Gemma Clark. Everyday Violence in the Irish Civil War

In 1923, four men entered Woodrooffe estate in Tipperary and set fire to the stables and then the residence: "Flanked by square courts with cupolas, this had been a grand home; now little remained of the eighteenth-century mansion" (75). During the Irish Civil War from 1922 to 1923 the burning of the "big house" was a striking aspect of what Gemma Clark terms everyday violence, acts of force and intimidation that characterized the war in some parts of the new Irish Free State. Reflecting broader patterns in civil wars, distinctions between civilians and combatants sometimes broke down in Ireland during these years and the motives behind violence were not always clear-cut.