The civil war was a tragedy for Ireland and its people. At the very moment when the country was about to gain her freedom after centuries of oppression, Irishmen, who had fought side by side during the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, were now killing each other. It was a tragedy of the civil war that it set brother against brother, father against son, and created a poisonous atmosphere of hatred and distrust that was to last for generations.
For two days the shelling continued in an attack similar to the British attack on the GPO during the Rising, along with rifle and machine-gun fire. On 30 June the rebels surrendered. Before they did so, they set fire to the Four Courts, destroying valuable records and documents going back hundreds of years. Cathal Brugha, a Republican stalwart, was in the Four Courts with Rory O’Connor. Brugha escaped with other Republicans and took cover in the Hamman Hotel in Sackville Street. Though surrounded by Free State soldiers, Brugha still refused to surrender. He burst from the building firing his revolvers and died in a hail of bullets.
Michael Collins wept when he heard the news. Brugha, who had fought bravely in the Easter Rising, and who had been seriously wounded, had been Collins’ most bitter opponent. Yet Michael knew that Brugha had loved Ireland, and had wanted to see her free. Like so many others before him, he had now given his life for his dream. A few weeks later Harry Boland, Collins’ former friend and ally, was shot and died of his wounds. Michael again wept when he heard of the death, unaware that soon he would suffer a similar fate.
The Free State army went on the offensive and shortly took control of all the cities and major towns. The guerrilla tactics, which the IRA had adopted against the British forces, no longer worked for the Republicans. They were few in number, had few arms and no longer had the support of most of the people. They were only really successful in the south of the country, and it was in Cork that they had one of their biggest successes, though it was a terrible tragedy for Ireland.
In August 1922, Arthur Griffith died suddenly at the age of fifty. He had devoted his life to Ireland, and was worn out from worry, stress and work. Following Griffith’s death, William T. Cosgrave was elected President of the Dáil. A week after Griffith’s death, Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the army, travelled to Cork to inspect the Free State Forces there. On 22 August he travelled to west Cork to visit the ruins of his old home, which had been burned to the ground by the Tans the previous April.
On his return journey, he stopped in Bandon to meet Séan Hales, the local Free State commander. A few kilometres away, at a lonely place known as Béal na mBláth, Séan’s brother, Tom Hales, along with other Republicans, were lying in ambush to kill Collins. Both brothers had fought side by side during the War of Independence but were now sworn enemies who would kill each other if the opportunity arose.
The convoy reached Béal na mBláth just as dusk was falling on the evening of 22 August 1922. At they reached the ambush site, shots rang out. The convoy braked to a stop and Collins shouted: ‘Jump out and we’ll fight them.’ His soldiers obeyed, and both sides exchanged volleys of gunfire. During the exchange, Collins was hit in the head by a bullet and killed.
His body was brought to Cork and from there by boat to Dublin. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, where his great boyhood hero, O’Dononvan Rossa, had been buried seven years before. His death was a tragedy for Ireland. He had been a great man, and had he lived would have done more great things for Ireland. But alas, his fate was to die from a bullet fired by someone who had fought for him and who, one year before, would have gladly given his life for him.
The civil war did not end with Collins’ death. It continued with great brutality, and with many terrible atrocities, until the following May. By then Séan Hales, Rory O’Connor, Liam Lynch (leader of the Munster Republicans), Erskine Childers (who had brought in the guns at Howth), and a great many others who had loved Ireland, and fought so bravely for her freedom were dead, either killed in combat or executed.
The execution of Rory O’Connor again showed how the civil war had destroyed friendships. The order for Rory O’Connor’s execution was signed by his great friend Kevin O’Higgins, who was then Minister for Justice. Six months before, Rory O’Connor had been the best man at Higgins’ wedding. Some years later, on 10 July 1927, Republicans avenged O’Connor’s death when they murdered Higgins in cold blood while he was on his way to Sunday Mass.
When Liam Lynch, the leader of the Munster Republicans was killed, Frank Aiken took his place. But the Republicans had lost heart and Aiken advised them that they should give up their struggle. Demoralised, and aware that they could not win, they did give up and the civil war ended.
31
A New Nation
Éamon de Valera and the Republicans had rejected the Treaty and the Free State. When the civil war ended they took no part in the Free State government, which was led by William T. Cosgrave. De Valera was also blamed for Michael Collins’ death. While it is unlikely that he had any part in the killing, nevertheless his opposition to the Treaty helped to create the atmosphere in which hatred of Collins intensified. By sending Collins to London, and then rejecting the Treaty, de Valera had indeed helped to sign Collins’ death warrant.
In 1926, de Valera and his supporters founded the Fianna Fáil party, also known as the Republican Party. In an election in 1932, Fianna Fáil was elected and de Valera became the leader of the Irish government. This was ironic – de Valera becoming the leader of the Free State that he had previously rejected. It was his rejection, and that of his supporters, which had helped to bring about the civil war, and the deaths of so many of those who had been their friends and colleagues.
De Valera’s government abolished the oath of allegiance to the king and also refused to pay money owed to the British government. This money had been loaned by the British under various land acts for the purchase of land from landlords. This action led to what became known as the ‘economic war’ between Britain and Ireland. Britain placed a heavy tax on Irish imports, especially cattle, which was Ireland’s most important export, and this lead to great hardship for the country and its people.
In 1937, de Valera’s government drew up a new Irish constitution. Under this constitution, Douglas Hyde, a Protestant who had founded the Gaelic League, was elected the first President of Ireland in 1938. De Valera also negotiated an agreement with Britain in which the Irish ports, still held by the British, were returned to Irish control. In return, Ireland agreed to pay some of the money they still owed the British government.
By now Ireland had reached a state of stability. It had its own police force, the Garda Síochána, a functioning judiciary and civil service, an electricity generating station on the River Shannon and its own radio station. Much of the damage to the infrastructure caused in the War of Independence and the civil war was repaired. Ireland’s flag of green white and orange could now fly proudly. Green represented the Catholics, orange the Protestants and white was a symbol of the peace and unity that should exist between them. Unfortunately, such peace and unity did not exist in Northern Ireland where Catholics were discriminated against, and where sectarian hatred of them was encouraged by the Orange Order and Protestant fanatics.
When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Ireland remained neutral for the six years of conflict. Britain was severely critical of this stance and wished to have the use of Irish ports to protect their ships crossing the Atlantic from America with much needed supplies. De Valera refused to give up the ports, and for a time it seemed as if Britain might try to take them by force.
Northern Ireland, still part of Britain, was regarded as being at war. German planes bombed Belfast and in April and May 1941 over 700 people were killed by bombs. The Irish government, supposedly neutral, sent fire engines to Belfast to fight the fires that raged there following the bombing. The Free State was also bombed by the Germans, most likely by mistake. The worst incident occurred in Dublin on 31 May 1941 when twenty-nine people were killed and ninety i
njured in a bombing raid, which also damaged or destroyed 300 homes.
The IRA also caused problems for de Valera’s government during the Second World War. Though it was now an illegal organisation, its aim still was to obtain the 32-county Irish Republic so many had fought and died for. Seeing the Second World War as an opportunity to try and obtain its objective, the IRA went on the offensive. De Valera’s government was forced to imprison without trial a great many IRA men, and nine were executed for various offences.
The war brought great economic hardship to the Irish people. Rationing was introduced and tea, a drink beloved by almost every Irish person, was in short supply. There was a shortage of coal, and turf was harvested on a large scale as a replacement fuel. However, the war did help to heal some of the scars of the civil war, as people were forced to cooperate in order to survive.
The Second World War ended in May 1945. In 1949, Fine Gael, founded in 1933 by the followers of Michael Collins and the pro-treaty supporters, was elected and declared the Free State a republic. Since then, it has been known as the Republic of Ireland, though it still consists of only twenty-six counties.
Despite officially being declared a republic, there was still great poverty in the country, and very little employment for the people. At the end of the Second World War, tens of thousands of young people emigrated each year to Britain and America and elsewhere. It wasn’t until the 1960s, when Seán Lemass became Taoiseach that foreign companies set up factories in the country, bringing much needed employment.
In 1967, free secondary education was introduced. Many more young people could now avail of a secondary education and go on to university. More foreign companies, attracted by a young educated workforce, came to Ireland creating even more employment. In 1973, Ireland, joined the European Economic Community (now the EU), which brought great benefit for farmers and industries. It gave Ireland access to European markets and attracted more foreign companies to Ireland, especially American ones, where they could avail of the new markets and favourable tax rates.
The Republic of Ireland was beginning to become the modern country that those who had fought and died for her freedom had envisaged. Its citizens were enjoying the fruits of education and an improving economy, and Irish people were enjoying success across the world.
Our sportsmen and women won gold medals at the Olympics; the Irish soccer team reached the World Cup Finals; U2 was the greatest rock band in the world; Ireland won the Eurovision Song Contest five times in ten years, including a three-in-a-row; the show Riverdance thrilled audiences all over the world; Irish filmmakers and actors won prestigious awards; our boxers and athletes became world champions; Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the highest honour any writer could achieve, while other writers also won international recognition.
But during all this success, there was yet a darkness hanging over the country. Not all the citizens of the island of Ireland were free. In the six counties that made up Northern Ireland, the Catholic people were suffering from decades of sectarian hatred, abuse and the lack of civil rights. In other parts of the world downtrodden minorities were demanding civil rights. In America, the African American people, led by Martin Luther King, were demanding the ending of segregation and the granting of their civil rights.
These winds of change were blowing across the Atlantic to Ireland. There was a sense of hope in the air. But the winds, as they had so often done in the past, were also blowing dark clouds over the country. In the past, these clouds had meant terrible violence. This time was no exception. Northern Ireland was about to be plunged into decades of such violence that had not been seen in that part of Ireland in hundreds of years. The violence was to spill over into the Republic and to Britain, and even onto the continent. Blood was again about to be shed in Ireland in the cause of freedom. In 1169, the Normans had come to Ireland bringing centuries of conflict and bloodshed. In 1969, 800 years later, bloodshed returned. It seemed as if nothing had changed and that it was the destiny of the Irish people to be always at war.
32
The Troubles
Northern Ireland consists of six of the Ulster counties – Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone. These six were chosen for a very good reason; it gave the new state of Northern Ireland, set up in 1921, a Protestant majority. This might not have been a serious problem if the Protestants had treated the Catholic minority fairly. They did not do so. Catholics were treated as second-class citizens, which was a recipe for disaster.
Despite being in the majority, the Protestants could not forget the atrocities of the 1641 rebellion, or the siege of Derry, or other nationalist rebellions. They lived in fear of the Catholics and did everything in their power to ensure that they did not pose a threat. They were also wary of the Free State (later the Republic of Ireland), which laid claim to the six counties of Northern Ireland.
As a result, the Northern Protestants had a ‘siege mentality’ and felt under constant threat from Catholics, both in the north and the south. This ‘siege mentality’ led them to devise a system of government in Northern Ireland in which they were guaranteed political power. In the city of Derry, for example, which had a Catholic majority, the Protestants introduced a system whereby they had extra votes. Called gerrymandering, it ensured that the Protestant minority held power.
Having power is not a problem if that power is used fairly. But the Protestants abused their power, using it to consolidate their own wealth and influence, while ensuring that Catholics remained second-class citizens. They were denied jobs, lived in the worst housing, and were discriminated against in education and other areas of life. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the police force, which consisted almost wholly of Protestants, also discriminated against Catholics. Another group of supposed upholders of the law was the part-time B-Specials. This force was Protestant and most members hated Catholics. They, along with the sectarian Orange Order, did much to subdue the Catholics and to sow the seeds of bitter resentment in them.
The Protestants celebrated certain historical events each year. Two of the most important events were the lifting of the siege of Derry and the victory of King William at the Battle of the Boyne. To commemorate these successes, the Orange Order paraded through the cities, towns and villages of Northern Ireland, including the Catholic areas. They subjected the Catholics to intimidation and often rampaged through Catholic areas, breaking windows and attacking any Catholic who crossed their path. The B-specials raided Catholic homes, wrecking them in the process. Anyone who resisted was beaten up and arrested.
By the late 1960s this situation had existed for nearly fifty years. Britain, which had set up the Northern Irish state, and which was still responsible for certain aspects of government, ignored the abuse of the Catholics. The Irish government also ignored them, though it’s difficult to know what they could have done to help. With no one willing to help them, it is not surprising that the Catholics in Northern Ireland felt abandoned by both governments. Feeling forsaken, their resentment against the Protestants continued to fester.
In the 1950s and 1960s the question of civil rights became an issue around the world. In countries where civil rights were denied, those denied their rights began to demand them. In the 1960s, Catholics in Northern Ireland also began to campaign for civil rights. Among those who campaigned on their behalf were John Hume, Ivan Cooper and Bernadette Devlin.
In 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was founded and organised protest marches against discrimination. This alarmed the Protestants, who were frightened of losing their power. They reacted violently, using the RUC and the B-specials to attack the marchers. The marchers were also attacked by vicious Protestant extremists and members of the Orange Order, whose violence was ignored by the police and the authorities.
As had happened in the 1920s, Catholic families were burned out of their homes by Protestants, who were supported and encouraged by Protestant extremists like Ian Paisley, who preached hatred agains
t Catholics. The RUC and B-Specials did not protect the Catholics. Instead, local Catholics tried to protect their own people and this gave the IRA a motive to become active.
When the civil war ended in 1923, the IRA had not disbanded. Though later banned by de Valera, they continued to exist as an illegal organisation. Military action was rare, though it did occur at times. One such action occurred on New Year’s Day, 1957, when a group of IRA men seeking to obtain arms, attacked a police barracks in County Fermanagh. Two of their members, Fergal O’Hanlon and Seán South were killed. Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA, still existed, but had little electoral success. They had adopted a non-militant policy and aspired to obtain their aim of a 32-county Irish Republic by political means.
Now the IRA in Northern Ireland began to protect Catholics from Protestant mobs. Some IRA members, along with members of Sinn Féin, disagreed with this, and the two organisations split. The breakaway group formed the Provisional IRA, or the Provos. Sinn Féin also split, with the hard-liners supporting the Provisional IRA.
Rioting broke out in Northern Ireland as violence became a part of life. When the situation threatened to get out of control, the British government was forced to act. They sent the army to Northern Ireland to protect the Catholics, and to try and restore peace. At first the soldiers were welcomed by Catholics, but as the Provisional IRA became more active, the British introduced internment. Hundreds of Catholics were arrested and imprisoned without trial. However, few Protestants suffered this fate.
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