While the leadership of the IRA, Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy, in the forefront in accepting the treaty, the majority of the Army did not accept the abolition of the Irish Republic and abandonment of the First Dáil. In April 1922, they formed their own "Army Executive" and renounced the authority of the Dáil to accept the Treaty. Political leaders such as Éamon de Valera and Cathal Brugha, also unhappy with the Treaty, supported their actions. These tensions ultimately plunged the new Irish state into civil war (1922–1923). Ultimately, the Irish Free State put down the Anti-treaty IRA and ended the war by May 1923, though not before the deaths of many of those who had fought together in 1919–1921.