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 forcesMounted by the Irish Volunteers/IRABegan Jan. 21 1919: 9 Volunteers killed two policemen at an ambush in Soloheadbeg, Co. TipperaryApprox. 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 notcompromise 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

Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column

Offensive against communicationinvolved cutting roads off and restricting military and police patrols to routes offering good ambush prospects

Burning of abandoned police stations and big houses

Assassination in the city, ambush in rural areas

The British Response

• 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 countryBritish troops searching a car

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• Defence of the Realm Acts superseded by Restoration of Order Act in August 1920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 theother 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

• 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 1923Liam Lynch, Commanding

General of the anti-Treaty IRA

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