In December 1918, republican party Sinn Fein decisively won the Irish vote in the General Election, taking 73 seats out of 105. They formed a breakaway government (Dáil Eireann) and declared an Irish Republic which first met in January 1919, despite the fact that only 27 members were able to attend as most of the eligible MPs were imprisoned. On the same day that the Dáil first met, IRA volunteers Dan Breen and Sean Treacy carried out an unauthorized ambush and killed two RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) officers, Patrick O’Connell and James McDonnell at Soloheadbeg. The volunteers had planned to seize the explosives the officers were escorting and claimed that the officers aimed their rifles when asked to surrender. This marked the beginning of what is now known as the Irish War of Independence.
In the aftermath, despite both the Catholic church and many locals condemning the ambush, the IRA carried out a series of attacks and ambushes on RIC officers and barracks. Having said this, during the early part of the conflict, roughly from 1919 to the middle of 1920, there was a relatively limited amount of violence. Much of the nationalist campaign involved mobilisation and the creation of a republican "state within a state" in opposition to British rule. In April 1919, when Eamon de Valera was appointed president of Dáil Eireann, he issued a statement in effect condoning all IRA acts, saying that: "There is in Ireland at this moment only one lawful authority, and that authority is the elected Government of the Irish Republic”. Following this, on April 11th, Dáil Eireann passed a motion calling on Irish people to boycott the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). This proved successful in demoralising the force as the war went on, as people turned their faces from a force increasingly compromised by association with British government repression. The rate of resignation went up and recruitment in Ireland decreased significantly. Shops and other businesses refused to deal with the RIC so they were often reduced to buying food at gunpoint. Occurring at the same time, from 5-19 April, was the “Limerick Soviet”, a general strike against the declaration of a "Special Military Area" under the Defence of the Realm Act. The “Special Military Area” covered most of Limerick and would have required permits, issued by the RIC, to enter the city. The Limerick Soviet was one of several Irish soviets declared between 1919 and 1923.
Starting in September 1919 in Fermoy County Cork, an unofficial government policy of reprisals began following an armed raid by the local IRA on a church parade which ended with the first British army fatality in Ireland since the 1916 rising. In revenge, 200 British soldiers looted and burned several commercial buildings in Fermoy. This marked the start of the British forces trying to re-assert their control over the country by resorting to indiscriminate retaliation against both republican activists and civilians.
The British increased the use of force; reluctant to deploy the regular British Army into the country in greater numbers, they instead deployed groups of ex-First World War soldiers to act as paramilitary police, the first of whom arrived on 5 March 1920. The combination of the black police uniforms and the tan army outfits gave rise to the term ‘Black and Tans’ for these men. The Black and Tans were undisciplined and often shot innocent civilians in reprisal for attacks on them, giving them a bad reputation and helping to strengthen local support for the IRA.
The Tans burned and sacked numerous small towns in Ireland in retaliation for IRA actions during the summer of 1920. In July 1920, the Auxiliaries, a quasi-military police force made up of about 2,200 former British army officers, arrived in Ireland. The Auxiliary Division had a reputation just as bad as the Tans for their mistreatment of the civilian population but tended to be more effective and more willing to take on the IRA. April saw further escalation in the conflict as rioting erupted in Limerick with the crowd throwing stones and bottles and the troops reacting with the use of rifles and bayonets, firing indiscriminately. On the 3rd April, the IRA burned over 300 abandoned RIC barracks in rural areas to prevent them from being used again, along with almost 100 income tax offices. However, despite the scale of the destruction, they did not let up, destroying 150 more barracks on the night of the 5th. The RIC then withdrew from much of the countryside, leaving it in the hands of the IRA.
Alongside the armed campaign, there was significant passive resistance including hunger strikes by prisoners. There was also a boycott by Dublin dock workers who refused to handle war material on behalf of the British; they were soon joined by members of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. Despite hundreds of sackings, the strike continued. Eventually, train drivers were brought over from England after Irish railway workers refused to drive trains carrying British troops. Not only were workers boycotting, but jurors also refused to attend hearings all across the south and west of Ireland, which meant that trials by jury could not be held. The collapse of the court system demoralised the RIC and many police resigned or retired. As a replacement for the RIC, the Irish Republican Police (IRP) was founded between April and June 1920, under the authority of Dáil Éireann to enforce the ruling of the Dáil Courts, set up under the Irish Republic. By 1920, the IRP had a presence in 21 of Ireland's 32 counties. In response, under the leadership of Lloyd George, the British government passed the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act in August 1920, giving special powers to the police and military and replacing the trial by jury for those areas where IRA activity was prevalent.
Violence intensified steadily from that summer in 1920, and sharply after November 1920 until July 1921. The sharp escalation in November can be attributed to a particular day: on November 21, 1920, the IRA, led by Michael Collins, concluded the war was not having the desired effect and decided to intensify the war. IRA units in Dublin, therefore, launched a mass assassination attack on British Intelligence officers, killing 11 men and wounding 5. In retaliation, a group of Black and Tans fired into a crowd of civilians at a football match in Croke Park, Dublin. 14 people were killed, and the day became known as Bloody Sunday. Ten days later, a patrol of 17 Black and Tans was shot dead in an IRA ambush in Cork and, shortly after that, much of Cork city centre was destroyed in a fire set by Crown forces.
During the following eight months until the Truce of July 1921, the conflict inflicted a huge death toll, with 1,000 people including the RIC police, army, IRA volunteers and civilians, being killed in the months between January and July 1921 alone. This represents about 70% of the total casualties for the entire three-year conflict. In addition, 4,500 IRA personnel (or suspected sympathisers) were imprisoned at this time. In the middle of this violence, de Valera (as President of Dáil Éireann) acknowledged the state of war with Britain in March 1921.
However, the fighting was eventually brought to an end on July 11, 1921, when a truce was negotiated between British and Irish Republican forces so that talks on a political settlement could begin. After four months of negotiations, in December 1921, an Irish delegation, led by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. This replaced the Dublin Home-Rule Act of 1912 and disestablished the Irish Republic of 1919, instead creating the Irish Free State which was much more independent- having its own army, although it would remain within the British Commonwealth. Britain would also have a representative in Ireland and would keep some naval bases in Irish waters. The UK was renamed ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' to reflect the change.
By Lara R
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