ICC Historical Lecture Series: BRITAIN AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR by CHARLES TOWNSHEND

1922 marks the culmination of the “Decade of Centenaries” in modern Irish history. This ten year period from 1912 to 1922 commemorates the sequence of momentous events from the Third Home Rule Bill to the Irish Civil War out of which emerged an independent but partitioned Ireland. Our lectures this year examine events and developments in Ireland and Britain in the early 1920s which still have a powerful resonance a century later.

BRITAIN AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR

When Michael Collins ordered an artillery bombardment of the Four Courts in Dublin, occupied by the anti-Treaty IRA, on 28 June 1922, republicans were quick to blame the eruption of civil war on malign British influence. The guns were provided by Britain, and the British government had delivered an ultimatum six days earlier, immediately after Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated in London, threatening military intervention if the Provisional Government failed to take action against the anti-Treaty republicans. How significant was this?

This lecture assesses the evidence of British interference in the context of the steady widening of the split within Sinn Fein over the Anglo-Irish Treaty early in 1922. Why did the series of attempts to maintain the unity of the IRA and prevent open conflict ultimately prove unsuccessful? What were the political options available to both pro- and anti-Treaty

Sinn Feiners as well as to the British government, what were the possibilities of averting civil war and what impact did British policy have on them?

Lecturer CHARLES TOWNSHEND

Professor Emeritus of International History at Keele University. Fellow of the British Academy. Author of “Ireland: The Twentieth Century”, “Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion”, “The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence”, “The Partition: Ireland Divided 1885-1925”