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Landmark research on Irish Civil War fatalities launched
- Database and interactive map lists all of the combatant and civilian fatalities.
- Project shows that numbers killed were considerably less than in the War of Independence.
- Research indicates the Civil War was more violent, brutal and protracted in counties Kerry, Tipperary and Louth.
A ground-breaking new research and digital mapping project launched today (Monday, 29 April) by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, lists all of the combatant and civilian fatalities in the Irish Civil War. The project represents the first systematic attempt to investigate the number of people killed in the conflict.
The Irish Civil War Fatalities Project is a ground-breaking research and digital mapping project that covers one of the most complex periods in Ireland’s history. For decades, historians of the Irish Civil War have resorted to estimates when surveying the human cost of the conflict. Now a rigorously researched, academically contextualised database and interactive map lists all of the combatant and civilian fatalities in the thirty-two counties between the opening shots of the Civil War on 28 June 1922 and the ceasefire and dump arms order on 24 May 1923.
The project shows that numbers killed were considerably less than in the War of Independence. This is mainly due to the lack of deliberate killing of civilians, who were three times more likely to have been killed in the War of Independence than in the Civil War. It shows the Civil War was more violent, brutal and protracted in counties Kerry, Tipperary and Louth.
The research also suggests a new chronology of the Civil War, contradicting the idea that major combat was over after the first month of the war. The study of fatalities shows that deaths spiked not only in the opening ‘conventional’ phase of the war, but also in the peak of the guerrilla war in autumn 1922 and again in March 1923 with a concerted series of reprisal killings.
Led by University College Cork (UCC) in partnership with RTÉ and the Irish Military Archives, the project was made possible through funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Historical Strand of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023.
The Irish Civil War Fatalities Project provides new insights into the frequency, nature and concentration of violence across Ireland during the Civil War, complementing the latest research on the military, social and political aspects of the conflict. The interactive map is a major work of public scholarship and fills a significant gap in the historical record.
Launching the project, Minister Martin said: “The Irish Civil War was a great national tragedy and left a deep wound in the newly independent State. The significant loss of life and the injury to the fabric of our communities, and many families, were felt for generations, even to this day. By exploration of the impacts and factual history of the War, UCC’s research serves to deepen our appreciation of the challenges faced and sacrifices made by the individuals and families that made those communities - and the University has done so with a very thorough, engaging, innovative & accessible new resource.”
The Minister added, “From the outset of the project my Department has supported the scope and ambition of UCC, with encouragement and significant funding to underpin the task. This output of this project is exactly the kind of accessible data that the Expert Advisory Group and Government hoped would emerge as an enduring legacy of the Programme, and it adds significantly to the body of work already produced by UCC and others over the course of the Decade. I commend all those who worked on and supported the delivery of this new and invaluable public asset, which assists us all in deepening our understanding of the complex history of the birth of the nation.”
Dr Andy Bielenberg, Principal Investigator of the Irish Civil War Fatalities Project and Senior Lecturer at UCC School of History, said: “Drawing on a wide range of sources, this project offers new insights into the spatial and temporal patterns of violence during the Civil War as well as the social profiles, ages and backgrounds of the victims of that violence. In addition to building a clearer picture of the combatant fatalities of the Irish Civil War, the new research presents a fuller picture of civilian fatalities. We can now see the impact of the conflict on civilians in large swathes of Ireland which remained entirely uncharted until now.”
“The interactive map will be an invaluable tool for researching family history, local history, and filling in gaps in our knowledge about the Civil War,” Dr Andy Bielenberg said.
John Dorney, Historian and Research Assistant, said: “Some of the most interesting findings come from the data collected about fatalities as well as the raw numbers. For instance, we can show that pro-Treaty military casualties were of a significantly lower social class than the anti-Treaty side; that both Dubliners and natives of Cork were overrepresented in the pro-Treaty casualties, while people from Kerry were twice as likely to die on the anti as on the pro Treaty side; and that while pro-Treaty deaths significantly outnumbered anti-Treaty, the latter were far more likely to executed or killed after being taken prisoner.”
The project includes:
- A searchable, interactive Civil War Fatalities map providing new insights into the frequency, nature and concentration of violence across Ireland.
- Research findings by Dr Andy Bielenberg and John Dorney, Historian and Research Assistant.
- A series of articles by invited scholars contextualising the conflict in local areas, including Dr John O’Callaghan on the Civil War in County Limerick; Owen O’Shea on the Civil War in Kerry; Dr Helene O’Keefe on child victims of political violence and Professor Pauric Travers on the Civil War in County Donegal.
View the project here on UCC’s website and on RTÉ.
The Civil War Fatalities Project is the latest in a series of outreach and engagement projects coordinated by UCC's interdisciplinary 'Atlas of the Irish Revolution Team' at UCC during the Decade of Centenaries. These include the award-winning Atlas of the Irish Revolution; the three-part documentary series ‘The Irish Civil War’ narrated by Brendan Gleeson and three, map-based digital history projects created in partnership with RTE.ie.