Transcript Lecture 10: The War of Independence, Treaty and Civil War

Lecture 10: The War of Independence,
Treaty and Civil War
1. War of Independence
2. The Anglo-Irish Treaty
3. The Civil War
Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921)
Tactics: guerrilla
campaign of
ambush and
assassination
Campaign against British
forces
Mounted by the Irish
Volunteers/IRA
Began Jan. 21 1919: 9
Volunteers killed
two policemen at an ambush
in
Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary
Approx. 1200
people lost their lives during
the conflict
(405 police, 150 military,
and an estimated
750 IRA and civilians.)
The Soloheadbeg ambush
was
unpopular with many
members of Sinn Féin
The Soloheadbeg incident
may be regarded as an
expression of militant
republican frustration with
Sinn Féin’s political initiatives
The Volunteers took action to
ensure that the Sinn Féin
leadership did not
compromise the republican
demand
The Guerrilla Offensive: Three
Broad Phases
• 1. January 1919-March 1920: a low-key
campaign
• 2. March 1920-December 1920:
confrontational approaches
• 3. December 1920-July 1921:
intelligence gathering and the move to
negotiated settlement
Social class & militant
republicans
• Defy easy categorisation
• No clear social profile
• The very poor of rural Ireland were not active in
the IRA – nor were the most prosperous
• A middle-class revolution
• 2/3 of the members of the Dáil were urban
professionals
• Only 1/3 was drawn from
agriculture/industry/commerce
Militant republicans
• Well-educated
• Correlation between
IRA militancy and the
influence of the
teaching of the
Christian Brothers
• Service in the British
army. Ex-servicemen
like Tom Barry proved
invaluable to the IRA
Tom Barry
IRA tactics
Offensive against
communication
involved cutting roads
off and restricting
military and police
patrols to routes offering
good ambush prospects
Burning of abandoned
police stations and big
houses
Third Tipperary Brigade Flying
Column
Assassination in the city,
ambush in rural areas
The British Response
British troops searching a car
• IRA attacks
intensified in
winter 1919/20
• RIC had been
forced to retreat
into stronger
barracks
• RIC had
surrendered
control of large
parts of the
country
The British Response
• Combination of coercion and conciliation
• Home Rule Bill re-drafted in 1919.
• RIC reinforced – Black and Tans and the
Auxiliaries
• Emergency legislation introduced
• Defence of the Realm Acts superseded by
Restoration of Order Act in August 1920
Defence of the Realm Acts
(DORA)
• Came into effect during the First World
War
• Emergency legislation – empowered the
government to make regulations for public
safety
• During the Anglo-Irish War DORA
regulations widely used to restrict firearms,
create Special Military Areas and to
substitute courts martial for jury trial
Some of the British secret intelligence officers
killed by Collins’ hit squad on ‘Bloody Sunday’,
November 21st 1920
…‘to realise the full horrors of the
night one has to think of bands of
men inflamed with drink raging
about the streets firing rifles wildly,
burning houses here and there and
loudly threatening to come again
tonight and complete their work.’
Article in Manchester Guardian following the
sack of Balbriggan, 1920
Government of Ireland Act (1920)
• An attempt to solve the nationalist issue in
the south and unionist demands in the
north
• Resulted in two separate parliaments in
Dublin and Belfast
Irish delegation in Hans Place,
London on the day after the signing.
Members of the Irish delegation consisted of Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton,
Michael Collins, Eamonn Duggan and Charles Gavan-Duffy, with Erskine
Childers as principal secretary
The Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921)
The principal areas of discussion
included:
1. the constitutional position of the new
Irish state and its relationship with
Britain
2. The geographical area administered
by the state
3. the implications for the defence of
Britain arising from the new political
arrangements
4. the determination of financial
obligations.
‘I have to communicate with Sir James
Craig tonight. Here are the alternative
letters which I have prepared, one
enclosing articles of agreement reached
by his majesty’s government and
yourselves and the
other saying that SF representatives
refuse to come into the empire. If I send
this letter it is war and war within three
days. Which letter am I to send?
If the messenger is to reach Craig in
time we must know your answer by
10pm tonight. You can have
until then, but no longer, to decide
whether you will give peace or war to
your country.’
Llyod George, Dec 5 1921
The Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921)
• Main defence of the Treaty – it was the best
available compromise
• Collins: ‘gives us freedom – not the ultimate
freedom that all nations desire and develop
to, but the freedom to achieve it.’
• Anti-Treatyites: Did not deliver a republic.
Oath of allegiance was an outright betrayal
of their principles
• 7 January 1922: Treaty ratified by 64 votes
to 57.
• IRA convention held March 26th 1922 in
defiance of the government
• Most members of the IRA were opposed to
the treaty – known as the Irregulars
• April 13th 1922: Rory O’Connor led a force
of Irregulars into the Four Courts (above)
Civil War
• Lull of 6 months between the signing of
the treaty and the beginning of civil war
hostilities
• Civil War began 28 June 1922 when
government troops attacked headquarters
of the Irregulars in the Four Courts, Dublin
• Anti-Treaty forces: 12,900 men
• Government: 9000 semi-trained recruits
Ending the Civil War
Liam Lynch, Commanding
General of the anti-Treaty
IRA
• Lynch ‘irreconcilable
chief of staff of the
Irregulars’ died on
April 10 1923
• An end to the conflict
was then possible
Aiken replaced Lynch
• Unilateral ceasefire 30
April 1923
A patient being placed in an
ambulance
• No register
to show how
many lives
lost in Civil
War
• 800 national
army deaths
• 400
republican
deaths