The Free State government had started peace negotiations in early May, which broke down. The High Court of Justice in Ireland  ruled on 31 July 1923 that a state of war no longer existed, and consequently the internment of republicans, permitted under common law only in wartime, was now illegal. Without a formal peace, holding 13,000 prisoners and worried that fighting could break out again at any time, the government enacted two Public Safety  Acts on 1 and 3 August 1923, to permit continued internment and other measures. Thousands of Anti-Treaty IRA members  were arrested by the Free State forces in the weeks and months after the end of the war, when they had dumped their arms and returned home. On 27 August 1923, a general election was held, which Cumann na nGaedheal, the pro-Free State party, won with about 40% of the first-preference vote. The Republicans, represented by Sinn Féin, won about 27% of the vote. Many of their candidates and supporters were still imprisoned before, during and after the election. In October 1923, around 8,000 of the 12,000 Republican prisoners in Free State gaols went on a hunger strike. The strike lasted for 41 days and met little success . However, most of the women prisoners were released shortly thereafter and the hunger strike helped concentrate the Republican movement on the prisoners and their associated organisations. In July, de Valera had recognised the Republican political interests lay with the prisoners and went so far as to say:
Question: What happened first, the release of most of the women prisoners, or the hunger strike?
Answer: the hunger strike