‘Honest Republicans have thrown in their arms’ and Civil war is close to an end

Cosgrave and O’Higgins tell foreign press of prospects for an end to civil war

Dublin, 12 March 1923 - President William T. Cosgrave has expressed confidence that the Civil War is nearing its end and that the Free State can look forward to the future with great confidence.

Speaking to press representatives from America and Britain, the President of the Executive Council pointed to evidence of a waning republican opposition and a return to a greater sense of order. Attacks on military posts which numbered at 98 last November had fallen to 39 this February.

Perhaps more significantly, 500 prisoners had signed a required undertaking not to partake in any further disturbances to secure their own release. 

Civil Scenes from last year from the British Pathé newsreel agency 

Leaders had been captured and citizens were providing the National Army with information to allow them to tackle the civil strife. According to Cosgrave, there was now ‘a great anxiety among the irregulars for an accommodation. All our information shows this.’

Even so, Mr. Cosgrave pointed to four different types of opposition the government still had to deal with, the first of which, he suggested, was political opposition represented by the likes of Éamon de Valera and Mary MacSwiney. There was a sense, Mr. Cosgrave said that whereas the former had taken a wrong turn and was trying to save face, the latter’s ambition was no more than to be ‘Queen of Ireland.’ Mr. Cosgrave also spoke about how the National Army had been strengthened in the last couple of months and that, in spite of near constant conflict, they had developed into a ‘disciplined and efficient machine.’

The President’s comments were echoed in those of his Minister for Home Affairs, Mr. Kevin O’Higgins,who told the London Editor of the Chicago Tribune that the anti-treaty forces were in a state of disintegration. ‘The best fighting men - the honest Republicans - have thrown in their arms, recognising the hopelessness of their cause....The Republican rebellion is at an end, and Ireland is now entering a new era of restoration and law, and is settling down to normal life.’

Mr. O’Higgins also made very pointed criticisms of Mr de Valera whom he not only accused of perpetrating a betrayal of the late Michael Collins in regards to the treaty negotiations, but also of having ‘plunged the country into hell ’ owing to an ‘injured personal vanity.’

‘However, his career has ended’, Mr. O’Higgins added. ‘He [Mr. de Valera] may elude capture for weeks, or even months, but we will get him in the end, and we know now that his followers are disintegrated and divided.’

[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.]