Editing Irish Civil War (section)

===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.