The Irish Civil War 1922-23 9781846032707, 1846032709

Citation preview

PETER COTTRELL is currently a serving Army officer in the British Army. He has recently completed an MA thesis on the Royal Irish Constabulary and is hoping to read a PhD on policing during the Anglo-Irish War. He lives in Hampshire, UK. PROFESSOR ROBERT O'NEILL, AO D.PHIL. (Oxon), Hon D. Litt. (ANU), FASSA, Fr Hist S, is the Series Editor of the Essential Histories. His wealth of knowledge and expertise shapes the series content and provides up-to-theminute research and theory. Born in 1936 an Australian citizen, he served in the Australian army (1955-68) and has held a number of eminent positions in history circles, including the Chichele Professorship of the History of War at All Souls College, University of Oxford, 1987-2001, and the Chairmanship of the Board of the Imperial War Museum and the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. He is the author of many books including works on the German Army and the Nazi party, and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Now based in Australia on his retirement from Oxford, he was the Chairman of the Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, from 1999 to 2005. Professor O'Neill is currently the Planning Director of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

Essential Histories

The Irish Civil War 1922-23 Peter Cottrell

First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Osprey Publishing, Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 OPH, UK 443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 100 I 6, USA E-mail: info@ospreypublishingcom

© 2008 Osprey Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved, Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978 I 84603 270 7 Page layout by: Myriam Bell Design, France Index by Alan Thatcher Typeset in GillSans and I Stone seriff Maps by The Map Studio Originated by PDQ Digital Media Solutions Ltd, Bungay, UK Printed in China through Bookbuilders 08 09

I0 I I

I2

I0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I

For a catalogue of all books published by Osprey Military and Aviation please contact:

Author's Note Throughout this book, I have used the term 'Republican' to describe the anti-Treaty forces, because the Free State Provisional Government supported the treaty that retained the monarchy and fell short of the Republic envisaged in

NORTH AMERICA

the 19 I 6 declaration. The Free State leaders and the majority of their supporters may well have been republicans, but it was not for this cause that they were fighting in 1922-23.

Osprey Direct, c/o Random House Distribution Center, 400 Hahn Road, Westminster, MD 21 157

My wife Heather

Dedication

E-mail: [email protected]

Acknowledgements ALL OTHER REGIONS Osprey Direct UK, PO, Box 140 Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2FA, UK E-mail: [email protected],uk

I would like to thank Donal Buckley, Sean Connolly; Sean Dunne, Cormac Doyle, Peter McGoldrick and Kevin Myers for all their help and encouragement.

Osprey Publishing is supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK's leading woodland conservation charity; by funding the dedication of trees,

All images credited to George Morrison are courtesy of:

Editor's Note

www.ospreypublishing.com

The Irish Civil War by Tim Pat Coogan and George Morrison, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group, London. © Tim Pat Coogan and George Morrison /998

Contents Introduction

7

Chronology

12

Background to war

The Anglo-Irish War

15

Warring sides

The combatants

20

Outbreak

The Anglo-Irish peace and the Republicans

27

The fighting

Conflict in Dublin and the provinces

35

Portrait of a soldier

Major-General James Emmet Dalton Me 1898-1978

60

The world around war

The wider impact of the Irish Civil War

64

Portrait of a civilian

Robert Ersl