June 18 1924
The report of the committee appointed to inquire into Free State Army affairs was published last night.
It states that the organisation that brought about the late mutiny was in existence, at least in embryo, before the outbreak of civil war, and that many of the officers who mutinied and of those who encouraged and abetted them had become a problem to General [Michael] Collins before his death in August 1922.
After that event they drew more closely together for the furtherance of their own objects, which were partly personal and partly political.
They contemplated, the report states, the use of the Army for the purpose of imposing their views upon the civil government.
“The general state of discipline in the Army,” the report continues, “appears to be fairly satisfactory, and appears to have been a steady improvement both in discipline and efficiency from the formation of the Army down to the present time.
“The mutiny was confined almost exclusively to senior officers, and had no support among the junior officers, NCOs, or the rank and file. The organisation of the Irish Republican Brotherhood by heads of the Army was a disastrous error.”
The judgement of the report blames Quartermaster-General [Seán] O’Muirthile in this connection, and exonerates Chief of Staff General [Seán] MacMahon and Adjutant-General [Gearóid] O’Sullivan from the accusations made against them.
The committee consider that General [Richard] Mulcahy, Minister for Defence, should have taken the earliest opportunity of informing the Executive Council of the proposed reorganisation of the IRB; that he should have also kept the Council fully informed of the course of his negotiations with the [Liam] Tobin group, and that his omission to do either of these things increased the difficulty of dealing with the mutiny.
In accordance with a promise given by President [WT] Cosgrave yesterday afternoon, General Mulcahy rose in the Dáil at half-past nine last night and made a statement in reference to the Army inquiry report.
He said that in the manner of its presentation it was a humiliating document, and the fact that it was decided not to publish the evidence in full and the chairman’s reservation was also humiliating.
