Ireland's Uncivil War

Just as the Roman Catholic Church supports Adam's cover up of his
brother's Child abuse today and all of the Bishops who resigned over child
rapes recently, they also supported the fascist Blues shirts who went
to fight for Franco and the Free State forces at the start of the
Civil war in the south of Ireland. They declared it the lawful
government of the country, denouncing Anti-Treaty IRA and
excommunicating anti-treaty fighters. On 10 October 1922, the Catholic
Bishops of Ireland issued a formal statement, which was crucial to
Catholics in the south supporting the anti-treaty campaign,

"a system of murder and assassination of the National forces without
any legitimate authority... the guerrilla warfare now being carried on
by the Irregulars is without moral sanction and therefore the killing
of National soldiers is murder before God, the seizing of public and
private property is robbery, the breaking of roads, bridges and
railways is criminal. All who in contravention of this teaching,
participate in such crimes are guilty of grievous sins and may not be
absolved in Confession nor admitted to the Holy Communion if they
persist in such evil courses."


As a result of this and the support of the British Government, the
Free State government were enabled to expand its forces dramatically
after the start of the Civil war. Pro-treaty Collins, was able to
build an army which was to overwhelm their republican opponents.
British supplies of artillery, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns,
small arms and ammunition were freely given to pro-treaty forces.
Their Army was 14,000 men by August 1922, it was 38,000 strong by the
end of 1922, it had swollen to 55,000 men and 3,500 officers at the
end of the war, far more than what the Irish state would ever need.
The Roman Catholic Church as opposed to the older traditional Celtic
Church has always been a powerful reactionary force of great cruelty
in Ireland, just as in Europe with its Inquisition and Crusaders.


Collins' most ruthless officers and men were recruited from the Dublin
"Active Service Unit" which Collins had commanded in the Irish War of
Independence and in particular from his assassination unit, "The
Squad". They were now known as the Dublin Guard. Towards the end of
the war, they were implicated in notorious atrocities against
anti-treaty guerrillas. Most of the National Army's officers were
Pro-Treaty IRA men, as were a substantial number of their soldiers.
Many of the new army's other recruits were unemployed veterans of the
First World War, where they had served in the Irish Division of the
British Army.



Former British Army officers were also recruited for their technical
expertise. A number of the senior Free State commanders such as Emmet
Dalton John T. Prout and W.R.E. Murphy had seen service as officers in
World War One, Dalton and Murphy in the British Army and Prout in the
US Army. The Republicans of that time claimed, that the Free State was
only a proxy force for Britain.

The final phase of the Civil War degenerated into a series of
atrocities that left a lasting legacy of bitterness in Irish politics.
The Free Staters began executing Republican prisoners on 17 November
1922, when five IRA men were shot by firing squad. In all, the Free
State conducted 77 official executions of anti-treaty prisoners during
the Civil War.


On 7 December 1922, four prominent Republicans who had been held since
the first week of the war, Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard
Barrett and Joe McKelvey were executed. Free State troops,
particularly in County Kerry, where the guerrilla campaign was most
bitter, conducted the summary execution of captured anti-treaty
fighters. The most notorious example of this occurred at Ballyseedy,
where nine Republican prisoners were tied to a landmine, which was
detonated, killing eight and only leaving one, Stephen Fuller, who was
blown clear by the blast, to escape.The number of "unauthorised"
executions of Republican prisoners during the Irish Civil War war has
been put as high as 153.