 The United Kingdom envoy at that time was the count de Salis, a Catholic landowner in County Limerick who was not a supporter of Irish nationalism.The Holy See withheld recognition until the war had ended with a treaty signed at the end of 1921 between the proposed Irish Free State and Britain, that allowed for international recognition of the new Irish state.During the 1922-23 Irish Civil War Irish prime minister W. T. Cosgrave asked the Holy See to recall its peace envoy, Monsignor Luzio, from "blundering around Ireland" and deplored that Luzio had met "with some of the persons in armed revolt against this Government and indeed against the social and moral order."