AN UNCIVIL WAR

                 (Thoughts on the book ‘’Between Two Hells’’, by Diarmaid Ferriter)

                                                            by Ron Walsh

                                                                   To state that Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty ‘’with reluctance’’ is completely misleading, but that is what Diarmaid Ferriter claims in his book ‘’Between Two Hells’’. The truth is that Collins saw the Treaty as a ‘’stepping-stone’’ to full independence sometime later. He was certainly not happy about ‘’the six-counties’’, and not too many were. But most people, including Collins, had not real understanding of the Protestant/Unionist people living in the north of the country, their feelings and affiliations. Besides, along with Arthur Griffith, he wrongly believed that the Boundary Commission would solve the problem.

                                                                    Shortly after the signing of the Treaty he confided to a friend ‘’When you have sweated, toiled, had mad dreams, hopeless nightmares, you find yourself in London’s streets, cold and dank in the night air. Think - what have I got for Ireland? Something which she has wanted these past 700 years. Will anyone be satisfied with the bargain? Will anyone? I tell you this – early this morning I signed my own death warrant. I thought at the time how odd, how ridiculous – a bullet might just as well have done the job five years ago’’.

                                                                     Collins wrote to his fiancee, Kitty Kiernan, at the time ‘’I don’t know how things will go now but with God’s help we have brought peace to this land of ours. A peace which will end this strife of ours forever’’. He also confided to others that it was not the ultimate freedom ‘’that all nations aspire and develop to, but the freedom to achieve it’’. Arthur Griffith commented ‘’It is for the Irish people to say whether it (the Treaty) is good enough’’. Collins had been happy to sign the Treaty, and did not do so ‘’with reluctance’’.

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                                                                      There will always be those who claim that Ireland would never have obtained her independence without the use of force, but that is simply a kite-flying exercise. When ‘’The Jewel in the Crown’’, India, obtained her independence in 1947, all bets were off. This country would also have obtained independence around that time, although twenty-six years later than 1921, but no harm would have been done. Without 1916 we would not have ended up with our numerous martyrs. Without the War of Independence and the Civil War we would not have suffered the loss of life that ensued, and the sundering of families as sisters and brothers took up arms on opposite sides of the great divide, and the later recrimination and bad blood that remained for many decades. But force was used, and Michael Collins was very much involved in organizing that force.

                                                                       Shortly after the truce was announced Eamon de Valera and four cabinet ministers travelled to London for talks with the British prime-minister Lloyd George. Michael Collins had asked to be included, but Dev turned him down. In four one-on-one meetings with Lloyd George Dev was left in no doubt that there would be no Irish Republic, and that an oath to the Crown would have to be part of any agreement.

                                                                        Upon his return to Dublin Dev devised his own Treaty, formally known as ‘’external association’’, where Ireland would associate with the British Commonwealth. Ireland would be a completely independent country, with authority resting with the Irish people. Lovely idea, but it was simply pie-in-the-sky and had no chance of being accepted by the British government.

                                                                         Renowned historian Ronan Fanning, while writing on ‘’external association’’, had this to say; ‘’De Valera tried to chart a course too subtle to be understood by those less intellectually astute than he was’’. (Excuse me while I attempt to garner some extra brain-cells.) In fact it was easy enough to understand, but it still had no chance of being approved by the British. During the actual Treaty negotiations the first three clauses of the Irish proposals contained the essence of ‘’external association’’, but they were turned down. The third clause stated that the three major Irish ports would be controlled by the British, but that they would be handed back after five years. Churchill supported that idea, and even suggested that Ireland could take them over once it was strong enough to defend them, but Lloyd George turned it down.

                                                                          During the truce, Jan Smuts, prime-minister of the South African Union, a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, asked Dev not to isolate himself by insisting on a Republic, to which he replied that that was a question for the Irish people to decide upon. Sadly, Dev never managed to take his own advice on the matter!

                                                                           As the Treaty discussions reached a climax Lloyd George asked the Irish delegates to reach a decision, whether to sign the Treaty or not. If they decided not to sign ‘’It is war within three days’’. Was that simply a bluff? The three days certainly were, but not the war itself. And nobody knew better than Michael Collins, with his spy’s inside Dublin Castle exposed and IRA arms and ammunition reduced to a minimum, what the outcome would have been. In any case, despite claims that the delegates simply succumbed to the threat of war, from the time that the Treaty negotiations had commenced there had always been the threat of renewed conflict if an agreement was not reached. 

                                                                           There was nothing subtle about Collins claim that the Treaty was simply a ‘’stepping-stone’’, to be used to gain full independence later-on, and should have been fully understood by most. But it was not, or at least it was not accepted by everyone. By now he had accumulated some enemies, and claims that he was ‘’the man who had won the war’’ did not sit well with many. He had certainly done more than any one person to defy the British. In his job as the Dail’s finance secretary he had set up and operated a nationwide loan scheme, saw to the purchase of arms and ammunition, coordinated various other matters, and somehow managed to stay just one step ahead of the posse on numerous occasions. He was quite simply a workaholic.

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                                                                            Winston Churchill has always been disliked by most Irish people, the reason being that he had sent the Black ‘n’ Tans and the Auxiliaries into the country following the commencement of the War of Independence in 1919, after the IRA began killing members of the RIC. Churchill was Secretary of State at the time and was obviously involved. The Tans arrived in March of 1920, a government decision that undoubtedly had Churchill’s support, and they were all ex-army members. The Auxiliaries came four months later and were the brainchild of Churchill alone, all ex-officers.

                                                                             Neither of the new arrivals were beloved of the RIC following their killing of innocent civilians and the sacking of a number of towns and villages. Because of those actions there were many resignations by RIC members, and some of those who remained were prepared to turn a blind eye on IRA operations while often providing useful information to them. To those who insist that the Tans and Auxiliaries should never have been brought into the country, their criminal conduct was a very good reason for that complaint, it has to be asked what else were the British going to do in reaction to the killing of members of the RIC?

                                                                              Michael Collins and Churchill got to know each other quite well during the Treaty negotiations, and while they never became friends they got to understand each others position. Churchill would later write; ‘’We never to the best of my belief lost the basis of a common understanding’’.

                                                                               Following the outbreak of the 2nd World War, and especially after Churchill became prime-minister early in 1940, he showed what a great orator he was by his speeches in Parliament and on the radio, particularly early on when France, Britain and Belgium stood alone against the fascist regimes in Germany and Italy. The recent Spanish civil-war had been a dress-rehearsal for what was now taking place, and that war had been won by the fascists led by General Franco. Adolf Hitler had been making his intentions known for many years, which included reclaiming former German lands and expanding east. He also wanted to fulfill his long held antisemitic wish, which he conveyed to his subordinates in December of 1941 inside the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, that all eleven million European Jews would be exterminated; ‘’the destruction of the Jews’’. The Nazis had been killing Jews for years, but now the exterminations commenced on an industrial scale!

                                                                                For many years Churchill had been speaking out against Hitler, but his warnings had gone unheeded, while his enemies condemned him as an exaggerating drunkard. His supporters included US Senator Jack Kennedy who, even before the start of the war, when he was in London often entered the Houses of Parliament to listen to him speak.

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                                                                                 Was Winston Churchill a ‘’bully’’ as Dermaid Ferriter claims? If he was, was he any more of a bully than most politicians are? Five months after the Treaty had been passed in the Dail was he a bully because he insisted to Collins that it had to be fully enforced? Churchill wished to ensure that the Treaty would be passed by his own parliament, and show that it was been fully adhered to by the Free State government.

                                                                                 The Fianna Fail government decided that the country should remain neutral during the 2nd World War, and were supported by Fine Gael and others. There were some objections, but the majority decision prevailed. However many Irish men and women decided otherwise, with 46,000 joining the British forces from the Free State alone, and well over one thousand leaving the Irish Defence Forces to do so. With 50,000 joining from Northern Ireland, together with 69,000 Irish living in the UK, the total number came to 166,000. There were also many serving in the American and Canadian forces, and those of other countries.

                                                                                 Many Irish heroes made a large contribution to the war-effort, and its only right to mention some of them here as they have never been acknowledged in their own country. Mary Sheila Cathcart Dunlop from Oughterard in county Galway was awarded an MBE for her help in breaking the German Enigma Code. As senior Deputy Director of Combined Forces for the Royal Navy, Rickard Charlie Donovan from Ballymore, Ferns in county Wexford played a prominent part in the planning for the D-Day landings, and was later decorated for his work by Britain and America.

                                                                                  Dubliner Brendan Finucane became an international hero because of his outstanding leadership and flying exploits after joining the Royal Air Force in 1938, at age seventeen. He took part in numerous sorties against German aircraft raids, particularly in the summer of 1940 during the Battle of Britain in which he secured his first ‘’hits’’ against the enemy. Early the following year he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant, and shortly afterwards to Squadron Leader, while also being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Before the end of the year he became the youngest-ever Wing-Commander in the history of the RAF. Early in 1942 he reached a total of 32 German war-planes downed. On July 15th of that same year he was shot down crossing the French coast and died.

                                                                                   Another Dubliner, John Hemingway, also enlisted in the RAF in 1938. He too fought in the Battle of Britain during which he was shot down twice, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1941. He was shot down two more times before the wars end, once in Italy where he served as Squadron Leader. Hemingway reached the remarkable age of 103 in July of 2022, passing away not long afterwards. He had been the last surviving airman of the Battle of Britain up to then. One of those numerous airmen of whom Churchill said ‘’Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few’’.

                                                                                    There were other Irish heroes during the war, and not just those serving in the British forces. As a country we stayed away, as nobody wanted to upset the IRA, who would have taken umbrage.

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                                                                                    When Dev returned from his eighteen month American sojourn near the end of 1920 his first upset was caused by the fact that the person being looked up to at home, and being referred to as ‘’the big fellow’’, was none other than Michael Collins. That title was far more endearing than his own, ‘’the long fellow’’. Dev looked upon himself as the embodiment of the fight for Irish freedom, and Collins fell out of favor at that moment of enlightenment.

                                                                                     When the Treaty was passed on January 7th 1922 Dev led his supporters from the Dail chamber, having resigned as President. Arthur Griffith took over that position, while Michael Collins became Chairman of the Provisional Government which would remain until the Irish Free State was legally in place, with a Constitution having been written and finally approved in London. Churchill was appointed Chairman of a committee which would oversee how things were progressing in Ireland, or not.

                                                                                     It would be another five months before the people were given a chance to vote on the Treaty, as the pro and anti-Treaty sides attempted to hammer out some sort of a deal that would avoid a civil-war. Arthur Griffith saw no way to avoid it, and argued that the sooner it commenced the sooner it would be over. At the same time a new Free State army was being put into place, while the RIC was disbanded.

                                                                                      The anti-Treaty section of the IRA decided that this time of great uncertainty would be an ideal moment to move members north, join up with comrades there and attempt to destroy the new state of Northern Ireland and reunite the country. Michael Collins agreed with the idea himself, and even went so far as to supply rifles to the insurgents. But it was a bad idea that was never going to work because of the amount of opposition involved, and Collins should have known better. It simply ensured that Catholics living in Belfast and elsewhere were vulnerable to reprisals. In May hundreds of IRA and Sinn Fein members were arrested, while all Republican organisations were banned following new detention and sentencing measures having being brought in. The attempt to take back the ‘’six counties’’ came to a sudden end, and Collins realised that his efforts to help had been a mistake, and even counterproductive. Neither Arthur Griffith nor any government minister had known of his involvement, but they found out later-on. It greatly displeased Griffith’s, who fell out with Collins over the matter.

                                                                                       Dev announced the formation of a new political party, Cumann na Poblachta, on March 15th 1922, and gave a speech two days later in Killarney; ‘’In future in order to achieve freedom, if our Volunteers continue – and I hope they will continue until the goal is reached – if we continue on that movement which was begun when the Volunteers were started, and we suppose this Treaty is ratified by your votes, then these men, in order to achieve freedom, would have to march over the dead bodies of their own brothers. They will have to wade through Irish blood’’. Later he would insist that he had been misquoted, although it is difficult to imagine how, and few believed him.

                                                                                        While it would be safe to say that Dev’s control over the anti-Treaty IRA had dwindled a little by that time, there is no way in knowing how many ‘’rebels’’ were influenced by those fighting words! Some of the leaders and older members may have thought twice about wading through Irish blood, but there were many new and younger members, who had not taken part in the War of Independence, who might have been highly influenced by the speech!

                                                                                         In the early weeks of the truce the total strength of the IRA is often claimed to have been around 100,000, an unlikely number. A former IRA Commander once commented; ‘’When the truce arrived many people suddenly appeared sporting revolvers and rifles, but if we had had even a quarter of them during the actual fighting the truce would have arrived a lot sooner’’. It was patently obvious that when the truce was called weapons which had remained buried in back-gardens and hidden in attic’s or loft’s for years miraculously reappeared.

                                                                                         Tom Barry, Commander of the IRA’s West Cork Flying Column, estimated that there had been no more than eight thousand members on the anti-Treaty side during the civil-war. Even counting those who fought on the pro-Treaty side, it means that many thousands of the ‘’sunshine soldiers’’ quickly returned to civilian life as soon as the fighting commenced once again.

                                                                                         Another Cork IRA leader, Sean Moylan, made these comments about those who joined up during the truce; ‘’It gave these fellows an opportunity for posing as war-hardened soldiers. In public-houses, at dance halls, on the road in ‘commandeered’ motor cars, they pushed ordinary civilians aside and earned for the IRA a reputation for bullying, insobriety and dishonesty that sapped public confidence. More than this they were an evil influence on young, generous, adventurous boys who, knowing of IRA achievements, sought, too, an opportunity of proving themselves’’.

                                                                                          Countess Markiewicz was one of the many famous women who opposed the Treaty; ‘’My ideal is the Workers Republic for which Connolly died……..it is the capitalists interests in England and Ireland that are pushing this Treaty to block the march of the working people in Ireland and England’’.

                                                                                           While the new Free State army was being recruited, trained and organised, a new police-force was also coming into being, the Civic Guard, which would later morph into the country’s modern guardians-of-the-law. The Senate also sprang into being, designed to give Unionists living in the Free State an official voice, and to ensure that the Treaty would be supported in the Houses of Parliament.

                                                                                           While all members of the government carried heavy responsibilities under increasingly difficult circumstances, Michael Collins’ workload was overwhelming, as it had been for some years. As Chairman of that government and Minister of Finance he had to set up government departments and take over the administration from the British, chair the committee that was drafting the new Constitution and oversee the setting-up of the new army and the new unarmed police force. He also acted as PRO for the government, often writing newspaper articles and giving interviews, and also had to travel to London frequently to confer with the British government, or to talk with James Craig, prime minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.

                                                                                           Along with the physical demands, the psychological demands on Collins were even worse. He had to continue keeping the British satisfied, which at times involved telling lies, and at the same time not alienating the anti-Treaty side even further than it already was. His main concern, the IRA, had split into pro and anti sections, and he had lost many former friends. Towards the end of February Collins and Dev agreed on a compromise to postpone the expected election until June. It was a big step-down by Collins, but he was worried that if it had been held immediately, and the Treaty had been accepted, the country would be plunged straight away into a civil war. During the intervening months he hoped to talk some of his opponents over to his side. On the other hand, Dev hoped to convince the government into making some changes in the Treaty, which was simply daydreaming.

                                                                                           Meanwhile another major problem had arisen. On April 14th 1922 anti-Treaty forces seized and occupied the Four Courts complex on the river Liffey, centre of the Irish legal system. At the same time they also took over other buildings in the city, including Fowler Hall, the Kildare Street Club and several houses in Parnell Square. What those buildings had in common was that they had connections with Dublin unionism. Showing complete disregard for the enormous collection of legal documents inside the Four Courts, including deeds, a large portion of them relating to Northern Ireland, which were about to be transferred, the windows were barricaded with heavy legal tomes, weighty ledgers, and tin boxes filled with earth. The Public Records Office was actually turned into a munitions factory, where mines and grenades were manufactured.

                                                                                            The election was held on June 16th, the first under proportional representation, resulting in an over 78% support for the Treaty. Days later Churchill made a stirring speech in Parliament in which he stated that if the Four Courts siege was not ended soon ‘’we shall regard the Treaty as having been formally ended’’, and on the 22nd Collins received a letter from Lloyd George along similar lines. Despite his reluctance to move against former comrade’s the time had finally arrived where he had to act.

                                                                                            On June 26th a raiding party from the Four Courts was attempting to commandeer cars from a nearby garage when their leader was arrested by pro-Treaty troops. Later that same night, in retaliation, National Army General J.J. ‘’Ginger’’ O’Connell was abducted and held as a hostage inside the Four Courts. Early in the morning of the 28th the occupants were ordered to surrender and evacuate, but showed no intention of complying. Two 18-pounder field guns began firing on the front of the building, one shell every fifteen minutes. The civil war had begun!

                                                                                             Propaganda from the anti-Treaty side, and from Dev in particular, insisted that the Republicans inside the Four Courts were being attacked by the British with the help of Irishmen who were traitors to the Republic. A successful assault on the building was carried out on the morning of the 30th, but the use of incendiary bombs started a fire inside the Public Records Office where the munitions were stored, setting them off and causing a massive explosion. Most of the contents were destroyed. The battle for the remaining anti-Treaty outposts was completed by July 5th.

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                                                                                             Dev bemoaned the result of the general election; ‘’By threat of infamous war……..our people have voted as England wanted but their hearts and aspirations are unchanged……..The men and women who have been rejected by the electorate went down with flags flying, true to their principles’’. He was looking forward to the opening of the Dail, hoping that it would not approve the proposed Free State constitution with its oath to the British King. (IRA members on both sides of the divide who had previously served in the British army had, at the time of joining, sworn a similar oath.)

                                                                                             On the 22nd of June the shooting dead of Sir Henry Wilson took place in London, the man who had headed security affairs inside Northern Ireland and who was a fierce opponent of the Treaty. His assassins turned out to be two IRB men, who were arrested and subsequently executed. The IRB was Collins’ outfit, and nowadays it is generally accepted that the Big Fellow had ordered the killing. Unlike most of his government friends, Collins worried about the situation in Northern Ireland and had attempted to help the nationalists there previously. Wilson’s death would be seen by them as a signal that they had not been entirely forgotten. But it was a bad idea, and placed the Free State government in a weak position following the British governments demand for action afterwards. In his book Diarmaid Ferriter thinks that the killing had been ordered months earlier by Collins, who had simply forgotten to rescind it. That is unlikely to have been the case.

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                                                                                              ‘’There is nothing civil about a civil war’’. Those words were true of every such war, including the Irish one, where shortly after the start each side was accusing the other of being ‘’as bad as the Black ‘n’ Tans’’. That statement was found to be true, if not more so, by events that occurred in March of 1923, at a time when the outcome of the war was already blindingly obvious. On the 6th of that month eight National Army soldiers were investigating a tip-off about an IRA arms dump, which turned out to be a trap. A mine exploded killing five, and badly injuring another. In retaliation nineteen Republicans were killed over the next fortnight. On March 7th nine Republican prisoners in Tralee were taken to nearby Ballyseedy, supposedly to clear rubble blocking the road, where they were tied together before a bomb was detonated, killing eight. Four more prisoners were killed in a similar fashion near Killarney on the following day. Five more were killed in Cahirciveen on the 12th.

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                                                                                               Arthur Griffith passed away on August 12th 1922, having been ill for some time. He was 51 years of age. It was said of him that he had ‘’sacrificed his life – a life of great ability – for the Irish people. He was the poorest man in Ireland when he died’’. At his graveside Michael Collins called for unity; ‘’Let us resolve now to give fresh play to the impulse of unity, to join together one and all in continuing his constructive work, in building up the country which he loved’’.

                                                                                               Collins himself was killed in his native county Cork ten days later, in an isolated valley where an ambush had been laid by members of the anti-Treaty IRA. Diarmaid Ferriter cannot decide on what had been Collins’ reason for visiting Cork; ‘’….perhaps to persuade some of his opponents on to another path, or else because of deception about talk of possible peace’’. (p57) In the intervening years it has been pretty well established that the Big Fellow went down there on a peace mission. Ferriter also advises his readers that Dev had nothing to do with Collins’ death, even though he was in the immediate area and had been told of the ambush plan! While he took no part in it, he was certainly an accessory before the fact.

                                                                                               According to mythology, when Collins was hit in the head by a rifle bullet he was said to have exclaimed to his friend Emmet Dalton, who was nearby, ‘’Emmit, I’m hit’’. Someone who has just been hit in the head by a bullet, and which blows out part of it, is never capable of uttering words of any kind. That’s simply a matter of fact. And there is nothing wrong in identifying the shooter. It has always been known around county Cork that the sniper had been a former member of the RIC and British army by the name of Dennis ‘’Sonny’’ O’Neill.

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                                                                                               Aside altogether from the dreadful events of March 1923, the war produced many other atrocities, including a number of rapes committed by both pro and anti-Treaty members, some of which were later reported by the unfortunate women concerned.

                                                                                               A few months into the war a new Public Safety Act was brought into law, where anyone found in possession of a gun would be liable for execution. The very first executions under the Act were carried out inside Kilmainham jail on November 17th, after four anti-Treaty IRA members were caught in possession of revolvers. Before wars end a total of 81 executions were carried out, and one of them turned out to be that of Erskine Childers, who had acted as secretary to the Treaty negotiating team, and was later found with an automatic pistol.

                                                                                               Following the death of Michael Collins the war deteriorated into a ‘’no holds barred’’ contest, with little restraint exercised by either side. The pro-Treaty side accused the others of ignoring Red Cross symbols and white flags, of using fake surrenders and of leaving mines in abandoned positions to kill their soldiers. It was also around that time that the mistreatment of prisoners in Kilmainham and other jails began, which often resulted in hunger-strikes by the inmates. Near the end of November Liam Lynch, leader of the anti-Treaty forces, issued an order that anyone who had voted for the Public Safety Act, along with senators and judges and other high-profile Free State supporters, should be ‘’shot on sight’’.

                                                                                                There was far more burning of the ‘’big house’’ during the civil war than there had been during the War of Independence. There was also quite a number of ‘’ordinary’’ houses razed to the ground during the war of the brothers, following Liam Lynch’s issuing of an order late in 1922 that ‘’All Free State supporters are traitors and deserve the latter’s stark fate, therefore their houses must be destroyed at once’’. The burning of such houses went into overdrive, which prompted Dev into attempting to get Lynch to change his mind; ‘’We must on no account allow our contest to be sullied by stupid and foolish action’’. Lynch replied; ‘’The Free State is on the verge of collapse and the burnings are an important part’’. 

                                                                                                 In January of 1923 the burning campaign was widened to include attacks on the homes of newspaper owners, newspaper editors and even friends of pro-Treatyites. When Lynch later announced a policy to take hostages Dev immediately wrote to him; ‘’It will give rise to a competition in killing……..It is unjustifiable to take the life of an innocent person and make him suffer for the guilty, only the lives of those directly responsible for Free State government policy should be taken’’. From that particular statement its clear that Dev had no problem with the proposed killing of members of the government. Illegal killings were not only carried out by anti-Treaty forces, but also by members of the National Army and former close friends of Michael Collins in intelligence and The Squad. (Collins had once referred to The Squad as ‘’My Black ‘n’ Tans’’.)

                                                                                                   On January 26th the anti-Treaty IRA Adjutant General Con Moloney issued the following order; ‘’From the above date if any of our Prisoners of War are executed by the enemy the Senators in the attached list will be shot in reprisal’’. Members of the Senate were referred to as ‘’imperialists’’, ‘’freemasons’’ and ‘’Big Unionists’’, and many of them suffered the loss of their homes. There is no doubt that class hatred and sectarianism played some part in the proposed attacks on Senators, which included a close call on the wife of the poet and Senator W. B. Yates. Liam Lynch proposed that four Senators should be killed for every Republican executed; ‘’At least four’’. Dev countered that Unionists ‘’are far less to blame than some Republicans who went Free State’’.

                                                                                                   In March Lynch issued yet another outrageous order, known as the ‘’Amusements Order’’, which stated that if and when one more Republican was executed ‘’It is ordered that a time of national mourning be proclaimed, all sport and amusements be suspended, all picture houses and theatres and other places of public amusements be closed, especially horse riding, hunting, coursing, dancing and outdoor sports. Anyone refusing this order will be treated as an enemy of the Republic’’.

                                                                                                   By that time it was clear to everyone but Lynch that the war was lost and that the Free State was not about to collapse, yet he hoped to be able to destroy the Guinness brewery and Jameson distillery in Dublin, and to carry out cash robberies on government payrolls. He died in a shoot-out with army troops in the Knockmealdown mountains in county Tipperary on April 10th. The anti-Treaty IRA ordered ‘’Dump arms’’ on May 23rd’ The war was over, and Dev took the opportunity to issue the following statement; ‘’The public can no longer be defended by your arms. Further sacrifice of life would be in vain……..Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic. Other means must be found to safeguard the nation’s right’’.

                                                                                                    While the new state was not exactly bankrupt, it was in a very bad way financially. The war was estimated to have cost £47 million, an astronomical sum back in the day! As Ferriter points out; ‘’To repair infrastructural damage £10 million of £26.5 million spent on public services in 1922-23 was devoted to security and reconstruction’’.(p121) Loans had to be taken out in order to help finance a new Land Act so as to eliminate any agrarian discontent. The army and other armed forces had to be greatly reduced, and within a year the former was cut from 55,000 to 17,000 members, while their pay was cut by two-thirds. Bank and post-office robberies carried out by anti-Treaty forces continued until around the end of the year, but it needs to be stated that some members of the National Army facing demobilization also indulged in such activities. There were salary cuts for civil servants, and a cut of one shilling in the old-age pension. These were very trying times as the new state attempted to move forward following the devastating war.

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                                                                                                    Dev founded the Fianna Fail party in 1926, and broke with the anti-Treaty IRA. In the following year himself and his fellow T.D’s decided to take their Dail seats after it was made law that anyone who did not do so would be invalidated. All T’D’s had to take the oath before entering the Dail, but Dev now called it an ‘’empty formula’’, having once heard Lloyd George refer to it as a ‘’formula’’. So, did all those people who had lost their lives during the war die for an ‘’empty formula’’? One party member, Sean Lemass, had this advice; ‘’Fianna Fail T’D’s should not talk to Free State ministers in Leinster House. It should be the rule of the party that members should not conduct any business with Cumann na nGaedhael ministers or deputies in a bar or restaurant and that fraternization under any circumstances be not permitted’’. What a great way to help conduct the country’s business!

                                                                                                     During the 1920’s over 400,000 people left the Free State for the UK and the US, while the government attempted to right the financial situation and sort out the land problem. Fianna Fail took over the reins of government following the 1932 general election and made many improvements, which included a major urban housing programme.

                                                                                                     They also brought in pensions for those who had taken part in anti-Treaty activity during the civil was, wishing to reward those who had almost bankrupt the country. Only in Ireland! There was a military pension already in place for those who had served in the National Army, and some of the applications from both sides read like a black comedy, although it was hardly a laughing matter for many back in the day.

                                                                                                     One applicant, pro-Treaty, pleaded that he had ‘’nine children’’ plus 12 acres of ‘’very bad land and 4 cows’’. One might well ask why have nine children if you are living in very poor circumstances? A family of seven, anti-Treaty, had lost a ‘’working son’’ during the war and lived on ‘’a small farm of poor wet land, which is the grass of about 8 cows’’. One might also ask how the family had managed while that once ‘’working son’’ had been away from home fighting? There were other interesting claims, including quite a number from people whose health had deteriorated because they had been exposed to inclement weather conditions while marching or fighting. Some even wrote of the strain of lifting sandbags for barricades during war-time. One man found it ‘’very hard to rear family in one room’’ while maintaining an arms dump in the other room. And so on, and so on.

                                                                                                     Ferriter’s chapter on the Old IRA Pension is quite interesting, but what he wrote on the change of government in 1932 is questionable; ‘’Subsequently, there was a tendency to laud Cosgrave exaggeratedly for agreeing to transfer power’’ (p210). Yes, that outgoing government did accept the will of the people, but what a great pity that the will of the people had not been accepted following the 1922 election! And because it had not been accepted there were many hundreds dead and injured, economic stagnation, an increased level of emigration and a legacy of bitterness lasting for generations. And for what? An ‘’empty formula’’?

                                                                                                      In December of 1931 the ‘’Statute of Westminster’’ was voted through the British Parliament, which stated that laws passed in Britain were no longer binding on the Dominions, and that the Dominions could pass laws without referring back to Britain! Therefore, the Free State could repudiate anything it wished in the Treaty, including the oath! The government of the Free State had played its part in having the Statute placed on the books during discussions with the London government. Just ten years on, and Collins was beginning to be proven correct! Shortly afterwards, following the 1932 election, Dev seized the opportunity and abolished the oath, proclaiming; ‘’Such advances had ‘practically’ achieved for the Free State what I was aiming at in 1921……..I am prepared to confess that there had been advances made that I did not believe would be made’’. At least he admitted that he had not been able to foretell the future, unlike Collins.

                                                                                                      After entering government Fianna Fail started an economic war with Britain over the with-holding of land annuities owed under historic land-purchase schemes. That war caused much distress to dairy farmers when Britain imposed duties in retaliation, and was finally settled by a payment of £10 million from the Free State government. During the 2nd World War Dev, in a complete turnabout from his civil war position, somehow managed to oversee the execution of seven IRA prisoners. Three more died on hunger-strike. Back in power in 1948, the newly named Fine Gael party declared a Republic during the following year. Twenty-seven years on, and Michael Collins had been completely vindicated!

                                                                                                      In 1948 Dev was interviewed by an American university student, and the final question asked by the young man was ‘’Do you have any regrets?’’. His reply was not something that is recorded in Fianna Fail history books; ‘’I should have accepted the Treaty and worked it’’. It was a long time for regrets.

Copyright 2024. Ron Walsh.