“None of us want this Treaty. None of us want the Crown. None of us want the representative of the Crown. None of us want our harbours occupied by enemy forces; and none of us want what is said to be Partition; and we want no arguments against any of these things…….I, personally, see no alternative to the acceptance of this Treaty……
As to our ports, we are not in a position of force, either military or otherwise, to drive the enemy from our ports. We have not – those on whom the responsibility has been for doing such things – we have not been able to drive the enemy from anything but from a fairly good-sized police barracks.
We have suffered a defeat.”
Richard Mulcahy TD.
Chief of Staff
Irish Republican Army
22 January 1922 in Dail Eireann.
Mulcahy outranked Michael Collins in the IRA.
Arthur Griffith acclaimed Collins as “The Man Who Won The War.”
It seems to me that if Ireland had militarily defeated Britain Lloyd George and Churchill might have come to Dublin to submit to the demands of de Valera, Collins and Mulcahy
But I’m neither a statesman nor a military expert and can only give a layman’s opinion.
It was all about devs ego