Mapping the Irish Civil War
By Katherine Martin and Sera McClintock
In the century following the Irish Civil War (1922-1923), monuments were erected across the country to honour those who lost their lives and different causes for which they died. There is nothing uniform about these monuments: they differ in design, funding, and political purpose. Some monuments were erected by the new Free State government almost immediately after the war in an effort to take hold of the national narrative, while others were erected by the family and friends of those who died. Some of the monuments were unveiled in elaborate ceremonies that lasted several days and were featured in national newspapers. Others were unveiled with no fanfare and very little recognition, located outside of city and town centres and unmarked on most maps.
Perhaps the best known and most remarkable of all Civil War memorials is the Cenotaph that was erected in 1923 on Leinster Lawn in Dublin to honour Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. The unveiling of the Cenotaph, accompanied by a ten-day commemorative period to coincide with the first anniversary of the deaths in August 1922 of Griffith and Collins, was a deliberate act on the part of the new Free State government to establish a particular national narrative around the state’s creation.
In contrast, the majority of the monuments featured in our map were erected by the surviving members of certain battalions, by local government or by the families of the Civil War dead. Eight of the monuments included on this map — all located in Dublin — were erected in 2016 as part of SIPTU’s decade of centenary programme and arising out of their connection to the Irish Citizen’s Army (ICA). SIPTU’s early history is heavily influenced by the ICA, which protected union strikers during the Lockout in 1913 and later divided following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, with roughly 200 members of the ICA becoming involved in the IRA by the end of 1922.
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Map pointing out monuments commemorating the 1922 Civil War [link to map embedded] (Image: Google Maps)
As one of the most internationally recognizable names in Irish history, there are five monuments in honour of Michael Collins on this map, although there are others that indirectly represent him as well. Divided between Dublin City and County Cork, perhaps the best known memorial to Michael Collins is that at Beál na mBláth which marks the site at which he was shot and killed on 22 August 1922 and which received an overhaul in advance a major centenary commemorative ceremony that was attended by the leaders of the two major Irish political parties to spring from the Civil War divide. However, the site of Michael Collins' burial at Glasnevin Cemetery - his grave is still one of the cemetery’s most visited - is flanked by a National Army memorial,which lists the names of those soldiers killed in defence of the Free State during the Civil War.
This map highlights monuments across Ireland that were erected to commemorate the Civil War, either commemorating specific soldiers or entire groups. Two colours are used to identify the different monument types: red denotes monuments which commemorate the Civil War alongside other military conflicts; blue denotes monuments which commemorate the Irish Civil War only.
Special thanks to Michael Pegum and his Irish War Memorials site. Katherine Martin and Sera McClintock interned with Century Ireland in 2022 while postgraduate students of Public History and Cultural Heritage at the School of Histories and Humanities, Trinity College, Dublin.
