The Varieties of Social Conflict in the Civil War

Abstract

With few exceptions, historical narratives of the Irish Civil War tend to be devoted almost exclusively to political developments and/or to the military contest between pro- and anti-treaty parties. While obviously critical for understanding the conflict, this focus on the more clearly delineated political and military arenas has obscured additional lines of fracture and deeper clashes of material interest in Irish society that also exercised an influence over the course and character of the civil war. These fractures and conflicts were manifested in a kaleidoscopic welter of popular agitations, social unrest, communal violence, anti-state activities, and localized ‘lawlessness’ that was ultimately as constitutive of the country’s experience of civil war as was the military and political contest between formal pro- and anti-treaty actors.¹ The ‘varieties of social conflict’ that flourished in 1922–3 included agrarian unrest like land grabbing, livestock theft, cattle driving, intimidation, and property destruction; strikes, workers’ ‘soviets’, industrial sabotage, and other forms of labour militancy; sundry forms of opportunistic criminality, including looting, armed robberies, and attacks on private property; sectarian violence; and low-level anti-state activities like poitín [illicit spirits] manufacture, resistance to paying rates, and non-cooperation with the police and legal system.