Anti-Treaty IRA Convention
Introduction from Chronology
IRA Convention of (pre-dominantly) anti-Treaty delegates meets in the
Mansion House, Dublin with about 220 delegates present. They claim
to represent about 80% of the Army.
More Detail
In the
days before the convention, a letter is sent from Beggars Bush to all
Divisional and Brigade commandants that all officers and men who attend the
convention would be suspended from the IRA.
Convention passes a resolution
saying that the Army "shall be maintained as the Army of the Irish
Republic under an Executive appointed by the Convention". A
temporary Executive of 16 was elected headed by Liam Lynch (and including
O’Connor, Mellows, Pilkington and O’Malley). In a statement issued on
March 28th, the Executive say that they no longer recognise the
authority of the Minister of Defence and the Dáil saying that although the IRA
had agreed to come under the authority of the Dáil, they had never formally
agreed to do so. (Regan says that the
Executive recognised the Dáil as the Republic’s parliament but not Griffith’s cabinet
(Regan (2013), pgs116-117)).
HQ is Barry’s Hotel in Gardiner’s
Row. They adjourn until April 9th when a new constitution
would be discussed.
Arguments emerge afterwards as to
the level support in the IRA for the anti-Treaty Executive between O’Duffy and
O'Connor but it would seem clear that the majority of the IRA is anti-Treaty.
A photograph of the delegates
from the 1st Southern Division of the IRA is given in Horgan (2018),
pg 269.