Page "History of Dublin" Paragraph 60

After some prevarication and after Winston Churchill had actually ordered British troops to assault the rebels, Collins decided he had to act and borrowed British artillery to shell the republicans in the Four Courts.

They surrendered after a two day ( 28 – 30 June 1922 ) artillery bombardment by Free State troops but some of their IRA comrades occupied O ' Connell Street, which saw street fighting for another week before the Free State army secured the capital.

( See Battle of Dublin ).

Over 60 combatants were killed in the fighting, including senior republicans, Cathal Brugha and Harry Boland.

About 250 civilians are also thought to have been killed or injured, but the total has never been accurately counted.

Oscar Traynor conducted some guerrilla operations south of the city until his capture in late July 1922.

Ernie O ' Malley, the republican commander for the province of Leinster was captured after a shootout in the Ballsbridge area in November 1922.

On December 6, 1922, the IRA assassinated Sean Hales a member of Parliament as he was leaving Leinster House in Dublin city centre, in reprisal for the executions of their prisoners by the Free State.

The following day, the four leaders of the republicans in the Four Courts ( Rory O ' Connor, Liam Mellows, Dick Barret and Joe McKelvey ) were executed in revenge.

Dublin was relatively quiet thereafter, although guerrilla war raged in the provinces.

The new Free State government eventually suppressed this insurrection by mid 1923.

In April, Frank Aiken, IRA chief of staff, ordered the anti-treaty forces to dump their arms and go home.

The civil war left a permanent strain of bitterness in Irish politics that did much to sour the achievement of national independence.