The new civil war exhibition, ‘War of Friends, 1922-23: The Civil War story of Pádraic Ó Máille and Liam Mellows’ is now running at Galway City Museum. The exhibition was officially launched by the Mayor of the City of Galway, Cllr. Clodagh Higgins. It was created by Galway City Museum as part of Galway City Council’s Decade of Centenaries Programme 2022, and funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to commemorate events of local and national significance.
A century ago, in December 1922, Ireland was six months into an increasingly-bitter civil war as Free Staters and Republicans battled for the control of the country and for the hearts and minds of the Irish people. On 7 December, in a shocking incident, members of the anti-treaty IRA shot two Free State TDs in broad daylight on the streets of Dublin as they made their way to Dáil Éireann – Cork TD Seán Hales was killed and Galway TD Pádraic Ó Máille, Deputy Chairman of Dáil Éireann (a position today held by Galway’s Catherine Connolly ), was seriously wounded.
That night, the seven-man Dáil Cabinet met in secret and one-by-one agreed to have four senior Republican leaders, who had been imprisoned since the start of the civil war, shot in retaliation as a deterrent against attacking TDs. Among the four was Liam Mellows, who had led the Easter Rising in Galway in 1916, and who had served at a TD for Galway, whose statue today stands in Eyre Square.
The National Story
The Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed on 6 December 1921, offered limited independence within the British Empire to 26 Irish counties – the Irish Free State – rather than the desired Irish Republic. As a result, the Irish republican movement split between supporters and opponents of the Treaty, Free Staters and Republicans, triggering a civil war that lasted from 28 June 1922 to 24 May 1923. Known in Irish as Cogadh na gCarad (war of friends ), the conflict began without a formal declaration of war, ended without settlement, caused around 1,500 deaths, and left the Free State bitterly divided and on the verge of bankruptcy.
A Galway story
Both Ó Máille and Mellows were national figures who shared the ideal of an independent Ireland. In 1916, Commandant Mellows ordered Ó Máille to Connemara to rally the volunteers for the Rising. Ó Máille was subsequently arrested and Mellows went on the run.
Both men were elected MPs for Galway in 1918 and both represented Galway in the First and Second Dáil. On 7 December 1922, one day after the birth of the Free State, anti-treaty militants ambushed two pro-treaty deputies as they made their way to Dáil Éireann, killing Seán Hales and wounding Pádraic Ó Máille.
The following morning, in retaliation, the Free State executed four anti-treaty prisoners including Liam Mellows. With the shooting of Free State deputies and the execution of Republican prisoners, all former comrades in arms, the civil war had reached new depths.
The exhibition will run until 24 May 2023, the centenary of the end of the Irish Civil War. This Christmas, Galway City Museum will be open Tuesday 20 to Friday 23 December from 10am until 4.45pm.
The museum will be closed on Saturday 24 December and will remain closed until Thursday 29 December. Normal opening hours will resume on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 December from 10am until 4.45pm.
Visit www.galwaycitymuseum.ie to learn more and plan a visit.
