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Civil War
The division of Ireland, as agreed with in the Anglo-Irish Treaty, caused a rift in the Dáil Éireann, the parliament of Saorstát Éireann, or Irish Free State. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its predecessor the Irish Volunteer Force (IVF), tended to be independent from politics. The implications of the Anglo-Irish Treaty forced them to get involved and a convention was planned to discuss the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 26 March 1922.
Irregulars
Michael Collins
(source: Irish Stamps)
Only anti-Treaty members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) showed up. These anti-Treaty members doubted the authority of Richard Mulcahy, then Minister for Defence and Head of the Irish Republican Army, and refused to recognise the Dáil Éireann, because that would also imply an acknowledgement of the division of Ireland.
Liam Lynch was elected as the chief of staff of what became known as the Irregulars. The song The Belfast Brigade is some sort of a recruiting song for these Irregulars. In fact these Irregulars, led by Rory O'Connor, were an illegal army within the Saorstát Éireann, or Irish Free State.
The official army of the Free State was dressed in new green uniforms and changed their name in Free State Army.
Initially it was hoped for that the conflict would not escalate and remain mainly in the political arena, but both the Irregular army as the Free State Army wanted to occupy the evacuated police and army barracks, which caused several clashes.
The elections in June showed a strong support for the Free State. Apparently the people wanted to return to normal living conditions. This outcome did not changed the mind of the Irregulars, also known as Republicans.
By occupying the Four Courts, and several other important buildings in Dublin, the Republicans challenged the Dáil Éireann. For about two months Michael Collins, by then head of the government of the Saorstát Éireann, let things slide until brought back in line by Winston Churchill who threatened to intervene unless the Irregulars were removed from their position. An ultimatum sent to Rory O'Connor on 28 June 1922 remained unanswered upon which the guns of the Free Sate Army came into action.
It took the Free State Army two days to shell their former comrades out of the Four Courts. In withdrawing the Republicans booby-trapped the Irish Public Records Office next door, causing the destruction of Irish state and religious archives (now you know why tracing down family history in Ireland can be a pain). The Irish Civil War had begun.
Eamonn de Valera, who had resigned from the Dáil Éireann earlier that year, joined his old battalion of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) as a foot soldier.
Michael Collins and the Free State Army were supplied with arms and ammunition by the British, whereas the Republicans lacked strong and centralised leadership and were limited in both men as resources. More than often they had rely on wit, for example when they borrowed Doctor Johnston's Motor Car.
After the initial attack of the Four Courts the resistance was severe but disorganised. In Dublin, where the resistance was crushed first, normal life came to a standstill. Shops were closed and communications were almost cut off. After Dublin the fighting continued in Sligo, Mayo, Donegal, Limerick, Waterford, Tipperary and Cork.
William Thomas Cosgrave
The death of Arthur Griffith, who died of a brain haemorrhage, and Michael Collins, who was ambushed and killed while returning to Cork, was a breaking point in the Civil War. Michael Collins, who was considered a well respected patriot as well as a foul traitor, was succeeded as head of the government by William Thomas Cosgrave.
William Thomas Cosgrave offered an amnesty program in October 1922 which expired on the 15th and military courts, made possible by the Public Safety Bill, took over. As a result four young men, James Fisher, Peter Cassidy, Richard Twohig and John Gaffney, were shot by a firing squad on 17 November for carrying guns without authorisation. Erskine Childers, the Republican propaganda director, was also picked up and executed. The cruel treatment and execution of imprisoned members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) quickly pushed support away from the Provisional Government.
Until then the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had operated within the limits of common warfare, but they felt they had to response on the executions of their brothers in arms with equal measures. Orders were issued for certain Provisional Government officials to be shot on sight. Others were harassed.
On an other occasion two deputies of the Dáil Éireann were shot, possibly by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The government reacted with the execution of four IRA prisoners to which the Republicans responded with killing the father of O'Higging, threatening senators and burning the house of William Thomas Cosgrave and several other houses. In retaliation more prisoners were executed. In all 77 men, among which the Drumboe Martyrs, were executed in the last months of the Civil War. During the War of Independence, for comparison, the British had executed "only" 14 members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Liam Deasy, deputy chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), realised that further fighting was pointless even if they succeeded in their aim to take the war to Britain. An unilateral cease-fire was declared in February 1923 in order to create an environment for negotiations. Eamonn de Valera, who represented the Irregulars at the table, was willing to surrender but refused to give up arms. Although the negotiations didn't led to a treaty the Irregulars simply stopped fighting, went home and put their uniforms and weapons in the wardrobe. Until the Irregulars declared a truce in May 1923 the Civil War had claimed the lives of approximately 5000 military and an unknown number of civilian casualties.
Fianna Fáil
Whether the Civil War really ended with the truce of May 1923 is a matter of definition. After all, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) remained unimpaired and fully armed, and military actions against 26 County forces weren't renounced until 1948 by General Army Order No. 8. Moreover, the latter months of the Civil War and especially the executions, had caused deep scars in Republican Ireland.
The truce and the uncertain future of Irish Republicanism sowed discord in Sinn Féin, which eventually would led led to the foundation of Fianna Fáil, or Soldiers of Destiny, in 1926. The major stumbling block was whether or not to lift abstention, which in brief means the strategy to compete in elections without the intention to take the seats. Eamonn de Valera, opponent of abstention and one of the founding members of Fianna Fáil, plotted out a new, and rather successful, course due to which Saorstát Éireann, or Irish Free State, was replaced with Éire in 1937 and eventually in 1949 resulted in the Republic of Ireland.
The dearly won independence of the 26 southern counties left a bitter taste in the mouth of many members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who had fought for one unified Ireland with 32 counties, or Erin 32 for short. What's more, Fianna Fáil had alienated itself from its former comrades in arms in order to gain national and international political acceptance.
Plan Kathleen
Irish Republicanism simmered over a low flame in the 1920 and early 1930's. Sinn Féin lost support to De Valera's Fianna Fáil and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was reasonably disorientated due to series of course changes and leadership crises.
In 1939, when the world was bound for a unparalleled human catastrophe, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) recouped the rationale of its existence and launched a large scaled bombing campaign in England. Because this Sabotage Campaign, or England Campaign, wasn't put on hold after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany it was rumoured that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) conspired with the German army. As turned out these rumours weren't entirely unfounded as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had drew up a plan in which Irish volunteers provided assistance to a German invasion. The Germans however had only little faith in the strike power of the Republicans and Plan Kathleen, or Artus Plan, ended up in a wastebasket.
Once Plan Kathleen had leaked out Éire, in name neutral during the Second World War but partially out of pragmatic reasons neutral on British side, and the United Kingdom linked hands in combating what was considered a fifth column. Wartime legislation and internment, introduced on both sides of the border, as well as the public outcry over the Sabotage Campaign and a series of rather gawky attacks between 1942 and 1944 known as the Northern Campaign, had a devastating effect on the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It is estimated that in 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, the number of volunteers was about 200.
Within three decades the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had become a marginalised, fragmented, disarmed and disorganised shadow of the army that once fought for Ireland's independence.
Border Campaign
After the Second World War it took the Irish Republican Army (IRA) about a decade to gather some of the remnants of its past glory. Already in 1948 the then Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) Tony Magan launched a charm offensive by issuing General Army Order No. 8 by which it was declared that no military action should be undertaken against the forces of the 26 Counties, thus Éire and from 1949 onwards the Republic of Ireland, and that the Army is to drive the British forces of occupation out of Ireland. With hindsight Order No. 8 revealed the intentions of Magan. Apparently he had ferret out a daring plan originating from the 1930's in which the southern counties of Ireland provided a safe operating base for military operations in the border counties of Northern Ireland.
A rather pretentious plan at that time since the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was as good as dead. The organisation regained its confidence after a decade of intensive recruitment and thieving arms from barracks of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and in December 1956 the Army Council decided that the time was ripe to launch the Border Campaign, or Operation Harvest.
The Border Campaign turned out an utter failure. The public turned against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) when two young lads of 16 and 17 years old got killed in while raiding the police barracks in Brookeborough and the Republic of Ireland pulled out the Offences Against the State Act, which had been very effective during the Second World War.
Although officially called off on 26 February 1962 the Border Campaign effectively ended only a few months after it had started.
The Border Campaign was the deathblow for the Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the years to come the organisation strove to join in with the man in the street by renouncing offensive violence and by addressing social and economical issues, but the applied Marxist jargon was wide of the mark.
In the late 1960's Irish Republicanism flared up against the background of increasing sectarian violence, as did the call for an organisation capable to provide protection. Hard-liners from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and new volunteers gathered around Ruairí Ó Brádaigh. On 28 December 1969 this group walked out of the Special Army Convention and founded what would become known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA or Provisional IRA).
After the split the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA) evolved in no-time into decisive, well-founded and well-organised paramilitary organisation able to sustain an intense and demanding long-term campaign. It's not easy to overestimate the importance of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (pIRA) in modern Irish history as it manage to take over a struggle for civil rights and turn it into a military campaign aimed at the the withdrawal of the British Army and the reunification of Ireland.
The part of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), by now also known as Official Irish Republican Army (oIRA), but condescendingly known as The Old Brigade, on the larger stage was played out after December 1969. On neighbourhood level however these Stickies retained their role as informal police force and some sort of social glue until well in the 1990's.