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War of independence. Leaving Cert History. The War of Independence. Griffith and many SF rank and file thought passive resistance might work. Collins, Brugha, Mulcahy and many local commanders prepared for war. The Irish Volunteers were organised into battalions.
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War of independence Leaving Cert History
The War of Independence • Griffith and many SF rank and file thought passive resistance might work. • Collins, Brugha, Mulcahy and many local commanders prepared for war. • The Irish Volunteers were organised into battalions. • Mulcahy was Chief-of-Staff and Collins Director of Intelligence. • 15,000 were willing to fight. Guns were smuggled, stolen and bought from British soldiers. • Changed their name to IRA after the first Dail.
January 1919: Soloheadbeg • Same day as the First Dail but the Dail never approved it. • IRA paid little attention to their political wing. • Mulcahy and Collins tended to ignore Brugha the Minister for Defence.
Collin’s Spy Network • Maids, porters, civil servants, police passed information to Collins. • He warned the G-division to stop spying. Some did not so he formed ‘The Squad’. • One was killed and the rest eased off. • Alan Bell, employed to trace Dail bank accounts, was shot.
Around the Country • Some IRA commanders were very active. • Sean Treacy, Tom Barry, Michael Brennan in Clare and Sean MacEoin in Longford. • 1919 attacks on small RIC barracks. • The RIC moved to fortified barracks in large towns. These too were attacked. • Many began to leave the RIC.
David Lloyd George • Had to keep Conservative views on Unionism in mind so he decided to: • Defeat the IRA so he could be in a strong bargaining position. • Partition so Unionists would get control in Ulster. • He put a more hard-line regime in Dublin Castle. • He made Sir Hamar Greenwood Chief Secretary, General Macready in charge of the army and General Tudor in charge of the Police. • He recruited police in Britain, as he did not want to call it a war. • Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. Brave, ruthless and undisciplined. • IRA went on the run and formed ‘flying columns’. These men were paid and trained.
Reprisal • Looting, burning, and shooting. • Increase in support for IRA. • Bad press in GB and abroad. • March 1920 Tomás MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork shot. • His successor Terence MacSwiney died on hunger strike after 73 days. Big funeral. • Kevin Barry hanged.
21st November 1920 Bloody Sunday • 14 most from ‘Cairo Gang’ shot by the Squad with help from the Collins spies. • Croke Park 12 killed. • That evening 3 were shot in Dublin Castle.