Easter Rising Stories

W. T. Cosgrave, Chairman of the Provisional Government.

On 3 October 1922 the Provisional Government offered an amnesty. The National Army held Dublin and the cities of Munster, but the war had become a guerrilla campaign against posts, patrols and railways. On 28 September the Dáil had given the Army Council power to set up military courts. Those courts could punish attacks on the National Army, possession of arms, arson and the destruction of property, and the penalty could be death. On 28 September Kevin O’Shiel, a legal adviser, wrote to W. T. Cosgrave recommending an amnesty, so that men who were not determined to continue might have a way out before those powers were used.

Richard Mulcahy, Minister for Defence and commander of the National Army.

The Cabinet minutes of 3 October record the offer. Anyone in arms against the state who, by 15 October, handed in weapons and ammunition, gave up property they were holding unlawfully, and stopped fighting, would receive a full amnesty and pardon. It was the other half of the policy: surrender before the new courts were enforced. A proclamation signed by Cosgrave and Richard Mulcahy, issued on 10 October, said the Army Council’s emergency powers would operate from 15 October. Very few are known to have accepted. For many republicans, acceptance meant recognising the Treaty state. On 17 November four anti-Treaty prisoners were executed at Kilmainham, the first of the 81 official executions carried out before the war ended.