Editing Irish Civil War (section)

===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.