Killings on the loyalist side were largely carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), allegedly with the aid of the RIC and especially the auxiliary police force, the Ulster Special Constabulary or "B-Specials". Citation information By the time of the truce, however, many republican leaders, including Michael Collins, were convinced that if the war went on for much longer, there was a chance that the IRA campaign as it was then organised could be brought to a standstill. [71] Rates were still paid to local councils but nine out of eleven of these were controlled by Sinn Féin, who naturally refused to pass them on to the British government. Hopkinson, Irish War of Independence, p. 26. [64], The IRA's main target throughout the conflict was the mainly Irish Catholic Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), the British government's police in Ireland, outside Dublin. On 19 June a week of inter-sectarian rioting and sniping started in Derry, resulting in 18 deaths. In the December 1918 election, republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland. Their policy is not so much to attack the Government as to ignore it and to build up a new government by its side. In April 1916, Irish republicans launched the Easter Rising against British rule and proclaimed an Irish Republic. Religion has hugely affected Irish history. 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. The RIC withdrew from much of the countryside, leaving it in the hands of the IRA. [88] Shortly afterwards, in January 1921, "official reprisals" were sanctioned by the British and they began with the burning of seven houses in Midleton, County Cork. A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes… However, by July 1921, most IRA units were chronically short of both weapons and ammunition, with over 3,000 prisoners interned. It represents a hard-fought freedom that was well deserved. More importantly, the British government was facing severe criticism at home and abroad for the actions of British forces in Ireland. 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. The insurgents issued the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, proclaiming Ireland's independence as a republic. An even larger amount, totalling over $5 million, was raised in the United States by Irish Americans and sent to Ireland to finance the Republic. May saw 75 people killed in Belfast and another 30 died there in June. Most of it was in the city of Belfast, which saw "savage and unprecedented" communal violence between Protestants and Catholics. 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. This website on Northern Ireland and the Troubles is created and maintained by Alpha History. The Irish War of Independence came to a halt on July 11, 1921 when a ceasefire was agreed upon by both sides. The original Irish Republican Army (often now referred to as the "old IRA") was raised in 1917 from members of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, later reinforced by Irishmen (formerly in the British Army in World War I) who returned to Ireland to fight against Britain in the Irish War of Independence. The conflict in north-east Ulster had a sectarian aspect. The Irish struggle for power revolved around two major events: The Easter Rising of 1916 and the Revolution of 1919. The Special Constabulary (set up in September 1920), was largely recruited from Ulster Volunteer Force and Orange Lodges and, in the words of historian Michael Hopkinson, "amounted to an officially approved UVF". Hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of damage was caused. In April the Dail Eireann elected Eamon de Valera, a veteran of the Easter Rising, as president of this fledgeling republic. The total number killed in the guerrilla war of 1919-21 between Republicans and British forces in what became the Irish Free State came to over 3,400. [124] There was rioting, gun battles and bombings. Given significant authority, but lacking a firm command structure, the Black and Tans often acted independently and employed methods not sanctioned by the British government. More than 500 were killed[125] and more than 10,000 became refugees, most of them Catholics. The war of independence in Ireland ended with a truce on 11 July 1921. 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