During the Dail debates, Collins described the Anglo-Irish Treaty as a “steppingstone” towards Irish independence. I would tweak that thought slightly by calling it a series of steppingstones, the first one being the creation of the Provisional Government of Ireland. What was the Provisional Government?  

 The Provisional Government was created by Article 17 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was meant to be a temporary government to handle the transition from being purely a colonized nation to the Irish Free State. Once a constitution was passed, the Provisional Government would step down for the constitutionally sanctioned government of the Irish Free State. The Provisional Government would go through two different governments: the first government led by Collins lasted from January 14^th until the June General Election, which elected the second government. This was led by William Cosgrave, Minister of Home Affairs, and ruled until the approval of the Irish Constitution on December 6^th, 1922. Despite being created by the treaty, Britain did not actually confer any powers to the Provisional Government until April 1922. Additionally, the Provisional Government was supposed to be answerable to a House of the Parliament, but did not specify a specific parliament or even create one.  

The first Provisional Government consisted of the following members:

• Michael Collins: Chairman

• Eamonn Duggan: Minister for Home Affairs

• W. T. Cosgrave: Minister for Local Government

• Kevin O’Higgins: Minister for Economic Affairs

• Fionan Lynch: Minister for Education

• Patrick Hogan: Minister for Agriculture

• Joseph McGrath: Minister for Labour

• J. J. Walsh: Postmaster-General 

While Britain did not acknowledge the Dail as a legitimate form of government, Ireland was ruled by both the Provisional Government and the Dail. The Dail considered of a president, Arthur Griffith, and his own cabinet. The Provisional Government, technically, was not answerable to the Dail until a new election was called. This election would be held in June and took their oaths in September 1922. Still both sides worked closely together since many of their ministers served in both governments.

The dual government could create awkward situations such as when Richard Mulcahy, Minister of Defense in the Dail’s cabinet, had to “arrange” with the “Provisional Government to occupy for them all vacated military and police posts for the purpose of their maintenance and safeguarding”. While Mulcahy did not hold an official position within the Provisional Government, he attended many meetings to organize the country’s defense and deal with the schisming IRA. The British never understood this arrangement but were forced to accept it even though Churchill observed that it was “an anomaly unprecedented in the history of the British Empire” (pg 386, Charles Townshend, The Republic).

Florrie O’Donoghue, a Republican IRA member, described the dual government as a master-stroke by the pro-treaty side. The pro-treaty side used the continued existence of the Dail and Irish republicanism to distract people from the core dispute around the treaty all the while allowing the Provisional Government and National Army to strengthen its political and military power. He claimed that:

“if Dail Eireann had been extinguished by the vote on the Treaty the issue would have been much more clear-cut, and many of the subsequent efforts to maintain unity would have taken a different direction. Despite Republican hopes, time was on the side of the pro-treaty party”

Michael Hopkinson, Green Against Green

P. S. O’Hegarty, however, felt that the provisional government was a disaster for the pro-treaty side, revealing a weak government eager to appease an intransigent opposition. Similarly, Griffith warned that a dual government would create chaos. What actually happened was that the Dail existed in name and basically merged with the Provisional Government by the time of the general election in June.

The National Army

The Provisional Government created the National Army on January 21^st, 1922, even though legally it wouldn’t be formally recognized by the Irish Free State government until August 1923. The National Army structure was based on the British Army and it employed many men who had served In the British army to help with organization and discipline. However, it used the IRA ranks until January 1923, when they switched to a rank system that utilized by most armies. The National Army got most of its equipment, uniforms, and ammunition from the British Government. Once the treaty was signed the British government was invested in preserving the Provisional government. They even offered to send troops to help curb the civil war. About half of the National Army were half-trained troops thrown into counter-insurgency work. The army would have issues with discipline, human rights violations, and ill-discipline. Many in the National Army had combat experience, but little administration, training, and logistical experience. It wasn’t like the IRA could properly train or equipment their forces during the Irish War of Independence. However, core units, such as the Dublin Guard, proved themselves disciplined and effective military units.

The first core unit of the National Army was the Dublin Guards, who were a mixture of IRA veterans loyal to Collins (many who came from the Squad, Collins’ assassins) and ex-Royal Dublin Fusiliers who are known for their brutality in Co. Kerry. Their commander, Brigadier Paddy Daly, who once served as officer commanding of the Squad, said, “nobody had asked me to take kid gloves to Kerry, so I didn’t.” (Diarmaid Ferriter, Between Two Hells, pg 24).

As the army grew, it relied on men with British army experience such as General W. R. E. Murphy, Major-General Dalton while Lt-General J.J. O’Connell and Major-General John Proust served in the US Army during WWI, which would create problems for Richard Mulcahy and William Cosgrave during and after the civil war.

The Provisional Government knew they couldn’t rely on the army to keep civil order, so they created the Civic Guards to replace the withdrawn British Army and RICs. They played a small roll in the civil war itself except for a mutiny later in 1922, which we’ll talk about in another episode.

Finally, the British withdrew all forces except for 5000 men under General Macready, who was there, Churchill claimed because:

“We shall certainly not be able to withdraw our troops from their present positions until we know that the Irish people are going to stand by the Treaty, neither shall we be able to refrain from stating the consequences which would follow the setting up of a Republic,”

Michael Hopkinson, Green Against Green

The British either sensing that civil war was imminent or simply being racist and assuming the Irish “couldn’t rule themselves” constantly pestered the Provisional Government to do a better job at governing. While they acknowledged that to interfere in Irish affairs before the Irish Free State was created would only exasperate things, they had no problem threatening the Provisional Government with the return of British forces whenever they didn’t respond as quickly as the British expected.

The British had some right to be concerned as the National Army was weak. It’s estimated that about 70% of the IRA disapproved of the Treaty, while others supported it simply because Collins said to. This left Mulcahy with the difficult task of keeping together a republican army that didn’t respect or acknowledge the powers of the provisional government and felt the Dail was being co-opted. We’ll get into this more in the next episode, but by February 1922, the Provisional Government was facing the unsettling truth that the National Army was in a race with the IRA to claim ownership of the abandoned British barracks and large swaths of the country.

The Provisional Government gained its first victory on January 16^th, just two days after it’s creation, when Michael Collins took the keys for Dublin Castle from the British. For centuries Dublin Castle as served as a citadel for British forces and one of the most distinct symbols of British colonial rule. The fact that it was now in Irish hands was maybe the first true sign that Ireland was free of British control. The Times described the moment as follows: 

“All Dublin was agog with anticipation. From early morning a dense crowd collected outside the gloomy gates in Dame Street, though from the outside little can be seen of the Castle, and only a few privileged persons were permitted to enter its grim gates… [At half past 1] members of the Provisional Government went in a body to the Castle, where they were received by Lord FitzAlan, the Lord Lieutenant. Mr. Michael Collins produced a copy of the Treaty, on which the acceptance of its provisions by himself and his colleagues was endorsed. The existence and authority of the Provisional Government were then formally and officially acknowledged, and they were informed that the British Government would be immediately communicated with in order that the necessary steps might be taken for the transfer to the Provisional Government of the powers and machinery requisite for the discharge of its duties. The Lord Lieutenant congratulated … expressed the earnest hope that under their auspices the ideal of a happy, free, and prosperous Ireland would be attained… The proceedings were held in private, and lasted for 55 minutes, and at the conclusion the heads of the principal administrative departments were presented to the members of the Provisional Government”

The Times, 17 January 1922 – Dublin Castle Handed Over, Irish Ministers in London Today, The King’s Message. 

Later that day, Collins would issue the following telegram: 

“The members of the Provisional Government of Ireland received the surrender of Dublin Castle at 1.45 p.m. today. It is now in the hands of the Irish nation. For the next few days the functions of the existing departments of the institution will be continued without in any way prejudicing future action. Members of the Provisional Government proceed to London immediately to meet the British Cabinet Committee to arrange for the various details of handing over. A statement will be issued by the Provisional Government tomorrow in regard to its intentions and policy.

Michael Collins, Chairman, The Times, 17 January 1922 – Dublin Castle Handed Over, Irish Ministers in London Today, The King’s Message.

As monumental as this victory was, it did little to ease the many issues facing the Provisional Government. They were responsible for

• taking the executive from the British
• maintaining public order during the transition
• drafting a constitution
• preparing a general election
• preventing a civil war
• Win over their furious, anti-treaty colleagues who refused to acknowledge the Provisional Government or the Dail as a legitimate government.

As much shit as the Provisional Government and later the Cosgrave Administration gets (and I will give because wow they make some terrible decisions), I think it can be easy to overlook what they were facing and how overwhelmed they must have been. Many of the members of the Provisional Government had either been violent rebels since 1916 or had been ministers in an illegal ministry risking arrest and death since 1916. They didn’t have any real government experience, they hadn’t dealt with any of their trauma, and the tools that had worked for them for the past few years are not necessarily the best tools when you’re trying to build a nation state.  

Another thing to keep in mind, because this will be an undercurrent to the entire war, is the relationship between the IRA and the IRB and the Dail. In season one, I spent a lot of time analyzing the tension between Cathal Brugha’s civilian ministry of defense and Mulcahy and Collin’s more militant Squad and IRA as well as the limited control GHQ actually had over its own units. This culture of might makes right and violence is ok if Collins says it is, is one of the reasons the civil war occurs and will plague Ireland for a long time. It was up to the Provisional Government to handle this problem, but how can the Provisional Government do that when it’s run by Michael Collins, a bit of a strong man himself who never had issues with assassins, disappearances, and violent solutions to irritating problems.  

I find this quote from Kevin O’Higgins as capturing the feeling of the Provisional Government in 1922 both moving and enlightening: The Provisional Government was: 

“simply eight young men in the City Hall standing amongst the ruins of one administration, with the foundations of another not yet laid and with wild men screaming through the keyhole”

Diarmund Ferriter, A Nation and Not a Rabble, pg 268

For the anti-treaty side, the acceptance of the treaty and the creation of the Provisional Government was nothing short of the very betrayal of everything they had fought for both in 1916 and during the Irish War of Independence. Worst, the anti-treaty side saw the Provisional Government co-opting the many institutions that were supposed to belong to the “Irish Republic” such as the Dail, Sinn Fein, and the Irish Republic Army. In an attempt to buy time to win over more people to the pro-treaty side and to work a compromise that would prevent civil war, Collins, during a Sinn Fein meeting, delayed the general election from February to June. On one hand, this could be seen as a pragmatic thing to do, especially if he feared he didn’t have the votes to uphold the treaty and he thought he could legitimately find a compromise that would satisfy everyone. However, many anti-treatyites saw this as election rigging. Mary MacSwiney ruefully wrote:  

“When Collins saw he had a majority against him…he put up the unity plea to stave off the vote.”  

Michael Hopkinson, Green Against Green

Many blamed DeValera for agreeing to this compromise. Katheen O’Connell, DeValera’s secretary, wrote of the meeting were the compromise took place:  

“The vast majority were Republicans. What a pity a decision wasn’t taken. We could start a new Republican Party clean. Delays are dangerous. Many may change before the Ard-Fheis meets again”

Michael Hopkinson, Green Against Green

The thing was that no one wanted a civil war. Collins was desperate to prevent a military conflict and he believed that if he could craft a constitution before the next election, he could prove that the Treaty was only a steppingstone meant to placate the British. The constitution would be closer to a republican ideal. Similarly, DeValera, who even during the Irish War of Independence disliked guerilla warfare, wanted to avoid war. He believed he could use the next three months to win over the Provisional Government and tweak the treaty itself.

February 21st, 192 Sinn Fein Meeting

I want to save the in depth discussion about the IRA’s feelings for the next episode, where we talk about the taking of barracks and the army convention, but the army’s growing disgruntlement and anger with everything political, its disrespect for the Dail and GHQ, and its firm belief it “won” the war and thus had a right to determine Ireland’s future, also played a huge role in sparking the civil war. The Irish Civil War was both a legitimate political argument but also a huge army mutiny.  

In his magnificent book, Vivid Faces, R. F. Foster explains the treaty split in class terms. He writes that one can see the Irish Civil War as a long brewing divide between those who were influenced by Catholic piety and social conservatism and pragmaticism against those who were ardently revolutionary and radical and socialist. Liam Mellows argued that:  

“We do not seek to make this country a materially great country at the expense of its honour. We would rather have this country poor and indigent, we would rather have the people of Ireland eking out a poor existence on the soil, as long as they possessed their souls, their minds, their honour”

R. F Foster, Vivid Faces, pg 282

This sounds great on paper, but how do you sell that to a people who have been colonized, gone through a world war, and spent the last few years in a guerilla war? Ireland had been economically, physically, socially, and culturally brutalized during the Irish War for Independence and it makes sense that while some people would want to fight until everything they desired was achieved, others simply wanted a break and a chance to recover and heal. But even healing was a matter of contention because what did healing really mean when you still had to take an oath of loyalty to your colonizer? When your national army is being armed by your former oppressor so you can fire on the disgruntled members of your own society? When your island is split in two and the only way to unite it is still through violent intervention? When so many of the heady promises made during the revolutionary period are put aside for more practical concerns?

 I would add that there is something that happens when people are presented with the opportunity to form a state. We saw this in our Season 2, Central Asia during the Russian Civil War. The minute the Jadids, Alash Orda, Soviets, and others were given the chance to form their own definition of their boundaries and identities, is the moment we see this idea of “us” vs “them” and the “other” form as well as the concept of elites who control political and economic power.The Treaty shifted the debate that was occurring in Ireland during the Irish War for Independence. No longer were the IRA fighting a guerrilla war that they could lose at any moment and they needed lofty ideals such as a Republic and a Free Gaelic Ireland. Or an Ireland cleansed of all British influence. The Treaty gave the people of Ireland a real tangible chance to build something and that changed a lot of desires, hopes, and plans for a lot of people.          

The anti-treaty side were not wild people who wanted to destroy simply to destroy. The split tore them apart. Many simply couldn’t understand how their comrades could give up on their republican dreams so easily. Many anti-treatyites wrote to their pro-treaty friends, begging them to support the Republic. Mary MacSwiney, one of the most vehemently anti-treaty women, wrote to none other than Richard Mulcahy, claiming:  

“No matter what good things are in the Treaty, are they worth all this unhappiness, Dick? Do you not realize we hold the Republic as a living faith – a spiritual reality stronger than any material benefits you can offer – cannot give it up. It is not we who have changed it is you.”  

R. F. Foster, Vivid Faces, pg 280

Formerly close family members found themselves bitterest of enemies. For example, the Ryans family found themselves torn apart as Min, Mulcahy’s wife, along with Agnes and Denis McCullough supported the treaty, while their siblings Phyllis, Chris, Nell, and James and Mary Kate were against it. Some would spend time in jail and even go on hunger strike while Mulcahy was minister of defense. He would refuse to release them or give into their demands during the war. Phyllis at one point told Min to leave Mulcahy, but Min refused.            

The treaty nearly ruined Mabel and Desmond Fitzgerald’s marriage and shattered friendships, the most famous being Michael Collins and Harry Boland. Others, like Liam Lynch, bent themselves into pretzels trying to find a way to avoid a split. Both sides appealed to the Catholic Church to support their side as they grew closer and closer to war.            

Others couldn’t find it in themselves to blame their comrades and turned their anger on the British, Protestants, and the “other”. Muriel MacSwiney, wife to Terence, wrote to Mulcahy, stating

:

“I don’t feel anything against anybody but England for what has happened…Although I think this treaty is by a long way the greatest infamy that the enemy has ever perpetrated on us & I will always oppose it or anything like it I feel nothing against any Irishman; the whole weight of my venom is directed against the English people…I shall spend my life not, as up to this, working for the complete independence of Ireland’s Republic, but also working for the destruction & downfall of England & of every single English person I come across. The English people are to me now a plague of moral lepers.    

R. F. Foster, Vivid Faces, pg. 280

Finally, I would argue that trauma played a huge role in the split. You simply can’t take a majority of young men and women who have spent the last few years fighting to survive and tell them use this new political process to register your disagreements with this government that we’re building on the fly. The sense of betrayal – on both sides – was very real and very vivid and there wasn’t any mechanism to deal with it.

For the Provisional Government, they couldn’t believe their comrades were willing to risk their very state over something as “miniscule” as an oath. The hatred of the treaty and the government that would follow must have also felt quite personal since so many former members of DeValera’s government transferred to the Provisional Government. All of a sudden they weren’t trusted to lead Ireland into a liberated future.

For the anti-treaty, apparently everything they fought for was a lie and the comrades they thought they could trust were traitors to the very idea of an Irish Republic. Old, festering personal clashes rose to the surface with sudden ferocity, because the treaty released the pressure of war.

All these the differences and issues that had been developed during the Irish War of Independence could be ignored as long as survival was paramount. But now that the war was over, the pressure that kept all that shit down, was gone, and the world isn’t better. In fact, it looks like it’s either going to be more of the same or a compromised reality which doesn’t really justify all the shit you went through to get to this point.

It’s like when you’re working on your own trauma and you dive really deep and you accidentally ram into a deep, dark trauma and now it’s out and all these emotions your brain was protecting you from, rises to the surface and so now you’re a swirl tornado of emotions with no tools to handle it and nothing seems to help.  The biggest tragedy is that both sides tried so hard to avoid war, but it wasn’t enough. The sense of betrayal was too strong and the promised achievements of the treaty were too minuscule.  

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References 

The Republic by Charles Townshend 

Between Two Hells by Diarmaid Ferriter 

Vivid Faces by R. F. Foster 

Irish Civil War 1922-23 by Peter Cottrell 

Richard Mulcahy: From the Politics of War to the Politics of Peace, 1913-1924 by Padraig O Caoimh 

Eamon De Valera: a Will to Power by Ronan Fanning 

Green Against Green by Michael Hopkinson