Historians tell us as a historical fact that the IRB was disbanded in 1924. That is the winners and the official version of IRB history and nothing could be further from the truth. There is no doubt that small, localized cabals of anti-Treaty IRB men kept their oaths, maintained their fraternal bonds, and operated in secret long after the Civil War ended. They did not trust the Free State, and often, they didn’t entirely trust the political direction of Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil either. Because the IRB was inherently a secret, oath-bound society, it is impossible to prove a negative. You cannot definitively prove that a secret society doesn’t exist. So much for historian’s assertions.
The Ultimate Trump Card
Absolute secrecy is what allowed various individuals, splinters, and factions throughout the 20th century to claim they were the “true” surviving remnants of the IRB. In Irish republicanism, claiming direct lineage to the IRB is ‘the ultimate trump card’ for political legitimacy—it bypasses the Free State, the 1937 Constitution, and the modern Leinster House Dáil.
Over the decades, different groups have claimed to possess this hidden flame. Small factions in the 1930s and 40s refused to recognize either the Free State or the IRA Army Council. Fringe actors in the 1960s tried to revive the name.
Even figures like the fantasist Billy McGuire, who fabricate his family history to claim ownership of that unbroken chain. Such groups are the IRBs ultimate smokescreen. But remember that the ultimate trump card is the ultimate reality.
The IRB Today – Republican Lore or Reality
Did individual anti-Treaty IRB men keep the faith, hold secret meetings, and try to keep their specific circles alive in the face of Free State hostility? Yes, absolutely. Did they successfully reassemble the IRB into the unified, sovereign, secret society it was before 1921? No. The organization was fractured; its purpose was largely absorbed by the IRA Army Executive. Its surviving fragments at first fermented in secret but in time were drawn together in deep secrecy while to the public they have faded into the realm of esoteric republican lore while remaining hidden in plain sight with a sophisticated and democratic blueprint for a new Ireland as their ultimate aim.
The False Narrative
There is a crucial bias in both McGee’s book and mainstream Irish historiography that the 1924 “end” of the IRB is entirely the story of the pro-Treaty faction. The book by Dr. Owen McGee is titled The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood, from the Land League to Sinn Féin, published in 2005. By concluding the narrative with the disbandment of the Supreme Council in 1924, historians such as McGee generally and implicitly adopt the Free State’s timeline as the definitive history of the organization, leaving the anti-Treaty IRB experience largely unexamined. That false narrative is why a historical blind spot exists in regard to what happened to the anti-Treaty IRB and what became of them.
The Supreme Council’s Treaty Whip
When the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in 1921, the IRB Supreme Council heavily controlled by Michael Collins voted to support it. Collins and his allies aggressively used the IRB’s secret oath of obedience to pressure rank-and-file members and Dáil deputies into backing the Treaty.
For many anti-Treaty members like Harry Boland, this was seen as a profound betrayal. The Supreme Council had effectively weaponized the secret society against the Republic it was sworn to protect. Anti-Treaty IRB members such a Liam Lynch and Liam Deasy saw this as the ultimate act of betrayal. Liam Lynch was not just a member of the IRB; he had a seat on its Supreme Council. He watched with horror as Collins and the pro-Treaty leadership used the secretive structure of the Brotherhood to whip Dáil deputies and IRA officers into voting for the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
The Anti-Treaty Exodus
Because the pro-Treaty faction maintained control of the official Supreme Council or at least most of its members, the anti-Treaty IRB didn’t so much formally continue as a parallel secret society; figures who opposed the Treaty shifted their allegiance away from what they saw as the compromised IRB and toward the anti-Treaty IRA Executive. They viewed the pro Treaty IRB as a corrupted political tool of the Free State. Because they stopped operating under the banner of the IRB, historians like McGee often drop them from the IRB narrative entirely after 1921, mistakenly tracking them instead purely as IRA members. The appearance of nonexistence is the ultimate camouflage.
The 1924 Dissolution an Internal Free State Affair
When McGee and others cite 1924 as the end of the IRB, they are specifically referring to the Irish Army Mutiny. Pro-Treaty IRB members had tried to keep their version of the secret society alive within the new Free State Army to ensure it remained a “republican” force, competing against another secret faction called the Irish Republican Army Organisation (IRAO). The resulting crisis nearly collapsed the Free State government, leading to the final, formal dissolution of the pro-Treaty IRB. By this point, the anti-Treaty veterans had been entirely disconnected from the pro Treaty IRB faction for years.
Reclaiming the Brotherhood
This messy, fractured dissolution of the pro Treaty IRB where the anti-Treaty side felt the “true” Republic was betrayed by the leadership created a massive, unresolved historical grey area. Mainstream history often paints the IRB as entirely “owned” by Michael Collins and the pro-Treaty side after 1921, but the reality is much more complex. Liam Lynch and several other high-ranking anti-Treaty officers were deeply dedicated IRB men, and they actively attempted to reclaim and rebuild the Brotherhood in secret during the Irish Civil War.
Keeping the True I.R.B. Alive
Here is how the anti-Treaty faction fought to keep the “true” IRB alive. Liam Lynch was not just a member of the IRB; he had a seat on its Supreme Council. He watched with horror as Collins and the pro-Treaty leadership used the secretive structure of the Brotherhood to whip Dáil deputies and IRA officers into voting for the Anglo-Irish Treaty. For Lynch, the Treaty was a betrayal, but the corruption of the IRB was a tragedy. He did not view the pro-Treaty faction as the legitimate continuation of the IRB—he viewed them as traitors who needed to be purged.
Lynch’s Secret Reorganization Plan
By November 1922, five months into the brutal and bloody Civil War and with anti-Treaty forces under immense pressure, Lynch was still operating as Chief of Staff of the anti-Treaty IRA. Despite the chaos, he wrote to Liam Deasy another senior anti-Treaty IRB man about a plan to save the “honour of this splendid historic organisation.”
His secret strategy involved:
- The Ghost Convention: Calling a clandestine meeting of remaining Supreme Council members and mid-tier IRB officers who had opposed the Treaty.
- The Purge: Holding a tribunal to formally remove the pro-Treaty members of the Supreme Council for treason against the Republic.
- The Rebuild: Reconstituting the Supreme Council entirely with anti-Treaty men, effectively wresting control of the secret society away from the Free State.
Secrecy and Survival
Operating the IRB in secret during this period wasn’t just about maintaining the traditions of a secret society; it was a matter of life and death. The Free State government led by former comrades was executing anti-Treaty IRA leaders often without trial. Rebuilding an anti-Treaty I.R.B. network had to be done in absolute secrecy to avoid Free State intelligence, which was heavily staffed by pro-Treaty I.R.B. men who knew exactly how the organization operated and who was in it.
Why the I.R.B. Disappeared
Despite Lynch’s dedication, the anti-Treaty IRB struggled to survive as a coherent organization for three brutal reasons:
- Survival Mode: By late 1922 and early 1923, the anti-Treaty IRA was being systematically crushed. Officers were on the run, imprisoned, or fighting a desperate guerrilla rear-guard action. Rebuilding a secret fraternal network became practically impossible when mere survival was the daily priority.
- The Death of Lynch: On April 10, 1923, Free State troops shot and killed Liam Lynch in the Knockmealdown Mountains. With his death, the driving force behind the anti-Treaty IRB’s reorganization was for the moment lost.
- The IRA Executive: For many of the rank-and-file who opposed the Treaty, the anti-Treaty IRA Executive became the sole remaining legitimate authority of the Republic. The need for a “secret society” behind the scenes lost its relevance for them when the IRA was already fighting an open war against the State. But individuals and small groups still adhered to their allegiance to the IRB.
The Vanishing
The anti-Treaty IRB didn’t simply vanish because they stopped believing in the Brotherhood; it was driven deep underground, fractured by the Civil War, and apparently buried with leaders like Liam Lynch. But disappearance is not demise. Like the mythical phoenix it was destined to rise again.
Bit by bit members and straggler groups began to find each other, gather together and in secret reassemble the fractured remains of the IRB back into a cohesive organisation and this time for the sake of survival it became more secret and more secretive than ever before. They had the Ultimate Trump Card in mind.
The Ultimate IRB Goal
Having come out of the bloody betrayal and carnage of the civil war it became apparent to the I.R.B. that the spirit of the Republic, the spirit of true nationhood and the spirit of true freedom had to be kept alive for the future of the Irish people and the reunification of our fractured Island. That aim remains to be fulfilled and the IRB will continue to exist with that as their ultimate goal in mind while holding the ‘Ultimate Trump Card’.
