War of Irish independence

The war of Irish independence or Anglo-Irish war indicates the campaign which of January 1919 conducted to July 1921 the Irish Republican Army (WILL GO) against the Irish royal Police (RIC), the British Armée and the Black and Tans in Ireland.

Origin

The British government promised before the First World War to grant to Ireland the Home Rule, having to allow the Irishmen to form their own government. This promise is given to later by the irruption of the war. Certain nationalists like Eoin Mac Neil, the leader of the Irish Volunteers then choose to support the British effort of war. Others behind the chiefs of IRB ( Irish Republican Brotherhood ) and of the ICA ( Irish Citizen Army ), Patrick Pearse and James Connolly prepare already an insurrection and obtain Kaiser its support. The insurrection takes place the Easter Monday 1916 with Dublin, badly coordinated, it is repressed in 5 days by the British army, Patrick Pearse will have just time to proclaim the birth of the Irish Republic. Repression is brutal, the leaders of the ICA and the IRB, except for Eamon de Valera are carried out. The Irishmen in their majority, initially hostile with the insurrection, rock then on the side of the nationalists, this tendency is accentuated after the introduction of the Conscription in Ireland in 1918. The Sinn Féin gathering from now on the various tendencies of Irish nationalism obtains 70% of the votes to the organized general elections this same year. The majority of the Irishmen elected to go to sit at the Parliament of Westminster then ratify the unilateral creation of the Irish Parliament, the Dáil Éireann. This Parliament and its government, the Aireacht, declare the independence of Ireland while being pressed on their armed wing, the WILL GO.

Violence starts

In January 1919, two police officers are killed by WILL GO: Ireland east in war. Michael Collins organizes a war of guerilla following the model of Boers, badgering the British forces and avoiding any direct confrontation. WILL GO first of all attacks the police officers of Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), by intimidating them and by organizing knacks against their barracks, the goal being to push them with the passivity where with collaboration. The drivers of trains refuse to transport the British soldiers and the dockers to discharge the equipment intended for the troops. In 1920, WILL SUIT it made sure of the control of the majority of the rural areas, given up by the RIC, the British tax is not collected more there and the British courts cannot function any more, fault of sworn. WILL GO then takes over these two institution. The British troops, indicator which they start to lose the control of the country and tired ambushes assembled by WILL GO, multiply the exactions against the population, being alienated crushing it majority of Irish. In the first 18 months of the war, they plunder a hundred cities and villages, stop nearly 5000 suspects and 77 shoot some. The number of active partisans of WILL GO consequently does not cease increasing, until reaching nearly 15.000 people, without counting the creation of many groups of supports.

Michael Hakes and WILL SUIT it

Since Dublin, the Minister for Finance of the clandestine government, Michael Collins is the true coordinator of the war on the nationalist side. Its Government loan near the Irish population is a success (so much so that it lends part of the funds collected to the Bolsheviks, obtaining guarantees the jewels of the Russian crown of them) and the British forces fail to capture the command of WILL GO. The priority target of the big fellow is the G division of Dublin Metropolitan Police, organized by the British to counter the Irish freedom fighters. It is quickly exceeded by the events and undergoes the attacks and the intimidations of WILL GO which has many sympathisans in its center.

The escalation of violence

Noting that the RIC is unable to maintain the order in Ireland, the British government constitutes a paramilitary force of 7.000 men to support the action of the Irish police force, the Black and Tans . During the summer 1920, the Tans , burn and plunder many Irish cities, treating with brutality the population. A force of 2.200 former officers of the British army, the Auxilliaires (or Auxies ) is also formed, they are better organized and tested in the counter insurgency fight and obtain better results. The British government encourages repression secretly all while denying it publicly. The Restoration off order in Ireland Act voted by the Parliament transfers the authority from the Irish ordinary courts to jurisdictions of exception: military courses of investigation. In August 1920, the mayor of Cork, Terence Mac Swiney is stopped and condemned to two years of imprisonment in London for possession of seditious writings. It starts since its prison a grêve of the hunger which will finish by its death the October 25th 1920. Its funeral, on November 1st attracts a broad crowd.

The war (November 1920 - July 1921)

During this period, nearly 1000 nationalist partisans, police and British soldiers are killed during the engagements and nearly 4500 members to WILL GO are imprisoned. From now on, the British government does not take any more gloves, the priority is the elimination of WILL GO and especially of its Staff directed by the new Minister for the information of the clandestine Irish government, Michael Collins. They is to this end that is created the Gang of Cairo , 18 secret agents pulled by MI5 to track the nationalists with Dublin, supported by the Auxies . The November 21st 1920, the men of Michael Collins assassinate 15 members of the Gang. The Auxies retort while drawing in crowd at the time of a match of Football Gaelic in Croke Park, 14 people are killed and 65 wounded, among whom children during what one will call the Bloody Sunday. A little later the engagements around Cork redouble, several Auxies die during a ambush, which causes severe reprisals. The December 11th 1920, the center of Cork is set fire to by the British forces which prevent then the helps from on the spot arriving. The war is translated at the beginning of 1921 by series of fatal ambushes of WILL GO, which answer of the increasingly muscular exactions of the Auxies and the Tans which systematize torture and brutalities against the population. The independence organization also undergoes several reverses which it charges to real or supposed advisers who are carried out summarily. Eamon de Valera, against the opinion of Michael Collins wants from now on to privilege the frontal attack against the British. The chief of the clandestine government wants indeed that WILL SUIT it, is perceived as being a regular army and not a terrorist organistation so that the Irish Republic is recognized abroad. A first action of scale is organized against one of the symbols of the British occupation, the customs house of Dublin ( custom house ) the May 25th 1921. The operation turns to the fiasco, the nationalists are quickly dislodged, 5 as of theirs are killed and nearly 80 are captured. The various operations through all Ireland are a mitigated success and the men of WILL GO find themselves with court of ammunition. Despite everything, this operation showed that after one year of military operations, the British were unable to restore the order in Ireland. The elections of May 13rd, where 124 of the 128 seats are gained by the Sinn Féin show moreover than by their awkward actions, they pushed crushing it majority of Irish in the arms of the nationalists. The British Government not having been able to suppress the insurrection, it is seen constrained to consider negotiations with the rebels under the pressure of many deputies of the House of Commons and the king George V, revolted by repression on the Irish population. The July 11th 1921, Lloyd George and Eamon de Valera agree on the terms of a cease-fire. The British soldiers are consigned in the barracks and the partisans of WILL GO can keep their weapons.

The treaty and the free State of Ireland

The negotiation can then begin in London, it is confined the December 6th 1921 of the Anglo-Irish Traité signed inter alia by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith in the name of the Sinn Féin and Lloyd George and Winston Churchill for the British government. The treaty is ratified by the Dail and the British Parliament, and a year later, the free State of Ireland is proclaimed. However, a minority of the combatants of the war of independence refused to accept the treaty (in particular the maintenance of the Northern Ireland within the the United Kingdom and the oath of allégence to the crown), which caused the Irish Civil war which lasted until in 1923 and cost the life certain leaders of the independence movement, like Michael Collins and Rory O' Connor.

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