26 March 2012: Atrocities of War

As the war progressed and the Republicans became less and less able to sustain the guerrilla tactics they were employing, the resorted to other tactics to compensate for the lack of success that they were so obviously experiencing. One of the tactics they resorted to was destruction of public infrastructure and sabotage. They assumed that since they couldn't gain or regain control of important cities and towns from the Free State Army, they could sabotage the public infrastructure, roads and railways, used by both the Free State Army and the citizens who were not particularly aligned with Republicans or the Free State Army. This could have dealt a major blow to the Free State Army because of supply lines and communication between the various forces who were spread around the country but I do not think it had any type of significant impact on the army because of the inefficiency and disorganization of the Republicans attacks. Not only did they destroy infrastructure in an attempt to gain some form of superiority over the Free State Army, they also tried to demoralize and set them back by burning the homes of some of the members. The Republicans employed these tactics because they were desperate. While the Free State Army was seemingly in control of the war and as a result the country, they were not above committing atrocious acts of war in the latter parts of the war.

The Free State Army stooped to a new low after the Republicans resorted to sabotage and destruction of public infrastructure. The Free State Army resorted to executions and assassinations instead of diplomacy or conventional warfare. The first execution took place on November 17 when five men were shot and killed by a firing squad. The Free State Army were executing Republican sympathizers in addition to the Republican prisoners. They executed Robert Erskine Childers, who was an acclaimed author and treaty negotiator. Total, the Free State authorized 77 official executions of Republican prisoners throughout the course of the war. This is only the number of official executions authorized. It is impossible to know how many other executions there were that were not authorized or sanctioned. In response to the executions, the Republicans assassinated Seán Hales, a political adviser of the Free State. After this happened, the Free State retaliated by executing four prominent Republicans who had been held since the first week of the war. Not only did they execute these four men, Free State forces in County Kerry executed nine Republican soldiers who had been captured. They were tied to a landmine which was then detonated. The blast killed eight of the prisoners while one man was thrown clear from the explosion and was able to escape. This was a horrific time in Irish history and is credited as a reason there is bitterness in Irish politics.

As the war progressed and drew to a close, it became clear that the Republicans would be unable to sustain the guerrilla warfare they were employing because of a gradual loss of support. The Free State did no have this problem though, as they were supported by the Roman Catholic Church. The Church deemed the Free State as the lawful government of the country and therefore supported them entirely. This support led to hostility among some of the Republicans but they really did not do anything about it. After all of the executions and retaliations, it seemed as if the war was finally drawing to a close as the Republicans simply could not sustain their war effort. This led to the end of the war and a ceasefire, which I will talk about in the next post.