Making the Republic

Internal politics raises its head ...

In 1921, a man called Michael Collins, the Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Republican Army, was sent to London by his leader, Eamon deValera, to negotiate a treaty to end the War of Independence. Now Michael Collins was not a man to be trifled with, being largely credited with the invention of guerrilla warfare, and bearing an uncanny resemblance to Irish actor Liam Neeson. Collins was under instruction to make peace with the English, on condition that we never had to look on their British bulldog faces again. Ever.

But there was a slight problem. The Protestants or Unionists of Northern Ireland (a.k.a. Ulster, The Six Counties, That Bloody Place Up There), kinda liked where they were and were not feeling very partial to moving out. Nor were they particularly enamoured with the idea of their nice clean citadels being ruled by a Dublin Government. So they decided to have a bit of a party, to which they invited about 200,000 of their closest friends - dress formal, bowler hat and orange sash compulsory, bring a gun.

It might be said that the English were willing to make peace at any price, Ireland having become a boil on the backside of their glorious Empire and way more trouble than it was worth, but this show of force by the Ulster Unionists made conceding a 32 county Ireland impossible. Collins was faced with a return to war, or the acceptance of a 26 county Ireland, with the other 6 counties remaining part of the Union, or United Kingdom. With the prospect of having to accept this deal all too prevalent to his leader, Eamon deValera did what any sane politician would do. Having instructed Collins to do a deal, he then proceeded to hang him out to dry, subsequently denouncing him as a traitor to the cause.

Following his return home with the Treaty all nicely signed, Collins became the focus of a bitter Civil War between pro and anti-Treaty Irishmen. For the history of this period, one has to rummage under the rather unsavoury rug where it has been swept, it being a period we would rather forget. It was a time when brother turned against brother, family against family, and culminated in the assassination of the once universally-loved Michael Collins, by person or persons still unknown, but often guessed at.

Eventually however, with the Civil War somewhat out of our systems, Ireland got down to the difficult task of trying to ruin the economy as efficiently as possible while, at the same time, trying to take its place amongst the nations of the world. We eventually declared ourselves a Republic in 1949, much to the relief, no doubt, of the British Monarchy, a relief denied them by less charitable Australians some 50 years later.

Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, life went on as usual. The Protestants continued to run things for their benefit, and the mainly Catholic Nationalists grubbed for whatever jobs and houses were left over. In 1969, a series of peaceful Civil Rights marches was organised by the Nationalists in a bid to highlight the discrimination prevalent in all aspects of Northern Irish life. The Unionists were not well pleased by this attempt to upset the status quo and retaliated by first sending in the police to break up the marches and, subsequently, by sending the army into Nationalist areas to weed out the ring leaders.

In short, a reign of terror was perpetrated throughout the North, with the loss of many Nationalist lives and homes. The Nationalists looked to the Dublin government for assistance and protection but, aside from an aborted attempt to provide them with arms, the government wisely decided not to get involved as this scenario was, once again, likely to lead to civil war.

But there was one group who, whilst dormant for many years, had never really gone away - The Irish Republican Army.

     page 4 - Thirty years of hatred

       page 2 - A millenium of resistance

 page 1 - Colm's story begins

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