Merely tuppence half-penny looking down on tuppence? class, the second Dail and Irish Republicanism

This essay discusses whether social background was significant in the division over the Treaty, and in terms of the broader question of class and the Irish Revolution. It engages with the view that socio-economic issues partly explain the Treaty split and the makeup of the two chief opposing factions during the Civil War. Many have tended to agree with Kevin O’Higgin’s assertion that he and his colleagues were the ‘most conservative-minded revolutionaries that ever put through a successful revolution.’1 However, there remains a strong tendency to see social radicalism as implicit in the anti-Treaty stance, some even claiming that ‘the logic of republicanism has tended to be anti-capitalist.’2 This essay attempts to unravel how contemporary republicans, that is supporters of Sinn Féin, the IRA and those who sought an independent Ireland, viewed themselves and their opponents in terms of social class.