On Saturday 29 April, eve of the centenary of the 1923 IRA ceasefire, Sinn Féin in Ennis, County Clare, unveiled a refurbished plaque to three Volunteers executed in the Free State barracks 100 years ago, some of the final Civil War executions. Speaking at the event Mícheál Mac Donncha looked back at the Counter-Revolution and how its centenary has been marked. This article is based on that address. Free article

Liam Lynch died around 8.45pm on the evening of 10 April 1923, 100 years ago. His death signalled the end of the war and moves were made soon after to conclude that phase of the IRA’s campaign. Free article

November 1922 saw a general sweep by Free Staters through Donegal in an effort to end Republican opposition in the county. This sweep was successful in that it captured the vast bulk of Volunteers operating in the county or forced them to go on the run in other counties. Free article

By the beginning of March 1923 the Civil War had taken a terrible toll across Ireland and worse was yet to come, especially in County Kerry. The war was intense there, with fierce fighting and many casualties between the strongly anti-Treaty Kerry IRA and the Free State forces that had invaded by sea at Fenit and captured Tralee the previous August. Free article

One hundred years ago, the Liverpool-born IRA Volunteer, George King was fatally wounded by Free State forces. On his centenary weekend, Irish republicans from across Ireland and Britain gathered in Liverpool to commemorate his life and sacrifice. Free article

Joseph MacDonagh, dedicated Irish Republican and Sinn Féin TD died on Christmas Day 100 years ago after six years of tireless work for Ireland. Free article

By Christmas of 1922 it was clear that the Free State Government had all but won the war. They had executed 21 republican prisoners in jails and internment camps. Thousands of prisoners were held in both partition states. In the countryside and the few towns where they still held out, the IRA’s forces were dwindling and in retreat. Free article

The Curragh Camp in County Kildare was for decades the chief British military base in Ireland. It was handed over to the Free State army in May 1922 but it was shortly the scene of imprisonment and execution of some of the same republicans who had fought the British. Free article

Mary Lou McDonald, Castletown, Co. Wexford. Sunday, December 11, 2022 Free article

The new Irish Free State of 26 Counties officially came into existence on 6 December 1922. Two days later on 8 December its government committed an act that was to define its treacherous nature in the eyes of Republicans for many years - the execution of Liam Mellows, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey and Richard Barrett in Mountjoy Jail. Free article

Galway republicans will remember and commemorate Liam Mellows on 4 December, in Athenry. This Galway Sinn Féin event will commence with a march from Athenry Community Park at 2pm by a piper-led procession walking past his former residence in the town to the 1916 Commemorative Garden. Free article

In ‘The Gates Flew Open’, Peadar O’Donnell’s inspirational memoir of his days as a Republican prisoner during the Civil War, Liam Mellows is described as “the richest mind our race had achieved for many a long day”. Others testified to the magnetism of his personality and his ability to motivate and to organise, as well as his deep thinking and profound commitment to the cause of the Irish Republic. Free article

This article first appeared in An Phoblacht in December 1932, ten years after the execution of Liam Mellows. Nora Connolly O’Brien, daughter of James Connolly and a revolutionary in her own right, was a close friend of Liam Mellows. She died in 1981 after a life of activism, including supporting the protesting Republican prisoners in the H-Blocks and Armagh Prison up to the time of her last illness. Free article

The execution of Erskine Childers 100 years ago on 24 November 1922 marked the culmination of the demonisation of this principled, committed and talented Republican activist by both the British and Free State governments. Free article

The Free State regime carried out the first prison executions under their new coercive legislation when four young men from the Liberties in the south city faced the firing squad in Kilmainham Jail, Dublin, on 17 November 1922. They were Volunteers Peter Cassidy, James Fisher, John Gaffney and Richard Twohig of the IRA’s Dublin Brigade. Free article