Guerrilla Phase of the Irish Civil War
Encyclopedia
The Guerrilla Phase of the Irish Civil War
began in August 1922, when the forces of the Irish Free State
took all the fixed positions previously held by the Anti-Treaty or Republican forces.
The Republicans then waged a guerrilla war to try to bring down the new Irish Government and overturn the Anglo-Irish Treaty
. This guerrilla campaign was ultimately defeated.
The Republicans called a ceasefire in April 1923 and "dumped arms" the following month. This phase of the war was characterised by small scale military actions but also by assassinations and executions on both sides. The Free State also imprisoned up to 13,000 Republican fighters. In addition the guerrilla campaign saw the destruction of a great deal of infrastructure such as roads and railways by the Anti-Treaty side.
. After the fall of Cork, Liam Lynch ordered Anti-Treaty IRA units to disperse and form flying columns 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 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.
Among the casualties of the guerrilla attacks was Commander-in-Chief
Michael Collins
, who was killed in an ambush at Béal na mBláth, while touring recently occupied territory in County Cork
, 0n August 22, 1922. Arthur Griffith, the Free State president had also died of a brain hemorrhage ten days before, leaving the Free State government in the hands of W. T. Cosgrave and the Free State army under the command of General Richard Mulcahy
.
For a brief period, the onset of guerrilla warfare and the deaths of the two foremost leaders of the Provisional Government threw the Free State into crisis.
August and September 1922 saw widespread attacks on Free State forces in the territories they had occupied in the July–August offensive, inflicting heavy casualties on them. In this period, the republicans also managed several relatively large-scale attacks on rural towns, involving several hundred fighters. Dundalk, for example was taken by Frank Aiken's Anti-Treaty unit in a raid on 14 August, Kenmare
in Kerry in a similar operation on 9 September and Clifden
in Galway on 29 October. There were also unsuccessful assaults on for example Bantry
, Cork on 30 August and Killorglin
in Kerry on 30 September in which the Republicans took significant casualties.
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 8 had been killed by the end of September.
In October 1922, Éamon de Valera and the anti-treaty Teachta Dála
(TDs, Members of Parliament) set up their own "Republican government" in opposition to the Free State. However, by then the anti-treaty side held no significant territory and de Valera's "government" had no authority over the population. In any case, the IRA leaders paid no attention to it, seeing the Republican authority as vested in their own military leaders.
In late September, for example, a sweep of northern County Sligo by Free State troops under Sean MacEoin successfully cornered the Anti-Treaty column which had been operating in the north of the county. Six of the column were killed and thirty captured, along with an armoured car. A similar sweep in Connemara in County Mayo in late November captured Anti-Treaty column commander Michael Kilroy
and many of his fighters. December saw the capture of two separate Republican columns in the Meath/Kildare area.
Intelligence gathered by Free State forces also led to the capture on 5 August of over 100 Republican fighters in Dublin, who were attempting to destroy bridges leading into the city and on 4 November Ernie O'Malley
, commander of Anti-Treaty forces in Dublin was captured when National Army troops discovered his safe house.
Elsewhere Anti-Treaty units were forced by lack of supplies and safe-houses to disperse into smaller groups, typically of nine to ten men.
An exception to this general rule was the activities of a column of Cork and Tipperary Anti-Treaty IRA fighters led by Tom Barry
. In late December 1922, this group of around 100 men took a string of towns, first in Cork, then in Tipperary and finally Carrick on Suir, Thomastown and Mullinavat in County Kilkenny
where the Free State troops surrendered and gave up their arms However, even Barry's force was not capable of holding any of the places it had taken and by January 1923 it had dispersed due to lack of food and supplies.
Despite these successes for the National Army, it took eight more months of intermittent warfare before the war was brought to an end.
, linking Cork and Dublin, was blown up, severing rail communications between the cities.
Lynch re-emphasised the order on December 29, 1922, leading to a concerted assault on the railways early in the new year. In January 1923 the Great Southern and Western Railway
released a report detailing the damage Anti-Treaty forces had caused to their property over the previous six months; 375 miles of line damaged, 42 engines derailed, 51 over-bridges and 207 under-bridges destroyed, 83 signal cabins and 13 other buildings destroyed. In the same month, Republicans destroyed the railway stations at Sligo
, Ballybunnion and Listowel.
In response, the Free State set up an Army Railway Corps in October 1922, specifically to protect its rail lines. A massive programme of building fortified blockhouse
s around railway lines was undertaken and as a result, most lines were open again by April 1923 but the lines connecting Dublin with Cork and Kerry remained out of action until after the war.
While most of the attacks on the railways were assaults on property rather than people, in one case in Kerry, two railway workers were killed when republicans derailed their train.
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 Robert Erskine Childers
. In all, the Free State sanctioned 77 official executions of anti-treaty prisoners during the Civil War.
The Anti-Treaty IRA in reprisal assassinated TD Seán Hales
. On 7 December 1922, the day after Hales' killing, four prominent Republicans (one from each province
), who had been held since the first week of the war—Rory O'Connor
, Liam Mellows
, Richard 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 landmine
, which was detonated, killing eight and only leaving one, Stephen Fuller
, who was blown clear by the blast, to escape.
The number of "unauthorised" executions of Republican prisoners during the war has been put as high as 153. Among the Republican reprisals were the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins' father and WT Cosgrave's uncle in February 1923.
It was also in this period that the Anti-Treaty IRA began burning the homes of Free State Senators and of many of the Anglo-Irish landed class. On 15 February 1923, Mansion of senator Brian Mahon in Ballymore Eustace
, County Kildare
was burned down by Anti-Treaty forces. In the remainder of the month, a total of 37 houses of senators were destroyed by the Anti-Treaty IRA. Their owners were mainly big landowners, descendants of the Protestant Ascendancy
and many of them were unionists before Irish independence. Oliver St John Gogarty was another prominent victim of house burnings. He also survived an assassination attempt in Dublin.
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, 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. On 18 February, Anti-Treaty officer Dinny Lacey
was killed and his column rounded up at the Glen of Aherlow
in Tipperary. Lacey had been the head of the IRA's 2nd Southern Division and his death crippled the Republican's cause in the Tipperary/Waterford area.
A meeting of the Anti-Treaty leadership on 26 February was told by their 1st Southern Division that, "in a short time we would not have a man left owing to the great number of arrests and casualties". The Cork units reported they had suffered 29 killed and an unknown number captured in recent actions and, "if five men are arrested in each area, we are finished."
March and April saw this progressive dismemberment of Republican forces continue with the capture and sometimes killing of guerrilla columns. Among the more well known of these incidents was the wiping out of an Anti-Treaty IRA column under Tim Lyons (known as "Aeroplane") in a cave near Kerry Head
on 18 April. Three anti-treaty IRA men and two National Army soldiers were killed in the siege of the cave and the remaining five Republicans were taken prisoner and later executed. 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."
Liam Lynch
, the intransigent Republican leader, was killed in a skirmish in the Knockmealdown mountains in County Tipperary
on 10 April. The National Army had extracted information from Republican prisoners in Dublin that the IRA Executive was in the area and, in addition to killing Lynch, they also captured senior officers Dan Breen
, Todd Andrews
, Seán Gaynor, and Frank Barrett
in the operation.
It is often suggested that the death of Lynch allowed the more pragmatic Frank Aiken
, who took over as Chief of Staff, to call a halt to what seemed a futile struggle. Aiken's accession to leadership was followed on 30 April by the declaration of a ceasefire on behalf of the anti-treaty forces. On 24 May, Aiken issued an order to IRA volunteers to dump arms rather than surrender them or continue a fight which they were incapable of winning.
de Valera supported the order, issuing a statement to anti-treaty fighters on 24 May:
Thousands of anti-treaty IRA members (including de Valera on 15 August) were arrested by Free State forces in the weeks and months after the end of the war, when they had dumped their arms and returned home.
All of these weaknesses were compounded by a lack of widespread public support. Whereas against the British in 1919-1921, the IRA had been able to rely on the passive support, at least, of most of the population, when fighting a native Irish government, this was no longer true. This was demonstrated in the elections immediately after the civil war, which Cumann na nGaedheal, the Free State party, won easily. (See Irish general election, 1923
for the results.) They also faced hostility from the Press and the Catholic Church, which condemned their campaign as
a system of murder and assassination of the National forces without any legitimate authority... the guerrilla warfare now being carried on [by] the Irregulars is without moral sanction and therefore the killing of National soldiers is murder before God, the seizing of public and private property is robbery, the breaking of roads, bridges and railways is criminal. All who in contravention of this teaching, participate in such crimes are guilty of grievous sins and may not be absolved in Confession
nor admitted to the Holy Communion if they persist in such evil courses.
As the war dragged on, the Republicn's capacity to undertake large scale military operations became more and more restricted. A great deal of their activities were devoted to destruction of gvernment property and infrastructure. At the same time, the cycle of executions and reprisals that marked the guerrilla war meant that it left far more bitterness among the combatants than the conventional phase of the war.
Although the war ended with the defeat of the Anti-Treay side, there was no negotiated peace. The remaining Republican guerrillas simply hid their arms and went home. This failure to end the war conclusively - either by military means or negotiation - meant that the Anti-Treaty IRA and its successors never fully accepted the 1922 Treaty settlement This factor contributed to further campaigns by the IRA in the 1940s, 50s and later in the Troubles
in Northern Ireland.
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
began in August 1922, when the forces of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
took all the fixed positions previously held by the Anti-Treaty or Republican forces.
The Republicans then waged a guerrilla war to try to bring down the new Irish Government and overturn the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
. This guerrilla campaign was ultimately defeated.
The Republicans called a ceasefire in April 1923 and "dumped arms" the following month. This phase of the war was characterised by small scale military actions but also by assassinations and executions on both sides. The Free State also imprisoned up to 13,000 Republican fighters. In addition the guerrilla campaign saw the destruction of a great deal of infrastructure such as roads and railways by the Anti-Treaty side.
Start of the Guerrilla War
Government victories in the major towns inaugurated a period of guerrilla warfareGuerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
. After the fall of Cork, Liam Lynch ordered Anti-Treaty IRA units to disperse and form flying columns 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
County Wexford
County Wexford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wexford. In pre-Norman times it was part of the Kingdom of Uí Cheinnselaig, whose capital was at Ferns. Wexford County Council is the local...
in the east and counties Sligo and Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
in the west. Sporadic fighting also took place around Dundalk
Dundalk
Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...
, where Frank Aiken
Frank Aiken
Frank Aiken was a commander of the Irish Republican Army and later an Irish politician. A founding-member of Fianna Fáil, Aiken was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 and at each subsequent election until 1973...
and the Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army
Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army
The Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army operated in an area covering parts of counties Louth, Armagh, Monaghan, and Down. Frank Aiken was commander and Padraig Quinn was the quartermaster general. John McCoy was Adjutant General for the division; after he was shot and captured by...
were based and Dublin, where small scale but regular attacks were mounted on Free State troops.
Among the casualties of the guerrilla attacks was Commander-in-Chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
, who was killed in an ambush at Béal na mBláth, while touring recently occupied territory in County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, 0n August 22, 1922. Arthur Griffith, the Free State president had also died of a brain hemorrhage ten days before, leaving the Free State government in the hands of W. T. Cosgrave and the Free State army under the command of General Richard Mulcahy
Richard Mulcahy
Richard James Mulcahy was an Irish politician, army general and commander in chief, leader of Fine Gael and Cabinet Minister...
.
For a brief period, the onset of guerrilla warfare and the deaths of the two foremost leaders of the Provisional Government threw the Free State into crisis.
August and September 1922 saw widespread attacks on Free State forces in the territories they had occupied in the July–August offensive, inflicting heavy casualties on them. In this period, the republicans also managed several relatively large-scale attacks on rural towns, involving several hundred fighters. Dundalk, for example was taken by Frank Aiken's Anti-Treaty unit in a raid on 14 August, Kenmare
Kenmare
Kenmare is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of Ceann Mara meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay.-Location:...
in Kerry in a similar operation on 9 September and Clifden
Clifden
Clifden is a town on the coast of County Galway, Ireland and being Connemara's largest town, it is often referred to as "the Capital of Connemara". It is located on the Owenglen River where it flows into Clifden Bay...
in Galway on 29 October. There were also unsuccessful assaults on for example Bantry
Bantry
Bantry is a town on the coast of County Cork, Ireland. It lies on the N71 national secondary road at the head of Bantry Bay, a deep-water gulf extending for 30 km to the west...
, Cork on 30 August and Killorglin
Killorglin
Killorglin is a town in County Kerry, Ireland. It is located on the river Laune, which has a rowing club and a new boathouse. The population of Killorglin is 4,150 although this expands considerably during Puck Fair due to visitors and returning emigrants.Killorglin is a major activity centre...
in Kerry on 30 September in which the Republicans took significant casualties.
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 8 had been killed by the end of September.
In October 1922, Éamon de Valera and the anti-treaty Teachta Dála
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...
(TDs, Members of Parliament) set up their own "Republican government" in opposition to the Free State. However, by then the anti-treaty side held no significant territory and de Valera's "government" had no authority over the population. In any case, the IRA leaders paid no attention to it, seeing the Republican authority as vested in their own military leaders.
The Free State gains the advantage
In the autumn and winter of 1922, Free State forces broke up many of the larger Republican guerrilla units.In late September, for example, a sweep of northern County Sligo by Free State troops under Sean MacEoin successfully cornered the Anti-Treaty column which had been operating in the north of the county. Six of the column were killed and thirty captured, along with an armoured car. A similar sweep in Connemara in County Mayo in late November captured Anti-Treaty column commander Michael Kilroy
Michael Kilroy
Michael Kilroy was an Irish politician and guerrilla leader. He was an Irish Republican Army officer in his native County Mayo, during the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War...
and many of his fighters. December saw the capture of two separate Republican columns in the Meath/Kildare area.
Intelligence gathered by Free State forces also led to the capture on 5 August of over 100 Republican fighters in Dublin, who were attempting to destroy bridges leading into the city and on 4 November Ernie O'Malley
Ernie O'Malley
Ernie O'Malley was an Irish Republican Army officer during the Irish War of Independence and a commander of the anti-treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War. O'Malley wrote three books, On Another Man's Wound, The Singing Flame, and Raids and Rallies. The first describes his early life and role in...
, commander of Anti-Treaty forces in Dublin was captured when National Army troops discovered his safe house.
Elsewhere Anti-Treaty units were forced by lack of supplies and safe-houses to disperse into smaller groups, typically of nine to ten men.
An exception to this general rule was the activities of a column of Cork and Tipperary Anti-Treaty IRA fighters led by Tom Barry
Tom Barry
Thomas Barry was one of the most prominent guerrilla leaders in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.-Early life:...
. In late December 1922, this group of around 100 men took a string of towns, first in Cork, then in Tipperary and finally Carrick on Suir, Thomastown and Mullinavat in County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. The territory of the county was the core part of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Osraige which in turn was the core of the Diocese of...
where the Free State troops surrendered and gave up their arms However, even Barry's force was not capable of holding any of the places it had taken and by January 1923 it had dispersed due to lack of food and supplies.
Despite these successes for the National Army, it took eight more months of intermittent warfare before the war was brought to an end.
The war and the railways
By late 1922 and early 1923, the Anti Treaty guerrillas' campaign had been reduced largely to acts of sabotage and destruction of public infrastructure such as roads and railways. This had been an aspect of the Anti-Treaty campaign since August 1922, when Liam Lynch had issued general orders to this effect, "Owing to the use of railways by the Free State HQ for the conveyance of troops and war material and for the purposes of army communication, the destruction of the railways under Free State control is an essential part of our military policy". Not long afterwards the railway bridge at MallowMallow
Mallow or Mallows may refer to:Nature:* Malvaceae, family of plants; in particular the following genera:** Abelmoschus** Althaea – Marsh mallow** Callirhoe – Poppy mallow** Corchorus – Jews Mallow, Molokia, Mlukhia...
, linking Cork and Dublin, was blown up, severing rail communications between the cities.
Lynch re-emphasised the order on December 29, 1922, leading to a concerted assault on the railways early in the new year. In January 1923 the Great Southern and Western Railway
Great Southern and Western Railway
The Great Southern and Western Railway was the largest Irish gauge railway company in Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
released a report detailing the damage Anti-Treaty forces had caused to their property over the previous six months; 375 miles of line damaged, 42 engines derailed, 51 over-bridges and 207 under-bridges destroyed, 83 signal cabins and 13 other buildings destroyed. In the same month, Republicans destroyed the railway stations at Sligo
Sligo
Sligo is the county town of County Sligo in Ireland. The town is a borough and has a charter and a town mayor. It is sometimes referred to as a city, and sometimes as a town, and is the second largest urban area in Connacht...
, Ballybunnion and Listowel.
In response, the Free State set up an Army Railway Corps in October 1922, specifically to protect its rail lines. A massive programme of building fortified blockhouse
Blockhouse
In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery...
s around railway lines was undertaken and as a result, most lines were open again by April 1923 but the lines connecting Dublin with Cork and Kerry remained out of action until after the war.
While most of the attacks on the railways were assaults on property rather than people, in one case in Kerry, two railway workers were killed when republicans derailed their train.
Atrocities and executions
Robert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers DSC , universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish...
. In all, the Free State sanctioned 77 official executions of anti-treaty prisoners during the Civil War.
Sean Hales
Sean Hales was an Irish political activist in the early 20th century. Hales was born in Ballinadee, County Cork, where he and his brothers Tom, Donal and Robert were involved in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.At the 1921 elections Hales was elected to the Second...
. On 7 December 1922, the day after Hales' killing, four prominent Republicans (one from each province
Provinces of Ireland
Ireland has historically been divided into four provinces: Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The Irish word for this territorial division, cúige, literally meaning "fifth part", indicates that there were once five; the fifth province, Meath, was incorporated into Leinster, with parts going to...
), who had been held since the first week of the war—Rory O'Connor
Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)
Rory O'Connor was an Irish republican activist. He is best remembered for his role in the Irish Civil War 1922-1923, which led to his execution.-Background:...
, Liam Mellows
Liam Mellows
Liam Mellows was an Irish Republican and Sinn Féin politician. Born in England, Mellows grew up in County Wexford in Ireland. He was active with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, and participated in the Easter Rising in County Galway, and the War of Independence...
, Richard Barrett
Richard Barrett (Irish Republican)
Richard Barrett was a prominent Irish Republican Army volunteer who was executed during the Irish Civil War in 1922.-War of Independence:...
and Joe McKelvey
Joe McKelvey
Joe McKelvey was an Irish Republican Army officer who was executed during the Irish Civil War. He participated in the anti-Treaty IRA's repudiation of the authority of the Dáil in March 1922 and was elected to the IRA Army Executive...
— were executed in revenge for the killing of Hales.
In addition, Free State troops, particularly in County Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
, where the guerrilla campaign was most bitter, began the summary execution
Summary execution
A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial or after a show trial. Summary executions have been practiced by the police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and...
of captured anti-treaty fighters. The most notorious example of this occurred at Ballyseedy, where nine Republican prisoners were tied to a landmine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
, which was detonated, killing eight and only leaving one, Stephen Fuller
Stephen Fuller
Stephen Fuller was an Irish Fianna Fáil Party politician who served as TD for the Kerry North constituency.Fuller served in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence . He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922 and fought in the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War...
, who was blown clear by the blast, to escape.
The number of "unauthorised" executions of Republican prisoners during the war has been put as high as 153. Among the Republican reprisals were the assassination of Kevin O'Higgins' father and WT Cosgrave's uncle in February 1923.
It was also in this period that the Anti-Treaty IRA began burning the homes of Free State Senators and of many of the Anglo-Irish landed class. On 15 February 1923, Mansion of senator Brian Mahon in Ballymore Eustace
Ballymore Eustace
Ballymore Eustace is a small town situated in County Kildare in Ireland, although until 1836 it lay within a "pocket" of County Dublin...
, County Kildare
County Kildare
County Kildare is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county...
was burned down by Anti-Treaty forces. In the remainder of the month, a total of 37 houses of senators were destroyed by the Anti-Treaty IRA. Their owners were mainly big landowners, descendants of the Protestant Ascendancy
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy, usually known in Ireland simply as the Ascendancy, is a phrase used when referring to the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland by a minority of great landowners, Protestant clergy, and professionals, all members of the Established Church during the 17th...
and many of them were unionists before Irish independence. Oliver St John Gogarty was another prominent victim of house burnings. He also survived an assassination attempt in Dublin.
End of the war
By early 1923, the offensive capability of the IRA had been seriously eroded and when, in February, Republican leader Liam DeasyLiam Deasy
Liam Deasy was an Irish Republican Army officer in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War of the 1920s.Deasy was born in Bandon in County Cork in 1898....
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, 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. On 18 February, Anti-Treaty officer Dinny Lacey
Dinny Lacey
Dennis Lacey, better known as 'Dinny', was an Irish Republican Army officer during the Irish War of Independence and anti-Treaty IRA officer during the Irish Civil War. Lacey was born in 1890 in a village called Attybrack, near Annacarty, county Tipperary.He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and...
was killed and his column rounded up at the Glen of Aherlow
Glen of Aherlow
The Glen of Aherlow is a picturesque valley nestling between Slievenamuck and the Galtee Mountains in the western part of South Tipperary in Ireland. The principal village is Lisvarrinane or more commonly spelt Lisvernane with a hamlet at Rossadrehid where Aherlow creamery was located before its...
in Tipperary. Lacey had been the head of the IRA's 2nd Southern Division and his death crippled the Republican's cause in the Tipperary/Waterford area.
A meeting of the Anti-Treaty leadership on 26 February was told by their 1st Southern Division that, "in a short time we would not have a man left owing to the great number of arrests and casualties". The Cork units reported they had suffered 29 killed and an unknown number captured in recent actions and, "if five men are arrested in each area, we are finished."
March and April saw this progressive dismemberment of Republican forces continue with the capture and sometimes killing of guerrilla columns. Among the more well known of these incidents was the wiping out of an Anti-Treaty IRA column under Tim Lyons (known as "Aeroplane") in a cave near Kerry Head
Kerry Head
Kerry Head is a headland located in County Kerry, Ireland that stretches into the Atlantic Ocean just north of Banna Strand. On the southern edge of the headland sits Ballyheigue....
on 18 April. Three anti-treaty IRA men and two National Army soldiers were killed in the siege of the cave and the remaining five Republicans were taken prisoner and later executed. 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."
Republicans "Dump Arms"
As the conflict petered out into a de facto victory for the pro-treaty side, Éamon de Valera asked the IRA leadership to call a ceasefire, but they refused. The IRA executive met on 26 March in County Tipperary to discuss the war's future. Tom Barry proposed a motion to end the war, but it was defeated by a vote of 6 to 5. de Valera was allowed to attend, after some debate, but was given no voting rights.Liam Lynch
Liam Lynch (general)
Liam Lynch was an officer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the commanding general of the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War.-Early life:...
, the intransigent Republican leader, was killed in a skirmish in the Knockmealdown mountains in County Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
on 10 April. The National Army had extracted information from Republican prisoners in Dublin that the IRA Executive was in the area and, in addition to killing Lynch, they also captured senior officers Dan Breen
Dan Breen
Daniel "Dan" Breen was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. In later years, he was a Fianna Fáil politician.-Background:...
, Todd Andrews
Todd Andrews
Christopher Stephen "Todd" Andrews was an Irish political activist and public servant. He participated in the Irish War of Independence and Civil War as a political and military activist in the Irish Republican movement. Todd Andrews never ran for election and was never a government minister...
, Seán Gaynor, and Frank Barrett
Frank Barrett
Francis Joseph Barrett , born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals , Boston Red Sox , Boston Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates ....
in the operation.
It is often suggested that the death of Lynch allowed the more pragmatic Frank Aiken
Frank Aiken
Frank Aiken was a commander of the Irish Republican Army and later an Irish politician. A founding-member of Fianna Fáil, Aiken was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 and at each subsequent election until 1973...
, who took over as Chief of Staff, to call a halt to what seemed a futile struggle. Aiken's accession to leadership was followed on 30 April by the declaration of a ceasefire on behalf of the anti-treaty forces. On 24 May, Aiken issued an order to IRA volunteers to dump arms rather than surrender them or continue a fight which they were incapable of winning.
de Valera supported the order, issuing a statement to anti-treaty fighters on 24 May:
Thousands of anti-treaty IRA members (including de Valera on 15 August) were arrested by Free State forces in the weeks and months after the end of the war, when they had dumped their arms and returned home.
Conclusion
The guerrilla phase of the Civil War lasted roughly eight months. At first the Anti-Treaty, or republican, guerrillas were able to operate in large numbers and to mount relatively large-scale attacks. However their ability to do this was bluned by several factors - the onset of winter, the ongoing increase in size and competence of the National Army and their own lack of military and logistical supplies.All of these weaknesses were compounded by a lack of widespread public support. Whereas against the British in 1919-1921, the IRA had been able to rely on the passive support, at least, of most of the population, when fighting a native Irish government, this was no longer true. This was demonstrated in the elections immediately after the civil war, which Cumann na nGaedheal, the Free State party, won easily. (See Irish general election, 1923
Irish general election, 1923
The Irish general election of 1923 was held on 27 August 1923. The newly elected members of the 4th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 19 September when the new President of the Executive Council and Executive Council of the Irish Free State were appointed. The election was held just after the end...
for the results.) They also faced hostility from the Press and the Catholic Church, which condemned their campaign as
a system of murder and assassination of the National forces without any legitimate authority... the guerrilla warfare now being carried on [by] the Irregulars is without moral sanction and therefore the killing of National soldiers is murder before God, the seizing of public and private property is robbery, the breaking of roads, bridges and railways is criminal. All who in contravention of this teaching, participate in such crimes are guilty of grievous sins and may not be absolved in Confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
nor admitted to the Holy Communion if they persist in such evil courses.
As the war dragged on, the Republicn's capacity to undertake large scale military operations became more and more restricted. A great deal of their activities were devoted to destruction of gvernment property and infrastructure. At the same time, the cycle of executions and reprisals that marked the guerrilla war meant that it left far more bitterness among the combatants than the conventional phase of the war.
Although the war ended with the defeat of the Anti-Treay side, there was no negotiated peace. The remaining Republican guerrillas simply hid their arms and went home. This failure to end the war conclusively - either by military means or negotiation - meant that the Anti-Treaty IRA and its successors never fully accepted the 1922 Treaty settlement This factor contributed to further campaigns by the IRA in the 1940s, 50s and later in the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
in Northern Ireland.
Sources
- Andrews, Todd, Dublin Made Me.
- Coogan, Tim Pat, De Valera,
- Doyle, Tom The Civil War in Kerry, Mercier 2008.
- Farry, Michael, The Aftermath of Revolution, Sligo 1921-23.
- Hachey, Thomas E., The Irish Experience, A Concise History.
- Hopkinson Michael, Green Against Green, The Irish Civil War.
- Meda Ryan, Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter, Mercier 2003.
- Meath History, 1922-1958
- Executions in County Kildare
- History of the Third Tipperary Brigade