On this day in 1922, prior to the outbreak of civil war, Eamon De Valera made a controversial speech in Thurles where he claimed that the anti-treaty Volunteers “would have to wade through Irish blood, through the blood of the soldiers of the Irish Government, and through, perhaps, the blood of some of the members of the Government in order to get Irish freedom.”
Critics of De Valera claimed he was using unnecessarily inflammatory language and inciting violence while defenders of his claimed that it was merely a warning of what was to come.
At an earlier speech in Carrick-on-Suir, he had told his audience of 2,000 people that if the treaty was accepted ‘the fight for freedom would still go on; and the Irish people, instead of fighting foreign soldiers, would have to fight the Irish soldiers of an Irish government set up by Irishmen. If the treaty was not rejected, perhaps it was over the bodies of the young men he saw around him that day that the fight for Irish freedom may be fought’.
The speeches in Carrick and Thurles, along with other similar ones he made on a tour of the south of the country, was met with shock in the media. They were described as ‘amazing’ by the Freeman’s Journal and ‘wild’ by The Irish Times, while the Irish Independent accused him of using ‘the language of incitement’.
De Valera dismissed the suggestion that he was inciting civil war as ‘villainous’. But Michael Collins was unconvinced: ‘They are incitements whatever may be his personal intention. Can he not strive to create a good atmosphere instead of seeking to create a bad one?’
Whether or not de Valera’s speeches were a factor or not, anti-treaty forces occupied the Four Courts in Dublin just weeks later and civil war would break out in June 1922.
#otd #onthisdayintipp #civilwar #eamondevalera #thurles #1920s
Sources:
https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/articles/17-march-1922-wading-through-blood-in-thurles
https://www.rte.ie/culture/2022/1128/1336914-de-valeras-warnings-read-an-extract-from-a-bitter-winter/
