Civil Administration and Economic Endowments in the Munster Republic's "Real Capital," July–August 1922

Civil Administration and Economic Endowments in the Munster Republic's "Real Capital," July–August 1922 John Borgonovo (bio) The Irish Civil War opened with a six-week "conventional phase" during which the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (hereafter called the IRA) controlled most of the province of Munster, which historians often term the "Munster Republic."1 This period ended when the National Army seized Cork city and the other major cities and towns in the province following simultaneous amphibious landings along the Cork coast. The IRA retreated into the hills and remote hinterland and thereafter controlled only a fraction of the province. Megan A. Stewart and Yu-Ming Liou have argued that "territorial control is a tremendous military asset for insurgents, and such control should enhance any group's strength and latent capacity for violence (whether against civilians or the state)."2 While the republican occupation of Cork city has been explored as the backdrop to the "Battle for Cork," it typically receives only cursory mention in Irish Civil War studies, primarily as a curiosity rather than as a military center of [End Page 9] gravity for the anti-Treaty campaign.3 Yet republican-held Munster generally, and Cork city in particular, offered the anti-Treaty forces "economic endowments," which Jeremy M. Weinstein has defined as "resources that can be mobilized to finance the start-up and maintenance of a rebel organization."4 This article will explore how the IRA exploited economic endowments in Cork city. It will further identify republican attempts at civil administration within the city, discuss their challenges and shortcomings, and consider their implications during the republican campaign against the Irish Free State. Establishing the "Munster Republic" The Irish Civil War began with the National Army attack on the IRA's governing executive and general headquarters inside the Four Courts complex in Dublin. Situated outside the besieged Four Courts, Liam Lynch resumed the role of IRA chief of staff and returned to Munster to set up a new general headquarters and to mobilize and organize resistance to the Free State. Munster IRA units quickly captured pro-Treaty garrisons in Skibbereen and Listowel, consolidated their hold over the province, and advanced on Free State forces controlling Limerick city and west Limerick.5 Liam Lynch eventually set up a "field headquarters" and assembled a new headquarters staff in the extensive Fermoy Military Barracks in north Cork. Fighting the National Army along a rough line stretching from Limerick city to Waterford city during July, the IRA formed its "field army" comprised of numerous attached IRA flying columns and support units from various Munster brigades that probably numbered about three thousand full-time fighters.6 IRA brigades in counties Cork, Kerry, Waterford, and west Limerick reported to the First Southern Division, whose headquarters interacted directly with IRA general headquarters. The Cork No. 1 Brigade was the largest unit in the First [End Page 10] Southern Division and maintained its own headquarters in Cork city, which numbered about seventy-five thousand people and was the recognized commercial and communications center for Munster. Cork thereafter assumed its role as the unofficial or "real capital" (a contemporary nickname commonly used by city residents) of "the Munster Republic"—territory in the province controlled by the IRA during the first seven weeks of the Civil War. When it received word of the Four Courts attack, the Cork No. 1 Brigade leadership gathered in Cork city to determine whether to join the war. Despite the opposition of the brigade's dominant commanding officer Seán O'Hegarty, the IRA's Cork No. 1 Brigade entered the conflict on the republican side. (Ultimately, O'Hegarty and Brigade Adjutant Dominic Sullivan resigned from the IRA and took a neutral stance in the Civil War.)7 Operating from Cork city, the revised brigade leadership formed two large flying columns totaling about a hundred Volunteers and moved on Limerick city.8 Another republican column of about a hundred fighters was subsequently dispatched to Waterford. Lacking funds and supplies, Cork Volunteers equipped themselves through a frenzy of commandeering before departing for "the front." They visited clothing shops to seize trench coats, leggings, and boots for flying-column fighters...