Editing Irish Civil War (section)

==Aftermath of the ceasefire==
Éamon de Valera supported the order, issuing a statement to Anti-Treaty fighters on 24 May:

{{Blockquote|Soldiers of the Republic. Legion of the Rearguard: The Republic can no longer be defended successfully by your arms. Further sacrifice of life would now be in vain and the continuance of the struggle in arms unwise in the national interest and prejudicial to the future of our cause. Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic.<ref>Thomas E. Hachey, ''The Irish Experience: A Concise History'', pp. 170–1</ref>}}

The Free State government had started peace negotiations in early May, which broke down.<ref>{{cite web | title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 3 - 10 May, 1923 - Finance Bill, 1923. – Adjournment Motion—Peace Proposals. | website=historical-debates.oireachtas.ie | date=2005-11-22 | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0003/D.0003.192305100011.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051122063716/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0003/D.0003.192305100011.html | archive-date=22 November 2005 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> The [[High Court of Justice in Ireland]] ruled on 31 July 1923 that a state of war no longer existed, and consequently the internment of Republicans, permitted under [[common law]] only in wartime, was now illegal.<ref name="Hederman47">{{cite book |volume=Pn.12224 |series=Official publications |last1=Hederman |first1=Anthony J. |author2=Committee to Review the Offences Against the State Acts, 1939–1998 and Related Matters |title=Report |location=Dublin |publisher=Stationery Office |date=2002 |url=http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/hederman%20report.pdf/Files/hederman%20report.pdf#page=49 <!-- hi-res scan at http://opac.oireachtas.ie/Data/Library3/Library2/DL030867.pdf is larger file --> |page=47, §4.2 |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=11 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080911062112/http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/hederman%20report.pdf/Files/hederman%20report.pdf#page=49 |url-status=live}}</ref> Without a formal peace, holding 13,000 prisoners and worried that fighting could break out again at any time, the government enacted two Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Acts on 1 and 3 August 1923, to permit continued internment and other measures.<ref name="Hederman47"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/28/enacted/en/html |title=Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Act, 1923 |date=1 August 1923 |work=[[Irish Statute Book]] |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=2 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302112806/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/28/enacted/en/html |url-status=live}}; {{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/29/enacted/en/html |title=Public Safety (Emergency Powers) (No. 2) Act, 1923 |date=3 August 1923 |work=Irish Statute Book |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=2 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302111015/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/29/enacted/en/html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1923062600024?opendocument |title=PUBLIC SAFETY (EMERGENCY POWERS) BILL, 1923. – SECOND STAGE. |date=26 June 1923 |work=Dáil Éireann debates |publisher=Oireachtas |access-date=22 February 2016 |archive-date=8 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308223411/http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1923062600024?opendocument |url-status=live}}</ref> Thousands of Anti-Treaty IRA members (including de Valera on 15 August) were arrested by the Free State forces in the weeks and months after the end of the war, when they had dumped their arms and returned home.

[[1923 Irish general election|A general election]] was held on 27 August 1923, which [[Cumann na nGaedheal]], the pro-Free State party, won with about 40% of the first-preference vote. The Republicans, represented by Sinn Féin, won about 27% of the vote. Many of their candidates and supporters were still imprisoned before, during and after the election.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=262}}

In October 1923, around 8,000 of the 12,000 Republican prisoners in Free State gaols went on a hunger strike. The strike lasted for 41 days and met little success (among those who died were [[Denny Barry]], [[Joseph Whitty]] and [[Andy O'Sullivan (Irish Republican)|Andy O'Sullivan]]) see: [[1923 Irish Hunger Strikes]].<ref>[[Peadar O'Donnell|O'Donnell, Peadar]] ''The Gates Flew Open'' (1932), ch. 34–38.</ref> However, most of the women prisoners were released shortly thereafter and the hunger strike helped concentrate the Republican movement on the prisoners and their associated organisations. In July, de Valera had recognised the Republican political interests lay with the prisoners and went so far as to say:

{{Blockquote|The whole future of our cause and of the nation depends in my opinion upon the spirit of the prisoners in the camps and in the jails. You are the repositories of the NATIONAL FAITH AND WILL.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=268}}}}