Editing Irish Civil War (section)

===The opposing forces===
[[File:An2bappeal2bfrom2bdan2bbreen.jpg|thumb|Dan Breen's appeal to Free State troops]]
The outbreak of the Civil War forced pro- and anti-treaty supporters to choose sides. Supporters of the treaty came to be known as "pro-treaty" or later Free State Army, legally after 1923 the National Army, and were often called "Staters" by their opponents. The latter called themselves Republicans and were also known as "anti-treaty" forces or "Irregulars", a term preferred by the Free State side. This nomenclature, however, may be confusing. The civil war was fought by republicans on both sides who disagreed on how best to achieve the republic. For example, Collins and many of his closest comrades started the war committed to the goals of the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]]. 

The Anti-Treaty IRA claimed that it was defending the Irish Republic declared in 1916 during the [[Easter Rising]], confirmed by the First Dáil and invalidly set aside by those who accepted the compromise of the Free State. Éamon de Valera stated that he would serve as an ordinary IRA volunteer and left the leadership of the anti-treaty Republicans to Liam Lynch, the [[list of IRA Chiefs of Staff|IRA Chief of Staff]]. De Valera, though the Republican President as of October 1922, had little control over military operations.<ref>Charles Townshend, ''The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence 1918–1923'' (2014), pp. 439–441</ref> The campaign was directed by Liam Lynch until he was killed on 10 April 1923, and then by Frank Aiken from 20 April 1923.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=256}}

[[File:Prisoner (6417469255).jpg|thumb|left|National Army soldiers escorting an IRA prisoner of war]]
The Civil War split the IRA. When the Civil War broke out, the Anti-Treaty IRA (concentrated in the south and west) outnumbered pro-Free State forces by roughly 12,000 men to 8,000. Moreover, the anti-treaty ranks included many of the IRA's most experienced guerrilla fighters.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=127|ps=: Both are National Army estimates but there were not precises figures for either force at that point.}} The paper strength of the IRA in early 1922 was over 72,000 men, but most of them were recruited during the truce with the British and fought in neither the War of Independence nor the Civil War. According to Richard Mulcahy's estimate, the Anti-Treaty IRA at the beginning of the war had 6,780 rifles and 12,900 men.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 22">Cottrell, Peter ''The Irish Civil War, 1922–23'', London: Osprey, 2008, p. 22.</ref>

However, the IRA lacked an effective command structure, a clear strategy and sufficient arms. As well as rifles they had a handful of machine guns and many of their fighters were armed only with [[shotgun]]s or handguns. They also took a small number of [[Armored car (military)|armoured cars]] from British troops as they were evacuating the country. Finally, they had no artillery of any kind. As a result, they were forced to adopt a defensive stance throughout the war.

By contrast, the Free State army funded by the British managed to expand its forces dramatically after the start of the war. Collins and his commanders were able to build up an army that could overwhelm their opponents in the field. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns, small arms and ammunition were of much help to pro-Treaty forces. The British delivered for instance, over 27,000 rifles, 250 machine guns and eight 18-pounder artillery pieces to the pro-treaty forces between the outbreak of the Civil War and September 1922.{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=127b}} The National Army amounted to 14,000 men by August 1922, was 38,000 strong by the end of 1922,{{sfn | Hopkinson | 1988 | p=136}} and by the end of the war had grown to 55,000 men and 3,500 officers, far in excess of what the Irish state would need to maintain in peacetime.{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | p=36}} The Free State army was able to absorb experienced soldiers from the recently disbanded Irish regiments in the British army. These soldiers provided invaluable specialist skills for the new army.

Like the Anti-Treaty IRA, the Free State's National Army was initially rooted in the IRA that fought against the British.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 23">Cottrell, Peter ''The Irish Civil War, 1922–23'', London: Osprey, 2008, p. 23.</ref> Collins' most ruthless officers and men were recruited from the Dublin Active Service Unit (the elite unit of the IRA's Dublin Brigade) and from Collins' Intelligence Department and assassination unit, [[The Squad (Irish Republican Army unit)|The Squad]]. In the new National Army, they were known as the [[Dublin Guard]].<ref>Charles Townshend, ''The Republic, The Fight For Irish Independence'', p. 394</ref> Towards the end of the war, they were implicated in some notorious atrocities against anti-treaty guerrillas in [[County Kerry]].<ref>Tom Doyle, ''The Civil War in Kerry'': "summary executions and reprisal killings of republicans had been the norm in the county as early as August 1922, when the Squad cohort in the Dublin Guard returned and resorted to tried and tested methods in their war against the republicans". p. 320</ref> Up to the outbreak of Civil War, it had been agreed that only men with service in the IRA could be recruited into the National Army.<ref>Kieran Glennon, ''From Pogrom to Civil War, Tom Glennon and the Belfast IRA'', p. 141</ref> However, once the war began, all such restrictions were lifted. A 'National Call to Arms' issued on 7 July for recruitment on a six-month basis brought in thousands of new recruits.{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | pp=67–68}} Many of the new army's recruits were veterans of the [[British Army]] in [[World War I]], where they had served in [[Irish military diaspora#'Irish' named 1922 disbanded units of the British Army|disbanded Irish regiments]] of the British Army. Many others were raw recruits without any military experience. The fact that at least 50% of the other ranks had no military experience in turn led to ill-discipline becoming a major problem.<ref>Cottrell, Peter ''The Irish Civil War, 1922–23'', London: Osprey, 2008, pp. 23–24.</ref>

A major problem for the National Army was a shortage of experienced officers.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 23"/> At least 20% of its officers had previously served as officers in the British Army, while 50% of the rank-and-file of the National Army had served in the British Army in World War I.<ref name="Cottrell, Peter page 23"/> Former British Army officers were also recruited for their technical expertise. A number of the senior Free State commanders, such as [[Emmet Dalton]], [[John T. Prout]] and [[W. R. E. Murphy]], had seen service as officers in World War I, Dalton and Murphy in the British Army and Prout in the US Army. The Republicans made much use of this fact in their propaganda – claiming that the Free State was only a proxy force for Britain itself. However, the majority of Free State soldiers were raw recruits without military experience, either in World War I or the Irish War of Independence. There were also a significant number of former members of the British Armed Forces on the Republican side, including such senior figures as [[Tom Barry (soldier)|Tom Barry]], David Robinson and [[Erskine Childers (author)|Erskine Childers]].{{sfn | Harrington | 1992 | pp=37–38}}