The end of the Irish Civil War

There was no agreed or negotiated peace to end the civil war; no church bells pealed to celebrate its conclusion and there were no grand gestures of reconciliation. De Valera proclaimed to the 'Soldiers of the Republic, Legion of the Rearguard: The Republic can no longer be defended successfully by your arms. Further sacrifice of life would now be in vain ... military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic. Other means must be found to safeguard the nation's right.' That exhausted legion, though still defiant, just 'hid their arms and went home' [...]

How many died overall during the war? There has been no definitive answer. Estimates have varied too widely, from 1200 to 4000. It is likely more National Army soldiers were killed than republicans, but there is no conclusive figure. Some have settled on the assertion 'less than 1500' and sought to compare that to Finland's civil war dead of perhaps 36,000, of whom 8700 were killed in battle and the remainder of whom were executed or died in prison camps. County studies have suggested 220 civil war fatalities in Cork, 170 in Kerry, 130 in Tipperary and 258 in Dublin, the most violent counties. An overall estimate of 730 National Army and 350 IRA dead would seem reasonable; that does not tally exactly with figures given by the government in 1924 (800 National Army), or by the IRA that decade (400), but is not far off. Up to 200 civilians were also killed. The financial cost has been estimated at £47 million (about £2.7 billion today); such was the scale of the infrastructural damage that £10 million of £26.5 million spent on public services in 1922-3 was devoted to security and reconstruction.

- Diarmaid Ferriter, Between Two Hells: The Irish Civil War, London, 2021, p.119-121

See also:

History: Brugha's bulwark, 18 May 2018

Comedy: The Irish police force, 30 November 2014 

Blog: Ireland, 5 June 2010