Irish Civil War

"There is no British Government anymore in Ireland. It is gone. It is no longer the enemy. We have now a native government, constitutionally elected, and it is the duty of every Irish man and woman to obey it. Anyone who fails to obey is an enemy of the people and must expect to be treated as such. We have to learn that attitudes and actions which were justifiable when directed against alien administration, holding its position by force, are wholly unjustifiable against a native government which exists only to carry out the peoples will, and can be changed the moment it ceases to do so. We have to learn that freedom imposes responsibilities."

"The country moved towards the end of 1923: impoverished and riven with bitterness. Control was maintained through censorship and special powers of arrest and internment of those thought to be a danger to the newly established order. The state was still just about in charge of the army but now in the pocket of the Catholic Church hierarchy. It was still not a nation that cherished all its citizens equally and would not be so for very many decades to come."

"In the space of a few months, thousands of anti-Treaty prisoners and those suspected of being so were interned without trial in makeshift prisons and camps. Many of the prisoners were bent on disruption and escape, and their National Army guards had no training for the role of gaoler. Conditions were primitive and chaotic and ill treatment of internees became routine in the civil war. At least four were shot dead during escape attempts and perhaps that is not surprising in a conflict such as this. Four more prisoners were shot dead in prison for infractions of prison rules where there was no suggestion of an attempt to escape or use force against their captors. In addition, seventeen prisoners were killed in the Kerry landmine massacres."

"Candles dripping blood, they placed beside your shoulders Rosary beads like teardrops on your fingers Friends and comrades standing by, in their grief they wonder why Michael, in their hour of need you had to go Michael, in their hour of need, why did you go?"

"In comparison to the War of Independence, there was relatively little activity in Clare during the Civil War, but nonetheless Claremen were active on both sides during that conflict. The very first Republican fatality of the Civil War was a Clareman: IRA Volunteer Joseph Considine from Clooney was shot dead by Free State Army soldiers in Dublin on 28 June 1922, shortly after the Battle of the Four Courts began. At least ten IRA Volunteers and three Free State soldiers were killed in Clare during the Civil War, while Commandant Con MacMahon and Volunteer Patrick Hennessy, both natives of Clooney, were executed by a Free State Army firing squad at Limerick Jail on 20 January 1923."

"As nations, weve known hardship and division, but weve also found solace and sympathy in one another. And just 4 years before we issued our Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin came to the Irish Parliament and declared—and described it as, I quote, "disposed to be friends of America." End of quote. In turn, the next Ireland—in turn, the text of Irelands 1916 Proclamation displayed mainly in the main foyer of this building draws on the support of Irelands "exiled children in America." The quote. Draws on the support of "exiled children in America." Were nations that know what it means to persevere for freedom, to brave a civil war, to toil in the vineyards of democracy. And thats, again, not hyperbole; its a fact. Its a fact. Its not just the hope, but the conviction that better days lie ahead, that brought us along. We have the power to build a better future."