[7][8][9] The conflict also involved civil disobedience, notably the refusal of Irish railwaymen to transport British forces or military supplies. Ireland is a place with a lot of history of fighting for independence. Blackleg train drivers were brought over from England, after drivers refused to carry British troops. Over the next two days (14–15 May), the IRA killed fifteen policemen. This is widely regarded as the beginning of the War of Independence. Often, the RIC were reduced to buying food at gunpoint, as shops and other businesses refused to deal with them. The second-ever Dáil of Ireland, having won their independence from the British, voted narrowly to accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty which would see the creation of the Irish Free State. The Black and Tans, so called for the non-matching uniforms they were issued in 1920, became notorious for their poor conduct and arbitrary use of violence in Ireland. Several IRA members acting independently at Soloheadbeg, in County Tipperary, led by Seán Treacy and Dan Breen, attacked and shot two Royal Irish Const… The political beneficiary of this tumultuous period was Sinn Fein. "It was not merely (or even mainly) a matter of espionage, spies and spy hunters, it was a civil war between and within communities". The treaty provided for a self-governing Irish state in 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties, having its own army and police. Equally common, however, were failed ambushes, the worst of which, for example at Mourneabbey,[citation needed] Upton and Clonmult in Cork in February 1921, saw six, three, and twelve IRA men killed respectively and more captured. In fact the divide between the two armed groups at the time, The Ulster Volunteers and the Irish Volunteers was that one was Catholic while the other was Protestant. About 300 people had been killed by late 1920, but the conflict escalated in November. The Irish Civil War (June 28th 1922 –May 24th 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an […] Date accessed: January 23, 2021 Of these, 363 were police personnel, 261 were from the regular British Army, about 550 were IRA volunteers (including … In 1919 they renamed themselves the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which really signalled the start of a new phase in their history. Craig proposed a compromise settlement based on the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, with limited independence for the South and autonomy for the North within a Home Rule context. The RIC withdrew from much of the countryside, leaving it in the hands of the IRA. In this way, 20 people died in street fighting and assassinations in north and west Belfast over 29 August to 1 September 1921 and another 30 from 21 to 25 November. In the December 1918 election, republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland. In 1919, a war began against the British forces in Ireland. While it was not clear in the beginning of 1919 that the Dáil ever intended to gain independence by military means, and war was not explicitly threatened in Sinn Féin’s 1918 manifesto, an incident occurred on 21 January 1919, the same day as the First Dáil convened. Treacy had stated to me that the only way of starting a war was to kill someone, and we wanted to start a war, so we intended to kill some of the police whom we looked upon as the foremost and most important branch of the enemy forces. Their fight for independence has caused several wars, including the Irish Civil War in 1922-23. [143] The cycle of sectarian atrocities against civilians however continued into June 1922. [93] Later that day two republican prisoners, Dick McKee, Peadar Clancy and an unassociated friend, Conor Clune who had been arrested with them, were killed in Dublin Castle. [164], In May 1922 the British Government with the agreement of the Irish Provisional Government established a commission chaired by Lord Shaw of Dunfermline to examine compensation claims for material damage caused between 21 January 1919 and 11 July 1921. On April 23… [112] In April 1922, in the Dunmanway killings, an IRA party in Cork killed 10 local suspected Protestant informers in retaliation for the shooting of one of their men. British journalist Robert Lynd wrote in The Daily News in July 1920 that: So far as the mass of people are concerned, the policy of the day is not active but a passive policy. The Act caused another upsurge of violence - Britain's Irish policy had essentially failed. In previous months, the British government had received much criticism at home and abroad for the actions of the British forces in Ireland, and additionally, the cost of the war … 5. Much of the IRA's popularity arose from the excessive reaction of the British forces to IRA activity. Its conflicts were shaped by sectarianism and retaliatory violence between the IRA, the RIC and the notorious Black and Tans (British army veterans recruited to serve in Ireland in support of the RIC). The tactics of the Republican movement between 1919 & 1921 were: In April 1918, the British Cabinet, in the face of the crisis caused by the German Spring Offensive, attempted with a dual policy to simultaneously link the enactment of conscription into Ireland with the implementation of Home Rule, as outlined in the report of the Irish Convention of 8 April 1918. [166] Originally, the British government paid claims from unionists and the Irish government those from nationalists; claims from "neutral" parties were shared. of the Irish War of Independence, the British government refused to recognise the Irish Republic or to admit that a state of war existed between this republic and the UK. The withdrawal of British troops from Ireland was temporarily suspended as a result of this event. Previously a fringe group with unclear aims, Sinn Fein emerged from the Easter Rising and the anti-conscription campaign as a political party committed an independent Irish republic. According to historian Michael Hopkinson, the guerrilla warfare, "was often courageous and effective" (Hopkinson. Because of this, plans were drawn up to "bring the war to England". Three Special Constables were also killed in the shootings.[145]. [160], Similarly in recent decades, attention has been drawn to the IRA's shooting of civilian informers in the south. Finally on 17 December 1922 The Royal Barracks (now housing collections of the National Museum of Ireland) was transferred to General Richard Mulcahy and the garrison embarked at Dublin Port that evening. Irish republicans were only one of many groups in Britain seeking radical change in a Europe in upheaval as a result of the First World War. This war took place from 1919-1921 and is a very much overlooked event in history. Irish War of Independence 1919-1921 From the Declaration of Independence issued by the Dáil on 21st January 1919, the Republican movement was now in open defiance of British control over Ireland. [74], The Inland Revenue ceased to operate in most of Ireland. Austen Chamberlain, the new leader of the Unionist Party, said that "the King's Speech ought to be followed up as a last attempt at peace before we go the full lengths of martial law". The last survivor of the conflict, Dan Keating (of the IRA), died in October 2007 at the age of 105. Formed from the Irish Volunteers and other groups, the Irish Republican Army became Dail Eireann’s military wing, launching attacks on the police and British targets. [96], Attempts at a truce in December 1920 were scuppered by Hamar Greenwood, who insisted on a surrender of IRA weapons first. Free State troops man the new Irish border in 1925. The IRA unit's leader was shot dead and a gun battle broke out, in which four Special Constables were killed. The Irish War of Independence was a guerrilla conflict between the British state and its forces in Ireland and Irish republican guerrillas in the Irish Volunteers or Irish Republican Army. The British government bolstered the RIC with recruits from Britain—the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries—who became notorious for ill-discipline and reprisal attacks on civilians,[5] some of which were authorised by the British government. Sinn Fein MPs met in Dublin in January 1919 and set up the Dail Eireann (Irish parliament). However, it did not, as is sometimes claimed, cripple the IRA in Dublin. It was unnecessary in that the democratic wishes of the Irish people should have been adhered to… In the general election of December 1918, some 72 per cent of the population of Ireland voted for independence – but democracy was again denied. [139], In May and June 1922, Collins launched a guerrilla IRA offensive against Northern Ireland. The IRA attacked and shot two RIC officers, Constables James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell,[49] who were escorting explosives. 4. [38] Many of the National Volunteers did enlist, and the majority of the men in the 16th (Irish) Division of the British Army had formerly served in the National Volunteers. [159], Irish nationalists have argued that this northern violence represented a pogrom against their community as 58% of the victims were Catholics, even though Catholics were only around 35% of the population. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) wanted to force the British out of Ireland. It also allowed Northern Ireland the option of remaining outside of the Free State, which it unsurprisingly chose to do. Between December 1921 and February of the next year, there were 80 recorded attacks by the IRA on the soon to be disbanded RIC, leaving 12 dead. It began because of the 1916 Easter Rising. A ceasefire (or 'truce') began on 11 July 1921. These Ulster Unionists wanted to maintain ties to Britain and did not want to be part of an independent Ireland. The years between the Easter Rising of 1916 and the beginning of the War of Independence in 1919 were not bloodless. [102] On 1 February, the first execution under martial law of an IRA man took place: Cornelius Murphy, of Millstreet in County Cork, was shot in Cork City. Like all guerrilla wars, the Irish War of Independence was characterised by great courage and ruthless brutality. [171] In 1914, the all-female paramilitary group Cumann na mBan was launched as an auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers. [34] Until March 1920, London regarded the unrest in Ireland as primarily an issue for the police and did not regard it as a war. This war was called the War of Independence. Sinn Fein leaders in the new Republican government worked hard through 1919 to bring the IRA under its control. After their deployment in March 1920, they rapidly gained a reputation for drunkenness and poor discipline. Their deaths are a reminder that the War of Independence was itself a civil war between those sworn to uphold British rule in Ireland and those sworn to overthrow it. The Dáil reaffirmed the 1916 Proclamation with the Irish Declaration of Independence,[28] and issued a Message to the Free Nations of the World, which stated that there was an "existing state of war, between Ireland and England". [107] It was decided that key economic targets, such as the Liverpool docks, would be bombed. It also broke the Oath of Allegiance to the Irish Republic which the Dáil had instated on 20 August 1919. [40] The IRA distrusted those Irishmen who had fought in the British Army during the First World War, but there were a number of exceptions such as Emmet Dalton, Tom Barry and Martin Doyle. [87], On 10 December 1920, martial law was proclaimed in Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary in Munster; in January 1921 martial law was extended to the rest of Munster in Counties Clare and Waterford, as well as counties Kilkenny and Wexford in Leinster. The IRA did take the campaign to the streets of Glasgow. The insurgents issued the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, proclaiming Ireland's independence as a republic. [32], The two main police forces in Ireland were the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Much of the fighting took place in Munster (particularly County Cork), Dublin and Belfast, which together saw over 75 percent of the conflict deaths.[10]. Joseph McKenna. It was printed secretly and distributed throughout Ireland, and to international press agencies and US, European and sympathetic British politicians. The British government attempted to solve this with the Government of Ireland Act 1920. 112–113. In part, this reflected Michael Collins' view that the Treaty was a tactical move, or "stepping stone", rather than a final settlement. They smuggled guns, ammunition, and money to the IRA, such as Kathleen Clarke, who reported "smuggling £2,000 of gold from Limerick city to Dublin for IRA leader Michael Collins". [165] The Irish Free State's Damage To Property (Compensation) Act, 1923 provided that only the Shaw Commission, and not the Criminal Injury Acts, could be used to claim compensation. A majority[citation needed] of the pre-Truce IRA who had fought in the War of Independence, led by Liam Lynch, refused to accept the Treaty and in March 1922 repudiated the authority of the Dáil and the new Free State government, which it accused of betraying the ideal of the Irish Republic. [41] There were also raids for arms by the Volunteers,[42] at least one shooting of a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) policeman and the burning of an RIC barracks in Kerry. While Ireland as a whole had an Irish nationalist and Catholic majority, Unionists and Protestants were a majority in the north-east, largely due to 17th century British colonization. The Bishop of Kilmore, Dr. Finnegan, said: "Any war... to be just and lawful must be backed by a well grounded hope of success. In early April 1920, 400 abandoned RIC barracks were burned to the ground to prevent them being used again, along with almost one hundred income tax offices. The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.. [146] The event helped to trigger the Irish Civil War. For more information, visit Alpha History or our Terms of Use. [130] On 17 July 1920, a British Colonel Gerald Smyth was assassinated by the IRA in the County Club in Cork city in response to a speech that was made to police officers of Listowel who had refused orders to move into the more urban areas, in which he stated "you may make mistakes occasionally, and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped. It is estimated that fewer than 50 women were imprisoned by the British during the war.[174]. Protestant loyalists attacked the Catholic community in reprisal for IRA actions. Faced with the endorsement of them by Smuts, the King and the Prime Minister, ministers reluctantly agreed to the King's planned 'reconciliation in Ireland' speech. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) wanted to force the British out of Ireland. It began because of the 1916 Easter Rising. James Craig, for instance, wrote in 1920: The Loyalist rank and file have determined to take action... they now feel the situation is so desperate that unless the Government will take immediate action, it may be advisable for them to see what steps can be taken towards a system of 'organised' reprisals against the rebels.[129]. [157] A number of these are buried in the Grangegorman Military Cemetery. In 1916, the IRA invaded Dublin (Ireland's capital), and declared Ireland independent, in what was known as the Easter Rising. On 19 June a week of inter-sectarian rioting and sniping started in Derry, resulting in 18 deaths. Date published: August 14, 2018 Symbolically, this was intended to show that British rule in Ireland was untenable. In 1925, a boundary commission that had been expected to cede large parts of Northern Ireland to the Irish … The attacks brought a British military presence from the summer of 1918, which only briefly quelled the violence, and an increase in police raids. Collins' Squad began killing RIC intelligence officers in July 1919. In April 1916, Irish republicans launched the Easter Rising against British rule and proclaimed an Irish Republic. Since the 1920 local elections in Ireland had resulted in outright nationalist majorities in County Fermanagh, County Tyrone, the City of Derry and in many District Electoral Divisions of County Armagh and County Londonderry (all north and west of the "interim" border), this might well have left Northern Ireland unviable. The conflict in Northern Ireland was generally referred to in Ireland during its course as ‘The Troubles’ – a euphemistic folk name that had also been applied to earlier bouts of political violence. A week later, the IRA killed seventeen Auxiliaries in the Kilmichael Ambush in County Cork. [123] Those on the Catholic/nationalist side were mostly Hibernians, rather than the IRA. Most of it was in the city of Belfast, which saw "savage and unprecedented" communal violence between Protestants and Catholics. Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 While the Irish Nationalists were united during the Irish War of Independence, the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty split the party in two. Fringe organisations, such as Arthur Griffith's Sinn Féin, instead argued for some form of Irish independence, but they were in a small minority. THE CAUSES OF THE IRISH CIVIL WAR The Treaty 1. Collins' charisma and organisational capability galvanised many who came in contact with him. Some of the arms sent by the British to arm the new Irish Army were in fact given to IRA units and their weapons sent to the North. After Sinn Fein’s victory in the December 1918 Westminster elections, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) started a guerilla war where local battalions of … Similarly, in May 1920, Dublin dockers refused to handle any war matériel and were soon joined by the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, who banned railway drivers from carrying members of the British forces. It also united Ireland’s disparate Nationalist groups. Deployed to Ireland in March 1920, most came from English and Scottish cities. In addition, 4,500 IRA personnel (or suspected sympathisers) were interned in this time. People were instead encouraged to subscribe to Collins' "National Loan", set up to raise funds for the young government and its army. It was one of the most significant events in Irish history, and a major step towards it finally gaining status as an independent republic. [78] In March 1920, Tomás Mac Curtain, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, was shot dead in front of his wife at his home, by men with blackened faces who were seen returning to the local police barracks. Between 1 November 1920 and 7 June 1921 twenty-four men were executed by the British. On 21 January 1919, the IRA shot dead 2 Irish policemen in county Tipperary, and this marked the beginning of what is now known as the War of Independence. Breen later recalled: ...we took the action deliberately, having thought over the matter and talked it over between us. [citation needed] Such action was largely condoned by the unionist leadership and abetted by state forces. [30] Ireland was divided into three military districts. The units charged with these missions would more easily evade capture because England was not under, and British public opinion was unlikely to accept, martial law. Nor did attacks on the RIC or British Army cease altogether. This paper will discuss the events of the Irish War of Independence which was caused by British imperial rule over the island. While officially they were part of the RIC, in reality they were a paramilitary force. Dan Breen, who took part in the attack, later explained: “The only way to start a war was to kill someone, and we wanted to start a war.” Parkinson, Timeline of the Irish War of Independence, Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Black and Tan War – Nine Fascinating Facts About the Bloody Fight for Irish Independence", "Michael Collins: A Man Against an Empire – HistoryNet", "Eunan O'Halpin on the Dead of the Irish Revolution", Multitext Project in Irish History John Redmond, "Election 1918 – what you need to know about how Ireland voted", "Fintan O'Toole: The 1918 election was an amazing moment for Ireland", "The End of the British Empire in Ireland", "BBC – The Irish Volunteer Force/Irish Republican Army", "Taoiseach Jack Lynch meets Old IRA War of Independence veterans at the unveiling of a memorial plaque at Beal na Ghleanna, Co. Cork", Dáil Éireann – Volume 1 – 25 January 1921, https://www.rte.ie/history/first-dail/2019/1113/1090422-funding-the-revolution-how-the-first-dail-was-financed/, Irish Self-Determination League of Great Britain, 1919–24, "Commemoration: Nationalism, empire and memory: the Connaught Rangers mutiny, June 1920", "The Irish War of Independence – A Brief Overview", "Today in Irish History – The First Dáil meets and the Soloheadbeg Ambush – 21 January 1919", Irish Rebury 10 Republicans Hanged by British in 1920s, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/battle-of-rottenrow-960788, Negotiations June–September 1921. This name had the advantage that it did not attach blame to any of the participants and thus could be used neutrally. In 1919 they renamed themselves the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which really signalled the start of a new phase in their history. 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