Green Against Green - The Irish Civil War (ePub)

Michael Hopkinson's Green Against Green is the definitive study of the Irish civil war, putting in perspective a bitter and passionate conflict, the legacy of which still divides Irish society today. Widely praised and frequently cited as the most authoritative work on the subject, it continues to hold its place as one of the finest works on modern Irish history.

Unlike the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, the Irish Civil War has been largely overlooked by historians, put off by the messy divisions between former War of Independence allies and its continued importance in modern Irish society: even now, the rival parties in the conflict form the basis for two of the largest political parties in Ireland.

In Green Against Green, Michael Hopkinson addresses this gap in Irish historical writing, looking closely at the reasons for the outbreak of civil war, the major figures who directed it, how it was fought and its impact across Ireland. This major achievement of historical scholarship traces the history and course of the war from 1912 to its conclusion, starting with a sketch of the background to the divisions which surfaced during the war and continuing through to the functioning of the post-civil war Irish State.

This groundbreaking work, 'a dispassionate account of the most passionate times' (Irish Times), captures the confused loyalties and localised, often personal, violence that characterised one of the most critical, and least studied, formative events in modern Irish history.

Preface

PART I. 1912-1921

1. The Background to the Treaty Divisions, 1912-1918
2. The Anglo-Irish War, January 1919-July 1921, and the Truce Period
3. The Treaty Negotiations
4. The Treaty Split
5. The Irish Question in the United States

PART II. FROM THE TREATY TO THE ATTACK ON THE FOUR COURTS

6. The Political and Constitutional Background in Early 1922
7. The Military Split
8. De Valera and the Military and Political Developments
9. Military Developments after the Army Convention
10. The North, from Treaty to Attack on the Four Courts
11. Social and Governmental Problems
12. The Search for Unity
13. The Constitution
14. The June Election and the Assassination of Sir Henry Wilson

PART III. THE OPENING OF THE WAR

15. The Attack on the Four Courts
16. Dublin Fighting

PART IV. THE EARLY CIVIL WAR

17. The Military and Political Background to the Fighting
18. The War in the Localities: July-August 1922
19. The Opening of the Guerrilla Phase of the War
20. The Death of Collins
21. The Establishment of the Third Dáil
22. Peace Initiatives
23. The Formation of the Republican Government
24. The First Executions
25. The British Government and the Early Civil War
26. The Southern Unionists and the Civil War
27. The Civil War and the Railways
28. The War in the Localities: September 1922-January 1923

PART V. THE WAR'S END

29. The Free State-Government and Army: January-April 1923
30. The Republicans and the Civil War: January-April 1923
31. The War in the Localities: January-April 1923
32. The North and the Civil War
33. Exile Nationalism: The United States and Britain in the Civil War
34. The Ceasefire

PART VI. THE POST-WAR PERIOD

35. The Republicans
36. The Post-War Free State Government and Army
37. The Republican Hunger-Strike, October-November 1923

Conclusion