The Irish Independence War (Ireland: Cogadh na Saoirse ) or Anglo-Irish War is a guerrilla war that lasted from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, Irish Republican Army) and British security forces in Ireland. It was the escalation of Ireland's revolutionary period into war.
In April 1916, Irish republics launched an armed rebellion against British rule and proclaimed the Republic of Ireland. Despite being destroyed after a week of fighting, an increasing response and England led to greater popular support for Irish independence. In the December 1918 election, the republican party Sinn FÃÆ'Â © won a landslide victory in Ireland. On January 21, 1919 they formed a breakaway government (DÃÆ'¡il ÃÆ'â € ireann) and declared independence from Britain. Later that day, two members of the British-organized armed police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), were shot dead in County Tipperary by IRA members acting on their own initiative. This is often seen as the beginning of the conflict. For much of 1919, IRA activities involved the taking of arms and liberating republican prisoners. In September, the British government banned DÃÆ'¡il and Sinn FÃÆ'Â © in and the conflict escalated. The IRA began ambushing the RIC and British Army patrols, attacking their barracks and forcing isolated barracks to be abandoned. The British government supports the RIC with recruits from Britain - Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries - who became notorious for their nasty attacks and retaliation against civilians. Conflict as a result is often referred to as "Black and Tan War" or simply "War Tan".
While about 300 people died in the conflict until the end of 1920, there was an increase in violence in November. On Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, fourteen British intelligence agents were assassinated in Dublin in the morning; later in the afternoon the RIC fired a crowd at a Gaelic football game in town, killing fourteen civilians and wounding 65. A week later, seventeen Auxiliaries were killed by the IRA in Kilmichael Ambush in County Cork. The British government declared martial law in much of southern Ireland. Cork city center was burned by British troops in December 1920. Violence continued to increase for the next seven months, when 1,000 people were killed and 4,500 republicans were interned. Most of the fighting took place in Munster (mainly County Cork), Dublin and Belfast, which together saw more than 75 percent of deaths from the conflict. The violence in Ulster, especially Belfast, is noted for its sectarian character and the high number of Catholic civilian casualties.
Both sides approved a ceasefire (or 'truce') on July 11, 1921. In May, Ireland was partitioned under British law by the Irish Government Act, which created Northern Ireland. The post-cease-fire negotiations led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. It ended the British rule in much of Ireland and, after a ten-month transition period overseen by the interim government, the Irish Free State was created as self-governing government on December 6, 1922 Northern Ireland remains in the United Kingdom. After the ceasefire, political and sectarian violence between the republican (usually Catholic) and loyalists (usually Protestants) continued in Northern Ireland for months. In June 1922, a dispute between the republicans over the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to an Irish Civil War that lasted for eleven months. The Irish Free Country awarded 62,868 medals for service during the War of Independence, of which 15,244 were issued to IRA fighters from the flying columns.
Video Irish War of Independence
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Home Rule Crisis
Since the 1880s, Irish nationalists in the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) have demanded the Home Rule, or self-government, of England. Fringe organizations, such as Arthur Griffith's Sinn FÃÆ' Â © in, are even debating some form of Irish independence, but they are in a small minority.
Demand for the Home Rule was finally granted by the British Government in 1912, promptly pushing for a prolonged crisis in Britain as members of the Ulster union formed an armed organization - Ulster Volunteers (UVF) - to deny the size of this devolution, at least in areas they could control. In turn, the nationalists formed their own paramilitary organization, the Irish Volunteers.
The British Parliament passed the Third House Rules Act on September 18, 1914 with a bill that changed the bill for the Irish partition introduced by Ulster Unionist lawmakers, but the implementation of the Act was soon postponed by the Suspensory Act 1914 due to the outbreak of the First World War in the previous month. The majority of nationalists follow their IPP leaders and call John Redmond to support British and Allied war efforts in the Irish regiment of the New British Army, the intent is to ensure the start of the Home Rule after the war. But a significant minority of Irish Volunteers opposed Irish involvement in the war. The Volunteer Movement was divided, the majority left to form National Volunteers under Redmond. The remaining Irish volunteers, under Eoin MacNeill, declare that they will retain their organization until the Home Rule has been awarded. In this Volunteer movement, another faction, led by the separatist Republican Brother, began to prepare for a rebellion against the British rule in Ireland.
Easter Rising
The revolt plan was embodied in the Easter Rising of 1916, in which the Volunteers launched an insurrection whose purpose was to end British rule. The rebels issued the Republic of Ireland Proclamation, proclaiming Irish independence as a republic. The Rising, in which over four hundred people died, was almost exclusively locked in Dublin and dismissed within a week, but the British response, executing rebel leaders and capturing thousands of nationalist activists, garnered support for Sinn Fa separatists. Â © inÃ, - the party that was first adopted by the republicans and later took over as well as followers of Countess Markievicz, the female lead of Easter Rising. Currently, support for British war effort is diminishing, and Irish public opinion is shocked and angered by some of the actions taken by British troops, in particular the murder of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and the imposition of martial law.
First DÃÆ'¡il
In April 1918, the British Cabinet, in the face of the crisis caused by the German Spring Attack, attempted a double policy of simultaneously linking the enactment of conscription to Ireland with the adoption of the House Regulations, as described in the Irish report of the April 8, 1918 Convention. Irish nationalists and produced mass demonstrations during the 1918 Concession Crisis. In 1918 the Irish electoral elections showed their disagreement with British policy by granting Sinn FÃÆ'Â © Â in 70% (73 seats of 105,) of Irish seats, 25 of which were undisputed. Sinn FÃÆ'Â © won 91% of seats outside Ulster with 46.9% of the votes, but in minorities in Ulster, where unions are in the majority. Sinn FÃÆ' Â © promised not to sit in the British Parliament in Westminster, but prefer to form the Irish Parliament. This parliament, known as the First DÃ © dil, and his ministry, called Aireacht, consisting only of Sinn FÃÆ' Â © in a member, met at the House House on 21 January 1919. DÃÆ'¡il reaffirmed the 1916 Proclamation with the Irish Declaration of Independence, and issued a Message to the Free Nations of the World, stating that there was "a state of war that existed, between Ireland and England". Irish volunteers are re-established as "Irish Republican Army" or IRA. IRA is considered by some members DÃÆ'¡il ÃÆ'â € ireann has a mandate to wage war against the administration of the Dublin Castle of England.
Maps Irish War of Independence
Troop
English
The heart of British rule in Ireland is the administration of the Castle of Dublin, which is often known by the Irish as the "Palace". The chief of the administration of the Palace was Lord Lieutenant, to whom a Chief Secretary was responsible, leading - in the words of the English historian Peter Cottrell - to "a government well known for its inability and inefficiency". Ireland is divided into three military districts. During the war, two British divisions, the fifth and sixth, were based in Ireland with their headquarters at Curragh and Cork. In July 1921 there were 50,000 British troops based in Ireland; otherwise there are 14,000 troops in the metropolitan UK. The two main police forces in Ireland are the Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Of the 17,000 police in Ireland, 513 were killed by IRA between 1919-21 while 682 were wounded. Of the senior officers of R.I.C, 60% are Irish Protestants and are Catholic while 70% of the rank and file R.I.C is Irish Catholic with the rest Protestant. RIC is trained for police work, not war, and very unprepared for counter-insurgency work. Until March 1920, London regarded unrest in Ireland as a major problem for the police and did not consider it a war. The purpose of the Army is to support the police. During the war, about a quarter of Ireland was under martial law, mostly in Munster; throughout the country, British authorities are not considered threatened enough to guarantee it. During the war, the British created two paramilitary police forces to complete the RIC work, recruited mostly from World War I veterans, Temporary Police (better known as "Black and Tans") and Temporary Cadets or Divisions (known as "Auxies").
Irish Republican
On November 25, 1913, the Irish Volunteers were formed by Eoin MacNeill in response to the Ulster Volunteer Force Paramilitary which had been established earlier in the year against the Home Rule. Also in 1913, the Irish Citizen Army was founded by unions and socialists James Larkin and James Connolly following a series of violent incidents between union members and Dublin police in Dublin. In June 1914, Nationalist leader John Redmond forced the volunteers to give his majority nomination to the ruling committee. When, in September 1914, Redmond encouraged volunteers to enlist in the British Army, a faction led by Eoin MacNeill severed ties with the Redmondites, later known as the National Volunteers, instead of fighting for Britain in war. Many of the National Volunteers registered, and the majority of people in the 16th Division (Ireland) of the British Army had previously served in the National Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army launched Easter Rising against British rule in 1916, when the Republic of Ireland was proclaimed. After that they are known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Between 1919-21 the IRA claims to have a total power of 70,000, but only about 3,000 are actively involved in the battle against the Crown. The IRA did not trust the Irishmen who 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. The basic structure of an IRA is a "flying column" that can amount to between 20 and 100 people. Finally, Michael Collins creates "Troops" - self-responsible armed men assigned to specific tasks such as police killing and informers suspected in the IRA.
The course of the war
Prewar violence
The years between the Easter Rising of 1916 and the beginning of the War of Independence in 1919 did not bleed. Thomas Ashe, one of the volunteer leaders imprisoned for his role in the 1916 uprising, died of a hunger strike, after attempting to coerce food in 1917. In 1918, during interruptions arising from an anti-conscription campaign, six civilians were killed confrontation with police and British troops and more than 1,000 people arrested. The Day of Armistice was marked by a major riot in Dublin, which killed more than 100 British troops. There are also raids for weapons by Volunteers, at least one Royal Constabulary police shoot (RIC) and burning RIC barracks in Kerry. In Co Cork, four rifles were seized from Tree barracks in March 1918 and people from the barracks were beaten in August. In early July 1918, Volunteers ambushed two RICs who had been stationed to stop a feis held on the road between Ballingeary and Ballyvourney in the first armed attack on the RIC since Easter Rising - one shot in the neck, the other beaten, and the police and ammunition carbines confiscated. Patrols in Bantry and Ballyvourney were beaten in September and October. The attack brought the British military presence from the summer of 1918, which only briefly quelled the violence, and increased police raids. However, there has been no coordinated armed campaign against British or RIC forces.
Initial hostility
Although it was not clear at the beginning of 1919 that DÃÆ'¡il once intended to gain independence by military means, and war was not explicitly threatened in the manifesto Sinn FÃÆ'Â © in 1918, an incident occurred on January 21, 1919, the same day as DÃÆ'¡il First meeting. The Soloheadbeg Ambush, in County Tipperary, is led by SeÃÆ'¡n Treacy, SÃÆ' Â © amus Robinson, SeÃÆ'¡n Hogan and Dan Breen acting on their own initiative. The IRA attacked and shot two RIC officers, Constable James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell, who escorted the explosives. Breen then called back:
... we took deliberate action, after thinking about it and talking about it between us. Treacy has told me that the only way to start a war is to kill someone, and we want to start a war, so we intend to kill some of the policemen we see as the most important and most important branch of the enemy.. The only regret we had after the ambush was that there were only two policemen in it, not the six that we suspected.
This is widely regarded as the beginning of the War of Independence. The British Government declared Tipperary South as a Special Military Area under the Defense Realm Act two days later. The war was not officially declared by DÃÆ'¡il to the conflict, however. On April 10, 1919, DÃÆ'¡il was notified:
Regarding Republican prisoners, we must always remember that this country is at war with the British and so we must regard them as the necessary sacrifices in the great battle.
In January 1921, two years after the war began, DÃÆ''il argued "whether it is appropriate to formally accept a state of war that is being pushed on them, or not," and decides not to declare war. Then on March 11, DÃÆ'¡il ÃÆ' â € ° ireann President ÃÆ' â € ° amon de Valera officially 'accepts' the existence of a "war state with England". This delay allows for a balance between military and political realities.
Violence spread
Volunteers began attacking British government property, raided weapons and funds and targeted and killed leading members of the British government. The first is Resident Magistrate John C. Milling, who was shot dead in Westport, County Mayo, for sending volunteers to jail for assembling and drilling in violation of the law. They mimic the successful tactics of Boer's rapid raids without uniforms. Although some republican leaders, especially ÃÆ'â € amon de Valera, favor the classic conventional warfare to legitimize the new republic in the eyes of the world, the more practiced Michael Collins and the broader IRA leadership are opposed to this tactic as they have led to the military. © bacle of 1916. Others, especially Arthur Griffith, prefer civil civil disobedience campaigns rather than armed struggles. The violence used initially was very unpopular among the Irish and a strong British response was needed to popularize it in most of the population.
During the early part of the conflict, from about 1919 to mid-1920, there was a relatively limited amount of violence. Many of the nationalist campaigns that involve the mobilization of the people and the creation of the "state" of the republic within a country "are contrary to British rule.Journalist Robert Lynd wrote in The Daily News in July 1920 that:
As far as the masses are concerned, today's policies are inactive but passive policies. Their policy is not so much to attack the Government so ignore it and build a new government on its side.
The main IRA targets during the conflict were mostly Irish Irish Irish Constabulary (RIC), British government police in Ireland, outside Dublin. Its members and barracks (especially the more isolated ones) are vulnerable, and they are a much-needed source of weapons. RIC numbered 9,700 people stationed in 1,500 barracks across Ireland.
The RIC men's excommunication policy was announced by DÃÆ'¡il on April 11, 1919. It proved successful in disrupting troops as the war continued, as people shifted their faces from forces increasingly compromised by relations with British government repression. The rate of resignation increased and recruitment in Ireland dropped dramatically. Often, RIC is reduced to buying food at gunpoint, because other shops and businesses refuse to deal with them. Some RIC men work with IRAs through fear or sympathy, providing organizations with valuable information. Contrary to the effectiveness of the widespread public boycott of the police, the IRA's current military action against the RIC is relatively limited. In 1919, 11 RIC men and 4 detectives of the Metropolitan Metropolitan Metropolitan Police Division of Dublin were killed and another 20 were injured.
Other aspects of mass participation in the conflict include strikes by organized workers, contrary to the UK presence in Ireland. In Limerick in April 1919, the general strike was called by the Trade and Labor Council of Limerick, in protest against the declaration of "Special Military Area" under the Defense of the Realm Act, covering most of the city of Limerick and parts of the region. Special permission, to be issued by RIC, will now be required to enter the city. The Trades Council Special Strikes Committee controlled the city for fourteen days in an episode known as Limerick Soviet.
Similarly, in May 1920, Dublin's dockers refused to deal with the war dimensions and soon joined the Irish Workers and Public Association, which prohibited rail drivers from bringing in British troops. Blackleg train driver brought from England, after the drivers refused to bring British troops. The attack greatly hampered the movement of British troops until December 1920, when it was canceled. The British government managed to end the situation, when they threatened to withhold grants from the railway company, which meant that the workers would not be paid anymore. The attacks by the IRA also continued to rise, and in the early 1920s, they attacked isolated RIC stations in rural areas, causing them to be abandoned as the police withdrew to the big cities.
The collapse of the English administration
In early April 1920, 400 people abandoned burned RIC barracks to the ground to prevent them being used again, along with nearly a hundred income tax offices. RIC resigned from many rural areas, leaving it in the hands of the IRA. In June-July 1920, the evidence failed throughout southern and western Ireland; trial by jury can not be held because the jury will not attend. The collapse of the court system demoralized the RIC and many police resigned or retired. The Irish Republic Police (IRP) was established between April and June 1920, under the authority of DÃÆ'¡il ÃÆ'â € ireann and former IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Brugha to replace the RIC and to enforce the decision of the DÃÆ'¡il Court, established under the Republic of Ireland. In 1920, IRP was present in 21 of the 32 districts of Ireland. The DÃÆ'¡il Courts are generally socially conservative, despite their revolutionary origins, and stop the efforts of some landless farmers in the redistribution of land from rich landowners to poor peasants.
The Inland Revenue stopped operating in most of Ireland. People are instead encouraged to subscribe to Collins's "National Loans", set up to raise funds for the young government and its troops. By the end of the year, the loan has reached £ 358,000. It eventually reached £ 380,000. Larger numbers, totaling over $ 5 million, were raised in the United States by Irish Americans and shipped to Ireland to finance the Republic. Tariffs are still paid to the local council but nine of eleven are controlled by Sinn FÃ © Â © in, which of course refuses to pass it on to the British government. By the middle of 1920, the Republic of Ireland was a reality in the lives of many, upholding its own laws, maintaining its own army and collecting its own taxes. The British Liberal journal, The Nation , wrote in August 1920 that "the main fact of the current situation in Ireland is that the Republic of Ireland exists".
British troops, in an effort to reassert their control over the country, often resort to arbitrary reprisals against republican and civilian activists. An unofficial policy of retaliation began in September 1919 in Fermoy, County Cork, when 200 British soldiers looted and burned down the city's main business, after one of them - a warrior from King's Shropshire Light Infantry who was the first British Army. deaths in the campaign - have been killed in an armed attack by a local IRA at a church parade the day before (September 7). The ambushes were a unit of Gabus Brigade No. 2, under the command of Liam Lynch, who injured four other soldiers and disarmed the rest before fleeing in their car. Local coroner investigations refused to return the verdict of murder of soldiers and local businessmen sitting on the jury to be the target of retaliation.
Arthur Griffith estimates that in the first 18 months of the conflict, British troops undertook 38,720 attacks in private homes, arrested 4,982 suspects, carried 1,604 armed attacks, carried 102 shootings and arson in towns and villages, and killed 77 people including women. and children. In March 1920, TomÃÆ'¡s Mac Curtain, Sinn FÃ © Â © in Lord Mayor of Cork, was shot dead in front of his wife at his home, by black-faced men who were seen returning to the local police barracks. The jury on the hearing of his death returned a deliberate killing ruling against David Lloyd George (British Prime Minister) and District Inspector Swanzy, among others. Swanzy was later tracked down and killed in Lisburn, County Antrim. This pattern of killing and retaliation increased in the second half of 1920 and in 1921.
Organization and operations of the IRA
Michael Collins was the driving force behind the independence movement. In nominally the Minister of Finance in the republican government and the IRA Intelligence Director, he is involved in providing funds and weapons to the IRA unit and in the selection of officers. Charisma and Collins's organizational abilities made many people come in contact with him. He founded what proved to be an effective spy network among members of the sympathetic Dublin Metropolitan Police Division (DMP) G and another important branch of the British government. Gentlemen Division G is a relatively small political division that is active in undermining republican movements and is hated by IRAs as they are often used to identify volunteers, unknown to British soldiers or Black and Tans later. Collins formed the "Squad", a group of people whose main task was to find and kill "G-men" and other British spies and agents. The Collins squad began killing RIC intelligence officers in July 1919. Many G-men were offered the opportunity to resign or leave Ireland by the IRA. One of the escaped spies with his life was F. Digby Hardy, who was exposed by Arthur Griffith before the "IRA" meeting, which actually consisted of Irish and foreign journalists, and was then advised to take the next boat out of Dublin.
The IRA's Chief of Staff is Richard Mulcahy, who is responsible for organizing and directing IRA units across the country. In theory, both Collins and Mulcahy are responsible to Cathal Brugha, Defense Minister DÃÆ'¡il, but, in practice, Brugha has only a supervisory role, recommending or rejecting certain actions. Many also depend on IRA leaders in the local area (such as Liam Lynch, Tom Barry, SeÃÆ'¡n Moylan, SeÃÆ'¡n Mac Eoin and Ernie O'Malley) who organize guerrilla activities, mostly on their own initiative. For most conflicts, IRA activities are concentrated in Munster and Dublin, with only IRA units active elsewhere, such as in County Roscommon, North County Longford and Western County Mayo.
While IRA paper membership, carried over from Irish Volunteers, over 100,000 people, Michael Collins estimates that only 15,000 were active in the IRA during the war, with around 3,000 on active services at all times. There are also support organizations of Cumann na mBan (IRA women's group) and Fianna ÃÆ'â € ireann (youth movement), carrying weapons and intelligence for IRA men and securing food and lodging for them. The IRA benefited from the extensive assistance provided to them by the general Irish population, who generally refused to provide information to the RIC and the British military and who often provided "safe houses" and provisions to the IRA unit "on the run". Most of the popularity of the IRA arose from the overwhelming reaction of British troops to IRA activity. When ÃÆ' â € ° amon de Valera returned from the United States, he demanded in DÃÆ'¡il that the IRA ceased from ambushes and assassinations, allowing the British to describe it as a terrorist group and to take British troops with conventional military methods. The proposal was immediately dismissed.
Emergency law
England increased the use of force; reluctant to deploy regular British Army to the country in greater numbers, they set up two paramilitary police units to assist the RIC. The Black and Tans were seven thousand strong soldiers, mainly ex-British soldiers demobilized after World War I. Deployed to Ireland in March 1920, mostly from British and Scottish cities. Although officially they are part of the RIC, in reality they are paramilitary forces. After their placement in March 1920, they quickly gained a reputation for drunkenness and ill-discipline, which further jeopardized the moral authority of the British government in Ireland than any other group. In response to the IRA's actions, in the summer of 1920, Tans burned and fired small towns throughout Ireland, including Balbriggan, Trim, Templemore, and others.
In July 1920, another semi-military police force, Auxiliaries, made up of 2,215 former British army officers, arrived in Ireland. The Auxiliary Division has a reputation as bad as Tans because of their persecution of civilians but tends to be more effective and more willing to take the IRA. The revenge policy, which involves public rejection or personal rejection and approval, was famous for sakris by Lord Hugh Cecil when he said: "It seems agreed that there is no such thing as retaliation but they have a good effect."
On August 9, 1920, the British Parliament passed the Order Restoration in Irish Law. It replaces trials by juries by military courts by regulations for areas where IRA activities are prevalent. On December 10, 1920, martial law was imposed in County Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary in Munster; in January 1921 martial law legislation extended throughout Munster in County Clare and Waterford, as well as County Kilkenny and Wexford in Leinster. It also suspended all coronary courts because of the large number of warrants granted to members of the British forces and replaced them with "military trials of inquiry". The military-military court's strength is extended to cover the entire population and is empowered to use the death penalty and the internment without trial; Government payments to the local government in Sinn FÃÆ'Â © in suspended hands. This action has been interpreted by historians as an option by Prime Minister David Lloyd George to lay down the insurgency in Ireland rather than negotiating with the republican leadership. As a result, violence increased steadily from that summer and was very sharp after November 1920 to July 1921. (It was during this period that a large-scale rebellion broke out between Connaught Rangers, stationed in India, two killed while trying to storm weapons and one later executed.)
Escalation: October-December 1920
A number of events dramatically increased the conflict in late 1920. First, Cork Mayor Terence MacSwiney died of a hunger strike at Brixton Prison in London in October, while two other IRA prisoners on hunger strike Joe Murphy and Michael Fitzgerald died. in Cork Prison.
Then, on November 21, 1920, there was a dramatic day of bloodshed in Dublin. In the morning, the Collins Squad is trying to destroy British intelligence operations in the capital. The Squad shot 19 people, killing 14 people and injuring 5 people. It consists of British Army officers, police and civilians. The dead included members of the Cairo Gang and military court officers, and were killed in various places around Dublin.
In response, RIC men drove trucks to Croke Park (football GAA Dublin and glacier) during a football game, shooting at the crowd. Fourteen civilians were killed, including one player, Michael Hogan, and 65 others wounded. Later that day two republican prisoners, Dick McKee, Peadar Clancy and an unrelated friend, Conor Clune who had been arrested with them, were killed at Dublin Castle. The official account is that three people were shot "while trying to escape", which was denied by Irish nationalists, who believed people had been tortured and killed. Today known as Bloody Sunday.
On November 28, 1920, just a week after Bloody Sunday in Dublin, the IRA's western Cork unit, under Tom Barry, ambushed a Auxiliaries patrol in Kilmichael in County Cork, killing all but one of 18 patrols.
These actions mark a significant escalation of the conflict. In response, County Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary - all in Munster province - imposed martial law on December 10 under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act; this was followed on January 5th in the rest of Munster and in County Kilkenny and Wexford in Leinster province. Shortly thereafter, in January 1921, "official retaliation" was approved by the British and they started with the burning of seven houses in Midleton in Cork.
On December 11, the center of Cork City was burned by Black and Tans, who then fired on firefighters who tried to overcome the blaze, in retaliation for an IRA ambush in the city on December 11, 1920 that killed one Helper and wounded eleven.
The ceasefire efforts in December 1920 were destroyed by Hamar Greenwood, who insisted on surrendering IRA weapons first.
Top of the violence: December 1920 - July 1921 < h3>During the next eight months until the Armistice of July 1921, there was an increase in the number of deaths in the conflict, with 1,000 people including RIC police, soldiers, IRA volunteers and civilians killed in the months between January and July 1921 alone.. This represents about 70% of the total casualties for all three-year conflicts. In addition, 4,500 IRA personnel (or suspected sympathizers) are currently interned. In the midst of this violence, DÃÆ'¡il officially declared war on England in March 1921.
Between 1 November 1920 and 7 June 1921 twenty-four men were executed by the British. The first IRA volunteer to be executed is Kevin Barry, one of the Ten Forgotten ones buried in unmarked graves on unconclusive lands inside Mountjoy Prison until 2001. On February 1, the first execution under the martial law of an IRA man occurred. Cornelius Murphy of Millstreet, Cork shot in Cork city. On February 28, six more were executed, again in Cork.
On March 19, 1921, 100 units of West Barracks led by Tom Barry against a large-scale action against 1,200 British troops - Crossbarry Ambush. Barry's men were almost spared trapped by deviant English columns causing between ten and thirty people on the British side. Just two days later, on 21 March, Kerry IRA attacked the train at the Headford junction near Killarney. Twenty British soldiers were killed or wounded, as well as two IRAs and three civilians. Most of the action in the war was on a smaller scale than this, but the IRA did have other significant victories in the ambush, for example at Millstreet in Cork and at Scramogue in Roscommon, also in March 1921 and in Tourmakeady and Carowkennedy at Mayo in May and June. Equally common, however, failed ambushes, the worst of which, for example at Upton and Clonmult in Cork in February 1921, saw three and twelve IRAs killing each and more captured. IRAs in Mayo suffered a comparable reversal in Kilmeena, while Leitrim's flying columns were nearly destroyed at Selton Hill. The fear of the informant after the failed ambush often causes a spate of IRA shootings of informers, real and imagined.
The biggest single loss to the IRA, however, came in Dublin. On May 25, 1921, several hundred IRAs from the Dublin Brigade occupied and burned the Custom House (local government center in Ireland) in downtown Dublin. Symbolically, this is meant to show that the British government in Ireland is untenable. However, from a military standpoint, it was a catastrophe in which five IRAs were killed and more than eighty were arrested. This shows that the IRA is not complete enough or trained to confront British troops in a conventional way. However, no, as is sometimes claimed, cripple the IRA in Dublin. The Dublin Brigade conducted 107 attacks on the city in May and 93 in June, showing a decrease in activity, but not dramatic. However, in July 1921, most of the IRA units were chronically deprived of weapons and ammunition, with more than 3,000 interned prisoners. Also, for all their effectiveness in guerrilla warfare, they, as Richard Mulcahy remembers, "have not been able to drive enemies out of anything but a sizeable police barracks".
However, many military historians have concluded that the IRA fought with a very successful and deadly guerrilla war, which forced the British government to conclude that the IRA could not be defeated militarily. The failure of British efforts to lay down guerrillas was illustrated by the "Black Whitsun" event on May 13-15, 1921. Elections for the Southern Ireland Parliament were held on 13 May. Sinn FÃÆ'Ã… © won in 124 of the 128 new parliamentary seats without a fight, but his elected members refused to take their seats. Under the terms of the Irish Government Act of 1920, the Southern Irish Parliament was therefore dissolved, and the executive and legislative authority over Southern Ireland was effectively transferred to Lord Lieutenant (aided by Crown appointment). For the next two days (May 14-15), IRA killed fifteen policemen. These events marked the complete failure of the Irish Government Coalition UK policy - both failures to enforce settlement without negotiating with Sinn FÃ © Ã © and failure to defeat the IRA.
At the time of the ceasefire, however, many republican leaders, including Michael Collins, are convinced that if the war lasts longer, it is likely that the IRA campaign as it is subsequently arranged may be stalled. Therefore, a plan was made to "bring the war to England". The IRA took a campaign into the streets of Glasgow. It was decided that major economic targets, such as the Liverpool dock, would be bombed. The units assigned with this mission will more easily avoid arrest because the UK is not under, and British public opinion is unlikely to accept, martial law. These plans were abandoned because of the ceasefire.
Truce: July-December 1921
The independence war in Ireland ended with a truce on 11 July 1921. The conflict has reached a dead end. The seemingly promising talks of the previous year have eased in December when David Lloyd George insisted that the IRA first surrendered their weapons. The new talks, after the Prime Minister came under pressure from Herbert Henry Asquith and the Liberal opposition, the Labor Party and the Trade Union Congress, resumed in the spring and produced a Ceasefire. From the UK government's point of view, it appears as if the IRA guerrilla campaign will continue indefinitely, at a shaky cost in British casualties and money. More importantly, the British government faces strong criticism at home and abroad over the actions of British troops in Ireland. On June 6, 1921, the British made their first peaceful movement, overturning house-burning policies in retaliation. On the other hand, the IRA leaders and especially Michael Collins, felt that the IRA as it was organized subsequently could not continue indefinitely. It has been hard pressed by the placement of more regular British troops into Ireland and by the lack of weapons and ammunition.
The initial breakthrough that led to the ceasefire was credited to three people: King George V, South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. The King, who had made his unhappiness with the behavior of the famous Irish Blacks and Tans in his government, was dissatisfied with the official speech prepared for him for the opening of the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, created as a result of the Irish partition. Smuts, a close friend of the King, advised him that the opportunity should be used to appeal for conciliation in Ireland. The king asked him to arrange his ideas on paper. Smuts prepares this draft and gives a copy to the King and Lloyd George. Lloyd George then invited the Smuts to attend a British cabinet meeting on an "interesting" proposal that Lloyd George received, without anyone telling the Cabinet that Smuts was their author. Faced with their support by Smuts, King and Prime Minister, the ministers reluctantly agreed to the King's 'reconciliation' speech.
The speech, when delivered in Belfast on June 22, was universally accepted. He asks "all Irish people to stop, to extend the hands of patience and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and to join in making for their land love a new era of peace, satisfaction, and goodwill.
On June 24, 1921, the Cabinet of Government of the British Coalition decided to propose a conversation with the leader Sinn FÃÆ'Â © in. The Liberal Coalition and Unionis agree that an offer to negotiate will strengthen the Government's position if Sinn FÃÆ'Â © rejects. Austen Chamberlain, the new leader of the Unionist Party, said that "The King's speech must be followed up as a last resort for peace before we enforce emergency law". Grabbing momentum, Lloyd George wrote to ÃÆ'â € amon de Valera as "the elected leader of the great majority in Southern Ireland" on 24 June, showing a conference. Sinn FÃÆ'Â © in response by agreeing to the talks. De Valera and Lloyd George eventually agreed on a ceasefire intended to end the battle and lay the groundwork for detailed negotiations. The terms were signed on July 9 and entered into force on July 11. Negotiations on settlement, however, were delayed for several months because the British government insisted that the IRA first disable its weapons, but the request was eventually canceled. It was agreed that the British troops would remain in their barracks.
Most IRA officers in the field interpret the ceasefire as just a temporary pause and continue to recruit and train volunteers. Nor was there an attack on the RIC or the British Army. Between December 1921 and February of the following year, there were 80 attacks recorded by the IRA on RIC immediately disbanded, leaving 12 people dead. On February 18, 1922, the IRA unit Ernie O'Malley raided the RIC barracks in Clonmel, carrying 40 police detainees and seizing more than 600 weapons and thousands of ammunition rounds. In April 1922, in the murder of Dunmanway, an IRA party in Cork killed 10 local informers suspected of Protestant in retaliation for the shooting of one of their men. Those killed were named in a British file taken as an informant before Truss signed in July. More than 100 Protestant families left the area after the killings.
The ongoing resistance of many IRA leaders was one of the major factors in the outbreak of the Irish Civil War when they refused to accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty that had been negotiated by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith with Britain.
Treaty
In the end, the peace talks led to the negotiation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (6 December 1921), which was then ratified in triplicate: by DÃÆ'¡il ÃÆ'â € ireann on January 7, 1922 (thus granting it legitimacy of law under the Republican government system) by the House of Commons of Southern Ireland in January 1922 (thus granting constitutional legitimacy according to British theory of who the legal government is in Ireland), and by both the British House of Parliament.
The agreement allows Northern Ireland, which has been created by the Irish Government Act 1920, to opt out of the Free State if it wishes, which was carried out on December 8, 1922 under the prescribed procedure. As per the agreement, the Irish Border Commission was later made to decide on the exact location of the Free State and Northern Ireland borders. Republican negotiators understand that the Commission will change the borders by nationalist or local union majority. Since 1920 local elections in Ireland have produced an absolute nationalist majority in County Fermanagh, County Tyrone, Derry Town and in many of the District Divisions of Armagh County Elections and County Londonderry (all north and west from the "temporary" border), this may leave Northern Ireland not feasible. However, the Commission chose to leave the border unchanged; as a trade-off, the money paid to England by the Free State under the Treaty is not prosecuted.
A new government system was created for the new Irish Free State, although for the first year, two governments coexist; a Aireacht is responsible to DÃÆ'¡il and headed by President Griffith, and the Provisional Government is nominally accountable to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and appointed by Lord Lieutenant.
Most of the leaders of the Irish independence movement are willing to accept this compromise, at least temporarily, although many militant republicans do not. The majority of the pre-ceasefire IRAs that had fought in the War of Independence, led by Liam Lynch, refused to accept the Treaty and in March 1922 dismissed the authority of DÃÆ'¡il and the new Free State government, alleged to him. betraying the ideals of the Republic of Ireland. It also violated the Oath of Loyalty to the Republic of Ireland which had been imposed by DÃÆ'¡il on 20 August 1919. The anti-treaty IRA was supported by former president of the Republic, ÃÆ'â € amon de Valera, and ministers Cathal Brugha and Austin Pump.
While violence in the North is still raging, Southern Ireland is busy with divisions in DÃÆ'¡il and in the IRA over the agreement. In April 1922, an IRA officer executive rejected the agreement and the Provisional Government authority that had been established to enforce it. These republics argue that DÃÆ'¡il has no right to release the Republic of Ireland. A radical Anti-Agreement IRA group has occupied several public buildings in Dublin in an effort to bring down the treaty and resume the war with Britain. There were a number of armed confrontations between pro and anti-covenant troops before trouble came to a head in late June 1922. Desperate to get a new Irish Free State off the ground and under British pressure, Michael Collins attacked anti-covenant militants in Dublin, causing a battle to break across the country.
The subsequent Irish Civil War lasted until mid-1923 and was detrimental to the lives of many leaders of the independence movement, notably the head of the Provisional Government of Michael Collins, former minister of Cathal Brugha, and anti-tractate republicans Harry Boland, Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Liam Lynch, and many again another: the total victim has never been determined, but may be higher than the one in the previous battle against England. President Arthur Griffith also died of a stroke during the conflict.
Following the deaths of Griffith and Collins, W. T. Cosgrave became head of government. On December 6, 1922, after entering into the existence of Irish Free State law, W. T. Cosgrave became President of the Executive Board, the first internationally recognized head of the first independent Irish government.
The civil war ended in mid-1923 in defeat for the anti-covenant party.
Northeast
In the Irish Government Act 1920 (enacted in December 1920), the British government sought to resolve the conflict by creating two House Rule parliaments in Ireland: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. While DÃÆ'¡il ÃÆ'â € ireann ignores this, assuming the Republic of Ireland already exists, Unionists in the north-east accept it and are ready to form their own government. In this part of Ireland, predominantly Protestant and Unionist, there is, as a result, a pattern of violence very different from other parts of the country. While in the south and west, the conflict between the IRA and British troops, in the northeast and especially in Belfast, has often evolved into a cycle of sectarian killings among Catholics, most of whom are Nationalists, and Protestants, mostly Unionists.
Summer 1920
While IRA attacks are less common in the north-east than elsewhere, the union community sees itself surrounded by armed Catholic nationalists who seem to have taken over the whole of Ireland. As a result, they retaliated against the whole northern Catholic community. Such actions are largely sanctioned by union leadership and supported by state troops. James Craig, for example, wrote in 1920:
The rank and file Loyalists are 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 against the 'organized' system of retaliation against the rebels.
The first attack and retaliation cycle occurred in the summer of 1920. On June 19, a week of sectarian and shooting chaos began in Derry, which led to 18 deaths. On July 17, 1920, a British Colonel Gerald Smyth was killed by the IRA in County Club in Cork city in response to a speech made to police officers from Listowel who refused orders to move to a more urban area, where he stated "You can make mistakes occasionally, and an innocent person may be shot, but it can not help.No policemen will get into trouble for shooting others. " Smyth is from Banbridge, County Down in the northeast and his killings provoke revenge there against Catholics in Banbridge and Dromore. On July 21, 1920, partly in response to the Smyth killing and partly due to competition over jobs due to high unemployment rates, loyalists marched on the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and forced more than 7,000 Catholic and left-wing Protestant workers from their work. Sectarian unrest erupted in response in Belfast and Derry, leaving about 40 people dead and many Catholics and Protestants expelled from their homes. On August 22, 1920, RIC Detective Swanzy was shot dead by Cork IRA man while leaving church in Lisburn, County Antrim. Swanzy has been blamed by the jury checks for the murder of the Mayor of Cork, TomÃÆ'¡s Mac Curtain. In retaliation, local Loyalists set fire to a Catholic residential area in Lisburn - destroying more than 300 homes. While some people were later charged with burning, no apparent effort was made to stop the attack at the time. Michael Collins, acting on the advice of SeÃÆ'¡n MacEntee, organized a boycott of Belfast merchandise in response to an attack on the Catholic community. DÃÆ'¡il approved a partial boycott on 6 August and a more complete one was held in late 1920.
Spring 1921
After a pause in northern violence during the new year, the killing there increased again in the spring of 1921. The northern IRA unit was under pressure from the leadership in Dublin to step up attacks in line with other parts of the country. Predictably, this faithful retaliation is faithful to Catholics. For example, in April 1921, the IRA in Belfast shot dead two Helpers at Donegal Place in downtown Belfast. On the same night, two Catholics were killed on Falls Road. On July 10, 1921, the IRA ambushed the British troops on the Raglan road in Belfast. The following week, sixteen Catholics were killed and 216 Catholic homes burned in retaliation - an event known as the Bloody Day in Belfast.
Loyalist killings are mostly committed by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), allegedly with the help of the RIC and especially the additional police forces, Ulster Special Constabulary or "B-Specials". The Special Constabulary (formed in September 1920), was largely recruited from Ulster Volunteer Force and Orange Lodges and, in the words of historian Michael Hopkinson, "as much as the officially approved UVF". In May, James Craig came to Dublin to meet British Lieutenant from Ireland, Lord FitzAlan, and was smuggled by IRA via Dublin to meet ÃÆ' â € ° amon de Valera. The two leaders discussed the possibility of a truce in Ulster and amnesty for detainees. Craig proposed a compromise settlement under the Irish Government Act, 1920, with limited independence for the South and autonomy for the North in the context of House Rules. However, the talks did not yield anything and the violence in the north continues.
July 1921 - May 1922
While the fighting in the south was largely ended by the Armistice on July 11, 1921, the north of the killing continued and actually increased until the summer of 1922. In Belfast, 16 people were killed within two days of the truce. Violence in the city occurred in an explosion, as attacks on Catholics and Protestants were quickly followed by retaliation in other communities. In this way, 20 people were killed in street fighting and assassinations in north and west Belfast over August 29 to September 1, 1921 and another 30 from Nov 21-25. The loyalists at the time had been taken to shoot and throw bombs randomly into Catholic territory and the IRA responded by bombing the tram that took Protestant workers to their workplace.
In addition, although DÃÆ'¡il accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922, which confirmed the existence of the future of Northern Ireland, there was a clash between the IRA and British troops along the new frontier from early 1922. In part, this reflects Michael Collins's view that the Treaty is a tactical move, or a "stepping stone", not a final settlement. A number of IRA men were arrested in Derry as they traveled there as part of the Monaghan Gaelic soccer team. In retaliation, Michael Collins has forty-two loyalists who were held hostage in Fermanagh and Tyrone. Right after this incident, a group of B-Special was confronted by an IRA unit in the Clones of the South, demanding that they surrender. The IRA unit leader was shot dead and a gun battle broke out, in which four Special Police officers were killed. The withdrawal of British troops from Ireland was temporarily suspended as a result of this event. Despite the establishment of the Border Commission to mediate between the two parties in late February, the IRA stormed three English barracks along the March border. All of these actions provoked the killing of retaliation in Belfast. Within two days after Fermanagh's kidnapping, 30 people lost their lives in the city, including four Catholic children and two women killed by Loyalist bombs on Weaver Street. In March, 60 people died in Belfast, including six members of the McMahon Catholic family, who were targeted by members of the Special Police in retaliation for the murder of two policemen by the IRA (See McMahon's assassination). In April, 30 others were killed in the northern capital, including another so-called 'uniform attack', Arnon Road Massacre, when six Catholics were killed by uniformed police.
Winston Churchill arranged a meeting between Collins and James Craig on January 21, 1922 and a boycott of Belfast's goods was removed but then forced back after a few weeks. The two leaders had several further meetings, but despite a joint statement that "Peace was declared" on March 30, violence continued.
May-June 1922
In May and June 1922, Collins launched a guerilla IRA attack against Northern Ireland. At present, the IRA is divided into Anglo-Irish Agreements, but both pro and anti-contracting units are involved in operations. Some of the weapons sent by the British to arm the new Irish Army were in fact assigned to the IRA unit and their weapons were sent to the North. However, the attack, which was launched with a series of IRA attacks in North Korea on May 17-19, finally proved to be a failure. The Belfast Brigade IRA report at the end of May concluded that continuing the attack was "pointless and stupid... the only result of the attack was to place Catholics at the mercy of Specials".
On May 22, following the assassination of British Belfast Union Union member William Twaddell, 350 IRA men were arrested in Belfast, paralyzing his organization there. The biggest clash came in June, when British troops used artillery to unleash an IRA unit from the village of Pettigo, killing seven people, wounding six and taking four prisoners. This was the last major confrontation between the IRA and the British forces in the period 1919-1922. The sectarian cruelty cycle against civilians however continued until June 1922. May saw 75 people killed in Belfast and another 30 killed there in June. Several thousand Catholics have fled violence and sought refuge in Glasgow and Dublin. On June 17, in retaliation for the killing of two Catholics by B-Specials, IRA unit Frank Aiken shot ten Protestant civilians, killing six people in and around Altnaveigh, southern Armagh. Three Special Police were also killed in the shooting.
Michael Collins held UK Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson (who was then a member of parliament for North Down) responsible for attacks on Catholics in the north and may have been behind his assassination in June 1922, although the ordering of the shootings was not proven. The event helped spark the Irish Civil War. Winston Churchill insisted after the murder that Collins took action against the IRA Anti-Agreement, which he deemed responsible. The outbreak of civil war in the South ended the violence in the North, as the war demoralized the IRA in the northeast and distracted the rest of the organization from partition problems. After Collins's death in August 1922, the new Irish Free State quietly ended Collins's policy of secret armed action in Northern Ireland.
The violence in the north failed at the end of 1922, the latter reporting the killing of the conflict in what is now Northern Ireland on 5 October.
Detention
During the 1920s, the HMS Argenta ships were used as military bases and prison ships to hold the Republic of Ireland by the British government as part of their internment strategy after Bloody Sunday. Below the deck deck in a cage that holds 50 internees, the prisoners are forced to use damaged toilets that often overflow into their communal areas. Deprived of the table, people who have already eaten off the floor, often succumb to illness and illness as a result. There were several hunger strikes, including a large strike involving more than 150 men in the winter of 1923.
In February 1923, under the Special Act of 1922, the British detained 263 people at Argenta, who were tethered in Belfast Lough. It comes with internees on other land-based sites such as the Larne locomotive, Belfast Prison and Derry Gaol. Together, both the ship and the social house itself accommodated 542 men without trial at the highest internal population level during June 1923.
Propaganda war
Another feature of war is the use of propaganda by both parties. In the summer of 1921, a series of articles appeared in a London magazine, entitled "Ireland under the New Terror, Life Under the Military Emergency". While claiming to be an impartial account of the situation in Ireland, it portrays the IRA in a very unfavorable light when compared to British troops. In fact the author, Ernest Dowdall, is an Auxiliary and this series is one of many articles planted by the Dublin Castle Propaganda Department (founded in August 1920) to influence public opinion in the UK increasingly anxious about the behavior of its security forces in Ireland..
The British government also collects material on the relationship between Sinn FÃÆ'Â © in and Soviet Russia, in an unsuccessful attempt to describe Sinn FÃÆ'Â © as a communist-communist movement.
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church is critical of both parties' violence, but especially of the IRA, continuing the long tradition of condemning militant republicism. Bishop Kilmore, Dr. Finnegan, said: "Any war... to be fair and legitimate must be supported by a strong hope of success What success do you have against the great power of the United Kingdom? Nothing... nothing and if it breaks the law like that, every life taken in his pursuit is murder. "Thomas Gilmartin, Archbishop Tuam, issued a letter saying that the IRAs who had participated in the ambush" broke the ceasefire of God, they caused a murderous fault. " However, in May 1921, Pope Benedict XV worried about the British government when he issued a letter urging "the British and also the Irish to calmly consider... some means of mutual agreement", as they have encouraged criticism of the rebellion. They claimed that his comments "put the HMG (Government of His Excellency) and the Irish murder gang on an equal footing".
Desmond FitzGerald and Erskine Childers are active in producing the Irish Bulletin , detailing government cruelties unsupported by Irish and British newspapers. It is printed in secret and distributed throughout Ireland, and to international and British politicians, British and sympathetic press agencies.
While the military war made most of Ireland unmanageable from early 1920, it did not completely remove the British troops from any part. But the successful propaganda campaign of Sinn FÃÆ' Â © in reduces the British government's choice to deepen the conflict; Worried especially about the effect of the relationship
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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