De Valera and IRA
Introduction from Chronology
Meeting between de Valera (along with the members of his cabinet who are
in Dublin) and IRA GHQ staff at which it was agreed to re-administer an Oath of
Allegiance (see Aug-19 to 20-19/1) to all members of the IRA. However,
this was not carried out.
In addition, a move was made at this time to issue new commissions to
all IRA officers but this got bogged down in appropriate titles.
Comment
According to Curran, this was part of an on-going
attempt by de Valera to tighten government control over the IRA so as to
prevent its opposition to a compromise peace. O’Donoghue says that these efforts
were blocked by the IRB group on the GHQ staff. Macardle
claims that the Executive of the IRA met at this time and by a majority vote
decided to dissolve itself so as “to remove any doubt as to the effective
control of the Government over all the forces of the state”. (This is not
mentioned by O’Donoghue but it is by Townshend – see Sep-15-21/1.)