ABSTRACT
The guerrilla campaign the flying columns were aided and abetted by local communities, an important factor in their success. Local sympathizers in Inistioge, County Kilkenny, for example, provided safehouses for the Irish Republican Army (IRA), stockpiled arms, and provided willing auxiliaries— such as the village blacksmith who fashioned nails in his forge to be strewn in front of pursuing Crossley tenders. The government took a hard line toward the rebels in the Civil War. Shortly after the war the IRA followers of Michael Collins in the Free State Army demanded that the government cease postwar demobilization and move more rapidly toward becoming a unified republic. The anti-Treaty members of Sinn Fein, however, were ready to continue the fight and established headquarters around the country, including one in the Four Courts in Dublin. The flames of civil war continued to burn for over a year in Ireland, with the same ugly brutality displayed earlier against the Black and Tans.
