{"id":16019,"date":"2022-07-15T10:30:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T08:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=211547"},"modified":"2022-07-15T10:59:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T08:59:13","slug":"the-irish-civil-war-100-years-on","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-irish-civil-war-100-years-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irish Civil War: 100 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 15 July 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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For \u201cfour glorious years\u201d (as the republican publicity chief Frank Gallagher called his memoir of the period) of resistance to Britain between 1918\u201321, the Sinn Fe\u0301in movement held together in pursuit of Irish independence. But immediately after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed<\/a> on 6 December 1921, sharp divisions appeared.<\/p>\n

The Irish representatives had been divided from the start of the treaty negotiations on issues of sovereignty and unity. The sides were broadly marked by those who were determined to uphold the sovereign republic declared in January 1919, and those who accepted that Britain\u2019s refusal to give ground on the central issues of crown and empire meant that any agreement must involve modifying that independence.<\/p>\n

Arthur Griffith, who founded Sinn Fe\u0301in in 1905 and was the leader of the Irish delegation to London to sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty, was one of the latter. More surprisingly, Michael Collins \u2013 who as president of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (a role regarded by some as virtual president of the republic) was widely presumed to be a diehard republican \u2013\u00a0also became one as the negotiations went on.<\/p>\n