Time to move on Roy. Tis 2016
And what of the 6?
The IPP like the rest of society, had a large Catholic bent. It also had a COI tradition. Either way, being 26 counties allowed the Church a greater say in Irish society than otherwise.
Given that the brigade level leadership of the IRA was composed of romantic nationalists and hard headed militarists there was always going to be an anti-treaty faction, with or without Dev. The treaty was rejected in many of those brigades upon its publication, before Dev ever made any of his inflammatory speeches.
Those boys were never too likely to wholly accept a nuanced and compromised outcome, but men of nuance and compromise aren’t too likely to take to the hills with an army of shop assistants and farm labourers and successfully take on a professional army either.
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