Sir, – You have formed the opinion that, during the Civil War in 1922, “the Dublin government canvassed Britain for poison gas. The request was received with horror by the British” (“Taking Sides: Britain and the Civil War: ‘History that Irish people may prefer not to know’”, Review, May 13th). You have done so on the basis of last week’s RTÉ documentary on Britain and the Civil War presented by a former Tory secretary of state for defence Michael Portillo.
I feared when watching it that the programme created this impression. For Mr Portillo stated baldly that the Irish government “asked the British for gas”. The authority cited was a UK cabinet minute of July 4th, 1922, freely available online from the UK National Archives but only partly shown on the programme.
The British minute states “the cabinet was informed that the Irish Free State Government had intimated that if they could be provided with some form of gas grenades their task of clearing the rebels out of their strongholds would be greatly simplified”.
This was followed in the minute by a reference, by UK ministers, to “poison gas”.
Even if accurate, that minute does not say who “informed” the cabinet, what exactly “intimated” meant in this context or who had been in contact for the Free State government.
The whole thing may have been a ready-up by British intelligence eager to propose such gas to Dublin.
The minute certainly does not state that the Irish sought “poison” gas nor that the British government reacted with “horror”. Ministers merely noted that under an international convention it would be “improper to supply poison gas”. However, in portion of the minute not quoted on the programme, they agreed they might supply tear gas. There is no evidence that the Irish government wished to use lethal gas in central Dublin, heavily populated by civilians and where it was then in the process of clearing anti-Treaty forces from occupied buildings. That very morning The Irish Times was reporting already “The revolt broken” and “Mutineers’ last stand”.
The Irish government might have used tear gas locally, for it had tried patiently for months to end with minimum force the insurrection by those determined to overthrow the government in the face of overwhelming public support for the Anglo-Irish Treaty as the least worst option.
It was not filled with “zeal to pulverise the foe”, as asserted by Mr Portillo.
This matters precisely because events then are still weaponised today for various purposes. I carry no can for any of the parties that claim descent from the Civil War factions, but republicans such as Collins and Griffith were neither British stooges nor uncivilised. – Yours, etc,
COLUM KENNY,
Professor Emeritus,
Dublin City University,
Dublin 9.