Just as the Irish war of independence had ended. A new conflict was on the horizon, The Irish Civil War. A war between two parties where over 2000 lives where lost, but why did the civil war start? Who fought, and how did it all end?
It all started as a follow-up to the Irish war of independence. After the war, Great Britain and Ireland signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The treaty concluded the war and turned Ireland into a free state. It also gave Northern Ireland an opportunity to secede from the Irish Free State and become a part of the United Kingdom, an opportunity they quickly grasped. The treaty was supposed to help Ireland, but it didn’t help at all and there are several reasons for this. The treaty dissolved the republic that was founded in 1918 and forced them to swear allegiance to the British monarch. It split Ireland in to two parts, the north and south. All of these factors made the people dissatisfied about the treaty. Many Irishmen viewed the treaty as a big step backwards for Ireland and its independence. The disagreements around the treaty turned the closest of friends to bitter enemies. Ireland was a melting pot about to explode. …show more content…
Both of these sides had been working together during the Irish war of independence but the treaty turned them against each other. The republicans saw the treaty as an infringement on the sovereignty of the Irish Republic. As opposed to the Nationalists who supported it. Therefore, you could say that this was a war between the Pro-treaty forces and the Anti-Treaty forces. The Pro-treaty forces consisted of the National Army and military support from United Kingdom. While the Anti-Treaty forces consisted of The Irish republican army also called the