Chapter 2 has introduced civilian defiance and IRA coercion in the context of the local machinations of Dáil Éireann, specifically through local government and the collection of the poor rate. It has also shown the centrality of violence and intimidation (subtle or otherwise) to the upholding of the republican counter-state at a local level. This chapter will explore civilian non-cooperation, and its motivation, more broadly from three perspectives. It will begin by exploring two illustrative examples of Dáil Éireann edicts enforced by local IRA units: the Dáil courts and the Belfast boycott. The courts and the boycott are among the best documented examples of Dáil edicts and have already been subject to substantial scholarly work from a political and administrative point of view, allowing the focus here to remain on local manoeuvring and IRA participation. The focus will then move to another monetary collection enforced by the IRA: the arms fund levy. As an exclusively ‘army’, rather than ‘civil’, collection, the arms fund offers a useful comparison with that of the poor rate and will serve to emphasise the prevalence of the behaviour noted in Chapter 2. The final two sections will explore the influence of community politics and personal relationships on loyalism, examining the extent to which well-established community behaviour and personal interest influenced the guerrilla campaign, and vice versa. First, general conclusions will be offered before those conclusions are tested with a study of loyalists and the perception and creation of loyalty in one ‘southern’ Irish community (Arva, County Cavan) based on a detailed reading of compensation claims to the IGC and complementary material.

Dáil Éireann edicts

The court network established by the Dáil government as an alternative to the British legal system was one of the most widely reported pieces of republican civil work during the Irish Revolution. On 18 June 1919, Dáil Éireann passed a decree allowing for a scheme of ‘National Arbitration Courts’ in every county in Ireland. According to Dáil court judge Kevin O'Shiel, the purpose of arbitration courts was to replace IRA ‘courts martial’ that had been keeping law and order in parts of the country where the police had been withdrawn. Courts along the lines advocated years earlier by Arthur Griffith had sprung up in 1917 and the Dáil decree borrowed heavily from a system founded in West Clare.