It is a truism that nobody comes out well from a civil war. One side wins, the other side loses, but the sense of loss is pervasive and long-lasting. The post-war society that emerges is infected for a generation at least. Memories become distorted; old hatreds are nurtured. 

The Irish Civil War, fought between pro- and anti-Treaty forces following the British withdrawal in 1921 was a true brother-against-brother affair. Only now, a century on, is its legacy fading. In America, the war between the Union and the Confederacy that raged between 1861 and 1865 has its political echoes even today, with elections turning on issues such as Black Lives Matter and the tearing-down or retention of statues of Confederate generals. Â