13 February 2012: Introduction

The Irish Civil War is a very hard event to describe because of the ambiguous nature of the events that took place over the course of the early 1920's. There was not a single event that set off the war, but rather a series of events that essentially led to what happened. In order to gain a basic understanding of why the Irish Civil War started, it is important to understand a little about the Irish War for Independence. This war began in 1919 and was between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British forces stationed in Ireland at the time. This war lasted until July 1921 when both sides agreed to a ceasefire. Ultimately, talks led to something called the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which basically ended British rule in Ireland under the condition that there be a provisional government overseeing the transitional period for ten months. After this ten month period, the Irish Free State was established however, more troubling times were coming.

While most of the nationalists of Ireland were in favor of establishing an independent republic, there were secret negotiations that led to Ireland being a dominion of the British Empire, which meant that the British monarch was the head of state. Irish people who fought together in the War of Independence now found themselves at odds with each other because of the differing opinions about the current state of affairs after the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Not long after the treaty was ratified, Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith set up a Provisional Government to transfer power from the British administration to the Irish Free State. In the build up to war, there were several armed conflicts between opposing forces of the IRA, those in favor of the treaty and those who opposed it. One notable clash was in Limerick. There were military barracks here that would soon be vacant because the British troops would be leaving. The conflict was over who would occupy the barracks once they were empty. This situation was temporarily solved when they compromised and decided that each side would occupy two barracks. There was an even bigger conflict in Kilkenny when anti-treaty forces occupied the center of the town pro-treaty troops were sent from Dublin to disperse them. These are just a few of the conflicts that eventually led to the descent into civil war in Ireland. Next week will cover in more detail the Irish War of Independence and Irish secession from Britain.

The purpose of the blog is to research the Irish Civil War and inform readers of the events that have transpired in the early 20th Century. I was inspired to write a blog and learn about Irish history because I will be taking a tour of the county gardens and landscapes as well as other Irish historical sights and attractions in May 2012.