The Irish Civil War 1922-1923

The Irish Civil War (28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict
between those factions of the IRA for and against the Anglo-Irish Treaty
signed on 6 December 1922. The treaty arose out of the Irish War of
Independence between Britain and the IRA.

Neil Cafferky and Niall Mulholland

After the death of James Connolly in 1916, the Labour leaders gave
the national and social liberation mantle to nationalist leaders, whose
narrower agenda could not win northern Protestants. The potential for
heightened class struggle from 1918 onwards – general strikes, land
seizures, creation of ‘soviets’ – was lost, as the War of Independence
began in earnest with the newly formed IRA and Sinn Fein at its head.

This was a largely rural guerilla struggle against British colonial
brutality. Sinn Fein leaders were mainly from the middle and
lower-middle classes, and wanted to become the rulers of new independent
state. Most IRA fighters were urban workers and the rural poor. Many
instinctively wanted social and national liberation.

War exhaustion, stalemate and fear that the aspirations of the masses
would spill over to a struggle for social and economic liberation, led
to both a section of republican leaders and the British to sign the 1921
Treaty.

Rather than creating a fully independent republic as favoured by most
Irish nationalists, the Treaty created an Irish Free State that was
still a dominion of the British Empire. Opponents of the treaty objected
to the remaining link to Britain and to the loss of the six Northern
counties. Nonetheless, Michael Collins, the republican leader who had
led the negotiations argued the treaty gave Ireland, "the freedom to
achieve freedom". The working class suffered a momentous blow as the
island was partitioned into two sectarian, repressive states.

The split over the treaty was deeply personal. Many former comrades
and even family members found themselves on opposing sides. Dáil
Éireann
(Irish Parliament) narrowly voted 64-57 in favour of the treaty in
December 1921. A compromise proposing a republican constitution between
the two sides was vetoed by the British government who threatened to
invade if the treaty was not enforced in full.

Bitterly fought elections the following March saw the pro-Treaty Sinn
Fein (political wing of the IRA) defeat anti-Treaty Sinn Fein by 239,193
to 133,864. 247,226 voted for other parties, mostly Labour, who all
supported the Treaty.

That April, 200 anti-Treaty militants occupied the Four Courts in
Dublin. A tense stand off ensued until the Free State’s hand was forced
due to British pressure. In June 1922 retired general, Henry Wilson, was
assassinated in London. Churchill threatened to use British troops to
attack the Four Courts.

Collins accepted the offer of British artillery and began the
bombardment of the Four Courts provoking a week’s street fighting that
left 315 dead, 250 of them civilians. When the dust cleared Dublin was
in Free State hands and the defeated IRA retreated to their rural
heartlands. Around 3,500 combatants, mostly from the IRA, had lost their
lives, along with an unknown number of civilian casualties, a greater
number than in the War of Independence.

Superficially it would seem that arms from the British and the
support of the Catholic Church carried the day for pro-Treaty Free State
forces. However it was the failure of the IRA leadership to offer the
poor farmers and workers a socialist solution that meant they were
defeated by the more conservative Free State.

Ireland had experienced an extended revolutionary wave from
1913-1922. Unemployment was high and people were weary of the constant
struggle that only seemed to promise an ephemeral Republic and further
war with the British Empire.

Figures on the left, like IRA leader, Liam Mellowes, (who was
executed by Pro-Treaty forces), fought against the Treaty and for real
independence and socialism. But the Anti-Treaty forces were dominated by
pro-capitalist leaders, like Eamonn DeVelera, who mainly wanted better
terms with Britain. When DeVelera led a section of the defeated Anti-Treatyites
into the Dail, in 1927, Sinn Fein and the IRA split.

The effects of the civil war last to the present day as the
successors of the pro and anti-Treaty sides, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail,
continue to dominate Irish politics. Needless to say there is even less
difference between them than between New Labour and the Tories. In fact
it is often remarked, even in the mainstream Irish press, that the only
effective opposition in the D‡il comes from Joe Higgins an MP of the
Socialist Party’s sister organisation in Ireland.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

The Irish Civil War 1922-1923