Factors in the Outcome of the Civil War

Factors in the Outcome of the Civil War

No coherent strategy by the anti-treaty IRA

1. They failed to retain the initiative before the strengthening of the Free State Army.

2. The Four Courts were occupied by the IRA executive and 200 Irregulars but it was difficult to defend.

3. Then fighting continued in the centre of Dublin as the Irregulars occupied buildings that were then blasted and burned. The Regulars managed to gain control of the capital.

4. The Irregulars, instead of defending areas they controlled, when they were attacked, they withdrew and abandoned several important towns.

5. Collins organised an assault on Cork (by sea) resulted in defeat of the Irregulars.

6. The Irregulars resorted to guerrilla tactics, but, unlike the War of Independence, they did not enjoy the support of the populace.

Resources

1. The government was able to recruit an army which numbered 14,000 by August and this grew steadily to 60,000.

2. They were able to borrow war materials from the British garrisons remaining in Ireland and soon they had artillery, guns and large quantities of ammunition.

3. They had a clear strategy and an imaginative use of tactics, involving combined sea and land attacks on places like Tralee and Cork.

Leadership

1. The government had a coherent leadership. Cosgrave and O’Higgins replaced Griffith as the political leadership and Mulcahy reaffirmed the army’s determination to finish the job that Collins had begun and provided hard-line leadership.

2. The Emergency Powers Act was passed which enabled the army to hold military courts and impose the death penalty for a wider variety of offences. Erskine Childers was arrested and executed for the possession of a gun that had supposedly been given to him by Collins.

3. Some of the anti-treaty commanders from the War of Independence did not join the Irregulars.

4. There was tension between the political leadership represented by De Valera and the military leadership of Liam Lynch.

5. Lynch could not impose unity of command and found it difficult to instil discipline among individual commanders.

The use of guerrilla warfare

1. This was not as successful as it had been in the War of Independence.

2. Both sides had knowledge of the countryside.

3. Support for the Irregulars was not forthcoming from the local population.

4. Lack of finance forced republican troops led to the commandeering of food and other supplies and this led to increased public hostility towards the Irregulars.

5. The government took tough action and passed the Public Safety Act, which punished offences such as commandeering property, looting and arson by execution.

6. The government also received the powerful backing of the Catholic bishops who condemned the actions of the Irregulars as unjust and immoral.

Determination of the Provisional Government

1. The government intensified its offensive against the Irregulars and by April 1923, 77 Irregulars had been executed and many more had been captured and imprisoned.

2. Some of the actions of the government were ruthless: they executed prisoners in retaliation for the killing of a pro-treaty TD.

3. In April 1923 when Lynch was killed in the Tipperary.

4. His successor as chief of staff was Frank Aiken who was a more moderate man who favoured negotiations for a ceasefire, which came about in May 1923.

5. There was no handover of arms by the Republican forces or any recognition of the legitimacy of the Free State.

The results of the Civil War

1. It caused a great deal of bitterness and division in Irish society that had an enduring legacy.

2. Estimates put the number of casualties at 3,000.

3. In absolute terms the Irish Civil War may have been relatively small but it imposed a heavy financial burden on a new state and a heavy psychological millstone around its neck.

4. The new state lost a number of leading political figures who would be difficult to replace: Collins, Griffith, Brugha etc.