'Apparently he paid too much for it'

Though the Irish Civil War only lasted 11 months, ending in May 1923, it left a terrible legacy in death and economic destruction, writes Brian Byrne. Numbers killed have never been fully documented, but figures of up to 4,000 people have been suggested, while a lower number of 1,000 is a minimum believed dead whether as combatants or civilians.

The conflict is believed to have cost up to £50m in terms of actually waging the war and in dealing with compensation claims afterwards. The Free State Government undertook to pay such compensations for damage to and theft of property from the July 1921 date of the Anglo-Irish Treaty which precipitated the Civil War until its end.

Generally, these compensations were dealt with by local courts. A report in the Kildare Observer of 20 December 1924 gives a Kilcullen microcosmic insight into the kind of recompense people were looking for.

Denis B Brennan, trading as the Kildare Motor Co, Kilcullen, gave evidence that on 20 June 1922, a number of armed men came to his garage at about 7am and demanded that he open the premises. He told the court that the men looked at the vehicles there, and took a 2-seater motor car and a 1-ton truck. They also took a quantity of petrol and oil.

Mr Brennan said he had bought the car the previous January for £100 and had spent £61 13s 8d on repairs and he had expected to sell it for £200. At that point, the judge noted that the claim was for £300. After some discussion, Mr Brennan was awarded a total of £171 4s 8d, made up of what he had paid for and spent on the car, and petrol and oil worth £9 10s.

James Brennan of Old Kilcullen claimed at the same sessions for a quantity of boots and other property, taken from his shop on 29 November 1922. He told the court that 'four or five' armed men had entered his shop and taken the boots and cash to a total value of £72 3s 3d. The judge decided that the £16 stolen in cash would have to 'come off' the award, and gave a decree for £55 13s 3d.

James J Byrne of Kilcullen sought compensation of £236 9s for a Ford motor car stolen from his shop on 28 July 1922, as well as £30 worth of boots and damage to the door of the shop to the cost of £5.

He told the court that he was awakened by loud knocking at the door of his residence sometime between midnight and 1am. When he asked who was there, he got a reply that they 'were the IRA', and they were going to take his car as a 'reprisal' as they claimed he 'had got someone shot or arrested'. They then broke into his premises and took the car.

The State representative, Lieut Luby, told the court that the car would only be worth about £120 at the time it was stolen, to which the judge suggested that 'apparently he paid too much for it'. A Dunlavin motor dealer, Walter Coleborn, gave evidence that Mr Byrne had paid the claimed price for the car. The judge allowed an award of £140 for the car and £5 for the door damage, as well as £29 13s 4d for a plate glass window in the same shop smashed on 14 November 1922.

William Cooper of Harristown claimed for a Douglas motor bicycle taken by armed men on 16 July 1022. He showed a receipt signed 'Provisional Government IRA, Commanding Officer Kildare Brigade'. Mr Cooper claimed £79 10s and was given a decree for £50.

Mrs Anne Butterfield of Colbinstown was awarded £40 12s for a Massey-Harris reaper and binder and two covers, burned when it had been left in a field after corn had been cut.

All these monies might seem quite small today, but in terms of livelihoods of the time, they were significant. All put together on a national basis they added a large amount to the country's financial deficit. Especially as the war had debilitated the fledgling nation's economy to the point where in 1924-1925 the Free State had to forego any further negotiation on the boundaries of the Six Counties in return for forgiveness of an agreed 'Imperial Debt' in the Treaty.

But of course, the most serious cost was in people killed, families divided in some cases for many future generations, and a bitterness between factions which can still be raised today.