Timeline of the Irish Civil War


This is a timeline of the Irish Civil War, which took place between June 1922 and May 1923. It followed the Irish War of Independence, and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
The conflict was waged between two opposing groups of Irish nationalists: the forces of the new Irish Free State, who supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty under which the state was established, and the republican opposition, for whom the Treaty represented a betrayal of the Irish Republic.
The government of the Irish Free State was ultimately victorious. The anti-Treaty forces called a ceasefire in April 1923 and ordered their men to "dump arms" in May 1923.
The war involved both conventional warfare when the Free State forces took the major towns and cities, and then a longer period of guerrilla warfare as the anti-Treaty forces were gradually brought to a standstill.

Build up

January 1922

See also IRA and the Anglo-Irish Treaty
Statistics are incomplete, Free State government sources stated that between 540 and 800 National Army soldiers were killed in the war. Historian Michael Hopkinson, in Green against Green, p. 272-3, states "There are no means by which to arrive at even approximate figures for the dead and wounded. Mulcahy stated that around 540 pro-Treaty troops were killed between the Treaty's signing and the war's end; the government referred to 800 army deaths between January 1922 and April 1924. There was no record of overall Republican deaths, which appear to have been very much higher. No figure exists for total civilian deaths."

Deaths by date

Total for 1922 and 1923: 857-961.
With additional statistics – fatalities by county available for: Cork 180, Kerry 185, Mayo 88–100, Sligo 54, Offaly 21.
Anti-Treaty combatants killed in Clare: 28.
Pro/Anti-Treaty combatants killed between January–June 1922, 9, – 2 in Clare. Casualties in County Kildare, 45 killed.
Additions,: Kerry + 78, Cork + 120, Sligo + 39, Offaly + 19, Clare + 27, January–June clashes + 7 = 290
Revised total: 1,147-1,251*
A range is given where casualties are reported but not confirmed.
*this is not a definitive total, but rather what could be found in this article.

Status of those killed

*Civilian casualties, may be far higher, casualties for the Dublin fighting are given as 250, but it is not clear how many of these were killed and how many wounded.