The Army Mutiny is an Irish Army crisis that begins on March 7, 1924, provoked by a proposed reduction in army numbers in the immediate post-Civil War period. A second grievance concerns the handling of the Northern Boundary problem. As the prelude to a coup d’état, the decisions made by influential politicians and soldiers at the time have continuing significance for the Government of Ireland.

In the early weeks of the Irish Civil War, the National Army is comprised of 7,000 men. These come mainly from pro-Treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA) brigades, especially the Dublin Guard, whose members have personal ties to Michael Collins. They face around 15,000 anti-Treaty IRA men and Collins recruits experienced soldiers from wherever he can. The army’s size mushrooms to 55,000 men, many of whom are Irishmen with combat experience in World War I – 20,000 National Volunteers had joined the British Army on the urgings of Nationalist leader John Redmond.

Likewise, Irishmen who had served in the British forces account for over half of the 3,500 officers. W. R. E. Murphy, second-in-command (January–May 1923), had been a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, as had Emmet Dalton. Two more of the senior generals, John T. Prout and J. J. “Ginger” O’Connell, had served in the United States Army. Collins promotes fellow members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) but is slow to put Squad members in high positions.

In December 1922, following Collins’s death, Liam Tobin forms the Irish Republican Army Organisation (IRAO), taking in Dublin Guard and other Irish Army officers who share his view that “higher command…was not sufficiently patriotic.” President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State W. T. Cosgrave, head of the government, attempts to appease the IRAO. He meets with them several times before the 1923 Irish general election and persuades the opposing IRB faction of generals under Richard Mulcahy to keep quiet.

With the election over, Mulcahy now ignores the IRAO as he starts the process of demobilising 37,000 men. In November, sixty IRA officers mutiny and are dismissed without pay. The IRAO now pressures the Government into establishing a committee to supervise future demobilisation. The committee, consisting of Eoin MacNeill, Ernest Blythe, and IRAO sympathiser Joseph McGrath, effectively undermines the authority of the Army Council.

On March 7, 1924, a representative of the IRAO hands a demand to end demobilisation to W. T. Cosgrave. The ultimatum is signed by senior Army officers, Major-General Liam Tobin and Colonel Charles Dalton. Tobin knows his own position is to be scrapped in the demobilisation. Frank Thornton and Tom Cullen are also involved. That morning 35 men of the 36th Infantry Battalion refuse to parade, and the preceding week officers had absconded with arms from the McCan Barracks in Templemore, Gormanston Camp in County Meath, Baldonnel Aerodrome in Baldonnel, Dublin, and Roscommon. The immediate response is an order for the arrest of the two men on a charge of mutiny. This causes alarm throughout Dublin when announced.

On March 8, General Mulcahy makes an announcement to the Army:

“Two Army officers have attempted to involve the Army in a challenge to the authority of the Government. This is an outrageous departure from the spirit of the Army. It will not be tolerated…officers and men…will stand over their posts and do their duty today in this new threat of danger in the same wonderful, determined spirit that has always been the spirit of the Army.”

Leader of the Opposition, Thomas Johnson, issues a statement of support for the Government. In contrast, Minister for Industry and Commerce, Joseph McGrath, whose home Mulcahy orders to be searched, resigns because of dissatisfaction with the government’s attitude to the IRAO officers and support for their perception that the Irish Army treats former British officers better than former IRA officers. Fearing an incendiary speech by McGrath, Cosgrave first offers the IRAO an inquiry and an amnesty before then taking sick leave thus making Minister for Justice, Kevin O’Higgins, de facto head of the Government.

(Pictured: Major General Liam Tobin, a leading figure in the Army Mutiny)