THE IRISH CIVIL WAR AND AFTERWARDS

THE IRISH CIVIL WAR, AND AFTERWARDS

                                                                      by Ron Walsh

                                                                                The Irish Civil War commenced in June of 1922, and lasted for almost eleven months, with the leader of the anti-Treaty section of the IRA announcing an end to the fighting the following May. The Treaty had been accepted by the Irish Parliament (the Dail) with a vote of 64 to 57. Eamon de Valera resigned as President, Arthur Griffith replaced him, and an election was held on June 25th 1922 where over 78% of the electorate voted to accept the Treaty, despite widespread intimidation by its opponents. In later years de Valera proclaimed that whenever he wanted to know what the Irish people wished for he had only to examine his own heart. It was a great pity that he had not taken note of what those very same people wished for on June 25th 1922.

                                                                                It was also a great pity that Dev had not taken a closer look at the returns from a local election held two years previously, on January 15th 1920, when Sinn Fein won 560 seats, Labour 394, Unionists 355, Home Rulers 238 and Independents 269. It showed that the electorate was by no means committed to an Irish Republic.

                                                                                With the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 the Westminster government finally delivered on its promise of Home Rule, but in the shape of two parliaments, one for the 26 counties and one for the remaining six counties. The War of Independence ended when a truce was accepted by Sinn Fein on July 11th 1921, and Dev began working on his formula of ‘’external association’’, which was his attempt to get over the problem of the Republic, and something that was never going to be accepted by Westminster. Sometime earlier he had asked Arthur Griffith to get him out of the strait-jacket of the Republic, and in September he advised that same man that ‘’there may have to be scapegoats’’.

                                                                                 Following two months of negotiations in London the Treaty was signed on December 5th 1921, which essentially conferred dominion status on the 26 counties, akin to that enjoyed by Canada. Dev was shocked on hearing the news, mainly because the signatories had not consulted him before signing, and immediately called a cabinet meeting of the four members who were in the country at that time, himself, Austin Stack, Cathal Brugha and W. T. Cosgrave. The three cabinet members amongst the five who had signed the Treaty were Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Robert Barton, but would not be arriving back in Dublin for another 24 hours. Dev stated that he would sack all three of them, but Cosgrave opposed the idea, whereupon the sacking was postponed until the absent three returned.

                                                                                  That postponement gave the Treaty a breathing space of another 24 hours, allowing time for a groundswell of popular opinion, fuelled by the press, to continue developing in its favour. The following day Griffith, Collins, Cosgrave and Barton voted in favour of the Treaty, with three opposing. It was decided to recommend it to Dail Eireann and to the Irish people, resulting in an acrimonious Dail debate which lasted from December 14th until January 10th. Apparently the only moment of levity occurred when Cosgrave was attacked for not wanting to rid the country of all British influence. Knowing that Dev loved the game of rugby and had little interest in native Irish sports, the dry-witted Cosgrave replied ‘’The best colleagues play foreign games. The President (Dev) can bear me out on that’’.

                                                                                  Over the following six months a new constitution was drawn up, while in March Rory O’Connor, leader of the anti-Treaty military wing of the IRA, repudiated the authority of the Dail, and was supported by Dev and his followers. While Dev did not control the anti-Treaty IRA, his fiery speeches must certainly have inspired many into taking up arms. On April 13th a number of anti-Treaty supporters led by O’Connor seized the Four Courts, which finally resulted in the Civil War breaking out two months later. Guns were back on the streets and byways of Ireland once again.

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                                                                                   The lives of all members of the Provisional Government were in danger, and they were forced to live in government buildings on Upper Merrion Street for protection, together with their families. In September of 1922 the cabinet enacted the Emergency Powers Bill, which imposed the death penalty for serious offences, including the possession of weapons. A short grace-period was given for anyone wanting to surrender their guns, but few availed of the option, and the special powers came into effect on October 15th. The first executions were carried out one month later, after four young men found guilty of carrying unauthorised weapons in Dublin were shot by firing squad.

                                                                                    Erskine Childers, a former member of the government prior to the Treaty split was on the run, and he was captured at his cousin’s home in Wicklow, in possession of a handgun. (The gun had been gifted to him some years previously by Michael Collins) He was tried and convicted by a military court and executed the following morning.

                                                                                    August saw the deaths of Griffith and Collins, the former following a stroke, the latter by assassination. In the Dail W. T. Cosgrave was elected President of the Executive Council, succeeding Griffith. Some time later he issued the following statement ‘’What do we want? We simply want order restored to this country. We want all arms under control of the people who elected us. We want that the people of this country only shall have the right to say who are to be armed and who are not. And we are going to get the arms if we have to search every house in the country. People who rob with arms are going to be brought before military courts and found guilty. Persons robbing at the point of the gun will be executed without discrimination. This is going to be a fair law, fairly administered in the best interests of the country for the preservation of the fabric of society’’. He also maintained that the law would apply to the ‘’intellectual Childers’’, just as it had to ‘’four poor men’s sons’’.

                                                                                     Liam Lynch, the IRA Chief of Staff, announced that 14 categories of people were directed to be ‘’shot at sight’’, including all members of the Provisional Dail who had voted in favour of the Emergency Powers Act. Republicans were also ordered to kill members of the Senate, High Court judges, journalists and proprietors of hostile newspapers, and even ‘’aggressive Free State supporters’’. The homes and offices of all these people were also to be destroyed, as were the homes of ‘’imperialist deputy lieutenants of the county types’’, mainly Protestants.

                                                                                      On December 6th the new Constitution was enacted by the Dail and the Free State formally came into being. The next day two Dail deputies were gunned down in Dublin city, Sean Hales was killed, while Padraic O Maille was wounded. A cabinet meeting was immediately called and Richard Mulcahy, who was Army Chief of Staff and Minister for Defence, proposed the immediate execution of four imprisoned IRA leaders, Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barrett and Joe McKelvey. They died by firing-squad on the following day in Mountjoy Jail.

                                                                                      On December 10th the house of Deputy McGarry in Dublin was burned down, which resulted in his 7 year old son dying from his burns. On the 28th a landmine destroyed the music warehouse of Deputy McCullough, while on Januart 13th Cosgrave’s own home in Templeogue was burned down. A few weeks later Dr. T. F. O’Higgins (father of Kevin O’Higgins, government minister who would be shot dead by members of the anti-Treaty IRA four years after the end of the civil war) was murdered at his home in Stradbally, county Laois. Cosgrave’s uncle, Patrick, was murdered at the family home in James’ Street, Dublin.

                                                                                      There was also an orgy of burning and destruction of some of the country’s finest houses, which sent a number of Irish people into exile in despair. They included the destruction of Kilteragh House, owned by Horace Plunkett (the architect of Ireland’s agricultural co-operative), the burning of the historic Moore Hall in Mayo, the destruction of one of the finest libraries in the country at the ancestral home of Senator John Bagwell in Clonmel, and the burning of Desart Court in county Kilkenny. The homes of all these people were attacked because of their owners connections with the Senate. There were 199 such burnings/destructions during the civil war.

                                                                                        Into 1932, and the government continued its executions policy in order to deal with Republican outrages. A refinement of the policy, which brought much success, was to sentence Republicans to death, but to suspend the sentence as long as there were no further outrages in the area concerned. It played its part in helping to end the war.

                                                                                               Following an approach from Dev Cosgrave sent a message to him outlining the governments peace terms ‘’That all political issues whether now existing, or in the future arising, shall be decided by the majority vote of the elected representatives of the people. That the people are entitled to have all lethal weapons within the country in the effective custody or control of the Executive Government responsible to the people through their representatives’’. Dev turned down the terms but Cosgrave replied ‘’We are not prepared to take any risk with regard to the possession of arms by people who do not realise their responsibilities as citizens’’. The anti-Treaty IRA was in no position to bargain and on May 14th Frank Aiken, IRA Chief of Staff, ordered the IRA to stop fighting and to dump arms.

                                                                                                Although the National Army did manage to collect a certain number of anti-Treaty arms, the vast amount of them remained hidden. Not a good idea to leave the defeated side almost fully armed. As the O.C. of Dublin 2 Brigade wrote in a memo ‘’the arms are perfectly safe’’. For some time Frank Aiken was simply waiting for another opportunity to present itself to take up arms again. Oscar Traynor, once head of the Dublin Brigade, was court- martialled and expelled from the IRA for surrendering arms after the ‘’dump arms’’ order.

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                                                                                                The government faced the cold reality of attempting to build a state from the shattered dreams which had been enjoyed at the time of the Treaty-signing, now ruined by fratricide and destruction. The damage to the infrastructure of the country was immense. In September a general election was called and Cumann na nGaedheal, led by W. T. Cosgrave, won 63 seats out of 153. Not enough for an overall majority, but as the Republicans who had won 45 seats decided to boycott the Dail, it was enough for a comfortable working majority. A tight fiscal approach was adopted, with cuts made to the old-age pension and public servants salaries. Those same cuts would later be turned against the government by the very people whose activities during the civil war had made the austere measures necessary in the first place.

                                                                                                The decision to build the electricity-generating plant at Ardnacrusha in such bleak times was forward thinking of a high level, while the sugar beet industry also came into being, with factories built in Thurles and Carlow. There was also a new Land Act which saw the final transfer of land from the landlords to the tenant farmers. However Cosgrave managed to make some dreadful decisions also, which had everything to do with his subservience to the Church of Rome.

                                                                                                He introduced a bill to the Dail which banned divorce, supporting it thus, ‘’I consider that the whole fabric of our social organisation is based upon the sanctity of the marriage bond, and that everything that tends to weaken the binding efficacy of that bond to that extent strikes at the root of our social life’’. While Cosgrave certainly lived a cloistered life, interested only in politics, family, and horse-racing, even by the 1920’s it was obvious that to a large extent the ‘’sanctity of the marriage bond’’ was partially a myth. Historian Ronan Fanning has argued that because of ‘’centuries of British repression of, and discrimination against Irish Catholics......’’ that the ban on divorce should have been expected. Because Northern Ireland turned out to be a state for Protestants only, it was also okay for the Free State to become a home for Catholics only!

                                                                                                 Because there was gerrymandering in Northern Ireland, and there had been plenty of it in Derry, it was now okay to gerrymander in the Free State? The two main political parties in the south made no secret of their love to gerrymander, and indulged in it quite often. W. T. Cosgrave was as much enslaved to the Church of Rome as de Valera was, and the censoring of what Joe Public could read or view was yet another example of ‘’Big Brother Is Watching’’, and knows better. So behave yourself.

                                                                                                 Although the civil war had ended intermittent violence continued to take place for some time, with post-office robberies still taking place, and not all of them carried out by anti-Treaty IRA members. They were also carried out by members of the National Army, who were facing demobilisation because of massive downsizing, and seeking a big payday before joining the unemployed. In March of 1924 there was an attempted mutiny by a small section of the army, mainly those associated with Army Intelligence, who, as their demobilisation date drew near, began plotting a coup and set about collecting a substantial number of weapons. They talked of uniting the country and securing a Republic, but mainly it was all about ‘’personal jealousies and ambitions’’. When Richard Mulcahy was warned that the plotters were holding a meeting in Devlin’s hotel, heavily armed troops intervened, with everyone arrested following a short firefight.

                                                                                                  During the civil war numerous murders had been carried out, and by both sides. Rapes also. But when the war came to a halt that did not put an end to illegal killings. Three anti-Treaty IRA members were killed by clandestine pro-Treaty forces in Dublin shortly after the ceasefire, the most famous one being that of Noel Lemass. He had been arrested in August of 1922, but escaped from prison and went to England where he remained until the end of hostilities. Back in Dublin he resumed work as an engineer with the Corporation, but disappeared that July. Two months later his badly decomposed body was found in a remote part of the Dublin Mountains. He had been shot.

                                                                                                   Richard Mulcahy reported that some 900 National Army soldiers had been convicted of crimes between December 1922 and March1924. Three of them for manslaughter, in Dublin, and six more for murder in Kerry. They had all been committed after war’s end. There were also cases of rape and attempted rape in Cork and Claremorris. The vast majority of anti-Treaty IRA prisoners were released in December of 1923, while a complete amnesty was announced eleven months later.

                                                                                                   Many people had hopes that the Boundary Commission might bequeath some portions of Northern Ireland to the south, but that did not happen. However it did recommend the transfer of Catholic South Armagh to the Free State, if Protestant East Donegal was allowed to make the reverse trip! But the Cosgrave government decided that it would rather hold on to East Donegal than gain South Armagh.

                                                                                                  In May of 1926 de Valera left Sinn Fein to establish Fianna Fail, and in the following years general election managed to win 44 seats, as opposed to Cumann na nGaedheal’s 47. But as the opposition remained committed to an abstentionist policy Cosgrave remained in power. In July Kevin O’Higgins was murdered, an event which prompted the government to introduce a harsh Public Safety Bill, and also the Electoral Amendment Bill. The latter required that in future all candidates for the Dail would have to take the oat of allegiance to the Crown, otherwise they would be ineligible. After due consideration Dev decided to swallow the oat and enter parliament. Both main parties cobbled together a possible government team, but Cosgrave once again managed to hold onto power.

                                                                                                   At the Imperial Conference of 1931 Britain granted the dominions full legal autonomy, effectively giving the Free State internationally recognised independence, and proving that Michael Collins knew what he had been talking about when claiming that the Treaty was simply a ‘’stepping stone’’ which would eventually lead to complete freedom. Cosgrave called a general election in early 1932, but with Fianna Fail receiving support from the IRA, many Cumann na nGaedheal speakers had difficulty being heard as the campaign got increasingly disruptive, which resulted in numerous street fights where the police often had to intervene with drawn batons. Whatever the result of the fights, Fianna Fail won 72 seats to 57. A time for change.

                                                                                                   Two days prior to the election, a Cumann na nGaedheal T.D., Patrick Reynolds, was assassinated in county Leitrim, while a Garda Detective was murdered in the same incident. When the Dail assembled on the 9th of March 1932 many Fianna Fail T. D’s carried revolvers into the chamber, fearing that there was likely to be a coup carried out by the National Army. It was true that a few people on the former government side had contemplated such an event, including the Garda Commissioner Eoin O’Duffy, a man who was both unstable and incompetent. Professor Joe Lee has written, ‘’Cosgrave would do the ship of State one final service by the manner in which he quietly left the bridge and handed over the wheel to the rival captain. It was his finest hour’’.

                                                                                                    One of de Valera’s first decisions as prime minister was to release all IRA prisoners in jail at the time, which helped to ensure that the political atmosphere became increasingly intimidating. With Fianna Fail receiving support and encouragement from Dev’s recently established ‘’Irish Press’’ newspaper, free speech was in short supply to the opposition. IRA leader Frank Ryan summed it up trenchantly ‘’No matter what anyone says to the contrary, while we have fists, and boots to use, and guns if necessary, we will not allow free speech to traitors’’.

                                                                                                     Against such a backdrop the Army Comrades Association was founded, in order to protect Cumann na nGaedheal supporters from IRA harassment. Eoin O’Duffy took over the leadership of the ACA, having been dismissed as Garda Commissioner by de Valera, and in 1933 Cumann na nGaedheal merged with ACA (now nicknamed the ‘’Blueshirts’’) and the Centre Party to form Fine Gael. Although not a T.D. himself O’Duffy was elected leader of the new party, which turned out to be a complete disaster as his beliefs and behaviour gave Fine Gael’s opponents plenty of reasons to portray the party as fascist’s. Most Blueshirts saw themselves as democrats, supporting constitutional freedoms against the IRA threat, but there were some who did contemplate dictatorship. O’Duffy’s colleagues found him almost impossible to work with, and he resigned the leadership after a year.

                                                                                                     Cosgrave was shortly elected leader of Fine Gael, and faced the difficult task of attempting to rid the party of its fascist image. It was a volte-face for W. T. as he watched de Valera become the defender of law and order, and democracy, against the threat being posed by the Blueshirts. As Professor Joe Lee has written, Fine Gael was ‘’less adept than Fianna Fail in exploiting the fascistic rhetoric of Nationalism’’.

                                                                                                     After less than twelve months in office Dev called a snap election early in 1933, which resulted in his party loosing eight seats. Fine Gael gained a number of votes, but not a single extra seat, as there had been a major revision of the constituencies, in order to protect the Fianna Fail party. A gerrymander, which both parties would make good use of over the years. Dev had to rely on the support of the Labour Party to remain in power.

                                                                                                     Until 1932 the Free State and Britain had been close trading partners, with 90% of all Irish agricultural exports going to its next-door neighbour, and with Ireland dependent on British coal. Land annuities had been paid to Britain since 1922, at a rate of £5 million per year, which were repayments of loans from the Westminster government, previously used by tenants to buy land. In June of 1932 Dev stopped the payments, knowing that Northern Ireland had been allowed to retain its annuities some seven years previously. He also refused to continue paying the pensions of retired RIC officers, and former British civil servants.

                                                                                                     Britain struck back by imposing a 20% duty on all goods from the Free State, and later putting quotas on livestock. In this tit-for-tat game Dev retaliated by placing import duties on most goods from Britain and Northern Ireland, including coal, cement, electrical goods, machinery, iron and steel. His reasoning was that the economic war would lead to self-sufficiency by producing everything that was needed inside the Free State itself. But the effect was that the economy almost collapsed, costing around £48 million, with the cattle industry nearly destroyed because of a 35% drop in exports. And with a vast surplus of beef at home, prices fell dramatically. Great for the consumer, but not for the producer. As no new export markets were available, many farmers went bankrupt.

                                                                                                      Unemployment in the Free State had stood at 29,000 in 1931, but by 1935 it had jumped to 138,000, with the cost of living rising sharply and the standard of living falling. There was also a chronic shortage of coal, ensuring cutbacks in electricity generation and rail transport. Emigration rose in line with unemployment. However the lack of coal caused a large growth in the local peat industry, while new cement factories also came into being. Northern Ireland was hit badly, with smuggling increasing dramatically, but its farmers supplied Britain with the missing beef.

                                                                                                      In 1935 the two protagonists signed the Coal-Cattle Pact, which eased some of the economic pressures. Dev introduced a new constitution in 1937 in which the state was named ‘’Ireland’’, thus effectively becoming a republic (It would officially become a republic in 1949). In that same year British prime minister Neville Chamberlain decided that he intended returning control of the three Treaty ports to Ireland, hoping that relations would improve between both countries, and that it would assist Britain if a war broke out. In January of 1938 negotiations began in a final attempt to sort out the economic war.

                                                                                                      It concluded with a final agreed payment of £10 million to end the land annuities, a good deal for Ireland, while the country was allowed to impose duties on a number of British imports in order to protect new industries. And the Treaty ports were finally returned. Dev asked Chamberlain for a declaration against partition, which had as much hope of being granted as a snowballs chance in hell. And the agreement did not end the cross-border boycott with Northern Ireland. Dev soon called a snap election to capitalise on the achievements, which paid off handsomely. Fianna Fail won 52% of the vote, its best ever performance, with Fine Gael’s share falling to 33%.

                                                                                                      Dev had outlawed the IRA in 1936 following a series of murders, and after the outbreak of the 2nd World War he brought in Acts that were very similar to those imposed by Cosgrave during the civil war, which he had complained bitterly about at the time. The ‘’Offences Against The State Act’’ arrived in 1939, and then the 1940 ‘’Emergency Powers Amendment Act’’. They came about mainly in response to a bombing campaign commenced by the IRA in England, who had previously made contact with the Nazi’s. IRA Chief of Staff Sean Russell had gone to Berlin where he had met high-ranking members of the government, and promised to aid Germany during the war. Over 200 bombs were set off around England, generally causing only minimal damage.

                                                                                                      However a bomb detonated in Coventry city late in 1939 killed five civilians which, naturally, infuriated the British government, with Dev being informed that the IRA’s conduct would threaten Ireland’s neutrality. Shortly afterwards one million rounds of ammunition was stolen from the Phoenix Park Magazine Fort, following which Dev decided to clamp down hard on the IRA by introducing the harsh ‘’Emergency Powers Act’’, bringing in internment, and the death penalty for subversive acts.

                                                                                                      In January 1940 Garda Detective John Roche was shot dead in Cork city by Thomas Og MacCurtain, son of the former Cork Lord Mayor murdered by British forces during the War of Independence, who was in the process of being arrested as a member of the IRA. A number of bank robberies were carried out by the IRA at the time, but mass internment put a stop to its activities. In total five Garda were killed during World War 2. Twenty-one between the years 1922 to 1949.

                                                                                                      During the war years many IRA prisoners went on hunger strike, although the majority did not end in death. But on April 16th 1940 Anthony D’Arcy died after 52 days on hunger strike. Sean MacBride (son of Maud Gonne MacBride and her husband John MacBride, one of the executed 1916 leaders) who had been Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to ‘37, pleaded that anyone ‘’convicted for political reasons should be awarded political status’’. Dev depicted the starvation of a hunger striker as a self-imposed, if undesirable, tragedy, while Maud Gonne pleaded for the lives of all the hunger strikers. One of the strikers was Jack Plunkett, brother of Joseph Plunkett, yet another of the executed 1916 leaders, and Maud Gonne asked ‘’Is it necessary that another prisoner should die before the prison code is altered to recognise political status?’’.

                                                                                                       On April 19th 1940 Jack McNeela died following 55 days on hunger strike, and in April 1946, almost one year after the ending of the war in Europe, former IRA Chief of Staff Sean McCaughey decided to go on hunger strike, dying after 23 days. He had been sentenced to death for his IRA activity, but later it had been commuted to life. McNeela was the last hunger strike death until 1981 in Northern Ireland. Dev’s strategy proved successful in quelling hunger strikes, and he was also the first politician to successfully undermine the power of the hunger strike as a weapon of political confrontation.

                                                                                                       Under the Fianna Fail government seven IRA men were executed between 1940 and 1944, five by firing squad, two by hanging. During the civil war much opprobrium had been visited on the Free State government because of the executions of IRA prisoners at that time, but there is little or no mention of the executions under the de Valera government during the 2nd World War. Nor of the dead hunger strikers. They are simply not part of Fianna Fail history.

                                                                                                       An election was held in 1943 which resulted in the Fine Gael vote dropping even further. While Fianna Fail’s also fell, Dev was back in power in a minority government. But he called a snap election the following year which worked out very well for him, as his party romped home to a comfortable majority. W. T. Cosgrave, disappointed and disillusioned with politics, decided to step down as party leader prior to the 1944 election. It was the end of an era for Fine Gael.

                                                                                                       An earlier political casualty for Fine Gael during the 2nd World War had been James Dillon, deputy leader under Cosgrave, who resigned in 1942 over his stance on Irish neutrality. His party supported the governments decision to stay out of the war, but Dillon urged it to at least side with the Allies, while his zeal against Hitler drew the ire of the German Minister to Ireland, Eduard Hempel, who denounced him as a ‘’Jew’’ and ‘’German hater’’. Dev ridiculed Dillon’s stark support for the Allies, having no wish to be seen as pro-British, but Dillon’s reply turned out to be a classic put-down, something not mentioned in the Fianna Fail play-book. ‘’My ancestors fought for Ireland down the centuries on the continent of Europe, while yours were banging banjos and bartering budgies in the backstreets of Barcelona’’. He later rejoined Fine Gael and served as a T.D. for Monaghan from 1937 to 1969.

                                                                                                       At the commencement of the 2nd World War, Ireland, a member of the British Commonwealth, declared neutrality. While Churchill’s anger and bewilderment was palpable, his cabinet held him back from any out-and-out public condemnation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s response was also publicly restrained, but privately his anger and scorn for Irish neutrality was as apparent as Churchill’s. That decision by Ireland barred Britain from using the three Treaty ports, Cobh, Lough Swilly and Berehaven, from where it could have launched anti-submarine operations against the German U-boats operating in the Atlantic, which were causing havoc amongst the convoys bringing much-needed goods from America The ports usefulness receded after the first three years of the war when Allied bases opened up in Iceland, and because of the increased range of Allied aircraft. But the long-term effect was to antagonise Roosevelt and Churchill, with both leaders taking a dim view of Irish arguments.

                                                                                                       David Gray, who was United States wartime representative in Dublin, demanded that Ireland practice a benevolent non-belligerency by allowing access to the Treaty ports, but with no success. While numbers in the Irish Army were increasing, the Air Corps had only four effective fighters, and the Navy had to made do with just two patrol boats. In July of 1940, as Britain became concerned about the country’s ability to defend itself, it gifted 20,000 US rifles to Ireland. In a speech given in December of 1940, President Roosevelt made a passing reference to Ireland. ‘’Analyse for yourself the future if Germany won. Could Ireland hold out? Would Irish freedom be permitted as an amazing pet exception in an unfree world?’’.

                                                                                                       Government Minister Frank Aiken was sent to the US in March of 1941, where his main task was to influence American public opinion in his country’s favour. But Aiken went way over the top, making speeches that alienated Roosevelt and his administration, which provoked the President to comment ‘’When will you Irishmen ever get over hating England? Remember, if Britain goes down, Ireland goes down too’’. They both met for dinner at the White House, during which Roosevelt asked Aiken if it was true that he had said ‘’Ireland had nothing to fear from a German victory’’. While Aiken denied the comment he did ask the President to ‘’support us in our stand against aggression’’, receiving the reply ‘’German aggression, yes’’. When Aiken retorted ‘’British aggression too’’, Roosevelt shouted ‘’Nonsense’’, and showed his feelings by pulling the tablecloth from the table, sending cutlery and plates flying in the direction of all 48 states.

                                                                                                       Roosevelt and Churchill met in D.C. late in 1941, prior to Perl Harbor, with both leaders agreeing that the US would take over the defence of all of Ireland, and would send troops to replace British troops in Northern Ireland. Roosevelt even joked that ‘’If we put the 69th Regiment (conspicuously Irish) in south Ireland we could probably get them to do some fighting, and not so much talking’’. When US forces were stationed in Northern Ireland in January 1942 Dev complained that the move was an approval of partition. However the danger of a German invasion of the British Isles ended soon after Hitler’s invasion of Russia, which commenced in June 1941. 

                                                                                                        In December 1942 the British broke the German diplomatic code, enabling them to read traffic to and from the German legation in Dublin, but they did not share that information with Ireland. It was not until the middle of 1944 that Britain’s MI5 and America’s OSS Intelligence finally agreed to exchange information relating to Ireland. By then it was obvious to everyone that the Allies were going to win the war.

                                                                                                        Hitler committed suicide inside his bunker under the Reich Chancellery on 30th April 1945, and six days later Germany officially surrendered. The war in Europe was over. On May 2nd Dev committed a silly and embarrassing act by calling on minister Eduard Hampel at the German Ligation, and offering condolences on the Nazi leaders death. (President Douglas Hyde called to the German Ligation on the following day, with further condolences) Many excuses have been made for Dev’s action on that day, but the most common one is that international diplomatic protocol dictates that a country sends condolences when the Head of State of another country with which it has diplomatic relations dies in office. It also dictates that you fly your country’s flag at half-mast out of respect, which Ireland didn’t do. Although it did on Roosevelt’s death. 

                                                                                                        Switzerland had been neutral during the war, like Spain, Ireland, and a few other countries, but its government did not follow Dev’s actions, claiming that it had not been officially informed by Germany of Hitler’s death. Which was true, but no country had been so informed, not even Ireland, as the German government had more than enough to worry about at the time.

                                                                                                        Another neutral country, Portugal, did fly its flag at half-mast, but managed to get away with it because it had allowed the Allies the use of bases in the Azores for the duration of the war. Portugal had been good to everyone, having extended favourable trade terms with Britain during the conflict, but also continued to supply goods and tungsten, an essential material for the arms industry, to the Nazi’s until mid-1944. By then, everyone knew who was going to win.

And then there was neutral Spain, whose Foreign Minister paid a condolence visit to its German Embassy, but had the good sense to keep the information away from the media. Spain also claimed neutrality but had seen to it that German U-boats were serviced in its island colony, Fernando Po, off West Africa, during the early years of the war. It also supplied and serviced German ships and U-boats in Spanish ports for the first few years of the war, mainly Las Palmas and Vigo, until Britain protested that they were breaking neutrality laws. Spain also sent a military unit of 15,000 men, the ‘’Blue Division’’, to fight in Russia alongside the Nazi’s.

                                                                                                       In his Victory in Europe Day speech to the world on May 2nd 1945 Churchill had something to say about Ireland’s neutrality. ‘’His Majesty’s Government never laid a hand upon them – because it was not worth the trouble – and we left the de Valera Government to frolic with the German’s, and later with Japanese representatives, to their heart’s content’’. Somewhat inaccurate and insulting. Dev replied three days later ‘’All credit to him that he successfully resisted the temptation, which I have no doubt many times assailed him in his difficulties, and to which I freely admit many leaders might have succumbed to. It is indeed hard for the strong to be just to the weak, but acting justly always has its rewards’’. A measured response.

                                                                                                       Following the war some disillusionment with Fianna Fail began spreading amongst the voters, and a new party, Clann na Poblachta, was founded by former IRA leader Sean MacBride. But in the 1948 general election both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael lost votes, while Independents managed to win twelve seats.‘’Put them out’’ had been the slogan for the opposition parties during the run-in, and now Fine Gael, Labour, National Labour, Clann na Polachta, and another new party, Clann na Talmhan, came together to form a government. John A. Costello, Fine Gael’s new party leader, led the government and Sean MacBride was appointed Minister for External Affairs. The Independent T.D. James Dillon, who would rejoin his former party in 1952, was given the post of Minister for Agriculture.

                                                                                                       During one of the 1948 Dail debates the proposal of repealing the ‘’External Relations Act’’ was discussed, which resulted in Costello announcing that legislation would be enacted which would remove the residual role of the King in Irish law, and that the state would be called the ‘’Republic of Ireland’’. The British Parliament then passed the ‘’Ireland Act 1949’’, which acknowledged that Ireland had ‘’ceased to be part of His Majesty’s dominions, and of the Commonwealth’’, but would not be a ‘’foreign country for the purpose of any law’’. On April 18th 1949 the Republic of Ireland came into being, with the international and diplomatic functions previously exercised by the King now vested in the President of Ireland.

During that same year the Industrial Development Board (IDA) was established, despite strong opposition from Fianna Fail, while other projects included the setting up of the Trade Board. The first contact since independence with Stormont ministers also took place, involving the Erne hydro-electric project, and the Great Northern Railway, with the latter project concluded by Sean Lemass after Fianna Fail regained power in 1951.

It is still part of Irish myth that the 1948-51 government collapsed because of a State-Church crisis, but the real reason is because two Independents withdrew their support over the price of milk. However it was the chaos generated by the Mother and Child Scheme which finally provided the knock-out blow, and made Dr. Noel Brown a martyr. The doctors Mother and Chile Scheme was designed to provide free ante and post-natal care for mothers, and free medical care for children up to the age of 16, without a means test. The Catholic church opposed the absence of a means test, stating that it would be an unacceptable level of state intervention in medicine. In March of 1951 Brown announced the scheme, without having obtained cabinet approval, and when the church cried ‘’no’’ he was asked to resign. Three months later Fianna Fail were back in office in a minority government.

In 1955 the Republic of Ireland joined the United Nations, following a lengthy veto by the Soviet Union, and in 1973 joined the European Communities (now the European Union), having being turned away by a French veto in 1961, and having to improve its female-rights legislation in order to be accepted.

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Since the signing of the ‘’Good Friday Agreement’’ in 1998, while relations between the Republic and Northern Ireland have had their up and down moments, the idea of bombing and killing as a means of obtaining a United Ireland has been reduced to a very low level. The knowledge that whenever a poll is held in that small state on the question of unity, 50% plus one vote will swing it, has the Sinn Fein leader demanding it tomorrow. Even the Dublin government gets carried away at times. Assuming of course that every Catholic living in Northern Ireland with the vote, will be doing so with the aim of unity. That is certainly not a given, as previous polls have indicated. We shall find out eventually.

Inspecting a map of the world can be extremely interesting, especially if one has researched the history of every single country. An enormous task, but it does inform us that almost every country has, over the centuries, gained and lost territory at a somewhat high rate, with wars, revolutions, private vendetta’s, and all sorts of shenanigans causing the eruptions. Ireland is not unique.

The earliest inhabitants of this country were those well-known Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, who arrived way back in the 7,000’s BC, and who lost out to those French-speaking Neolithic peoples sometime around 4,000BC. Tombs dotted around the countryside are, in fact, Neolithic. Those local-yokels were given the bum’s rush by the Bell-Beaker Bronze Age people who turned-up a few thousand years later. Later again the Celts arrived, a loose grouping of peoples that covered most of Western Europe in pre-Roman times, including Scots, Irish, Welsh, old English, Iberians, and Italians.

The Milesians were the first Celtic tribe to arrive in Ireland, somewhere around 500BC. The term Celtic refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany in NW France. Its also interesting to note that the earliest surviving written references to Ireland are in Roman and Greek.

In 1169 a group of Norman soldiers and Knights arrived in Wexford (today over half the population of county Wexford have Norman ancestors) to help the recently deposed King of Leinster Diarmuid MacMurrough regain his kingdom. He had been deposed by the High King of Ireland with the help of Rory O’Connor, who was the King of Connaught. If all the Irish Kings, and even Queens, had fought together instead of against each other, Ireland would never have been over-run.

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The 5th Amendment to the Irish Constitution (1973) removed the special position of the Catholic church, and the recognition of other named religions. At least that was the idea. Yet in the Preamble to the Constitution these words remain; ‘’In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, We, the people of Eire, Humbly acknowledge all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,’’. That piece certainly does not read as though the Catholic church has lost its special place, and in to-days world where religious beliefs have been on a sharp downward curve for years, it reads as no more than anachronistic rubbish.

Articles 2 and 3 claimed that the entire island of Ireland formed one ‘’national territory’’, but they were replaced by a new wording in 1999, which was intended to reassure unionists that a United Ireland would not happen without the consent of a majority of the Northern Ireland electorate. Yet after the words ‘’Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial’’ in the Constitution’s Preamble comes the following ‘’Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our nation’’. Nothing very reassuring for unionists there.

In the Constitution Irish is listed as the first official language, with English as the second. Despite the fact that it would be almost impossible to find anyone in the country who does not speak English. Yet millions of good taxpayers money is wasted each year in translating new laws, rules, Dail debates, road signs, and millions of other signs, into Irish. Why? Is it because Big Brother is expecting not only a United Ireland sometime soon, but that by then everyone will be speaking Irish in that new Ireland?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with anyone wishing to speak Irish. Or Swahili, or Double Dutch, if that is their wish. Years ago when someone wished to build a big extension onto his home he wrote the public application in Irish so that his neighbours would have no idea what he was up to. Today Irish MEP’s can listen to all debates in the European parliament translated into Irish. What a blessing. Everyone of those Irish MEP’s can speak English, so why the need? But how many of them can speak Irish? That appears to be a State secret. Every other nationality can have the debates translated into the language of his (or hers) own country. We do it the other way around. Okay, I know that Irish is the official language.

When ringing a Government agency nowadays one is often put holding-on for what seems like hours. And it often is. So here is a wonderful way to get through immediately. When you are asked if you wish to talk to an Irish-speaking operator, or an English-speaking on, always opt for the former. That particular operator, who has not spoken to anyone for months, maybe years, will be so glad to finally talk to anyone in any language that she might even converse in Swahili, if required.

One final comment. The Irish governments answer to the massive problem persisting in the Middle East is a two-state solution. But why is it insisting on a one-state solution for Ireland? A contradiction in terms.

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My research sources are ; ‘’Wounds’’ by Fergal Keane ; ‘’The Civil War In Dublin’’ by John Dorney ; ‘’Michael Collins’’ by Tim Pat Coogan ; ‘’The Cosgrave Legacy’’ by Stephen Collins ; and others. Also many newspaper and on-line articles.

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Copyright Ron Walsh 2024.

         THE IRISH CIVIL WAR AND AFTERWARDS                                                                                              

      THE IRISH CIVIL WAR AND AFTERWARDS