S1·E10 Civil War (1921-1924)

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 gave Ireland dominion status as the Irish Free State, and the six counties of Northern Ireland the right to opt out. Die-hard Republicans of the IRA considered the treaty and its oath to the King as head of the Commonwealth a betrayal of all they had fought for. In defiance they occupied the Four Courts in the centre of Dublin; the Free State army opened fire with guns borrowed from the departed British. Fighting spread from the streets to the countryside. The brutal civil war that followed divided families and southern Ireland through the present day (1980).