Since the 1870s, Irish nationalists have been demanding Home Rule, or self-government, from Britain. Home Rule was eventually granted by the British Government in 1912.
In 1916 on Easter Monday Irish rebels planned an attack against the British by using gorilla warfare and attacking British communication centers and taking over the GPO. Proclamation of the Irish Republic was spread around by the rebels which was used to inform and motivate the Irish people and said how the people of Ireland should run the land of Ireland. Their goal was to gain independence from Britain however the British forces were still way too much for the rebels to handle even if they were still recovering from World War 1 and within a week were forced to surrender. While this attempt failed this sparked motivation for the Irish to gain their independence as they slowly became more disliking of the British.
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin was set up in 1905 by Arthur Griffith. Sinn Féin had always been a group looking for Irish independence and most Irish people who wanted independence supported them. In 1918 the British government tried to bring conscription into Ireland and in response to this Irish voter voted for Sinn Féin winning them 70% of votes and getting 73 out of 105 seats.
Sinn Féin refused to sit in the UK Parliament at Westminster but rather to set up an Irish Parliament. This parliament, known as the First Dáil, made up of only Sinn Féin members. The Dáil reaffirmed the 1916 Proclamation with the Irish Declaration of Independence.
IRA
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and the 21st centuries. Organisations going by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic free from British rule.
RIC
The RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when the country was part of the United Kingdom. They were an armed force.
Beginning of the War of Independence
On the same day that the Dáil first met, two RIC constables were shot dead by Irish Volunteers in Tipperary in 1919 which is considered to start the war. The IRA started using gorilla warfare against the RIC by attack and then burning the post. Tension rises as the people of Ireland start to boycott England like railway workers not allowing British troops. Much of the Sinn Fein political leadership had been arrested. Eamon de Valera, the President of the Republic, had gone to America to raise funds. The IRA formed a group of their elite soldiers called the flying columns.
In the north there was severe rioting in Belfast, Derry and in Lisburn after a IRA killing of two northern Protestant police officers in separate incidents, after which loyalists attacked Catholic areas. Up to 100 people were killed and hundreds of Catholic homes burnt out. Another 7,000 Catholics were expelled from their jobs in the Belfast shipyards. The Northern Ireland authorities also formed the Ulster Special Constabulary as an armed, mostly unionist, police force.
The Black and Tans
The Black and Tans were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary as reinforcements. Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920 and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflict. Mostly unemployed former British soldiers who had fought in the First World War. They were recruited from all four countries of the United Kingdom, a large majority were from Great Britain, with at least 8% of recruits being Irishmen.
The Black and Tans gained a reputation for police brutality and became notorious for attacks on civilians and civilian property, including extrajudicial killings, arson and looting. Their actions further swayed Irish public opinion against British rule.
The War of Independence
By the end of 1920 some 500 people had been killed. There were attempts to call a truce in December but this was prevented by Hamar Greenwood, the Chief Secretary for Ireland who insisted that the IRA surrender its weapons first.
In the first 6 months of 1921, around 1,000 people were killed in the fighting. The violence was most intense in Dublin city, south Munster and Belfast. County Cork saw almost 500 people killed and Dublin 300. In addition some 6,000 republicans were imprisoned.
Martial or military law was declared in the province of Munster. The regular British Army was deployed in greater numbers, mounting sweeps across the countryside and the British authorities began official reprisals including house burnings and executions, in response to IRA attacks. The IRA retaliated by stepping up shootings of informers and burning the property of loyalists. When the British began executing prisoners the IRA also began shooting captured British soldiers and police.
By the summer of 1921, the IRA was very short of ammunition and weapons and many fighters had been imprisoned, notably in the raid on the Customs House in Dublin. British forces claimed they were on the verge of defeating them but the guerrillas had also improved their bomb making capabilities, were still inflicting casualties and no immediate end was in sight to the conflict.
End of the War
The fighting was brought to an end however, on July 11, 1921, when a truce was negotiated between British and Irish Republican forces so that talks on a political settlement could begin.
In December 1921, an Irish delegation led by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith(both members of Sinn Féin/pro treaty), signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which disestablished the Irish Republic of 1919 but created the Irish Free State, an entity comprising 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties which had much more independence than the Home Rule Act of 1912 would have granted. From 1917 up to mid 1922, the conflict produced in the region of 2,500 deaths.
Éamon de Valera
Prior to de Valera's political career, he was a commandant at Boland's Mill during the 1916 Easter Rising. He was arrested, sentenced to death but released for a variety of reasons, including the public response to the British execution of Rising leaders. He returned to Ireland after being jailed in England and became one of the leading political figures of the War of Independence.
Because most other Irish rebellion leaders were dead, in 1917 he was elected President of Sinn Féin. When Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton, Eamonn Duggan and George Gavan Duffy were chosen to go to negotiation that would leave to the Anglo Irish Treaty, also got side them De Valera was chosen but refused to go and is believed to have done so since he thought it would be impossible to get all 32 counties. After the treaty was signed De Valera formed a group called the anti treaty or irregulars. This eventually led to a civil war between the pro and anti treaty. He would serve as President of Ireland from 1959 to 1973 for two terms.
