Latest / The History of Ireland: Rebellion, Empire, and Independence — Fexingo History / The Irish Civil War: Brother Against Brother 1922-23
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've spent a few episodes now walking through the birth of the Irish Free State — the treaty, the split in the Dáil, the start of a terrible division. But the split didn't stay in the debating chamber for long. Luna: It turned into war almost immediately, didn't it? Lucas: Pretty much. Within weeks of the treaty being ratified in January 1922, the Anti-Treaty IRA, who saw the treaty as a betrayal of the republic, began to prepare for confrontation. They took over the Four Courts in Dublin in April, a big symbolic occupation right in the heart of the capital. Lucas: And just to be upfront — if you're getting something out of these deep dives into Irish history, the way we keep the show ad-free is through listener support at buymeacoffee dot com slash fexingo. Every coffee helps us keep exploring stories like this without any commercial breaks. Luna: It's a small thing that makes a big difference. Now, what happened next at the Four Courts? Lucas: Well, the British were still technically in charge until December 1922, so they were putting pressure on Michael Collins and the Provisional Government to kick the irregulars out. For a few weeks there was this tense standoff — both sides were former comrades, and nobody wanted the first shot. But in late June, after the British threatened to treat the treaty as broken, Collins gave the order to bombard the Four Courts. Luna: That must have been devastating for Dublin. Lucas: It was. The shelling, using artillery borrowed from the British, set the Four Courts ablaze. The Public Record Office went up — centuries of documents lost. After two days, the garrison surrendered, but the fighting then spilled onto the streets of Dublin. Cathal Brugha, a hardline republican, was killed in the fighting on O'Connell Street. It was a bitter, personal war from the start. Lucas: And the geography of the conflict shifted fast. The Anti-Treaty IRA, under leaders like Liam Lynch, retreated to the south and west — particularly Munster — where they waged a guerrilla campaign against the Free State army. Both sides had men who'd fought alongside each other against the British just a year earlier. Luna: So it became a guerrilla war — but now the Irish were fighting the Irish. Lucas: Exactly. And the Free State had a new army being built up, with thousands of recruits. They launched campaigns to take the 'Munster Republic'. Towns like Limerick, Cork, and Waterford saw intense fighting. By August 1922, the Free State had taken all the major cities, but the IRA simply melted into the countryside. Luna: And that's when Michael Collins was killed, right? Lucas: Yes. In August 1922, Collins was travelling through West Cork, his home county. At a place called Béal na Bláth, his convoy was ambushed by an Anti-Treaty column. In the firefight, Collins was shot and killed. He was only 31. His death was a massive blow — the man who'd been the driving force for Irish independence, gone in a flash. Lucas: There's still debate about who fired the shot, but the impact was immediate. The Free State government, now led by W.T. Cosgrave, hardened its stance. They introduced executions for captured republicans carrying arms. Over the next few months, nearly 80 republicans were executed, including the writer Erskine Childers. Luna: That's a lot of executions. Did that end the war? Lucas: Not immediately, but it took the wind out of the guerrilla campaign. The IRA was increasingly isolated, their support among the public dropping because of the destruction and the reprisals. Liam Lynch was killed in a skirmish in April 1923. His successor, Frank Aiken, called a ceasefire in April and then a dump arms order in May. The war petered out rather than ended with a victory ceremony. Luna: But the bitterness carried on for decades. Lucas: Absolutely. The Irish Civil War didn't have a formal peace treaty — it just stopped. The underlying question of whether Ireland should accept partition and the oath of allegiance remained unresolved. The two main parties in the Republic, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, grew directly out of the opposing sides. So in a real way, the civil war shaped Irish politics for the rest of the twentieth century. Lucas: And there were personal tragedies on every side. Families divided. Neighbours who'd fought together now remembering who betrayed whom. The war left a legacy of silence — a lot of people just didn't talk about it afterwards. Luna: It's a hard chapter. But one that really explains so much about modern Ireland. Lucas: It does. And if you want to understand the Troubles in Northern Ireland later, you can't ignore the wounds that started festering in 1922. The civil war set the template for armed republicanism versus state forces, even if the context was different. Luna: I'm glad we covered it. It's not an easy story, but it's essential. Lucas: Next time, we'll look at how the Free State found its feet in those early years — building a state out of the ashes of civil war. Thanks for sticking with us.