The National Army (N.A.) of the Free State (F.S.) had as its forerunner the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.). Many who fought in the Anglo Irish war with the I.R.A. continued their service with the N.A. in the civil war of 1922/3. Although there was heavy recruitment to the NA at the start of the civil war, the veteran members of the I.R.A. provided the backbone of the N.A. Units such as the Dublin Brigade remained intact from the Anglo-Irish war to become the elite unit of the F. S. National Army. From its inception the N.A. was greatly influenced by the many members of its ranks who had been schooled in the art of warfare in its many facets, and whose influence was felt from its lower ranks to its highest ranks. National army officers, such as Richard Mulcahy, and Kevin O’ Higgins, who both fought through the Anglo-Irish war, were to play leading parts in the reorganisation of the N.A. after 1923, which laid the basis for the N.A. and which still regulates the modem Irish Army.