Troubled birth of a new Ireland was marked by turbulence and strife

Violence and sectarian attacks typified the new Free State’s early days

Small boys playing as sentries outside the Four Courts.

IN APRIL 1920, a unionist, R F Hibbert of Woodpart, Scarriff, Co Clare, described growing disorder and “terrorism” in his neighbourhood, as the Republican counter-state, Dáil Éireann, and the IRA, wrested control of Ireland from Britain.

For “respectable people” like Hibbert, by which he likely means not only the wealthy rural class, but also specifically Protestants and those loyal to British rule, “there is no protection whatever for life and property”: