May 24, 1923 — Ceasefire Called in the Irish Civil War

The Irish Civil war was a conflict between Irish nationalists in 1922-23 over whether or not to accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The Treaty gave the 26 southern counties of Ireland – now the Irish Free State – a considerable degree of independence – the same within the British commonwealth as Australia and Canada. But it also dissolved the Republic declared in 1918 and required Irish members of parliament to swear allegiance to the British monarch. It additionally confirmed the partition of Ireland between North and South, which had already been instituted under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act. This treaty, signed on December 6, 1921, caused deep divisions within nationalist Ireland.

Partition of Ireland in 1921

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was split down the middle over acceptance of the treaty. Prominent Republican political leader Éamon de Valera had not been party to the treaty and did not support it. When the Irish Parliament approved the treaty in January 1922, making way for provisional government under Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, de Valera resigned and the nationalist movement split.

In April 1922 anti-treaty members of the IRA occupied the Four Courts (the Republic of Ireland’s main courts building) in Dublin. The pro-treaty provisional government (in the process of building the National Army) was largely dependent on the IRA for policing and was unable to deal effectively with the escalating violence. The British Cabinet decided to provide the provisional government with military assistance.

Bombarded Four Courts, Irish Civil War

Then a British military advisor in Northern Ireland who was an opponent of an independent Ireland was shot dead in London, allegedly by the IRA. The British Government insisted that the Irish Government take action against the Anti-Treaty IRA or it would consider the Treaty to have been broken.

On June 28, 1922 the National Army, as the Pro-Treaty IRA now become known, bombarded the Four Courts in Dublin which was occupied by the Anti-Treaty forces leadership. The fires started by the bombardment reached the main munitions dump, provoking the largest explosion Dublin has ever known, according to Tim Pat Coogan and George Morrison in The Irish Civil War. The Civil War had begun. After a period of conventional warfare the Anti-Treaty side reverted to a guerrilla campaign. This was accompanied by assassinations and the destruction of buildings, bridges and other installations.

In August, 1922, the anti-Treaty IRA claimed its most prominent victim when Michael Collins, head of the Provisional Government and Commander in Chief of the National Army was killed in an ambush in his native Cork. Other reprisal killings followed on both sides. An Irish History online site by John Dorney recounts:

By the spring of 1923, the republicans’ campaign had been reduced mainly to destruction of property . . . . A great number had been imprisoned – around 12,000. When Liam Lynch, the anti-Treaty IRA leader, was killed in action in April 1923, his successor Frank Aiken, at the urging of civilian republicans under Éamon de Valera, called a ceasefire. Éamon de Valera supported the order, issuing a statement to Anti-Treaty fighters on May 24:

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.”

Éamon de Valera

The pro-Treaty party won an election was held in August 1923, but Irish nationalist parties remained embittered.

Dorney notes that “The total casualty list has still not been definitively determined but appears to be about 1,500-2,000 killed with some thousands more injured.” (Defence Forces Ireland cites the number as closer to 4,000 killed.)

The anti-Treatyites entered politics in 1927 and came to power peacefully in 1932. By 1939, most of what they considered the objectionable features of the Treaty had been removed by acts of parliament. 

You can watch a short video about the war here.