}}
* {{cite book|last=O'Malley|first=Ernie|title=The Singing Flame|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R6lnAAAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Anvil Books|isbn=978-0-900068-40-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Ryan|first=Meda|title=Liam Lynch: the real chief|url=https://archive.org/details/liamlynchrealchi00ryan|url-access=registration|year=1986|publisher=Mercier Press|isbn=978-0-85342-764-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Younger|first=Calton|title=Ireland's Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vrWGAAAAIAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Muller|isbn=9787460002652| oclc=251869158}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.theeasterrising.eu/220CivilWar/CivilWar.htm Historical artefacts from the Irish Civil War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004163352/http://www.theeasterrising.eu/220CivilWar/CivilWar.htm |date=4 October 2011 }}
* [http://www.theirishstory.com/category/the-irish-civil-war/#.UTNhX6IqzTo/ The Irish Story archive on the Irish Civil War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130327232459/http://www.theirishstory.com/category/the-irish-civil-war/#.UTNhX6IqzTo/ |date=27 March 2013 }}
* [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/kercivwar.html North Kerry in the Irish Civil War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110225222524/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/kercivwar.html |date=25 February 2011 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051118105956/http://www.limerick-leader.ie/issues/20000101/s1920.html The final siege of Limerick City from 7 July until 21 July 1922, on the Limerick Leader web site.]
* [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-001/ The Dáil Treaty Debates 1921–22.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329053956/http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-001/ |date=29 March 2017 }} <small>From the Official Report of the Parliamentary Debates of the [[Houses of the Oireachtas]]</small>
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140819084928/http://www.irishmedals.org/national-army-killed.html List of National Army soldiers killed in action]
* [http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/html/warMemorials.php?warID=9&warName=Civil War Memorials of the Civil War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015095419/http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/html/warMemorials.php?warID=9&warName=Civil |date=15 October 2013 }}
* [https://archive.today/20130131042135/http://maps.omniatlas.com/europe/19220628/ Map of Europe] during Irish Civil War at omniatlas.com

{{ATIRA}}
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{{Ireland topics}}

[[Category:Irish Civil War| ]]
[[Category:Civil wars involving the states and peoples of Europe]]
[[Category:Civil wars of the 20th century]]
[[Category:Guerrilla wars]]
[[Category:Monarchy in the Irish Free State]]
[[Category:Rebellions in Ireland]]
[[Category:Revolutions of 1917–1923]]
[[Category:Wars involving Ireland]]
[[Category:Irish Free State]]
[[Category:1922 in Ireland]]
[[Category:1923 in Ireland]]