Oct. 25 Event Will Focus on Ireland’s Tragic Civil War

BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR

It was an “unspeakable war,” wrote one journalist, and “a story that nobody dared to tell.”

But contrary to popular assumption, the tragic Irish Civil War of 19221923—a wrenching, destructive run-up to the establishment of an independent Ireland—has long persisted in the national Irish memory, despite efforts to downplay or outright erase it from official discourse. Later this month, the Boston College Irish Studies Program will host a lecture by Irish historian and author Síobhra Aiken, who has chronicled the determination of veterans and later generations to keep alive the story, now in its centenary, of the Irish Civil War.

Aiken, a lecturer in the Queens University Belfast Department of Irish and Celtic Studies, will present “Forgetting the Irish Civil War (1922-23)? One Hundred Years of Silence Breakers,” on October 25 at 4 p.m. in Connolly House. Her talk will encompass research she published earlier this year in Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War, which will be available at the event.

The Irish Civil War grew out of intense disagreement over the terms of the AngloIrish Treaty that ended the Irish War of Independence against Britain. Fighting amongst Irish revolutionaries broke out after failed attempts to form a coalition between the pro-treaty forces and those who opposed it because, among other reasons, it called for a partition of Ireland that allowed six counties in the north to stay part of Britain and the establishment of an Irish Free State instead of a republic.

While the war lasted barely a year, ending with the pro-treaty side victorious, the toll was steep. Precise figures for combatant and civilian deaths have never been verified, but are estimated to be at least 1,500 and probably more, including renowned figures like Michael Collins, a beloved hero of the