Dublin 1922 - British attack Four Courts

On 22 June 1922 the IRA assassinated (its iffy which faction, research goes both ways) Henry Hughes Wilson in London. On the night of the 23/24 a faction of the British Cabinet (led by Churchill) convinced enough of the cabinet to draw up a plan to raid the Four Courts in Dublin in retaliation, they had General Macready draw up a plan as follows;

1) Bombardment of the Four Courts using aircraft (120lb bombs) and artillery from the remaining British forces currently withdrawing North of Dublin using 60 pdr and 80 pdr guns.
2) an attack into the city using 4 tanks and 8 armored cars (4 peerless & 4 Rolls Royce)
3) Naval support from Lord Beatty (Destroyers for bombardment & prison collection)
4) Mobilization of a minimum of 2 Divisions plus withdrawing troops (estimated 100,000 required) for restarting of war. (oddly no Invasion plans are drawn up)

Macready advised heavily against action. On the 24th the Cabinet (or Churchill to be more precise) ordered Macready to move against the Four Courts on the 25th in the evening or the morning of the 26th.
Macready immediately and rapidly delayed as much as humanly possible, and sent his subordinate off to the Earl of Cavan and the Prime Minister and convinced them to call off the assault stating
"Panic and a desire to do something, no matter what, by those ignorant of the Irish situation blinded them to the possible results, was at the root of this scheme"

OTL on the 27th General JJ O'Connell (a Free State Dublin commander) was kidnapped by the Republicans in the Four Courts and the British put pressure on the Free State government, and also offered artillery & aircraft.
On the 28th the Irish Civil War starts.

Now lets say on the 25th either Macready follows orders or waits till early the 26th then and attacks the Four Courts, the Republicans will resist but so will the Free State National Army (as Macready warned) and there are significant civilian causalities as projected. Macready is then supposed to withdraw back from Dublin to Dun Laoighre and evacuate with prisoners.

My question is this?

Were only 2/3 days after the sale of honours scandal and only 2 months from the Chandak Crisis. This raid will be end of the Treaty (reunites the brewing Civil War Irish factions) and resumption of the Anglo-Irish war. By June 1922 the IRA & National army are restocked due to the Upnor raid and various weapons purchases (Free State), Collins also had a mainland Britain plan of assassinations and attacks planned if hostilities restarted.
Theres also some concerns on the part of the British command of resending units back to Ireland owing to radicalization and morale.

What are the consequences of restarting the Anglo-Irish war on British politics?
Will it acerbate the labor problems that start in 1922 and lead to the General Strike and the fear of The Labor Party?
 
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My take

In the short term the Free state gets crushed.

However within a year or two the British will have withdrawn again once the cost of what is now literally an occupation mount and public disgust and the short sightedness of the move begins to grow.

Longer term Ireland is a poorer country and Anglo Irish relations are almost permanently in the toilet. Pro Allied neutrality is definitely dead if butterflies don't stop WWII.

America may look less favourably on Britain as they were already having difficulties due to war debts but this probably fades at some point close to OTL's warming in relations.
 
Id disagree

The Free State died the second that raid hit the Four Courts, the Irish forces will fight a semi-conventional campaign for 2-5 months depending on how fast the British advance followed by a fairly savage guerrilla phase, OTL the Republicans destroyed the majority of bridges in Cork & Kerry as they retreated (and it was a rout OTL) and the British don't have the insider knowledge to do what the Free State did. The Border War is now a struggle between a much stronger IRA and the Unionists. So the economic damage may actually be less than the OTL Civil War which wrecked large parts of Dublin and Cork.

Considering Britain's internal problems in the 20's sending the Army back to Ireland is not going to help things. You could see martial law in mainland UK to crack down on attacks, and this could spread to labor dissent as alot of conservative Tories wanted.

Bear in mind the Government in Britain fell over Chandak, I can't see it surviving this, nor can i see Churchill getting out of this with his political career intact. Been honest Churchill was high up on Collins hitlist, he might not survive period.
 
The short term is certainly the fall of the major urban areas to British Forces and a return to rural based attacks I think. The Free State would quickly find itself running short of financial support again I would think and the limits that would impose.

While the ability for the UK to maintain what would most likely once again be an unpopular war is questionable, the larger issue for Ireland would be the Pro Treaty side and figures would most likely be diminished with the Treaty collapsing so quickly which would mean perhaps a far more anti British Ireland going forward.
 
basically

The Treaty's dead and back to renegotiating (though i doubt much would really change bar say the Treaty ports). Been honest its relatively easy to map out how long the Irish forces can last and what will happen internally and militarily, the harder question is what happens in Britain. That impacts what's negotiated to end the fighting, is it the Tories or Labor?
Will it worsen the instability of Britain during the 20's.

My view would be;
- The raid goes ahead and Macready evacuates under fire as planned
- Now i reckon the government falls in the UK and a general election happens
- In Ireland the War's back on, but probably limited to the Border counties and the Treaty ports for the moment
- The British will try negotiating, but this depends on the election so their be a degree of a political firestorm and paralysis in Britain at least for a few weeks (remeber the British Army were opposed to this stupid, stupid plan and didn't want to escalate)
- British re invade. Probably around the same time as Chandak, Collins assassination campaign likely starts around now.
- give 2-5 months were back to rural guerrilla war with large numbers of British troops having to be deployed
The IRA can't win militarily, but neither can the British.

So your going to the Pro-Treaty side weaken, and a new Republic redeclared, the Free State TD's flee Dublin along with most of the military,and make fighting retreats away from the coastal areas. Dev ends up in charge and will have to renegotiate assuming he's alive with 2-3 years (id assume so). But the costs to the British strarting this could hurt everyone badly including them.
 
Honestly

Little good comes of this i reckon, i find a different type of partition the most likely. But we could easily see a socialist Britain emerging or political instability worse than OTL in both nations. A united Ireland under these circumstances is basically an armed camp, or the OTL North writ large, though personally i find that unlikely. Even Collins targets - Churchill, Chamberlain, Bonar Law, etc - if he gets one or two then theres big butterflys (mostly bad) going forward. If Labor gave up the North i could easily see some sort of coup against them.

Having read up on Macready and his decisions obeying that order could have thrown Britain back into a giant mess at the worse possible time. And the Army realized the can of worms it was opening - hence why they opposed it so strongly.
I like Churchill but dear god that man could do some incredibly stupid things at times, and this is one of them. (Probably thought up in a fit of anger and Brandy)
 
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The Treaty's dead and back to renegotiating (though i doubt much would really change bar say the Treaty ports). Been honest its relatively easy to map out how long the Irish forces can last and what will happen internally and militarily, the harder question is what happens in Britain. That impacts what's negotiated to end the fighting, is it the Tories or Labor?
Will it worsen the instability of Britain during the 20's.

My view would be;
- The raid goes ahead and Macready evacuates under fire as planned
- Now i reckon the government falls in the UK and a general election happens
- In Ireland the War's back on, but probably limited to the Border counties and the Treaty ports for the moment
- The British will try negotiating, but this depends on the election so their be a degree of a political firestorm and paralysis in Britain at least for a few weeks (remeber the British Army were opposed to this stupid, stupid plan and didn't want to escalate)
- British re invade. Probably around the same time as Chandak, Collins assassination campaign likely starts around now.
- give 2-5 months were back to rural guerrilla war with large numbers of British troops having to be deployed
The IRA can't win militarily, but neither can the British.

So your going to the Pro-Treaty side weaken, and a new Republic redeclared, the Free State TD's flee Dublin along with most of the military,and make fighting retreats away from the coastal areas. Dev ends up in charge and will have to renegotiate assuming he's alive with 2-3 years (id assume so). But the costs to the British strarting this could hurt everyone badly including them.


In terms of the Treaty Ports I can't see the Republican forces being that stupid, don't know about the other ports but in Cork there's zero chance of them achieving anything by attacking heavily fortified areas during any combat period (in fact it would be a disaster).
 
sorry

I don't mean direct assaults but OTL there were a number of confrontations between British supply convoys and patrols (such as in Macroom) that OTL stayed peaceful, here they'll turn violent. Eg. Montgomery OTL nearly got into a firefight with a portion of the Cork brigade when they surrounded his patrol in July 1922. Probably a few raids like the Upnor but mainly the Irish units will be defensive opposite the fortifications.

But the OTL border war will look tame compared to what'll happen here, OTL the Free State units knew all the hide holes the IRA used and took them out, here they'll be supporting them. More so the Irish will fight a semi-conventional campaign using their mobility to retreat when the British bring up aircraft and artillery and then turn into a guerrilla army again when the full British strength is brought to bear, OTL the Free State offensives worked because they knew each other - theirs nowhere to hide from a former comrade. The British still have the same problem as before,military superiority but struggle to identify the enemy.
 
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Hope this time the records in the fore courts are saved.
It would be nice to see Michael Collins survive.
I wonder how the Irish in America will react.
 
hmmm

Reckon the Four Courts and records will go the way of OTL considering what the British are bring against it. Id reckon Collins would survive but will at least temporarily lose position with any reunification of the Irish forces, the pro-Treaty side's reputation will take a beating with Free State collapsing, along with the fact that the Irish public just majority supported the Treaty and the British just broke it (without Parliamentary or PM's approval) will cause much greater support for an campaign against the British.

My issue is in regards Britain is that Bonar Law becomes PM OTL after Chanak around in October OTL, id assume he'd he'd get the position earlier ITTL. And he represented the older hardline Unionist wing of the Tories so compromise seems unlikely initially. But he also OTL dies early 1923 of throat cancer.
So what happens in Britain with politics and labour relations considering Ireland will consume at at 50,000 - 120,000 of British troops, ie requiring significantly increasing defence spending and likelihood of any conflict dragging on till at least late 1924 to early 1925. OTL British forces (everything including RN, Marines and Army) had dropped to 350,000 (including support) by June 1922 so this will have fairly serious effects on morale, doctrine and discipline as OTL the War of Independence did.
Any good books/resources on 1920's Britain politics?
 
Reckon the Four Courts and records will go the way of OTL considering what the British are bring against it. Id reckon Collins would survive but will at least temporarily lose position with any reunification of the Irish forces, the pro-Treaty side's reputation will take a beating with Free State collapsing, along with the fact that the Irish public just majority supported the Treaty and the British just broke it (without Parliamentary or PM's approval) will cause much greater support for an campaign against the British.

The attack on the Fore courts did not destroy the records and historical archives.
Destroying your Nations archive is a real bad way to rebuild national independence.


Explosion in the Four Courts

Several hours before the surrender, at either 11:30, or 2:15 the Irish Public Record Office located in the western block of the Four Courts, which had been used as an ammunition store by the Four Courts garrison, was the centre of a huge explosion, blowing to pieces one thousand years of Irish state and religious archives. Forty advancing Free State troops were badly injured.[10] It was alleged by the National Army Headquarters that the Anti-treaty forces deliberately booby-trapped the Public Record office in order to kill advancing Free State troops. Tim Healy, a government supporter, later alleged that the explosion was the result of land-mines laid before the surrender, which exploded after the surrender.[11] However, a study of the battle concluded that the explosion was caused by fires ignited by the shelling of the Four Courts, which eventually reached two truck loads of gelignite in the munitions factory. A towering mushroom cloud rose 200 feet over the Four Courts.[10] Calton Younger (1968) identified 3 explosions; ".. two beneath the Records Office at about 2.15 [pm] and another at the back of the building at about 5 o'clock.." [12]
At this stage in the war, troops on each side still had a sense of kinship with the other, as most of them had fought together in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. By appealing to friends on the Free State side, several anti-Treaty leaders among the Four Courts garrison, notably Ernie O'Malley and Sean Lemass, escaped from captivity to continue fighting elsewhere.[
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dublin
 
yeah

But the British are going in with a whole lot more firepower than the Free State had. The objective been to either capture the IRA unit inside or to destroy the buildings and enemies within. So baring the Four Courts garrison surrender then its highly unlikely the records survive.
 
Well

Ive done alot of research into the British military options in regards Ireland, and when Chanak erupted in September 1922 the British requested troops from the other Dominions - and everyone said no except New Zealand.
So I can't see the Dominions wanting to send troops to Ireland, especially considering the Treaty had a reasonable degree of support among the other Dominions and there and calls for for restraint in Ireland from the Canadians and South Africans through early - mid 1922. To most of the Dominions the problem has been resolved till Churchill just went off here ITTL on a run of madness supported only by the Unionist Tories.

So your looking at this been supplied almost entirely from mainland Britain. Its actually a litttle worse than that as the British are also have to bring back in the Civil Service and Police from mainland Britain to enforce British rule. The problem is that the Irish side aren't going to re accept the Treaty now, this is a fairly big stab in the back for the Free State - no warning was given ITTL, just suddenly British tell them on Sunday 25th they started an attack to the Four Courts. The British are going to have bring back some of those reservists they've just demobilised. And there was a general malaise in the Army about returning to Ireland.

Officially in June 1922 Macready had just under 10,000 troops based North of Dublin but he himself says that he had at best 5,000 effective's as the British Government kept moving out his best units over early 1922 and replacing them with raw recruits and striping out his supplies. As best I can tell he's confident he can retake Dublin after a few days if war starts but causalities could be heavy and 2 Divisions need to move in ASAP if war restarts. The Earl of Cavan then warned the government that the Imperial Staff were wary of possible issues (possible mutinies or lack of discipline) among units that were just recently home from Ireland to been returned. Hence why Macready was getting stripped of troops - they were taking out the veterans to move to Turkey, Egypt and India and shifting in the "malcontent's" (read socialists) and raw recruits who ad little history with Ireland from mainland Britain. Ireland had a very corrosive effect on British Army discipline OTL, and there was to me a justified fear on the Imperial Staff's part that a long insurrection phase who have the effect of severe corrosion of discipline and radicalisation within the Army. Which is not something they wanted in the mid 20's when Britain was going through "Bolshevik troubles"
 
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Hmm

Think i might try my hand at my first TL so any (constructive) feedback is welcome. The first chapter is all OTL except for the POD. Whats happening though is ITTL writers are interpreting the events differently because of the outcome.
 
Chapter 1 : The Treaty

It has often been discussed whether the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on the 6th December 1921 was a workable framework for Irish independence within the British Empire actively undermined by the presence of Winston Churchill as Secretary of State for the Colonies or it being a flawed compromise destined to collapse owing to factionalism within both sides of the agreement. The sequence of events from its signature on 6th December to the resumption of combat on the 25th June would seem to indicate a combination of the two; that while there was factionalism undermining the agreement, primarily on Irish side, that this combined with the mood swings of Churchill (and thus upon the Cabinet) rather than any active desire on his part to undermine the Treaty where the cause of its failure. From its inception the the Treaty faced significant opposition from within both sides, on the Irish side the creation of the Free State had led to a split between Sinn Fein and more worryingly for the Free State government with its military. This split had begun to occur even before the Free State had even been implemented with so-called Anti-Treaty TD's led be Eamonn de Valera left the Dail on the 10th of January; by the 16th the Southern Division led by Ernie O'Malley had rejected the authority of its own GHQ. This split of course is behind the eventual causes of the resumption of the war, by the 14th April a units of this faction (200 men initially) led by Rory O'Connor moved to occupy the Four Courts in Dublin in defiance of the Provisional Governments authority. It is also behind the initial cause of reaction of the British on the 25th June, on the 22nd June elements of the IRA had assassinated Henry Hughes Wilson, formerly of the Imperial General Staff, this been seen by Churchill as the final straw requiring as what he later stated was “an appropriate response”.But while this a true the Provisional Government, and the Anti-Treaty faction, had largely avoided conflict with the withdrawing British units and had been in talks with each other in regards defusing the possibility of conflict between both sides. As the rapid reintegration of these forces after the Battle of Dublin shows the likelihood of this standoff being resolved peacefully seems quite high. In fact the correspondence betwen both parties in Limerick and General Macready (GOC Ireland) in regards the rapid withdrawal of British units from the city as it threatened the talks between both sides without either side being indicates that the Treaty could be made work on the Irish side.


Its is also relevant both sides had appeared to co-operate in the divided period between January and June against British Military Intelligence; from the killing of four undercover officers in Macroom (this was not publicly disclosed; both sides stating it as a random attack on off duty officers) to the Provisional Governments raids on “criminal and anti-treaty elements” within Dublin (actually active cells of Military Intelligence). This effective destruction of British Military Intelligence in Southern Ireland though had one significant negative impact for the Irish in June of 1922; when the crisis hit the British Government after the assassination they were led to make flawed assumptions on the reactions of the Provisional Government to an attack on the Four Courts. This though appears to the exception to the general rule for the Irish forces; while a battle of spies remained active in the background their appears genuine desire to make the Treaty work.


The evidence also appears to indicate their was little desire on the British side to restart what had been a very unpopular war. Moreso the factionalism and splits within (and between) the British Cabinet and the British Army manifested itself in an almost schizophrenic approach to the implementing of the Treaty and withdraw of troops. The initial plan as proposed by Macready and the Earl of Cavan had been for the gradual winding down of the troop commitment from 57,000 to only small garrisons within the Treaty Ports over a period of a year; but when on the 7th December when they arrived at the Cabinet offices to arrange this Churchill had insisted instead on a rapid withdrawal of troops. So rapid would this withdrawal be between January and February that the Irish Provisional Government had requested it be slowed as it was destabilizing the situation. This also coincidence with a change of strategy from Churchill who now wished to return to troops to allow retention of British forces within Cork and Dublin in the event of conflict. The Earl of Cavan objected to this return of troops as their was fear within the Imperial Staff (supported by General Macready) that attempting to return troops to Ireland could trigger disorder among some units (the disbanded Irish regiments). This was accepted and a plan agreed to split between Cork and Dublin the remaining 16,000 troops implemented at the end of April.


Within two weeks this plan had scraped with discussions between Churchill and Lloyd George calling for British forces to as stated by Churchill “to concentrate behind the Pale and hold the English Capital”. And objection was raised by General Macready to this while he was ordered to concentrate his forces the Cabinet was effectively swapping his best units for raw recruits without the requested six month training period require for garrison duty for Ireland; he also raised the objection that concentrating in Dublin would likely cause significant causalities if he had to retake the areas been abandoned; and that the Provisional Government had requested the transfers be delayed till further articles of the Treaty were implemented. This was overruled and by the time of the restart of the war in late June British forces had been reduced to under 10,000 based in the Free State, primarily around Dublin (500 – 700 in Cobh), though of these the Imperial Staff estimated only 5000 were effective's owing to supplies and veterans been required for other service within the Empire and the recruits not being to the required standard.


This would indicate that rather attempting to restart the war Churchill was genuinely attempting to implement its strictures but that was prone to emotional responses that interfered with a rational withdrawal plan. For Wilson's assassination led Churchill (supported by Bonar Law and the Unionists) to insist upon the Cabinet the need to restore order within Dublin to encourage the Provisional Government to fully implement the Treaty by eliminating the rebel forces within the Four Courts; and that this not a desire to destroy the Treaty, was behind the misguided attack on the Four Courts on the Sunday evening on the 25th June 1922 plunging Britain back into the abyss.
 
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End of April

Bere Island
8 Officers - 211 Other Ranks

Lough Swilly
12 Officers - 167 Other Ranks

Cork Harbor
39 Officers - 509 Other Ranks

Ships in Irish waters
Cruisers - Caledon, Carysfort, Cleopatra
Destroyers - Wallace, Vancouver, Velox, Vortigern,Walker, Warwick, Watchman, Whirlwind, Seawolf, Taurus, Tilbury

All ships under orders (OTL mid April) to remain under steam in Irish waters and avoid Irish ports owing to Upnor raid in Cork.
 
Chapter 2 : Winston's War

When looking at the events of late June 1922 many people have struggled to understand why the assassination of one individual, even a recent member of the Imperial Staff, by a renegade faction of the Irish Republican Army could have plunged Britain back into the mire that was Ireland when the only seven months prior the conflict had appeared to have been resolved. And that following from this, why the British Cabinet embarked upon such a disproportionate response to this incidence, the attack on the Four Courts and ensuing Battle of Dublin seeming a spectacular escalation, especially considering the death of Mr. Wilson had been eclipsed in the public eye between the 21st - 26th by both sale of honors scandal within the (British) Government and the death of Herr Rathenau in Germany and its possible effects on the Treaty of Versailles reparations. The blame for the escalation has largely been blamed on one Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies; hence the oft repeated phrase within the press in the early days of “Winston's War”, though this itself was due to an active (though failed) campaign in July by Lloyd George and remnants of (Coalition/National portion of) the Liberal Party to pass overall blame unto Churchill to stave off Socialist electoral gains. This view is both correct but also incorrect; while Churchill was the primary driver of pushing the plan through Cabinet and also in overruling General Macready's objection to it, Churchill himself was merely the front-man for a large group within the government and cabinet consisting of Bonar Law, the Unionist Alliance and other Tories unhappy with the Anglo-Irish Treaty the previous December, and Henry Hughes Wilson had been a close confidante of many of these individuals. This faction within the Cabinet had largely been unhappy with the policies of the Government towards Ireland, and when the assassination occurred anger and panic within the Cabinet temporarily allowed this faction to push through what it saw as an appropriate response on the evening of the 24th.


By the morning of the 25th General Macready had been ordered to implement the Four Courts attack plan as previously discussed with Cabinet, Macready himself strongly objected to this course of action and it was only after several hours delay (and evidently a ferocious row with Churchill) that he followed through on his orders launching the attack around 18:55 GMT. Only as the attack was occurring was the Free State Provisional Government been warned of the attack, this seems less to do with operational security and fear of Free State opposition than confusion between General Macready and Churchill whether to inform the Provisional Government through the Army or official correspondence. As such the attack itself a strong level of surprise, the air attack from the RAF detachments being the first warning the Four Courts garrison receiving. By 19:25 the armed convoy had left the British Zone head towards the Four Courts building, consisting of four Mark VI tanks, 8 armored cars (four Peerless,four Rolls Royce) and eight hundred men drawn primarily from the 1st Kings Own and 2nd Royal Berkshire. Unfortunately for the British the operation would more difficult than initially expected, as for while their was only the two hundred Republicans within the garrison and only four hundred Free State solders in the immediate area; they had failed to realize their was a further seven hundred Republicans in the immediate vicinity who had being preparing for a possible Free State attack. This combined with feared resistance of the Free State units led the initial attack to drag on late into the night, only ending with withdrawal of the convoy to British positions at 02:15 on the 26th. While the raid largely achieved its primary aim (the destruction of the Four Courts) and taken over eighty nine prisoners (mainly Republican though four were discovered to be Free State soldiers formerly of the Dublin Fusiliers) it resulted in significant causalities between both sides and on the civilian population of Dublin.


When dawn rose on the 26th the death tll stood at;

  • 114 Republican dead, with a further 85 captured and 152 injured with senior Republican Rory O'Connor along the dead
  • 67 Free State soldiers dead with a further 4 captured and 83 injured
  • 84 British soldiers killed with a further 112 injured, with 1 of Rolls Royce armored car destroyed and two of the peerless sustaining severe damage, two of 80 pdr guns were also destroyed when Republicans took their position temporarily
  • The Four Courts building being heavily damaged though the Records held within dating back several hundred years had survived albeit in a damaged state in some areas
  • Most worryingly for the British over 215 civilians would be killed with a further 351 being injured to varying degrees, these causalities been attributed to Naval shelling from the cruiser Carysfort missing the Four Courts and hitting houses nearby


While the original plan had called for withdrawal of the prisoners to Kingstown (Dun Laighaoire) and extraction by Admiral Beatty, General Macready had delayed this transfer and had attempted to engage in negotiations with both the Provisional Government and with Republican leadership within Dublin to attempt to prevent escalation, feeling that the transfer of the prisoners (primarily of the senior members) would make any negotiation impossible. As a show of good faith on his part he would release the four Provisional Governments soldiers captured and would withdraw all patrols from Dublin (already done prior to the attack). This decision to delay would prove vindicated by that evening communication from the Cabinet had ordered him to engage with the Irish forces to prevent further escalation of the situation, these orders coming through the Earl of Cavan from Lloyd George. Within the Cabinet itself the desire to resolve the situation peacefully had emerged, along with a great deal of panic among the Liberal members and Lloyd George himself that the situation may have a negate effect of the public, even among the faction which had demanded action the situation had been dealt with to their satisfaction and now should be resolved through further negotiations with the Provisional Government. News of the attack itself hit the public in Britain on the 26th as bolt from a clear blue sky, a sense of disbelieve that the “Welsh Wizard” had scrapped his policies in regards Ireland and that this action (correctly as time proved) would led to a restart of the conflict. While much would be made be made in the conservative press of the restoring of order when the Provisional Government had allowed anarchy to develop and the attack being justifiable, a air of disquiet would pervade all the coverage on the first day.


Within Ireland the attack was a disaster for the Provisional Government, while negotiations had been opened with General Macready then attack had undone the viability of the Treaty within its own ranks and for the general public. A growing sense of rage at the British betrayal, and vindication of the Republican position on the Treaty meant that the only possible way to maintain the peace would be an immediate renegotiation of the Treaty and major concessions of the part of the British Government. This had been agreed during an emergency meeting over the course of the 26th presided over by Arthur Griffins, by late that evening it been decided that while this was the preferable option its a highly unlikely one and that discussion for reintegration with the Republican units for likely restarting of war must be undertaken immediately, if secretly, to allow time to discuss a defense. Luckily for the Provisional Government a similar discussion was occurring between the senior Republican leadership at the GHQ in Fermoy, and a similar conclusion had been reached, by late evening on the 26th a delegation consisting of de Valera, Childers, Aiken and O'Malley was en-route to Dublin to meet with the Grifftins, Collins and Mulchahy in regards this matter.
 
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