war_of_independence -1919-21.pp anglo-irishsx

war of independence

1. Irish War of
Independence
(The Anglo-Irish
War) 1919-1921
Mr. Ryan Keeney
Senior Cycle History

2. Key terms:
Pre-Knowledge:
Can we definethese
before webegin?
RIC
Guerilla Warfare
‘The Squad’
Flying Columns
Black & Tans
Auxiliaries
G –Division
DMP
Reprisal
Tit for tat
Internment
Martial Law

3. David Lloyd George –UK PM
Had to keep Conservative Party views on Unionism
in mind so he decided to:
Defeat the IRA so he could be in a strong
bargaining position.
Partition so Unionists would get control in Ulster.
He put a more hard-line regime in Dublin Castle.
He recruited police in Britain, as he did not want
to call it a war.

4. Irish Nationalist / Republican
mobilisation:
Arthur Griffith and many Sinn
Féin rank and file thought
passive resistance might work.
Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha,
Richard Mulcahy and many local
commanders prepared for war.
The Irish Volunteers were
organised into battalions /
brigades.
Richard Mulcahy was Chief-of-
Staff and Michael Collins,
Director of Intelligence.
15,000 people were willing to
fight. Guns were smuggled,
stolen and bought from British
soldiers.
Changed their name to IRA –
middle of 1919.

5. Background:
Who were the opposing sides?
Initially, theRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC)police
force in Ireland.
British soldierswould later become heavily involved in
the conflict.
Reinforcements in the form of the Black and Tans(ex-
British soldiers from WWI)
And the Auxiliaries(ex-British officers from WWI).

6. Background:
Who were the opposing sides? Continued
Irish Volunteers/Irish Republican Army -IRA ‘flying columns’
and local IRA units engaged in highly effective form of
guerrilla warfare.
IRA Director of Intelligence, Michael Collinsbuilt up an
effective spy networkfamiliarising himself with the British
intelligence system.
The‘Squad’ -a special unit of full-time gunmen with the task
ofeliminating prominent British intelligence officers.
Dáil –no control over actions of the IRA –individual brigades –
nature of the type of war that was going to be fought.

7. Michael Collin’s Spy Network:
Maids, porters, civil
servants, police passed
information to Collins.
He warned the G-
division to stop spying.
Some did not so he
formed ‘The Squad’.
Alan Bell, employed to
trace Dáil bank
accounts, was shot.
26/03/1920
G Division -an
intelligence-gathering
unit of plain-clothes
Dublin Metropolitan
Police (DMP)
detectives.

8. Major ambushes/ skirmishes/ attacks:
Soloheadbeg Ambush
On the same day as the
meeting of the First Dáil -
the 21st of January 1919,
members of the South
Tipperary Brigade ambushed
a convoy of RIC at
Soloheadbeg. Led by Dan
Breen, Séan Treacy and
Seamus Robinson. The
ambush resulted in the
deaths of two police
constables, James McDonnell
and Patrick O’Connell.
Marks the beginning of the
War of Independence.

9. Major ambushes/ skirmishes/
attacks:
On 30 July 1919 Squadmembers assassinated their
first‘G’-man,Detective Sergeant Patrick Smyth.
Other assassinations followed.
An all-out assault on the RIC:
At Easter 1920 General Headquarters (GHQ)
ordered a major mobilisation by the Irish
Volunteers for a concerted nationwide assault that
saw the destruction of over 300 buildings,
including vacated police barracks, courthouses
and taxation offices on the night of 3-4 April. By
the end of the year, 533 police barracks were
destroyed, of which twenty-three had been in use
when attacked.The RIC moved to fortified
barracks in large towns. These too were attacked.
Many officers began to leave the RIC.

10. RIC BARRACKS MAP DIAGRAM
COMPARISON: 1919

11. RIC BARRACKS MAP DIAGRAM
COMPARISON: 1919-1920

12. Major ambushes/ skirmishes/ attacks:
British counter-offensive
Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtainwas shot dead in his own home in Cork city,
almost certainly by the police (RIC) (20
th
of March 1920)
The Black and Tansbegan to arrive in Ireland in March 1920.
The Black and Tans were supplemented in July 1920 by the new Auxiliary
Divisionof the RIC. (Auxiliaries)
There were many reprisals by the British -some examples:
The killing of two RIC constables –Patrick Carey and James Burke –in an ambush
at Newtown Darcy, about three miles from Tuam, on 19 July 1920 resulted in a
police reprisal in the early hours of the following morning that saw indiscriminate
firing and widespread looting and burning of property in Tuam town, Go.
Galway.
Trim, County Meath,up to 200 Black and Tans burned homes and business
premises owned by suspected republicans as a reprisal for an IRA attack on the
town’s RIC barracks (26/27 September 1920)

13. MAJOR AMBUSHES/
SKIRMISHES/ ATTACKS:
18-year-old medical student, Kevin Barry was captured
with a pistol in his hand after an attack on a military
party drawing provisions from a bakery in Church
Street, Dublin. (20 Sept. 1920) Barry became the first
Volunteer to be executed.
Terence MacSwiney succeeded Tomás Mac Curtain as a
republican lord mayor of Cork. Imprisoned in August on
charges of treason, MacSwiney embarked on a hunger
strike which lasted for 74 days, resulting in his death.
(25 Oct. 1920)
These events gained sympathy for the republican cause
abroad and outrage with the British authorities.

14. MAJOR AMBUSHES/
SKIRMISHES/ ATTACKS:
Bloody Sunday, Sunday 21 November 1920
Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy were put in charge of the task of ‘eliminating’ British
agents known as the ‘Cairo Gang’.
Despite the arrest of Clancy and McKee, it was agreed that the planned mission would go
ahead.
IRA assassination teams simultaneously struck various locations in Dublin and ‘executed’
eleven suspected British agents.
The assassinations sparked panic among the British authorities, and many British agents
fled to Dublin Castle for safety.
That afternoon, Crown forces opened fire on the crowd during a challenge football match
between Dublin and Tipperary in Croke Park killing fourteen civilians and the injuring of a
further sixty-four. That night McKee and Clancy and an innocent man called Conor Clune
were shot dead in Dublin Castle.
Kilmichael Ambush –County Cork -29
th
November 1920
17 Auxiliaries/3 IRA men killed
After a rebel grenade attack left one Auxiliary dead and eleven wounded, Auxiliary cadets
set fire to part of Cork City centre,damaging or destroying over eighty commercial
premises, as well as the City Hall and the Carnegie Library. (11/12 December 1920)

15. Consequenceof British reprisals /
reactions:
Late 1920 / Early 1921 –system of official reprisal is
introduced and martial law is introduced.
Internment of suspected IRA members.
Results:
Increase in support for IRA.
Bad press in Great Britain and internationally. i.e.
(Negative publicity)

16. The Government of Ireland
Act / Elections:
This act was passed in December of 1920.
It created the provinces of Northern Ireland and
Southern Ireland, each with its own home rule
parliament.
Election:
In the general election for the parliament of Southern
Ireland in May 1921.
Sinn Féin wins 124 out of 128 seats.
The elected members abstain and form the 2
nd
Dáil.

17. Custom House, Dublin: 25
th
May 1921
Dublin units of the IRA attack and burn the Custom
House.
They are quickly surrounded by Crown Forces.
5 volunteers and 3 civilians killed.
Almost 100 members of the IRA Dublin Brigade are
arrested.

18. Calls for Peace / Truce:
22
nd
June 1921 –King George V –addresses the 1
st
session of the parliament of Northern Ireland and
appeals to all Irishmen to join in making “a new
era of peace”.
The high cost of lives and the inability of either
side to win a clear victory, convinces the
respective leaders to seek a negotiated peace.
On the same day, British Prime Minister, David
Llyod George invites Éamon de Valera to open
negotiations.
Truce:
8
th
of July 1921 -Éamon de Valera meets Sir Neville
Macready, Commander of the British forces in
Ireland.
They agree a truce will come into effect at
12.00pm (noon) on the 11
th
of July, 1921.

19. Video resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wXSOX6U-Y8
WOI –Duration –five minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itU6dp5tlAc
WOI –Duration –thirteen minutes