I should have the next update tomorrow. It'll be looking into the various factions in depth!
The Last Embers of Daylight: An Irish Timeline
- Thread starter DirtyCommie
- Start date
Pangur
Donor
My first comment is that the map produced is frankly from a republican angle very hopeful. We are indeed looking at a return of the civil war which in Munster means - Kerry, West Cork, South Tipperary part of Waterford and thats about it. The ability of the Republicans to get there hands on enough weapons to fight an open war rather than hit and run is at best open to question. Yes there was the down arms order in 1923 and yes they knew where the weapons were hidden however that's a different matter from standing up the type of army that you are implying - not possible. Think asymetric warfare.
Hey, guys, sorry about the long wait; I'll have an update by Sunday!
Well, large units of the army still remain on the Free State's side, but to be honest, a lot of the soldiers on every side are 'armed' with what are actually pitchforks, hoes, and the odd sword rather than guns. In terms of battle, it's actually somewhat analogous to the Italian Civil War in which the vast majority of actual Italian combatants were armed with farm implements.
Well, large units of the army still remain on the Free State's side, but to be honest, a lot of the soldiers on every side are 'armed' with what are actually pitchforks, hoes, and the odd sword rather than guns. In terms of battle, it's actually somewhat analogous to the Italian Civil War in which the vast majority of actual Italian combatants were armed with farm implements.
Pangur
Donor
Which would what I would expect (army staying with the Free State) at least in the begining. Depending on its plays out perhaps some of the repubicans that legged it to the US might start to purchase weapons in the US and smuggle them in?
The Second Irish Civil War, 1933-1937: Part Two
Mo chás! mo chaoi! mo cheasna!
An fáth thug claoidhte i n-easbaidh
fáide, draoite, sagairt,
dáim agus cléir,
gan dán dá ríomh le haiteas,
gan ráidte grinn dá n-aithris,
gan sám-chruit bhinn dá spreagadh,
i mbán-bhrogaidh réidhe!
's gach ráib d'fhuil Mhíleadh ceannais,
l'áidir, laochda, tapa,
ba ghnáthach rinnceach, reathach,
lán-oilte ar faobhar.
Gan stát, gan mhaoin, gan fearann,
ár is míle measa
'ná Seán Ua Duibhir an Ghleanna
fástha gan game.
My trouble! My lament! My torment!
The cause which left broken, in want,
prophets, poets, and priests,
the scholars and the clergy,
--no more poems composed with pleasure,
no more telling of witty stories,
no more lively musical harp-playing,
in tranquil fair mansions!
Every scion of the Milesian chiefs,
strong, courteous, quick,
used to dancing and racing,
skilful with weapons,
now without state, without wealth, without land,
slaughter and a thousand things worse
than John O'Dwyer of the Glens
left without game.
--Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin, My Sorrow
One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.
--James Joyce, The Dead
The Belfast Conference has often been called the 'high-water mark' of the Civil War; this was the point at which Free Stater forces were at their strongest and indeed, if the conference had gone any other way, the war would almost certainly have ended in their favor. Alas, it was not to be so. In July 1934, delegates for the three anti-fascist factions met in Belfast, led by Peader O'Donnell for the Republican Congress, James Dillon(1) for the Provisional Government, and Sean Thomas O'Kelly(2) for the Free State, presided over by British Foreign Secretary John Simon. Initially, the meeting seemed hopeful; all present, besides the staunchly aloof Simon, agreed that there must be no quarter for the Blueshirts and that the 'proper tools of democracy must again become the guiding mechanics of the state', whatever that could mean(3). What must happen to the Blueshirts was never, in fact, in contention at all. What was in contention was whether or not they were the real enemy.
John Simon, the much-maligned Foreign Secretary of Ramsay MacDonald's National Government
The initial conflicts arose over a seemingly innocuous issue; who was to assume supreme command of the unified Free Irish force. All present, besides O'Donnell, agreed that the factions had to combine their forces under a unified command in order to achieve victory. The commander himself was the true issue; O'Kelly volunteered Ua Buachalla, but both Dillon and O'Donnell denied that possibility, as he was seen as something of a British puppet, being Governor-General. For his part, O'Donnell suggested Frank Ryan, but Dillon was aghast at the idea--his government already had to swallow the bitter pill of uniting with Bolsheviks. To have a Bolshevik leader would be the death knell to freedom, or so he said. Enraged by this, O'Donnell threatened to withdraw from the conference, finding a surprising ally in O'Kelly, who urged Dillon to accept for unity's sake. The PGI delegate retorted that de Valera's boy was a funny one to talk about unity after he had effectively destroyed the last parliament, which caused the meeting to devolve into something John Simon would later comment on as 'the utmost breach of gentlemanly behavior'; an all-out fistfight. When the dust settled, all three governments were determined to win the war on their own terms, without the help of the other two. After the delegates returned in late July, fighting almost immediately broke out between PGI forces and Republicans in Sligo yet again, quickly becoming a brutal and bloody battle between entrenched positions. For their part, Free State forces began launching punitive raids into Republican territory in an attempt to secure arms depots and weaken Republican defenses. Beyond that, however, De Valera's government withdrew to a defensive posture. Their lack of resources made it almost impossible for them to carry out a sustained offensive.
Nevertheless, being attacked in part from three sides caused O'Donnell to seek help from an unlikely ally; Stalin. With the Entente being rather reticent to supply a faction they saw as dangerously communistic and the Fascist states obviously out of the picture, the USSR emerged as the only real option for the Republican Congress. In September, O'Donnell met with a Soviet envoy in Galway itself, wherein nearly thirty thousand rifles along with a huge amount of ammunition would be given to the Congress, on credit. Those who have called this offer an example of Bolshevik generosity must keep in mind firstly that this was a miniscule amount of weaponry for the Soviet Union, and secondly that Stalin had certainly no wish to see another fascist state arise in Europe, and that any chance for a communist one was worth at least passive support. With this material help, the Congress was able to stem the PGI advance, though they had already lost control of most of Sligo, and even make gains in some regions. In the south, meanwhile, a new situation was developing. Seeing that his enemies were fighting amongst themselves, O'Duffy, who had spent the summer establishing trade contacts in Italy and Germany, as well as continuing to drill and expand the GN (it was now a force of some 80,000 men, interestingly almost all volunteers), found that he had much to gain from the state of things. Fearing to cause new pushes towards a unified front if he pushed into the embattled northern factions, O'Duffy and his second-in-command Thomas F. O'Higgins instead opted for a southern push, into the Free State.
This, to say the least, had not been expected by de Valera and his companions. Though the area outside Waterford had been fortified as best as it could be on short notice, the effective border was drastically undermanned, with most available forces drawn north to harass the Republicans. Thus, when, on October 20, 1934, more than 40,000 National Guardsmen charged howling(4) into the trenches, armed with an assortment of rifles, bayonets, trench knives, shovels, and other makeshift implements, there was only a bedraggled force of young conscripts to face them. But these men would pass into legend. For nearly five days, led by a young major named Patrick O'Sullivan after the commanding officer was killed, a force of less than five thousand green conscripts held off the GN offensive. When Waterford finally fell to the Nationalists on October 25, less than five hundred of the Free Staters survived, while almost five thousand of the GN themselves were dead or wounded. The defense bought crucial time for Ua Buachalla to move the majority of his forces to face the GN. O'Sullivan had given the Free State a chance.
Unfortunately, that was not enough. On the second of November, the Battle of Tipperary(5) began as O'Higgins' forces approached Free Stater positions outside the town of Clonmel. After several hours of ineffective skirmishing by both sides, O'Higgins unleashed his secret weapon; the Flying Hounds (or na Coin Eitilt, as O'Duffy referred to them). Made up variously of Irish volunteers, a smattering of Italian professionals, and some few German pilots, the Flying Hounds were a very makeshift air force. Numbering less than thirty planes, they were mostly early 20s biplanes, often with rifles rather than machineguns bolted on to save ammunition. However, they did their job. The roar of the engines caused some conscripts to simply drop their arms and flee, while the subsequent (again, makeshift) bombs dropped caused further chaos. The Free Staters simply had not been prepared to face any sort of air force, even this one. Given time, they could have recovered; but O'Higgins would not let that happen. His GN forces slammed hard into the center of the Free Stater lines at Old St. Mary's Church(6), surging over the makeshift barricades with zealous brutality. Fierce street fighting ensued, with GN soldiers forced to nearly destroy the church in order to break the back of the Free Stater center. By the next day, the church had fallen, despite Ua Buachalla's best efforts, and the army of the Free State was sliced in half, with nearly four thousand dead or wounded. However, the Governor-General distinguished himself by leading a gallant and desperate charge by the southern flank into GN positions in order to allow the majority of the forces to retreat west, out of South Tipperary. His body was never found.
An example of pro-Republican propaganda, as the Communist Party led by O'Donnell constituted the major fighting force for the RC
As the snows began to fall, an informal ceasefire began to settle even over the southern front, as all four sides licked their wounds and continued to consolidate conquered territory. It was during this period that the great works of propaganda for which the civil war was later to be known emerged; printers all throughout Ireland cranked out thousands of posters, supporting variously the factions of the war. The Lone Gunman, a photograph of a Free Stater soldier standing watch in the dead of winter, also comes from this period, as do "Red" Peader O'Donnell's Men of Galway, his most famous book. For their part, the PGI had Ernie O'Malley, the IRA exile who had broken with de Valera's government after his banning of CnG. O'Malley worked passionately for the PGI, raising funds amongst Irish-Americans in New York, as well as writing his acclaimed second novel, The Shoals of Donegal, which championed the heroic efforts of PGI militias in County Monaghan. The Blueshirts, meanwhile, continued to do as they had always done, holding mass rallies in cities throughout GN Ireland, with the Director himself making many memorable speeches. In an effort to 'stir the Irish onwards to glory', O'Duffy ordered that a system of speakers be set up throughout Dublin, from which fervently nationalist maxims blared all day long.
Ernie O'Malley in his later years
In January of 1935, the war began yet again, although the snows had not yet melted. Emboldened by foreign support in the United States, the PGI launched an assault deep into RC territory, their goal being Castlebar in County Mayo. Though the RC were taken off balance by this assault, they managed to win Pyrrhic victories against the PGI in northeastern Mayo, but were forced to continually withdraw due to superior PGI firepower. By February, Castlebar was in sight and newspapers in Donegal cheered that victory was in sight. Events to the south, however, quickly changed that. Seeing the PGI engaged in Republican territory, O'Duffy, knowing that the Free State was on its last legs, launched another, zealous assault on de Valera's government. The President of the Executive Council, who had taken personal command of the Free State's forces (7) was unable to keep the NG from seizing control of the northern passage to RC territory, as well as the west. By April, Cork was almost entirely surrounded. This was to be perhaps de Valera's finest moment. While thousands of citizens, politicians, and soldiers fled Cork in the last few merchant ships there, de Valera led his remaining men in a stalwart defense of the city, fighting off the GN for almost two weeks before the fall of the final building. Amazingly, though most of his troops were killed, de Valera was captured by the fascist, though it is said that he took down three guardsmen before being knocked out. He was taken to Mountjoy Prison, where he would languish for two more years before trial.
With the Free State having entirely collapsed, both O'Donnell and MacDermott realized that they had allowed a real beast to grow in the south and east. Unfortunately, it was too late...
Mo chás! mo chaoi! mo cheasna!
An fáth thug claoidhte i n-easbaidh
fáide, draoite, sagairt,
dáim agus cléir,
gan dán dá ríomh le haiteas,
gan ráidte grinn dá n-aithris,
gan sám-chruit bhinn dá spreagadh,
i mbán-bhrogaidh réidhe!
's gach ráib d'fhuil Mhíleadh ceannais,
l'áidir, laochda, tapa,
ba ghnáthach rinnceach, reathach,
lán-oilte ar faobhar.
Gan stát, gan mhaoin, gan fearann,
ár is míle measa
'ná Seán Ua Duibhir an Ghleanna
fástha gan game.
My trouble! My lament! My torment!
The cause which left broken, in want,
prophets, poets, and priests,
the scholars and the clergy,
--no more poems composed with pleasure,
no more telling of witty stories,
no more lively musical harp-playing,
in tranquil fair mansions!
Every scion of the Milesian chiefs,
strong, courteous, quick,
used to dancing and racing,
skilful with weapons,
now without state, without wealth, without land,
slaughter and a thousand things worse
than John O'Dwyer of the Glens
left without game.
--Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin, My Sorrow
One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.
--James Joyce, The Dead
The Belfast Conference has often been called the 'high-water mark' of the Civil War; this was the point at which Free Stater forces were at their strongest and indeed, if the conference had gone any other way, the war would almost certainly have ended in their favor. Alas, it was not to be so. In July 1934, delegates for the three anti-fascist factions met in Belfast, led by Peader O'Donnell for the Republican Congress, James Dillon(1) for the Provisional Government, and Sean Thomas O'Kelly(2) for the Free State, presided over by British Foreign Secretary John Simon. Initially, the meeting seemed hopeful; all present, besides the staunchly aloof Simon, agreed that there must be no quarter for the Blueshirts and that the 'proper tools of democracy must again become the guiding mechanics of the state', whatever that could mean(3). What must happen to the Blueshirts was never, in fact, in contention at all. What was in contention was whether or not they were the real enemy.
John Simon, the much-maligned Foreign Secretary of Ramsay MacDonald's National Government
The initial conflicts arose over a seemingly innocuous issue; who was to assume supreme command of the unified Free Irish force. All present, besides O'Donnell, agreed that the factions had to combine their forces under a unified command in order to achieve victory. The commander himself was the true issue; O'Kelly volunteered Ua Buachalla, but both Dillon and O'Donnell denied that possibility, as he was seen as something of a British puppet, being Governor-General. For his part, O'Donnell suggested Frank Ryan, but Dillon was aghast at the idea--his government already had to swallow the bitter pill of uniting with Bolsheviks. To have a Bolshevik leader would be the death knell to freedom, or so he said. Enraged by this, O'Donnell threatened to withdraw from the conference, finding a surprising ally in O'Kelly, who urged Dillon to accept for unity's sake. The PGI delegate retorted that de Valera's boy was a funny one to talk about unity after he had effectively destroyed the last parliament, which caused the meeting to devolve into something John Simon would later comment on as 'the utmost breach of gentlemanly behavior'; an all-out fistfight. When the dust settled, all three governments were determined to win the war on their own terms, without the help of the other two. After the delegates returned in late July, fighting almost immediately broke out between PGI forces and Republicans in Sligo yet again, quickly becoming a brutal and bloody battle between entrenched positions. For their part, Free State forces began launching punitive raids into Republican territory in an attempt to secure arms depots and weaken Republican defenses. Beyond that, however, De Valera's government withdrew to a defensive posture. Their lack of resources made it almost impossible for them to carry out a sustained offensive.
Nevertheless, being attacked in part from three sides caused O'Donnell to seek help from an unlikely ally; Stalin. With the Entente being rather reticent to supply a faction they saw as dangerously communistic and the Fascist states obviously out of the picture, the USSR emerged as the only real option for the Republican Congress. In September, O'Donnell met with a Soviet envoy in Galway itself, wherein nearly thirty thousand rifles along with a huge amount of ammunition would be given to the Congress, on credit. Those who have called this offer an example of Bolshevik generosity must keep in mind firstly that this was a miniscule amount of weaponry for the Soviet Union, and secondly that Stalin had certainly no wish to see another fascist state arise in Europe, and that any chance for a communist one was worth at least passive support. With this material help, the Congress was able to stem the PGI advance, though they had already lost control of most of Sligo, and even make gains in some regions. In the south, meanwhile, a new situation was developing. Seeing that his enemies were fighting amongst themselves, O'Duffy, who had spent the summer establishing trade contacts in Italy and Germany, as well as continuing to drill and expand the GN (it was now a force of some 80,000 men, interestingly almost all volunteers), found that he had much to gain from the state of things. Fearing to cause new pushes towards a unified front if he pushed into the embattled northern factions, O'Duffy and his second-in-command Thomas F. O'Higgins instead opted for a southern push, into the Free State.
This, to say the least, had not been expected by de Valera and his companions. Though the area outside Waterford had been fortified as best as it could be on short notice, the effective border was drastically undermanned, with most available forces drawn north to harass the Republicans. Thus, when, on October 20, 1934, more than 40,000 National Guardsmen charged howling(4) into the trenches, armed with an assortment of rifles, bayonets, trench knives, shovels, and other makeshift implements, there was only a bedraggled force of young conscripts to face them. But these men would pass into legend. For nearly five days, led by a young major named Patrick O'Sullivan after the commanding officer was killed, a force of less than five thousand green conscripts held off the GN offensive. When Waterford finally fell to the Nationalists on October 25, less than five hundred of the Free Staters survived, while almost five thousand of the GN themselves were dead or wounded. The defense bought crucial time for Ua Buachalla to move the majority of his forces to face the GN. O'Sullivan had given the Free State a chance.
Unfortunately, that was not enough. On the second of November, the Battle of Tipperary(5) began as O'Higgins' forces approached Free Stater positions outside the town of Clonmel. After several hours of ineffective skirmishing by both sides, O'Higgins unleashed his secret weapon; the Flying Hounds (or na Coin Eitilt, as O'Duffy referred to them). Made up variously of Irish volunteers, a smattering of Italian professionals, and some few German pilots, the Flying Hounds were a very makeshift air force. Numbering less than thirty planes, they were mostly early 20s biplanes, often with rifles rather than machineguns bolted on to save ammunition. However, they did their job. The roar of the engines caused some conscripts to simply drop their arms and flee, while the subsequent (again, makeshift) bombs dropped caused further chaos. The Free Staters simply had not been prepared to face any sort of air force, even this one. Given time, they could have recovered; but O'Higgins would not let that happen. His GN forces slammed hard into the center of the Free Stater lines at Old St. Mary's Church(6), surging over the makeshift barricades with zealous brutality. Fierce street fighting ensued, with GN soldiers forced to nearly destroy the church in order to break the back of the Free Stater center. By the next day, the church had fallen, despite Ua Buachalla's best efforts, and the army of the Free State was sliced in half, with nearly four thousand dead or wounded. However, the Governor-General distinguished himself by leading a gallant and desperate charge by the southern flank into GN positions in order to allow the majority of the forces to retreat west, out of South Tipperary. His body was never found.
An example of pro-Republican propaganda, as the Communist Party led by O'Donnell constituted the major fighting force for the RC
As the snows began to fall, an informal ceasefire began to settle even over the southern front, as all four sides licked their wounds and continued to consolidate conquered territory. It was during this period that the great works of propaganda for which the civil war was later to be known emerged; printers all throughout Ireland cranked out thousands of posters, supporting variously the factions of the war. The Lone Gunman, a photograph of a Free Stater soldier standing watch in the dead of winter, also comes from this period, as do "Red" Peader O'Donnell's Men of Galway, his most famous book. For their part, the PGI had Ernie O'Malley, the IRA exile who had broken with de Valera's government after his banning of CnG. O'Malley worked passionately for the PGI, raising funds amongst Irish-Americans in New York, as well as writing his acclaimed second novel, The Shoals of Donegal, which championed the heroic efforts of PGI militias in County Monaghan. The Blueshirts, meanwhile, continued to do as they had always done, holding mass rallies in cities throughout GN Ireland, with the Director himself making many memorable speeches. In an effort to 'stir the Irish onwards to glory', O'Duffy ordered that a system of speakers be set up throughout Dublin, from which fervently nationalist maxims blared all day long.
Ernie O'Malley in his later years
In January of 1935, the war began yet again, although the snows had not yet melted. Emboldened by foreign support in the United States, the PGI launched an assault deep into RC territory, their goal being Castlebar in County Mayo. Though the RC were taken off balance by this assault, they managed to win Pyrrhic victories against the PGI in northeastern Mayo, but were forced to continually withdraw due to superior PGI firepower. By February, Castlebar was in sight and newspapers in Donegal cheered that victory was in sight. Events to the south, however, quickly changed that. Seeing the PGI engaged in Republican territory, O'Duffy, knowing that the Free State was on its last legs, launched another, zealous assault on de Valera's government. The President of the Executive Council, who had taken personal command of the Free State's forces (7) was unable to keep the NG from seizing control of the northern passage to RC territory, as well as the west. By April, Cork was almost entirely surrounded. This was to be perhaps de Valera's finest moment. While thousands of citizens, politicians, and soldiers fled Cork in the last few merchant ships there, de Valera led his remaining men in a stalwart defense of the city, fighting off the GN for almost two weeks before the fall of the final building. Amazingly, though most of his troops were killed, de Valera was captured by the fascist, though it is said that he took down three guardsmen before being knocked out. He was taken to Mountjoy Prison, where he would languish for two more years before trial.
With the Free State having entirely collapsed, both O'Donnell and MacDermott realized that they had allowed a real beast to grow in the south and east. Unfortunately, it was too late...
Notes
(1) James Dillon was, IOTL, a TD for the National Centre Party. Here, he has been rewarded for his loyalty to MacDermott with a cabinet posting.
(2) Sean Thomas O'Kelly was, at this time, vice-president of the Executive Council, and a loyal ally of de Valera.
(3) Politicians and their bullshit, amirite?
(4) They certainly charged, but probably not howling.
(5) Something of a misnomer, as the actual battle takes place at Clonmel.
(6) The oldest church in Tipperary and one of the oldest churches in Ireland, Old St. Mary's is a priceless cultural treasure that will of course be gutted by the fighting.
(7) Yet another mistake, but I think it's in de Valera's character at this point.
* * *
In honor of the New Year, an update. Next time, we finish off the Civil War and begin talking about consolidation!
Quite, which is why the next bit will start off discussing the 'second stalemate' of the war, as British arms and even some volunteers flood into the PGI and even the RC.
Well, what with the good viscount's well-known disregard for Catholics (I'm not going to say he was a racist, but some things he said, well...yeesh), he's not a fan of the Blueshirts' somewhat theocratic approach, but he certainly approves of them more than the other factions. However, desperate as he is to curry favor with England (as per friggin' usual), he's officially toeing the line.
Pangur
Donor
Which means he has to play nice with Republicans and God help us Reds
. This is going to a great TL to read and very hard to writeHey, guys, I just wanted to let y'all know that this TL is not dead, just dormant! I should have an update this week.
I posted this in my other TL, but this isn't dead, I promise, I've just been busy. I'll have an update for you soon, I swear! This is my favorite TL, and I would never let it die as ignobly as this.