Caught in the Crossfire: Galway, Spring 1922
On December 6, 1921 representatives of the British government and the shadow government of the "Irish Republic" signed a treaty that formally ended two and one-half years of guerilla war, assassinations, terrorist attacks, and reprisals. In the Republic of Ireland the period of armed conflict is known as the War of Independence. It caused about 2,000 deaths: 550 Irish combatants, 700 British combatants, and 750 civilians. The treaty did not meet all goals of the Irish revolutionaries as it provided for a self-governing dominion of Ireland within the British Empire that would only encompass 26 of the island's 32 counties. The treaty immediately became law and the Irish Free State was born.
The British Army began evacuation of the southern 26 counties in February 1922. Men of the Irish Republican Army, the armed force of the now provisional government, took over the vacated facilities of the army and Royal Irish Constabulary.
A rift quickly developed within the IRA and Provisional Government over the treaty. Most of the combatants, and a minority of the political leaders, wanted to continue the War of Independence until a republic for all Ireland was achieved. The territory of the Free State soon was divided between armed formations of anti-treaty and pro-treaty advocates. The armed pro-treaty supporters were known as the Regular IRA and was the nucleus of the Free State's national army. The armed anti-treaty supporters were known as the Irregular IRA.
In late March, 200 IRA officers opposed to the treaty met in Dublin. They repudiated the authority of the Provisional Government for having violated its oath to the republic declared in January 1919 and on April 9 announced the formation of an Executive to command the IRA. The Executive appointed Liam Lynch Chief of Staff of the break-away IRA. The Provisional Government and loyalist senior officers, such as Michael Collins and Eoin O'Duffy, regarded this as an act of mutiny. The stage was now set for civil war.
IRA Alignment, April 1922
Sources: Walsh, "The Irish Civil War, 1922-1923;" Peter Cottrell, The Irish Civil War (London: Bloomsbury, 2014).
The division of the Free State in the above map represents the alignment of IRA formation commanders and their staffs. Note that not all rank-and-file IRA men followed the lead of their commanders. During the five month ceasefire preceding the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the IRA had grown to a strength of about 112,000. Of those men 39,000 were in units whose commanders supported the Treaty, 71,000 were in anti-treaty units, and about 2,300 were in the neutral 4th Northern Division.
Three IRA formations were active in the six northern counties that would remain in the United Kingdom. Two were anti-treaty and the previously mentioned 4th Northern Division was neutral.
At the outbreak of hostilities on June 28, 1922, the National Army, the former IRA Regular force, mustered only 14,000 to 15,000 men. The anti-treaty Irregulars had close to 70,000 men though only about 5,000 to 7,000 were armed. The Free State's army received significant assistance from the UK. At the start of the civil war the National Army had 20,000 rifles, 150 machine guns, 9 83mm artillery guns, and 12 armored cars. The IRA Irregulars had few machine guns, no artillery, and one armored car.
n/ Paul V. Walsh, "The Irish Civil War, 1922-1923;" Adrian J. English, Irish Army Orders of Battle 1923-2004 (Takoma Park, MD: Tiger Lily, 2004).
Galway and the Joyce Family, April 12-May 6, 1922
Source: Ordnance Survey of Ireland
In March 1922, strife was ever-present in the Joyce family, then resident in Paris. Nora had enough of James and his irresponsible behavior and told him she was going to take the children to her family in Galway. Joyce cautioned her not to go as the newspapers reported Ireland was on the brink of civil war. At the time, Galway City had a notable unionist minority and its residents, overall, were somewhat supportive of the Crown. In the 1900 General Election it sent a unionist Tory to Parliament though in the by-election of November 21, 1901 the Conservative candidate received only 27% of the 1,719 votes. While local sympathy was with the pro-treaty bloc, the local IRA formations were anti-treaty Irregulars. After the British withdrew in February, the Irregulars occupied the city's two small army barracks, the two Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, and the Custom House. Both Regulars and Irregulars occupied the large Renmore Barracks just east of the city. The Regular IRA established itself in the Railway Hotel and the Masonic Hall. In March, the Regulars withdrew from Renmore Barracks.
Nora and the two Joyce children, Giorgio age 17 and Lucia age 15, left Paris on April 1. They went first to London where they stayed for ten days. On April 11 they took the train to Holyhead, North Wales where they boarded the Dublin ferry. Though Dublin was seat of the Provisional Government, most local IRA men were anti-treaty. To secure its position, the government had called in from the provinces loyal troops who were soon equipped by the British army. (When war erupted at the end of June, the fledgling state had 3,000 fully-armed supporters in Dublin; the Irregulars could muster no more than 500 properly armed men.) When the Joyces arrived there was great apprehension in the city as only two days earlier the Irregular IRA had openly broke with the Provisional Government.
The next day, April 12, Nora and her children took the train from Dublin to Galway. Two days later 200 Irregulars seized the Four Courts judicial complex on the north bank of the Liffey while other Irregulars established positions elsewhere in the city.
In Galway, Nora took rooms in Mrs. O'Casey's boarding house on the city's west side. She frequently visited two of her sisters who resided at the family row-house just across the River Corrib. While in town, the Joyces took in the tourist sights and walked the shopping streets. One day Nora took her children to the Presentation Convent school she attended as a child. Giorgio and Lucia were bored as they were used to the cosmopolitan cities of Trieste, Zurich, and Paris. At the time, Galway City was in turmoil. There was no police force as the Royal Irish Constabulary had disbanded and "order" was maintained by the rival IRA bands. There was the occasional, brief firefight among the IRA troops plus politically motivated killings of civilians.
During April, the Provisional Government sent additional loyalist soldiers to Galway and near the end of the month the Regulars attacked and took the Custom House. On or about May 6, a band of Irregulars established itself at the distillery warehouse opposite the rear of Mrs. O'Casey's boarding house. Shortly thereafter, a detachment of Regulars entered Nora's room and set up a machine gun. Nora and the children immediately packed and fled to the train station. They took the next train to Dublin which was fired upon by Irregulars as it passed Renmore Barracks, at the time a common occurrence. The evening they arrived in Dublin the Joyces boarded the ferry to Holyhead, Wales.
n/ Brenda Maddox, Nora, A Biography of Nora Joyce (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988); Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982).
Modern Galway
Antique Photographs of Galway, National Library of Ireland
These links will take you to digitized photo pages on the website of the National Library of Ireland ("NLI"). The photographs are from the Lawrence and Eason collections and were taken between 1865 and 1917. These digitized images are property of the NLI. See the library's terms of use if you wish to use any of these files in a website, print publication, or ebook. The identifier next to each link is the catalogue entry for the photograph.
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Note that the station was connected directly to the Railway Hotel.
Built by the Midland and Great Western Railway Company between Eyre Square and the railway station and opened in 1852. View is from the west across Eyre Square.
Photograph taken from an upper floor of the Railway Hotel.As a child, Nora Barnacle attended the convent school.Built mostly in the 16th Century on the foundation of the 14th Century fortified home of the Lynch family, head of one of the twelve Hiberno-Norman Galway "tribes." Another two of the tribe families were Norse-Gaelic.Church of Ireland, built c. 1650.Galway's "High Street."Another street known for its shops.The "Corn Mill" was a half-block north of Mrs. O'Casey's boarding house at the end of Nun's Island Street.Crosses the Lough Atalia inlet just east of the city.Depot for the Connaught Rangers, one of eight, Irish, line infantry regiments in the British Army. The regiment withdrew to England in February 1922 and was disbanded in July.
Links to Other Websites
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A twelve part series in the Irish newspaper, the Tuam Herald, published in 1998. From the website Galway: Decade of Commemoration "a repository for and celebration of the decade of commemorations: 1913-1923."
A paper delivered to the New York Military Affairs Symposium, December 11, 1998, at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Archived page from the website of the National Collins 22 Society stored by the Internet Archive. [Note that the page will be slow to load.]
Feature article in the Galway Advertiser, November 24, 2011. Has a photograph of IRA Regulars in front of the Galway Custom House after they wrested control of the building from Irregulars (one officer with pistol and thirteen men, most not uniformed).
From the website of Galway Tourism, a not-for-profit volunteer organization. The house is located at 8 Bowling Green, Galway.
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