Third convention of
anti-Treaty IRA
Introduction from Chronology
The third convention of
anti-Treaty army meets in Mansion House to discuss the army re-unification
proposals brought forward by the joint army council. The outcome is a split in the
anti-Treaty army.
More Detail
In middle of this discussion of
Liam Lynch's proposals on army unity (which had already been rejected by the
anti-Treaty Army Executive on June 14th), Tom Barry proposes that
convention should discuss the resumption of the war against the British forces
in Ireland. (At this point, only some barracks in Dublin and in NI were
occupied by British troops.) This motion that the war should be resumed
was put to a vote and defeated by 118 votes to 103. (Peadar Breslin is
one of the tellers for the count.)
The defeated minority withdrew
from the Convention and went to the Four Courts where they appoint Joe McKelvey
as their chief of staff and repudiated the authority of Liam Lynch. Liam
Lynch and his 1st Southern Division men go to the Clarence
Hotel. The anti-Treaty forces were now split with 12 out of the 16
members of the anti-Treaty Executive with the minority in the Four Courts.
As O’Donnoghue says
“the state of the Army was chaotic”.
Kissane says that “The
existence of this split [in the anti-Treaty forces] probably played a role in
the Provisional Government’s decision to attack the Four Courts”.