Early 1922

Donal O'Callaghan, Lord Mayor of Cork receiving keys form the Union Quay barracks after signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty

(photograph courtesy of the Wilson-Hogan Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland)

Southern Unionists soon formally recognised the new Free State but the anti-Treaty group, who came to be known as “The Irregulars”, intensified their opposition to it in which they were joined by Cumann na mBan. A secret IRA convention in April voted to carry on their campaign under the leadership of Oscar Traynor and Liam Lynch. The Collins government did not respond immediately to this challenge to their authority, but it was only a matter of time before a point of no return would be reached. The occupation of the Four Courts by the “Irregulars” in April was a crucial game changer. This took place just before the Catholic church strongly endorsed the Treaty.

Rory O’Connor was the leader of the anti-Treaty group that entered the Four Courts on April 13th, openly defying the authority of the Free State Government. Days later another group occupied Kilmainham jail in Dublin. Various attempts were made at mediation but O’Connor’s group were still in situ when a general election took place in June. A Collins-De Valera pact permitting an agreed panel of candidates from both sides did not come to fruition. Furthermore, in the election to the third Dáil, Pro and Anti-Treaty won 58 and 38 seats respectively with a respectable showing by the Labour and Farmers' Parties and some independents.

Next followed one of the most serious incidents after the Truce / Treaty. Sir Henry Wilson military advisor to the Northern Ireland government, who had also held a number of other senior security positions in the British administration, was shot dead in London. For this crime, two Irishmen Reginald Dunne and Henry O’Sullivan were subsequently hanged. At the end of June, after a Free State officer had been taken hostage by the Four Courts garrison, Collins issued an ultimatum soon followed by the storming of the building in the first ever use of artillery by the new state. On June the 30^th the building was abandoned, but only after the blowing up of the Four Courts with the loss of a priceless historical archive. This event was the first clear signal that a civil war was under way.

Apart from tackling the insurgents, the other challenge facing the government in the second half of the year was the drawing up of a constitution. This process had started earlier in the year, but the various drafts were unacceptable to the British side who felt that too much was being done to accommodate de Valera’s objections to the Treaty and that the continuing connection with the British Empire was being played down.  It remained to be seen what would unfold after compromise proposals from the Provisional Irish Government.