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RTÉ History - The Irish Free State

'An end and a beginning': birth of the Irish Free State

It was the beginning of an independent Ireland - but the new Saorstát Éireann's lingering ties to Britain were unacceptable to many. Helene O'Keeffe tells the story

William Thomas Cosgrave. Photo: Harlingue/Roger Viollet via Getty Images

W. T. Cosgrave: an iron fist in a velvet glove

Damaged windows at Kilteragh, Sir Horace Plunkett's house outside Dublin, which was burned down by anti-Treaty forces in February 1923. Photo: Walshe/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Burning down the house: Big House burnings during the Civil War

National Army troops guarding Portarlington Station during the Civil War. The original caption read: They have Erected a Strong Post in Case of Attack: a Familiar Sight at Most Stations in the South. Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Enemy lines: the conflict on Irish Railways 1922-23

Liam Mellows, whose views on land seizures was viewed as dangerously radical by some. Photo © RTÉ Photographic Archive

A new land war? Land, class politics and state-building 1922-23

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The Irish Civil War: The Making of the Documentary

Edition 245 Century Ireland

Edition 245 of Century Ireland with all the news from 100 years ago.

How a horse, pig, and salmon ended up on Irish Free State coins

Percy Metcalfe's designs for the Free State's first coinage gathered both praise and criticism en route to Irish pockets

About the Civil War project

The Civil War project is the product of a partnership between RTÉ History, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and The Atlas of the Irish Revolution