Irish Civil War

National Army soldiers armed with Lewis machine guns aboard an impromptu gunboat in the Civil War.

Date

28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923
(10 months, 3 weeks and 5 days)

Location

Result

Pro-Treaty victory

Belligerents

Pro-Treaty forces:

Military support

United Kingdom

Anti-Treaty forces:

Irish Republican Army (officially termed the Irregulars) in a term made compulsory for newspapers by the Director of Communications of the Free State, Piaras Béaslaí
Cumann na mBan
Fianna Éireann

Commanders and leaders

Military commanders:
Liam Lynch †
Frank Aiken
Political leaders:
Éamon de Valera

Strength

National Army: ~55,000 soldiers and 3,500 officers by end of the war,
Air Service: 10 planes,
CID: 350

~15,000

Casualties and losses

~800 Irish National Army killed
3 Garda Síochána killed
4 CID and 2 Civic Guard (Accident/killed/DOW)

unknown ~1,000–3,000 killed
~12,000 taken prisoner

Civilians: unknown, ~250 casualties in Dublin alone

Pro-Treaty victory

Pro-Treaty forces:

Military support

Anti-Treaty forces:

The Irish Civil War (Irish: Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Empire.

The civil war was waged between two opposing groups, Irish republicans and Irish nationalists, over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The forces of the Provisional Government (which became the Free State in December 1922) supported the Treaty, while the Republican opposition saw it as a betrayal of the Irish Republic (which had been proclaimed during the Easter Rising). Many of those who fought in the conflict had been members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the War of Independence.