Irish Republic - Functionality

Functionality

The Irish Republic had some of the attributes of a functioning state; a ministry (with a head of state in the latter stages), a parliament, a courts system, a police force and a constitution. The extent to which these functioned fluctuated in different parts of the island, with the success or otherwise of republican institutions depended both on the degree of control of the IRA in the region and on the brutality of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, active from June 1920 to July 1921. The more brutal the 'Tans' the more they alienated the local populace from the Dublin Castle administration and Assize courts and the greater success the republican alternatives had. Some measures such as the Dáil Éireann Decree of 6 August 1920 prohibiting emigration without a permit were violently enforced.

At the height of the Irish War of Independence, as Tan atrocities reached such a scale as to result in the burning of the city of Cork (leading to widespread criticism in the United States and from King George V), the Republican Police and Dáil courts reached their zenith, and senior barristers who had qualified within the British courts system also represented defendants in the Dáil Courts. But even after the Truce of July 1921, when the Tans had stopped their activities, the continuing effectiveness of the Dáil courts and police was seen to be patchy. This was in part due to standing down the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in early 1922 before a new police force was ready to operate; in the interim the Irish Republican Army (IRA), dividing within itself over the Treaty, was the only police force.

The main function of the Dáil courts was in resolving civil cases and very rarely dealt with criminal matters. The cabinet met frequently, though necessarily in secret, and dealt with everyday matters as well as the conduct of the war. The Dáil sat for 21 days before the Truce of July 1921, and more frequently after that.

Support for the Republic, though it ebbed and flowed constantly during the war, was strongest in the south of the country. The claim to authority of the Irish Republic was rejected in Unionist-dominated Northern Ireland and south County Dublin.