The so-called “Irish Free State” was not established by an Irish electorate but by a rump
of Dail Eireann at the dictation of a British Viceroy (a Catholic, as acceptable to Cardinal
Logue as “a Catholic Hangman”)
Neither the establishment of the Republic nor its antithesis “Free State” can be labelled
the birth of a Nation. Ireland, an ancient nation gave birth to the Republic
The loss of ancient records by the explosion in the Four Courts in 1922 has been wept
over by some historians.
Greater damage to an understanding of Ireland’s history has been done SINCE the 1922
explosion by “pro-Treaty” hacks, political and/or academics, “revisionists” and the sponsors
of the “decade of Remembrance.”
The British gun begged by Michael Collins of Winston Churchill to obey Churchill’s order
to bombard Collins’s former comrades in the Four Courts appears to have pride of place
in the Collins Barracks’ Museum.
It should be accompanied by the pistol carried by Erskine Childers, (a present from Collins)
used as a pretext for the murder of Childers by the “Treatyites” on 24 November 1922.
Both Collins and Griffith had done the Republican State and the Irish Nation heroic service
for many years before the bombardment of the Four Courts.
But, even making allowances for the pressures they were under they served Ireland no further.
Griffith talked nonsense when he called Collins “the man who won the war” – a description Collins
rejected, whilst Richard Mulcahy, Chief of Staff of the IRA, the National Army responsible to
the Republican Government and its Minister for Defence, Cathal Brugha, declared that the Army
had been defeated. In fact the British, who never recognised Dail Eireann, had sued for a truce
between the Crown Forces and the IRA in 1921, to explore a strategy to split the Republican
Movement, and get one faction of it, in the words of Lord Birkenhead, “hold Ireland for the Empire
with an economy of English Lives.”
Collins believed that he could out-cheat one of the greatest cabinets ever fielded by Perfidious
Albion, as did the ex US Officer “Ginger O’Connell” who thought the British would be dumb enough
to supply the “Treatyite” forces with arms to continue the war against the Brits. Following the Dail
to acquiesce in the Treaty they hated, De Valera resigned his Presidency of that body and had no
direction of armed forces. Dev submitted himself for re-election and was replaced by Griffith who
won by a margin of one vote. De Valera, who could have voted for himself, abstained. As President
of the Legitimate Parliament, Griffith demanded that the illegitimate Junta the “Provisional Government” crush the IRA who stood by the Republic.
But Republican and “Treatyite” troops, jointly campaigned to make war on the Unionist regime in the Six Counties. When Rory O’Connor offered to arrange the evacuation of anti-Treaty forces from the Four Courts, Richard Mulcahy laughed, saying that the British would blame them for the campaign both factions were jointly conducting in the North.
Collins was apparently responsible for the shooting of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson in London on
the 22nd June 1922. This resulted in the hanging of two London IRA men who had been wounded
serving in the British Army in the Great War largely planned by their target. The British Government,
chose to blame the Four Courts Garrison (although General MacCready suspected Collins), and Churchill ordered Collins to attack the Four Courts and supplied the artillery.
The rest is history which is rarely honestly dealt with. I will do my best as an amateur to make good
the deficiency.
It has been recognised that an enthusiastic amateur can be better than a mercenary whore.
in 1922.
Pedantic nonsense 80% of the voters ratified the treaty ,
52% of British voters voted for Brexit. Your point is?