Green Against Green – The Irish Civil War

A History of the Irish Civil War, 1922–1923

Michael Hopkinson’s Green Against Green is the definitive study of the Irish civil war, putting in perspective a bitter and passionate conflict, the legacy of which still divides Irish society today. Widely praised and frequently cited as the most authoritative work on the subject, it continues to hold its place as one of the finest works on modern Irish history.

Unlike the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, the Irish Civil War has been largely overlooked by historians, put off by the messy divisions between former War of Independence allies and its continued importance in modern Irish society: even now, the rival parties in the conflict form the basis for two of the largest political parties in Ireland.

In Green Against Green, Michael Hopkinson addresses this gap in Irish historical writing, looking closely at the reasons for the outbreak of civil war, the major figures who directed it, how it was fought and its impact across Ireland. This major achievement of historical scholarship traces the history and course of the war from 1912 to its conclusion, starting with a sketch of the background to the divisions which surfaced during the war and continuing through to the functioning of the post-civil war Irish State.

This groundbreaking work, ‘a dispassionate account of the most passionate times’ (Irish Times), captures the confused loyalties and localised, often personal, violence that characterised one of the most critical, and least studied, formative events in modern Irish history.

Green Against Green: Table of Contents

3. PART I. 1912-1921
5. The Background to the Treaty Divisions, 1912-1918
6. The Anglo-Irish War, January 1919-July 1921, and the Truce Period
7. The Treaty Negotiations
8. The Treaty Split
9. The Irish Question in the United States
11. PART II. FROM THE TREATY TO THE ATTACK ON THE FOUR COURTS
13. The Political and Constitutional Background in Early 1922
14. The Military Split
15. De Valera and the Military and Political Developments
16. Military Developments after the Army Convention
17. The North, from Treaty to Attack on the Four Courts
18. Social and Governmental Problems
19. The Search for Unity
20. The Constitution
21. The June Election and the Assassination of Sir Henry Wilson
23. PART III. THE OPENING OF THE WAR
25. The Attack on the Four Courts
26. Dublin Fighting
28. PART IV. THE EARLY CIVIL WAR
30. The Military and Political Background to the Fighting
31. The War in the Localities: July-August 1922
32. The Opening of the Guerrilla Phase of the War
33. The Death of Collins
34. The Establishment of the Third Dáil
35. Peace Initiatives
36. The Formation of the Republican Government
37. The First Executions
38. The British Government and the Early Civil War
39. The Southern Unionists and the Civil War
40. The Civil War and the Railways
41. The War in the Localities: September 1922-January 1923
43. PART V. THE WAR’S END
45. The Free State—Government and Army: January-April 1923
46. The Republicans and the Civil War: January-April 1923
47. The War in the Localities: January-April 1923
48. The North and the Civil War
49. Exile Nationalism: The United States and Britain in the Civil War
50. The Ceasefire
52. PART VI. THE POST-WAR PERIOD
54. The Republicans
55. The Post-War Free State Government and Army
56. The Republican Hunger-Strike, October-November 1923