Our Centenary Series continues with an examination of events across Ireland after the turmoil of the Dail debates and ratification of the Treaty. In its wake, Michael Collins was appointed chairman of the Provisional Government, tasked with bridging the gap between the dissolved Second Dail and the British machinery of government, so civil services and other administrations were established quite quickly – if a new constitution establishing the new Free State was not passed within a year, then administration would revert to Britain. Tensions and violence were still very high in the North, and reprisal killings against Protestants in the South stepped up. Then the Irish Republican Army in the South, split into two factions. Despite the compromise to delay the elections, armed conflict looked more and more inevitable.
