Éamon de Valera and Frank Aiken ordered IRA volunteers to lay down their arms and return home, causing an "official" end to their rebellion against the Irish Free State.
Chief of Staff Frank Aiken's order, recalled in history as the Dump Arms Order, read:
Comrades — The arms with which we fought the enemies of our country are to be dumped. The foreign and domestic enemies of the Republic have for the moment prevailed. But our enemies have not won. Neither tortures nor firing squads, nor a slavish press can crush the desire for independence out of the hearts of those who fought for the Republic or out of the hearts of our people. Our enemies have demanded our arms. Our answer is, 'We took up arms to free our country, and we'll keep them until we see an honourable way of reaching our objective without arms'. There is a trying time ahead for the faithful soldiers of Ireland. But the willing sacrifices of our dead comrades will give us the courage to face it in the knowledge that these sacrifices have ensured the ultimate victory of our cause. Their examples and their prayers will help us to be like them, faithful to our ideals unto death.
De Valera's order stated:
Soldiers of liberty! Legion of the rear guard! The republic can no longer be sustained successfully by your arms. Further sacrifices on your part would now be in vain. The continuance of the struggle in arms is unwise in the national interest," and added, "You have saved the nation's honor and left the road open to independence. Laying aside your arms now is an act of patriotism as exalted and pure as your valor in taking them up
Ireland would come, in fact, to have very strict gun control, something that reflected Irish independence having come about through an armed Irish minority and the ongoing fear that an armed Irish element would oppose the government.
The ethos of the IRA at the time can perhaps best be summarized by the statement of Liam Lynch, a general of the IRA,, who stated:
We have declared for an Irish Republic.
We will live by no other law.
Be that as it may, the IRA's fight against the Irish Free State was a dishonorable affair, and one tinged with radicalism. Asserting a fight for liberation and democracy, it was in the end undeniably sectarian in ignoring the wishes, no matter how despised, of Ulster protestants who did not wish to leave the United Kingdom and the majority of southern Irish who were content with the Free State.
It was also naive to think that it could force British separation of Ulster through fighting the Free State.
The San Pedro Maritime Strike in San Francisco came to an end.
The French government resigned, and then unresigned, over the Senates decision not to put Communist Marcel Cachin, a member, on trial.
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