Government rubbishes de Valera claims to have been ‘powerless’ to interfere in Civil War
Dublin, 10 March 1923 - Mr. Eamon de Valera has claimed that he has been ‘powerless to interfere effectively’ in the ongoing Civil War.
In a letter dated February 25th and issued on paper headed the ‘Government of the Republic of Ireland’, Mr. de Valera states that he has been ‘condemned to view the tragedy here for the last year as through a wall of glass’, but that he hopes he will have an opportunity to make a constructive contribution.
The private letter, a response to a English correspondent, has been made public by the Free State government’s Publicity Department which has accused Mr. de Valera of attempting to offload responsibility for the Civil war and ‘for all the crimes...perpetrated against Ireland’ onto the shoulders of his ‘unfortunate and misguided followers.’
The government’s publicity department points out, however, that it was Mr. de Valera who first - and on more than one occasion - threatened civil war, most notably last March in Thurles when he told supporters that they would ‘wade through Irish blood’ in order to defeat the Treaty.
And far from living behind a wall of glass since, the Free State has highlighted prior interventions by Mr. de Valera, his proximity to leading military figures and his apparent acquiescence to a campaign that has involved house burning, criminality and the murder of a Dáil deputy in Seán Hales, who was ‘shot down in cold blood’ on December 7th last.
An image of the havoc wrought by the land-mines which destroyed Portmarnock bridge on the G. N. R. line in Februry 1923 (Image: National Library of Ireland)
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
