The Irish counter-revolution, 1921-1936 : treatyite politics and settlement in independent Ireland

In 1921, Michael Collins argued that the Anglo-Irish treaty offered nationalists the freedom to achieve freedom. In 1926, his successor Kevin O'Higgins went to London with a proposal to have the British monarch crowned king of a reunited Ireland. In 1933, General Eoin O'Duffy, leader of the Blueshirts, advocated a corporatist state on the Fascist Italian model, within a republican settlement. All three men accepted the Treaty, and were leaders of the party which implemented it during the first decade of independence. John M. Regan explains how such contrasting political views were reconciled within an evolving treatyite position. Regan argues that in order to understand the development of the new state and the establishment of a viable democracy it must first be recognised that a dedicated counter-revolution underpinned the post-revolutionary settlement. Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Terms and Usage Preface Part I: Reaction and Creation: Countering the Anti-Treatyites 1. Unity and Consolidation: Strategies for the Treaty 2. War and Peace: Realpolitik and the Acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty 3. The Apathy and the Ecstasy: The Disintegration of Revolutionary Sinn Féín 4. The First Eleven: The Formation of the Treatyite Elite 5. Infliction and Endurance: The Treatyite Governments' Prosecution of the Civil War Part II: Creation and Reaction: Countering the Treatyites 6. The Consensus of Treatyite Politics: The Formation of the Cumann na nGaedheal Party 7. Prodigals and Profligates: Cumann na nGaedheal's Election Campaigns 1923-1924 8. Rationalising the Revolutionaries: The Army Mutiny of March 1924 9. Probity or Preferment: The Challenge to the Elite 10. Losing the War: The Victory of the March 1925 Bye-Elections 11. O'Higgins and His Party Part III: Reaction and Reaction: Counter-Production 12. The Second Apocalypse? 1932 and the Transfer of Power 13. Decline and Fáil: Cumann na nGaedheal 1932-1933 14. Bring on the Dancing Blueshirts: The Army Comrades and the National Guard 1932-1933 15. 'The Coming Man': United Ireland/Fine Gael Under O'Duffy 16. The Consensus of Irish Nationalist Politics References Bibliography Index "The Irish Counter-Revolution 1921-1936 offers a comprehensive re-evaluation of the treaty negotiations examining the strategies of Collins and de Valera. It argues that there existed elements of anti-democratic culture on both sides of the treaty divide, not least Collins himself. It emphasises the central role of Kevin O'Higgins in using the spoils system of the new state to undermine his opponents within the regime. Based on research in archives in Ireland, Britain, France, and the USA, this is a radical reappraisal of the Irish Free State."--Jacket The most original and stimulating interpretation of the politics of the Irish Free State to be published in decades." Ronan Fanning, Sunday Independent "This is an excellent study, firmly grounded in original research, which sheds new light on this period." Fearghal McGarry, Irish Historical Studies