The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) was a war fought in Ireland between 1919 and 1921. It pitted Irish militias demanding Irish independence against the British army, which was occupying Irish soil at the time. Terribly deadly, it nevertheless gave the Irish their first victory in the creation of an Irish Free State.
Irish volunteers – Public domain
Ireland had been under British rule for several centuries. This situation was a source of tension, and led to attempted uprisings by the Irish.
Although insurrectionary acts were numerous, they ended in bitter failure, without dampening the fervor of the Irish patriots.
The British government, aware of the high tensions in Ireland, proposed in 1870 to launch a project called “Home Rule” to calm the rise of Irish nationalism.
The aim was to give Ireland an internal autonomy it had never had before. But the project soon ran into difficulties and was repeatedly rejected by the House of Lords. The years went by, until 1918, when the text was finally passed.
This gave rise to many tensions within the country: the Irish seemed to be in favor of the Treaty, while the English colonists expressed their complete opposition to the text. Opponents set up the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an armed militia of 200,000 soldiers, while pro-independence supporters retaliated by founding the Irish Volunteers.
All tend towards violence and confrontation, and the Irish Volunteers decide to organize a revolt, known as the Easter Rising in 1916…
Dublin after the Easter Rising – Public domain
The War began with the Easter Rising in 1916, when Irish republican leaders Patrick Pearse and James Connolly decided to stage a surprise uprising in Dublin. They joined forces with the Irish Volunteers, the Citizen Army and the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) for this attack.
However, the revolt was quickly put down by the British: it took less than a week to halt the insurrection and imprison the main leaders of the attack. Over 14 representatives of the Insurrection were incarcerated in Kilmainham Gaol and shot in the following days, including the main leaders of the revolt (Patrick Pearse, James Connolly…etc.).
Despite this bitter failure, the summary executions of the insurrection’s leaders caused a real rift in public opinion, and the majority of Irish people, initially hostile to the insurrection, now seemed clearly to side with the Irish nationalists. One thing led to another, and Sinn Féin and the nationalists founded an official Irish parliament, the Dàil Eireann, which was soon declared illegal by the British.
This parliament is convinced that armed struggle is the only solution, and decides to instrumentalize the struggle through the intervention of the IRA, an armed group led by Michael Collins, one of the few Rising leaders to escape execution.
War of Independence in Dublin – Public domain
All hell broke loose when the IRA claimed its first victims, 2 RIC policemen. These murders heralded a dark period of guerrilla warfare led by Michael Collins, then in charge of coordinating the War of Independence. The aim was to intimidate the British forces, destabilizing them by any means possible. At the same time, train drivers refused to transport British soldiers throughout Ireland, effectively paralyzing the movement of Black and Tans and RIC troops.
The Irish nationalists’ initially numerous victories gradually enabled them to take control of the country’s rural areas, bringing them under the Dàil Eireann regime.
In response, the Black and Tans and the RIC decided to ransack every village in their path. They killed many innocent people in cold blood, tortured and raped women, looted property and set fire to homes. These actions, intended above all to intimidate the nationalists, actually had the opposite effect: more and more young recruits swelled the ranks of the IRA, and the actions became more and more formidable.
The escalation towards violence was ever stronger, and the watchword was now clear: the British wanted to neutralize the IRA at all costs, in order to dismantle it and crush the revolt. To do this, they call in the Cairo Gang, a group of 18 MI5 secret agents charged with executing the leaders of the war. However, Michael Collins managed to murder 15 of them, to which the British coolly retaliated on November 21, 1920, by firing a tank into a crowd attending a Gaelic match at Croke Park. The result was 14 dead and over 65 wounded. This event was later commemorated as the first “Bloody Sunday of November 21 1920” (the second took place much later in Derry, in 1972).
By the end of 1921, England was running out of steam, and seemed literally strangled by the Irish war. The expenses incurred in this struggle have plunged them into a bottomless financial pit, and it is now time for them to call a halt to the fighting, with a view to diplomatic negotiation.
Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith are sent to London to negotiate a treaty. This text negotiated the withdrawal of British troops from Ireland, under the guise of the creation of an Irish Free State. In exchange, England asked Ireland to swear allegiance to the crown, and to retain the north of the island.
The Treaty marked the end of the Irish War of Independence, but also provoked deep disagreements between the nationalists. The pro-treaty side soon clashed with the anti-treaty side, this time provoking the Irish Civil War, a fratricidal war of great violence…
