Dáil Cabinet Prohibits Army Convention
Introduction from Chronology
Dáil cabinet decides to prohibit the IRA Army Convention due to
take place on March 26th. However, anti-Treaty officers decide
to go ahead with the Convention.
More Detail
The
cabinet prohibit the holding of the Army Convention on the basis that “any
effort to set up another body [other than Dáil Éireann] in control [of the
Army] would be tantamount to an attempt to establish a Military Dictatorship”.
However,
Macardle says that the banning of the convention arose because Mulcahy realised
that 70 to 80 per cent of the IRA were against the Treaty and he feared that if
the Convention was held a military dictatorship might be set up. He
attended a meeting of IRA Divisional and Brigade Commandants that evening (who
were meeting to prepare an agenda for the convention) and told them that the
convention was prohibited and followed this up the next day by issuing a
proclamation saying that if any officer attended the convention that he would
be dismissed.
The Republican Military Council took it upon themselves to call the convention for March 26th. The summons to attend is signed by over 50 senior officers including 4 GHQ staff, 5 divisional commanders and a number of brigade commandants. The summons appears in the newspapers on March 23rd, along with Rory O’Connor’s infamous interview of March 22nd – see Mar-22-22/4.