Right into the 1970s the events of the seven years after 1916 dominated political and cultural life in Southern Ireland. Parties won and lost elections as much for their policies as for their echoing of civil war divisions. Between the two principal parties there was no doctrinal difference. Competing policies and promises were exchangeable and they attracted support largely on the basis of which civil war side they represented. This was compounded by the initial youthfulness of Free State politicians on both sides.

The British had executed the old Republican leadership in 1916, thereafter killing and executing mostly minor figures. The civil war had seen a more extensive cull but not a generational change. As time went on, this was translated into an extraordinary longevity amongst the political elite. Thus in 1959 Sean Lemass (1900–71) became Taoiseach (prime minister) having fought in the GPO in 1916, in the IRA during the Troubles, and in the Four Courts IRA in 1922; he retired from politics, as Taoiseach, in 1966. Eamon de Valera, Lemass’ immediate predecessor as Taoiseach, although older than his colleagues, was head of government for twenty-two years and then served as President of Ireland for fourteen years to 1973. Time and again, the hopes and myths expressed during the Treaty debates were held up by politicians as justification for votes and for policies, and the same hopes and myths were held up by the IRA as justification for the continuation of their violent struggle for a united Ireland.