How Did Ireland Contribute To The Irish War Of Independence

Before the fight for independence, Ireland had been a part of England for nearly half a millennium. However, for more than 400 of those years the Irish were discriminated against for their religion and culture. In fact, in the Statutes of Kilkenny, English colonists were prohibited from becoming “too Irish.” The Irish were viewed as uncivilized and were forced into serfdom with the arrival of English colonists. Catholics also faced extreme discrimination and lacked the most basic rights. This caused a permanent state of unease between the Irish and the British, which eventually lead to the Irish War of Independence.
The Irish War of Independence lasted for about three years from 1919 to 1921. It all began shortly after the 1916 Easter Rising, when nearly 1,300 Irish Volunteers and 219 members of the Irish Citizen Army took control of several buildings in
Dublin. One group of men captured the General Post Office, where James Connolly, founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Society, was announced the head of the army and Patrick Pearse, a longtime Irish Nationalist, read the declaration of independence. The British were quick to put an end to this act of defiance and did not hold back when terminating the movement. In the end, more than 450 people were killed before Pearse decided to call it quits and surrendered. In a matter of weeks most leaders of the revolt were hunted down and shot for treason. After the executions, the soldiers collected the dead bodies and threw them in a pit for all to see. As a result, relations between Ireland and Britain grew more and more heated. It was only a matter of time before the fighting broke out again.
Though the Easter Rising had failed, it proved to be a crucial turning point in declaring an independent Irish nation. Originally the leaders of the Easter Rising assumed that everyone in Southern Ireland was utterly against British rule, but this was not true. Even in Dublin, many people relied on the British for work - whether they liked it or not. However, England’s harsh response to the uprising led many to sympathize with the movement. Likewise, in 1918 the British government tried to force thousands upon thousands of Irish men to take part in World War I. More than 250,000 Irishmen had already volunteered to fight in in the dangerous war, and yet the British hoped they could draft another 30,000. The introduction of forced service in Ireland resulted in a severe backlash from the Irish, the Church and several political groups. As a result, the Irish Republicans were flooded with support and diverse Irish Nationalist groups, including the socialists, radical Republicans and moderates were united under an anti-conscription campaign.
It was during this time that the political group Sinn Fein gained significance. Though it used to be a more or less unorganized rebel group, Sinn Fein came out on top after the Easter Rising and the anti-conscription campaign. It took a stand for Irish rights and had one end goal in mind: an independent Ireland. Irish Republicans flocked behind Sinn Fein in support. In the 1918 general election in Britain, Sinn Fein won enough seats to make it the third-largest party in the British parliament. However, Sinn Fein’s elected politicians refused their positions in the House of Commons. On January 21st, 1919 Sinn Fein’s leaders decided to meet in Dublin instead, and declared Ireland’s sovereignty as an independent state. The group called themselves “Dail Eireann” or Assembly of Ireland.
This shift in power was not without violence. The same day the Dail Eireann organized in Dublin, members of the Irish Volunteers ambushed and killed two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) constables, Patrick O'Connell and James McDonnell, who were transporting explosives to a nearby quarry. The radicals proceeded to take the load and run. This act is what many consider to have started the Irish War of Independence.
In early 1919 the Irish Volunteers and what was left of the Irish Citizens Army joined forces and created the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The new government tried to bring the army under its control, but this was not easy. The IRA had been formed out of two very independently minded societies who did not like the idea of being bound to the government. Eventually, the IRA submitted to the Dail Eireann’s authority and served as its military. The young Michael Collins, a Sinn Fein elected official, became this rag-tag army’s general. He sent his troops to raid RIC quarries all over Ireland in order to provide weapons for his men. Then he sent small units of IRA fighters to attack and assassinate members of the RIC, opposing political leaders and other military targets. Under Collins, the IRA fought British soldiers and police in Ireland from 1919 until July 1921, the most casualties occurring from November 1920 to July 1921.
Though war was never officially declared on either the Irish or British side, it became apparent that a state of peace between the Irish Republic and Britain would be impossible so long as the English occupied Ireland. And so the Irish War of Independence quickly became a brutal guerrilla war. The IRA began targeting any sign of British influence in Ireland, namely the RIC. “An eye for an eye” seemed to be the British motto for this conflict, and for every man they lost the British would strike back full-force. In 1920, Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War and Air for England, sent thousands of volunteers willing to fight in and manage Ireland. Many of these men were experienced war veterans known for their brutality and skill. The soldiers became known as the ‘Black and Tan’ because of the khaki pants they wore.
The new units were trained for three months and assigned to the different RIC stations in Ireland. The infamous troops became known for their poor conduct and unnecessary violence. They had been given too much power and no one was there to keep them accountable for their actions. Because of this, the Black and Tans often acted independently from the British government. Black and Tans are said to have threatened, battered and severely abused suspected Republicans. According to a written account by Lord Longford, Tans were found torturing Republicans, "cutting out the tongue of one, the nose of another, the heart of another and battering in the skull of a fourth".
The IRA was somewhat outnumbered. Their numbers remained low throughout the war, topping off at 10,000. When combined, the Black and Tans and RICs had more than 12,000 men, and could recruit more if need be. However, one setback of the RIC was that it was mostly composed of middle aged men trained to be police officers, not soldiers. So, Collins was able to offset the slight imbalance of troops by ordering surprise attacks and elusive maneuvering. He divided the IRA into ‘flying columns’ that could move quickly while still packing a punch. Another specialist unit known as the ‘Twelve Apostles’, or ‘The Squad’, was specifically trained to assassinate British secret service and British-sympathizing law enforcement.
They armies fought in cities, towns and even within areas populated by civilians. The war caused more than 2,500 deaths, and severe damage to infrastructure and private property. The IRA’s primary goal was to force the British out of Ireland by creating an environment so unsteady and dangerous that it would be impossible to rule. For example, on November 21st, 1920 the Twelve Apostles murdered 14 British MI5 officers in Dublin. The RIC and Black and Tans reciprocated by interrupting a Gaelic football game at Croke Park and killing 14 people and injuring 66 others. They had intended to search the grounds for people suspected of being Republicans, but the angered units began shooting at the crowd at random. This came to be known as one of Ireland’s first ‘Bloody Sundays’ and shows just how brutal and chaotic the Irish War of Independence truly was.
Finally, a truce was called in July, 1921.
Negotiations began soon after and the unity and independence of Ireland and its relations with Britain were discussed. The Irish wanted to see the union of the Northern and Southern Isles; however, this was deemed unlikely. The South was vastly Catholic with a strong Irish culture, while the majority of the North was Protestant with British leanings. In the end it was decided that Northern Ireland would have the choice of joining either country after a year. Next, the British made it clear that they would not allow the Irish to be a fully independent or a republic. They insisted that government officials in Ireland were to swear loyalty to the Crown. Likewise, the British refused to give up three of their deep-water ports. On December 5th, 1921 Ireland’s elected officials were presented with the Anglo-Irish Treaty. They were told that if they did not sign by the following day the war would continue where it had left off. The Irish compiled, but knew that signing the Treaty would create a huge political divide and likely cause a civil war. Unfortunately, they were
right.