Ireland's War of Independence
For four hundred years the people of Ireland were part of the British Empire and were ruled by the British government in London. Several Irishmen wanted to have ‘Home Rule’, which would allow an Irish parliament to govern the country and then report to the British. However, most of the politicians in Ulster (now Northern Ireland) thought that having Home Rule would separate Ireland from the Empire. This sparked a major disagreement between Ulster and the rest of the country. The disagreement between the two states soon started a strong revolution lead by the Irish against the British.
The first stand was on Easter Sunday, 1916, when a group of Irishmen stormed a capital building and declared the start of the Irish Republic. Their proclamation explained how each citizen would fit into the Republic.
“The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.” (Proclamation of the Irish Republic)
This proclamation would grant freedoms to the Irish which was not given at that time by the English government. However, this stand in Dublin lasted only a week, without major effects on the government of Ireland. Even with its short lived victory, the Easter Rising (as the event is now known) encouraged people to think about the government as it was and to decide if they wanted Home Rule.
Those who wanted Home Rule got their wish. The British government allowed them to have their own parliament in Dublin, but making clear that Ireland was still under their control. The general elections ended in the fall of 1918 with the Sinn Féin, an influential party, holding a majority of the seats. The first meeting was planned to take place on January 21st, 1919.
“The Sinn Féin government backed the IRA campaign. Michael Collins, a leading figure in both, played a pivotal, coordination role.” (“The Anglo-Irish War”) The two parties joined forces, recruiting volunteers to their effort and performing guerrilla warfare in Dublin’s capital buildings and against opposing political leaders. At one point, on January 21st, 1919, two IRA members, Sean Treacy and Dan Breen, shot and killed two Royal Irish guards who were transporting explosives. Dan Breen said in his report that,
“… we took the action deliberately, having thought over the matter and talked it over between us. Treacy had stated to me that the only way of starting a war was to kill someone, and we wanted to start a war, so we intended to kill some of the police whom we looked upon as the foremost and most important branch of the enemy forces. The only regret that we had following the ambush was that there were only two policemen in it, instead of the six we had expected.” (Breen)
This is considered by a wide range of historians to be the official start of the War of Independence, even though small skirmishes were already taking place. “During 1919, his [Collins’] ‘squad’, a group of hand picked agents, eliminated Dublin’s detective constables, the ‘G men’.” (“The Anglo-Irish War”).
These fights happened all over the country for two years, the IRA volunteers wearing plain-clothes and blending in with everyone else after an attack. The British government responded by banning both the Sinn Féin and the IRA in Ireland. They also sent more police and army regiments to Ireland in order to control these outbursts. These officers were soon named ‘The Black and Tans’ for their uniforms, soldiers in black and police in tan. “The 'Black and Tans' were undisciplined and often shot innocent civilians in reprisal for attacks on them. These attacks helped to create and then strengthen local support for the IRA.”(“History of Ireland”).
However, Collins had gotten incredibly violent in 1920, on November 21st, now known as ‘Bloody Sunday’. “On that day his ‘squad’ gunned down 19 suspected British Army intelligence officers living as civilians in Dublin houses and hotels. The incident illustrated the quality of his informants and the continuing devastating capability of the IRA.” (“The Anglo-Irish War”). This also showed the British just how powerful the IRA was and how it would be very hard to try to get rid of them, although they already knew a little about that.
These attacks carried on for a year until a treaty was signed on July 11, 1921 by the British government and Collins and Arthur Griffith. About the treaty, Winston Churchill said, “What was the alternative? It was to plunge one small corner of the empire into an iron repression, which could not be carried out without an admixture of murder and counter-murder…. Only national self-preservation could have excused such a policy, and no reasonable man could allege that self-preservation was involved.” (Churchill) This was the overall thought of the British government and why they organised the Truce.