On 24 May 1923, the new IRA Chief of Staff Frank Aiken issued an order to all units to "dump arms" - effectively to cease all operations against the Free State Army.
The order was carefully worded.
To "dump arms" did not mean to throw guns away, it meant to hide all guns and ammunition in secret arms dumps across the country, with the implication that they would be retrieved and used at some point in the future, if circumstances changed.
But the Republican leadership was adamant that at this point, on this day 100 years ago, no purpose was served in carrying on the fight.
On the same day as Frank Aiken issued his order, Eamon de Valera issued an address to IRA units as 'The Legion of the Rearguard', in his capacity as leader of the "Government in exile":
"The Republic can no longer be successfully defended by your arms. Further sacrifice on your part would now be in vain and the continuance of the struggle in arms unwise in the national interest and prejudicial to the future of our cause.
"Military victory must be allowed to rest for the moment with those who have destroyed the Republic. Other means must be sought to safeguard the nation's right".
There was no dramatic Last Stand to end the war, no defining moments, the conflict effectively sputtered to a halt.
The Republican leadership was simply acknowledging what had been evident for months, and certainly for the six weeks since the death of IRA Chief of Staff Liam Lynch.
The Free State Army had asphyxiated the IRA's ability to carry on the war, swarming its last refuges and arms dumps so that units were ground down to handfuls of individuals just trying to escape death or capture.
Liam Lynch's death in April summed up the IRA's dire predicament.
He died after being shot on the Knockmealdown Mountains on the Tipperary-Waterford border, while being pursued by Free State soldiers from hideout to hideout, until there was nowhere left to run.
With his death, the heart went out of the resistance.
The new Chief of Staff Frank Aiken gathered his officers with one aim in mind: to end the war, at least for now.
Eamon de Valera attempted to extract something from the ashes by offering to discuss terms with the Free State President of the Executive Council WT Cosgrave.
The attempt failed, the terms he offered would have meant the Free State government abandoning everything the war had been fought over, specifically the acceptance of Ireland's place as a Dominion inside the British Empire.
Mr Cosgrave simply countered with terms for an IRA surrender.
No formal surrender ever happened, and 24 May did not mark the end of conflict.
Michael Murphy and Joseph O'Rourke were the last prisoners to be executed, a week after Frank Aiken’s order.
Noel Lemass, a captain in the anti-Treaty IRA, was abducted in Dublin and summarily executed in July 1923, two months after the war had ended.
The thousands of men captured in the war remained in captivity.
By October, their conditions had become so bad, 7,000 prisoners went on hunger strike.
There has never been a definitive calculation of total deaths in the conflict. The best estimate is that, between Free State Army, IRA - both combatants and executed prisoners - and civilians, about 2,000 died.
The physical cost of the war was estimated by the government of the day at £50 million in 1923 values, equivalent to a staggering €3 billion in today’s money.
