Editing Irish Civil War (section)

==Background==

===The treaty and its consequences===
The [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] was agreed upon to end the 1919–1921 [[Irish War of Independence]] between the [[Irish Republic]] and the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]. The treaty provided for a self-governing Irish state, having its own army and police. The Treaty also allowed [[Northern Ireland]] (the six north-eastern counties{{spaced ndash}}[[County Fermanagh|Fermanagh]], [[County Antrim|Antrim]], [[County Tyrone|Tyrone]], [[County Londonderry|Londonderry]], [[County Armagh|Armagh]] and [[County Down|Down]]{{spaced ndash}} where collectively the majority population was of the [[Protestant]] religion)<ref>{{cite web|title=Belfast County Borough Religious Census 1926|url= http://histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/AssociatedPageBrowser?path=Browse&active=yes&mno=234&tocstate=expandnew&display=sections&display=tables&display=pagetitles&pageseq=27&assoctitle=Census%20of%20Northern%20Ireland,%201926|website= Hist pop |access-date=1 August 2014|archive-date=11 August 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140811125733/http://histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/AssociatedPageBrowser?path=Browse&active=yes&mno=234&tocstate=expandnew&display=sections&display=tables&display=pagetitles&pageseq=27&assoctitle=Census%20of%20Northern%20Ireland,%201926 |url-status= live}}</ref> to opt out of the new state and return to the United Kingdom{{spaced ndash}}which it did immediately. With the [[Partition of Ireland]] a [[The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)|two-year period]] of [[Communal violence|communal conflict]] took place within the newly formed Northern Ireland. Rather than creating the independent [[republic]] for which nationalists had fought, the Irish Free State would be a [[British Dominions|dominion]] of the [[British Empire]] with the [[British monarchy|British monarch]] as [[head of state]], in the same manner as [[Canada]] and [[Australia]].<ref name=treaty-text>{{Cite web |url= https://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html|title=Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Series: Anglo-Irish Treaty: Text of. |website= National archives |access-date=23 August 2019|archive-date= 3 May 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210503063039/https://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The British suggested dominion status in secret correspondence even before treaty negotiations began, but [[Sinn Féin]] leader [[Éamon de Valera]] rejected the dominion.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-007/text001.html|title=Official Correspondence relating to the Peace Negotiations June–September, 1921| publisher = UCC |access-date=26 November 2009|archive-date= 30 March 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170330215533/http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/E900003-007/text001.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The treaty also stipulated that members of the new Irish [[Oireachtas of the Irish Free State|Oireachtas]] (parliament) would have to take the following "[[Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)|Oath of Allegiance]]":
{{Blockquote|I... do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of nations.<ref name=treaty-text/>}}

This oath was highly objectionable to many Irish Republicans. Furthermore, the [[partition of Ireland]], which had already been decided by the Westminster parliament in the [[Government of Ireland Act 1920]], was effectively confirmed in the Anglo-Irish treaty. The most contentious areas of the Treaty for the IRA were the disestablishment of the Irish Republic declared in 1919, the abandonment of the [[Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic)|First Dáil]],<ref>{{cite book | last= Younger | first=Calton | title=Ireland's Civil War | publisher=Fontana | location=London | year=1988 |edition= 6th | isbn=978-0-00-686098-3 | pages=233–35}}</ref> the status of the [[Irish Free State]] as a dominion in the [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] and the British retention of the strategic [[Treaty Ports (Ireland)|Treaty Ports]] on Ireland's south western and north western coasts which were to remain occupied by the [[Royal Navy]]. All these issues were the cause of a split in the IRA and ultimately civil war.

[[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], the Irish finance minister and [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] (IRB) president, argued in the [[Dáil Éireann]] that the treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire and develop, but the freedom to achieve freedom".<ref name="Oireachtas 1">{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1921-12-19/2/#spk_11|title=Dáil Éireann debate - Monday, 19 Dec 1921: Debate on Treaty|website=www.oireachtas.ie|access-date=18 September 2022|archive-date=24 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824023005/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1921-12-19/2/#spk_11|url-status=live}}</ref> However, those against the treaty believed that it would never deliver full Irish independence.{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | pp=174–184}}<ref name="Oireachtas 2">{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-01-10/2/|title=Dáil Éireann debate -Tuesday, 10 Jan 1922: Election of President|website=www.oireachtas.ie|access-date=18 September 2022|archive-date=31 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831094244/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-01-10/2/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Split in the Nationalist movement===
{{See also|IRA and the Anglo-Irish Treaty}}
The split over the Treaty was deeply personal. Many on both sides had been close friends and comrades during the War of Independence. This made their disagreement all the more bitter. On 6 January 1922, at the [[Mansion House, Dublin]], [[Austin Stack]], Home Affairs minister, showed president de Valera the evening news announcing the signing of the Treaty: de Valera merely glanced at it; when [[Eamonn Duggan]], part of the returning Irish delegation, handed him an envelope confirming it, he pushed it aside. De Valera had held secret discussions with UK Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] from 14 to 21 July in London. Collins, also part of the delegation, supposed (with others) that these discussions confirmed the earlier correspondence, i.e. no British acceptance of a Republic. De Valera, Stack and Defence minister [[Cathal Brugha]] had then all refused to join the delegation to London.{{sfn | Taylor | 1958| pp=114–115}} Collins wrote that his inclusion as a plenipotentiary was "a trap" of de Valera's which he was forewarned of, argued against, but walked into anyway, "as a soldier obeying his commanding officer."{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | pp=158, 163}} [[Arthur Griffith]], the delegation chairman, had made a similar comment about obeying orders to de Valera himself.{{sfn | Taylor | 1958| p=116}} Mutual suspicion and confusion pertained; the delegation was unclear about the cabinet's instructions and individually became burdened to the point of breakdown.{{sfn | Taylor | 1958| pp=116–117, 147, 158–159}} Collins expected the blame for the compromise within the Treaty and wrote: "Early this morning I signed my death warrant."{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | p=170}} Notwithstanding this, he was frustrated and at times emotional when de Valera and others refused to support the Treaty and friendships died.{{sfn | O'Connor | 1969 | pp=170–174}}

[[File:Hogan's Flying Column.gif|thumb|[[Third Tipperary Brigade]] Flying Column No. 2 under [[Seán Hogan]] during the War of Independence. Most of the IRA units in Munster were against the treaty.]]

Dáil Éireann (the parliament of the Irish Republic) narrowly passed the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64 votes to 57 on 7 January 1922. Following the Treaty's ratification, in accordance with article 17 of the Treaty, the British-recognised [[Provisional Government of the Irish Free State]] was established. Its authority under the Treaty was to provide a "provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval" before the establishment of the Irish Free State. In accordance with the Treaty, the British Government transferred "the powers and machinery requisite for the discharge of its duties". Before the British Government transferred such powers, the members of the Provisional Government each "signified in writing [their] acceptance of [the Treaty]".

Upon the Treaty's ratification, de Valera resigned as [[President of the Irish Republic|President of the Republic]] and failed to be re-elected by an even closer vote of 60–58. He challenged the right of the Dáil to approve the treaty, saying that its members were breaking their oath to the Irish Republic. Meanwhile, he continued to promote a compromise whereby the new Irish Free State would be in "[[external association]]" with the British Commonwealth rather than be a member of it (the inclusion of [[Republics in the Commonwealth of Nations|republics within the Commonwealth of Nations]] was not formally implemented until 1949).

In early March, de Valera formed the [[Cumann na Poblachta]] ('Republican Association') party while remaining a member of Sinn Féin, and commenced a speaking tour of the more republican province of [[Munster]] on 17 March 1922. During the tour he made controversial speeches at [[Carrick on Suir]], [[Lismore, County Waterford|Lismore]], [[Dungarvan]] and [[Waterford]], saying at one point, "If the Treaty were accepted, the fight for freedom would still go on, and the Irish people, instead of fighting foreign soldiers, will have to fight the Irish soldiers of an Irish government set up by Irishmen." At [[Thurles]] several days later he repeated this imagery, and added that the IRA "would have to wade through the blood of the soldiers of the Irish Government, and perhaps through that of some members of the Irish Government to get their freedom."{{sfn|Hopkinson|1988|p=71|ps=: de Valera stated in a speech in Killarney in March 1922, that if the Treaty was accepted by the electorate,<br />"IRA men will have to march over the dead bodies of their own brothers. They will have to wade through Irish blood."}}

In a letter to the ''[[Irish Independent]]'' on 23 March, de Valera accepted the accuracy of their report of his comment about "wading" through blood, but deplored that the newspaper had published it.<ref>J.J. O'Kelly ([[Sceilg]]) ''A Trinity of Martyrs'', Irish Book Bureau, Dublin; pp. 66–68. "Sceilg" was a supporter of de Valera in 1922.</ref>

More seriously, many [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) officers were also against the treaty, and in March 1922 an ad hoc Army Convention repudiated the authority of the Dáil to accept the treaty. In contrast, the Minister of Defence, [[Richard Mulcahy]], stated in the Dáil on 28 April that conditions in Dublin had prevented a Convention from being held, but that delegates had been selected and voted by ballot to accept the Oath.<ref name=MulcahyReplyH>{{cite web|url=http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 28 April, 1922 - Mr. McEntee's 10 questions of 28 April|date=2007-10-24|website=oireachtas-debates.gov.ie|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024022948/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|archive-date=2007-10-24|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-08-24|quote=(h) Was this amended Constitution to be submitted to a specially summoned Convention of the Irish Volunteers for acceptance or rejection by that Organisation? As a fact was that Convention held?"<br> MR. MULCAHY: "...(h) It was proposed to submit the proposed Constitution to a specially summoned Convention of the Irish Volunteers. That Convention was not held because no single member of the Volunteer Executive of the time would recommend the holding of that Convention in the circumstances that then existed in Dublin. Delegates for this Convention were actually selected but the Convention was not held. Ballot papers were circulated to the delegates and a vote was taken as far as the question of the Oath was concerned. As far as this question was concerned, the amendment to the constitution was accepted.}}</ref> The anti-Treaty IRA formed their own "Army Executive", which they declared to be the real government of the country, despite the result of the [[1921 Irish elections|1921 general election]]. On 26 April Mulcahy summarised alleged illegal activities by many IRA men over the previous three months, whom he described as 'seceding volunteers', including hundreds of robberies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204260010.html|title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 26 April, 1922 - Appendix to Report|date=2011-06-07|website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607140253/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204260010.html|archive-date=7 June 2011|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> Yet this fragmenting army was the only police force on the ground following the disintegration of the [[Irish Republican Police]] and the disbanding of the [[Royal Irish Constabulary]] (RIC).

By putting ten questions to Mulcahy on 28 April, [[Seán MacEntee]] argued that the Army Executive had acted continuously on its own to create a republic since 1917, had an unaltered constitution, had never fallen under the control of the Dáil, and that "the only body competent to dissolve the Volunteer Executive was a duly convened convention of the Irish Republican Army" – not the Dáil. By accepting the treaty in January and abandoning the republic, the Dáil majority had effectively deserted the Army Executive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 28 April, 1922 - Mr. McEntee's 10 questions of 28 April|date=2007-10-24|website=oireachtas-debates.gov.ie|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024022948/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html|archive-date=2007-10-24|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> In his reply, Mulcahy rejected this interpretation.<ref name=MulcahyReplyH /> Then, in a debate on defence, MacEntee suggested that supporting the Army Executive "even if it meant the scrapping of the Treaty and terrible and immediate war with England, would be better than the civil war which we are beginning at present apparently".<ref>{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 2 - 28 April, 1922 - Department of Defence. | website=oireachtas-debates.gov.ie | date=2007-10-23 | url=http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280004.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023220225/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280004.html | archive-date=23 October 2007 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> MacEntee's supporters added that the many robberies complained of by Mulcahy on 26 April were caused by the lack of payment and provision by the Dáil to the volunteers.

===Occupation of the Four Courts===
[[File:Four Courts Conflagration.jpg|thumb|The Four Courts along the [[River Liffey]] quayside. The building was occupied by anti-treaty forces during the Civil War, whom the National Army subsequently bombarded into surrender. The Irish national archives in the buildings were destroyed in the subsequent fire. The building was badly damaged but was fully restored after the war.]]
On 14 April 1922, 200 Anti-Treaty IRA militants, with [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]] as their spokesman, occupied the [[Four Courts]] and several other buildings in central Dublin, resulting in a tense stand-off.<ref>[[Tim Healy (politician)|Tim Healy]] wrote of the occupation in late March: "The Freeman published, on 26 March, an account of the secret debate of the mutineers supplied by the Provisional Government, whereupon Rory O'Connor sallied from the Four Courts and smashed its machinery. He had been levying toll on the civil population for weeks."</ref>{{sfn | Younger | 1968 | pp=258–259 |ps=: Younger gives the date as 14 April.}} These anti-treaty Republicans wanted to spark a new armed confrontation with the British, which they hoped would unite the two factions of the IRA against their common enemy. However, for those who were determined to make the Free State into a viable, self-governing Irish state, this was an act of rebellion that would have to be put down by them rather than the British.

Arthur Griffith was in favour of using force against these men immediately, but Michael Collins, who wanted at all costs to avoid civil war, left the Four Courts garrison alone until late June 1922. By this point, the Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party had secured a large majority in the general election, along with other parties that supported the Treaty. Collins was also coming under continuing pressure from London to assert his government's authority in Dublin.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=111|ps=: "The British (after the election) drew what appeared to them to be the obvious conclusion that it was time for the Provisional Government to assert its authority."}}

===Delay until the June election===
[[File:Irish soldiers during the Civil War.jpg|thumb|right|National Army soldiers during the Civil War]]
Collins established an "army re-unification committee" to re-unite the IRA and organised an election pact with de Valera's anti-treaty political followers to campaign jointly in the Free State's [[1922 Irish general election|first election in 1922]] and form a coalition government afterwards. He also tried to reach a compromise with anti-treaty IRA leaders by agreeing to a republican-type constitution (with no mention of the British monarchy) for the new state. IRA leaders such as [[Liam Lynch (general)|Liam Lynch]] were prepared to accept this compromise. However, the proposal for a republican constitution was vetoed by the British as being contrary to the terms of the treaty and they threatened military intervention in the Free State unless the treaty were fully implemented.<ref>[[Helen Litton]], ''The Irish Civil War, an Illustrated History'', p. 63, "Collins was summoned to London&nbsp;... and informed that the draft constitution would have to be altered to acknowledge the authority of the Crown, to include an Oath and to recognise Northern Ireland"</ref>{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=107|ps=: Winston Churchill told a concerned House of Commons&nbsp;... that a Republic could not be tolerated. He warned that, 'in the event of such a Republic, it will be the intention of the Government to hold Dublin as one of the preliminary essential steps to military operations'.}} Collins reluctantly agreed. This completely undermined the electoral pact between the pro- and anti-treaty factions, who went into the Irish general election on 16 June 1922 as hostile parties in some constituencies, both calling themselves Sinn Féin.<ref> Hopkinson, 1988, p. 110</ref>

The Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party claimed the election with 239,193 votes to 133,864 for Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin. A further 247,226 people voted for other parties, most of whom supported the Treaty. Labour's 132,570 votes were ambiguous with regard to the Treaty. According to Hopkinson, "Irish labour and union leaders, while generally pro-Treaty, made little attempt to lead opinion during the Treaty conflict, casting themselves rather as attempted peacemakers."{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=46}} The election showed that a majority of the Irish electorate accepted the treaty and the foundation of the Irish Free State, but de Valera, his political followers and most of the IRA continued to oppose the treaty. De Valera is quoted as saying, "the majority have no right to do wrong".{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=297}} From the anti-treaty perspective the election was held under the British threat of a war of reconquest and therefore was not a free contest. In this view, the pro-treaty position expressed as republican leader Liam Mellows put it 'not the will of the people, but the fear of the people'.<ref>Bill Kissane, ''The politics of the Irish civil war'' | 2005 | p. 183</ref>

Meanwhile, under the leadership of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, the pro-treaty Provisional Government set about establishing the Irish Free State, and organised the [[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]] – to replace the IRA – and a new police force. However, since it was envisaged that the new army would be built around the IRA, Anti-Treaty IRA units were allowed to take over British barracks and take their arms. In practice, this meant that by the summer of 1922, the Provisional Government of [[Southern Ireland (1921–22)|Southern Ireland]] controlled only Dublin and some other areas like [[County Longford]] where the IRA units supported the treaty. Fighting ultimately broke out when the Provisional Government tried to assert its authority over well-armed and intransigent Anti-Treaty IRA units around the country – particularly a hardliner group in Dublin.

===Assassination of Field Marshal Wilson===
Field Marshal [[Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet|Henry Hughes Wilson]], a prominent security adviser to the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, [[James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon|James Craig]], was shot dead by IRA men on his own doorstep in London on 22 June 1922, with no responsibility for the act being publicly claimed by any IRA authority.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=112|ps=: "Joe Sweeney, the pro-treaty military leader in [[Donegal (town)|Donegal]], recorded meeting Collins shortly after the assassination. He told Ernie O'Malley, 'Collins told me he had arranged the shooting of Wilson... he looked very pleased'. Frank Thornton, one of Collins' old Squad, recalled that the killing was carried out on the direct orders of GHQ. Mick Murphy, of Cork no 1 Brigade, said that when in London he had been asked to take part in the plot, explaining, 'they had instructions then from Michael Collins to shoot Wilson' ... statements from Collins' intelligence agents point to fresh instruction being given in June. It is clear also that [Reginald] Dunne [the assassin] and spent some time closeted with him."}}{{sfn | Collins | 1993 | p=229 |ps=: "Evidence has since come to light proving it was Collins, enraged by Wilson's role in the north, who ordered the killing".}}{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | p=29 |ps=: "It is probable that the execution of the ... field marshal was ordered by Collins"}}{{disputed inline|Collins' role in the assassination of Henry Wilson and the latter's role in attacks on Northern Irish Catholics.|date=October 2012}} [[Winston Churchill]] assumed that the Anti-Treaty IRA were responsible for the shooting and warned Collins that he would use British troops to attack the Four Courts unless the Provisional Government took action.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=114|ps=: [After the assassination of Wilson] "A letter was sent to Collins stating that the Four Courts occupation and the 'ambiguous position' of the IRA could no longer be tolerated."}} In fact, the British cabinet actually resolved to attack the Four Courts themselves on 25 June, in an operation that would have involved tanks, [[howitzer]]s and aeroplanes. However, on the advice of General [[Nevil Macready]], who commanded the British garrison in Dublin, the plan was cancelled at the last minute. Macready's argument was that British involvement would have united Irish Nationalist opinion against the treaty, and instead Collins was given a last chance to clear the Four Courts himself.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | pp=115–116}}