Operations on the railway were severely disrupted between 1921 and 1923. The line was closed in 1921 on the orders of the British Army (during the struggle for independence prior to the creation of the Irish Free State). Services were also suspended at times (and infrastructure damaged) during the Irish Civil War of 1922–23. The railway was taken over by the Great Southern Railways on Thursday 1 January 1925; a train had a collision with a car on a level crossing on the first day of GSR ownership.