Collecting the Rates: Dáil Éireann Local Government and the IRA

The Dáil Éireann Local Government Department was one of the most successful established by the underground, revolutionary Dáil administration. One of the most difficult challenges it faced as it attempted to overthrown the British Local Government Board was maintaining the collection of the local poor rate, a traditionally unpopular tax that was an essential stream of revenue for local councils. At a local level, it often became necessary for the guerrillas of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to carry out or facilitate the collection. The dynamics at play here between the Dáil, the IRA, and local ratepayers – who paid or refused to pay for a myriad of reasons and with a diverse set of motivations – serve as a microcosm for the wider themes of this study. It will show both the range of civilian behaviour encountered by the guerrillas and demonstrate how difficult it is to easily label or categorise this behaviour.