The threat of renewed war made by the British government at the end of the Treaty negotiations was finally carried out on 28 June 1922 but it was the Provisional Government of the Free State that started the threatened war using borrowed British guns. Free article

This Sunday 19 June 2022 Irish Republicans gather at Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown as we we have done for many decades. Almost exactly 100 years ago on Tuesday 20 June 1922 Republicans were at Bodenstown just a few days before the Civil War began with the Free State bombardment of the Four Courts. Free article

Since the narrow Dáil vote for the Treaty in January 1922 and the split in the IRA in March, there were ongoing efforts to prevent civil war and to find a basis for unity on both a political and military basis. Free article

The Special Powers Act, one of the most repressive pieces of legislation ever enacted anywhere, was extensively used for 50 years by the Unionist regime in the Six Counties. Free article

100 years ago on 14 April 1922 the anti-Treaty IRA occupied the Four Courts in the centre of Dublin. The pro-Treaty Free State Army, then being built up, had already occupied evacuated British Army barracks in the capital, including Beggars Bush which they made their headquarters. Free article

It has long been argued that the General Election of June 1922 was a ringing endorsement by voters in the 26 Counties for the Treaty and the Free State. But was that really the case, and did the election give the Free State government what it later claimed as a mandate to forcibly suppress their Republican opponents? Free article

The period after the narrow Dáil vote in favour of the Treaty in January 1922 saw division between the pro and anti-Treaty sides widening but also many efforts to maintain unity and to prevent armed conflict. Free article

One hundred years ago the new state of ‘Northern Ireland’ was being consolidated by the Unionist Party, the Orange Order and the British crown forces by means of sectarian terror against the non-unionist population, especially in Belfast. Free article

A century ago in February 1922 the pogrom against Catholics, nationalists, republicans and anyone else seen as an enemy of Unionism was renewed in the new Orange Six-County state of ‘Northern Ireland’. Free article

One hundred years ago this week Dáil Éireann voted on the Treaty and divided just as the Cabinet had already divided and as the IRA was shortly to do also. It was a division that would lead eventually to armed conflict, but not for another six months, with many other factors contributing to the outbreak of the war. Free article

Dáil Éireann debated the Treaty in December 1921 and early January 1922. One of the most enduring speeches is that of Liam Mellows, senior IRA officer, former envoy in the United States, 1916 Rising leader in Galway, former Fianna Éireann organiser. He argued that the Republic existed and that the Treaty surrendered it. He warned prophetically of what would happen when politicians took power in the Free State and his message was strongly anti-imperialist, pointing to the crimes of the British Empire across the globe. The speech was delivered 100 years ago on 4 January 1922 and we carry key extracts here. Free article

The ‘Articles of Agreement’ commonly known as the Treaty were signed in London in the early hours of the morning of 6 December 1921. They were signed by a divided Irish delegation under threat of an immediate resumption and escalation of the British government’s war of terror in Ireland.  Free article

Book review by Mícheál Mac Donncha:‘On Dangerous Ground - a Memoir of the Irish Revolution’ by Máire Comerford. Published by Lilliput Press. Free article

James Connolly called for the reconquest of Ireland by the Irish people. A mighty effort was made to achieve political reconquest between 1916 and 1921 but, 100 years ago, the British government, through a combination of force and fraud, managed to maintain its grip on Ireland and to recast the conquest. Free article

This is an edited version of an article by Trevor Quinn of Cork SIPTU, first published in An Phoblacht, November 2011 Free article