Editing W. T. Cosgrave (section)

===Chairman of the Provisional Government===
The months following the acceptance of the Treaty saw a gradual progression to civil war. The split in Sinn Féin gradually deepened, and {{citation needed span|date=June 2022|the majority of the IRA}} hardened against accepting anything less than a full republic. {{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} Collins and de Valera tried desperately to find a middle course and formed a pact whereby Sinn Féin fought a general election in June with a common slate of candidates. Despite this pact, the electorate voted heavily in favour of pro-Treaty candidates. On the day of the election, the draft Constitution of the [[Irish Free State]] was published; it was rejected by the Anti-Treatyites, for it was not a republican document. Collins, forced to a decision, opted to maintain the Treaty position and the support of the British government, and moved to suppress the Republican opposition that had seized the [[Four Courts]] in Dublin. The [[Irish Civil War|Civil War]] began on 28 June 1922, and the IRA was decisively defeated in the field over the following two months, being largely pinned back to [[Munster]]. In August 1922, both Griffith and Collins died in quick succession; the former of natural causes, the latter a few days later when ambushed by Republicans at [[Béal na Bláth]], [[County Cork]]. With de Valera now on the fringes as the nominal leader of the anti-Treaty forces in the Civil War, the new dominion (which was in the process of being created but which would not legally come into being until December 1922) had lost all its most senior figures.

Though it had the option of going for [[General]] [[Richard Mulcahy]], Collins' successor as Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, the pro-Treaty leadership opted for Cosgrave, in part due to his democratic credentials as a long-time politician. Having previously held the Local Government and Finance portfolios, Cosgrave became [[Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State|Chairman of the Provisional Government]] on 30 August and President of Dáil Éirean on 9 September. He served in both offices simultaneously until 6 December 1922, when the Irish Free State came into being.