Ireland marks centenary of end of civil war

Irish political leaders gathered Sunday to mark 100 years since the end of the Irish Civil War.

Head of state Leo Varadkar and his deputy Micheál Martin met in Dublin with relatives of people killed in the war, BBC News reported. The two men laid a wreath at the city’s Garden of Remembrance.

The Irish army was also present. Each of Ireland’s 31 local municipalities was allotted five tickets to distribute to people who lost family members in the war.

An estimated 2,000 people died in the civil war, which lasted for 11 months across 1922 and 1923. The conflict erupted after Irish leaders at the time signed a peace treaty with the United Kingdom to end the Irish War of Independence.

A significant portion of the nation rejected the treaty and took up arms rather than accept it. However, the pro-treaty forces dominated the battlefields and quickly controlled all major urban areas of Ireland.

On May 24, 1923, the sides signed a resolution declaring the end of the conflict.

But the divisions persisted for decades. Varadkar’s political party, Fine Gael, descended from the pro-treaty forces, while Martin’s Fianna Fáil party traces its roots to the anti-treaty side. The two parties were bitter rivals for many years, but Varadkar and Martin worked together to form a ruling coalition in 2020.