"As the Treaty terms were being hotly debated in the Dail Eireann- the Irish Parliament- the split in the ranks of the Irish Republican Army widened and flared into open war in the last week of June. Anti-Treaty forces (the 'Irregulars') had occupied the judiciary complex at the Four Courts by the Liffey, and were defying the Provisional Government and refusing to budge. From across the river, the National Army opened fire with artillery- the first shots rang out in a cruel civil war which was to last for two years, but whose effects were to be felt for much longer."