 In retaliation the anti-Treaty IRA men abducted J.J. "Ginger" O'Connell, a Free State general and held him in the Four Courts.These two developments led to the Provisional Government's 27 June 1922 order serving notice on the Four Courts garrison to surrender the building, their arms and release O'Connell, that night or face military action "at once".According to historian Charles Townsend, 'Collins must have consented to this though the actual decision seems to have been taken by Griffith'.