Chronology of the Irish War of Independence

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This is a chronology of Irish War of Independence (or the Anglo Irish War^[1]) of 1919–1921. The Irish War of Independence was a guerrilla conflict and most of the fighting was conducted on a small scale by the standards of conventional warfare. Although there were some large scale encounters between the Irish Republican Army and the British state forces (Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police paramilitary Police units - the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division - and the regular British Army), most of the casualties were inflicted in assassinations and reprisals on either side. The war began with an unauthorised ambush by IRA men Dan Breen and Sean Treacy at Soloheadbeg in 1919 and ended with a truce agreed in July 1921.

Contents 1 1918 2 1919 2.1 January 2.2 March 2.3 April 2.4 May 2.5 June 2.6 September 2.7 December 3 1920 3.1 January 3.2 February 3.3 March 3.4 April 3.5 May 3.6 June 3.7 July 3.8 August 3.9 September 3.10 October 3.11 November 3.12 December 4 1921 4.1 January 4.2 February 4.3 March 4.4 April 4.5 May 4.6 June 4.7 July 4.8 December 5 See also 6 References 7 Footnotes

[edit] 1918

• 14 December 1918: The Coupon Election. A general election is held in the United Kingdom. In Britain, Prime Minister Lloyd George's Unionist-dominated Coalition wins a majority. In Ireland, Sinn Féin wins 73 out of 105 seats.

[edit] 1919

[edit] January

• 21 January 1919
  • Sinn Féin MPs assemble in Dublin as the First Dáil and adopt a Declaration of Independence.
  • IRA volunteers under Dan Breen kill two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) when the police refuse to surrender a consignment of gelignite they were guarding near Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary.

[edit] March

• Resident Magistrate John Milling shot dead in Westport, County Mayo for having sent Volunteers to prison for unlawful assembly and drilling.

[edit] April

• 6 April 1919: Limerick city IRA attempt to free a prisoner from the Limerick prison workhouse. Two RIC men and the prisoner are killed in the ensuing fire fight.

• 10 April 1919: The Dáil proclaims a boycott of the RIC police force.

• 15 - 19 April 1919: The "Limerick Soviet", a General strike called by the Limerick Trades and Labour Council, as a protest against the declaration a "Special Military Area" under the Defence of the Realm Act which covered of most of Limerick city and a part of the county. Special permits, to be issued by the Royal Irish Constabulary, would now be required to enter the city. The response was a general strike and boycott of the troops. A special Strike Committee was set up to print their own money and control food prices and published newspapers. The Strike Committee issued a proclamation on April 27, 1919 stating that the strike was at an end.

[edit] May

• 13 May 1919: Dan Breen and Sean Treacy free IRA prisoner Sean Hogan on train at Knocklong county Tipperary. Two RIC men killed in shoot-out.

[edit] June

• 23 June 1919: RIC Detective Hunt shot dead by IRA man Jim Stapleton in Thurles, co Tipperary. Jim Stapleton had been selected to shoot D.I. Hunt, but actually missed his shot wounding another man in the knee. D.I. Hunt was subsequently shot in the ensuing chaos with a pistol at close quarters by one James Murphy.

[edit] September

• 7 September 1919: An unofficial government policy of reprisals began in Fermoy, County Cork, when 200 British soldiers looted and burned the main businesses of the town, after one of their number had been killed when the local IRA under Liam Lynch attacked them while they were attending a Church service. Three other soldiers were wounded and fifteen rifles captured.

[edit] December

• Sir John French, survived an IRA assassination bid on 19 December 1919.

• 19 December 1919, IRA attempt to assassinate British General John French in his car at Phoenix Park Dublin. French is unhurt, but one IRA Volunteer, Martin Savage and two RIC men are killed.

[edit] 1920

[edit] January

• Early 1920: Dublin dockers refused to handle any war material, and were soon joined by the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, despite hundreds of sackings. Train drivers were brought over from England after Irish drivers refused to carry British troops.

[edit] February

• 12 February 1920: Cork IRA under Tom Hales and Sean Hales attacks four RIC barracks in west Cork, but take none of them.

[edit] March

• 20 March 1920: Thomas Mac Curtain, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, shot dead in front of his wife at his home, by men with blackened faces who were later seen returning to the local police barracks.

• 25 March 1920: First of the Black and Tans arrive in Ireland.

• 26 March 1920: Resident Magistrate Alan Bell, from Banagher, tasked by the British to track down Sinn Féin funds, he had successfully confiscated over £71,000 from Sinn Féin's HQ and, by investigating banks throughout the country, was set to seize much more. On that day he was pulled off a tram in south Dublin and shot three times in the head.

• 31 March 1920: Unsuccessful IRA attack on RIC barracks at Durrus, west Cork.

• March 1920: Kilkenny IRA capture RIC barracks at Hugginstown co Kilkenny.

• March 1920: West Limerick IRA killed a man for spying. The first such killing in the conflict.

[edit] April

• April 1920: Rioting erupts in Limerick city on Roches Street between the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and local population, involving bayonets on the one side and stones and bottles on the other. The troops fire indiscriminately, killing a publican and an usherette from the Coliseum Cinema.

• Easter Weekend, April 1920: The IRA burn 300-400 abandoned RIC barracks in rural areas and 22 income tax offices around the country.

• 24 April 1920: IRA shoot dead a Dublin Metropolitan Police sergeant in Clonakilty county Cork.

• 25 April 1920: IRA ambush near Upton, county Cork. Two RIC men killed.

• 27 April 1920: IRA attack RIC barracks at Ballylanders, county Limerick. Barracks roof is set on fire with petrol bombs. Garrison surrenders and the barracks is then burned. IRA seize arms and ammunition.

• April: A joint patrol of RIC and Highland Light Infantry fire into an unarmed crowd in Miltown Malbay who were celebrating the release of republican prisoners, killing three Volunteers and wounding nine others. The County Coroner found nine soldiers and policemen guilty of murder and served warrants on them, but no disciplinary action is taken.

[edit] May

• 9 May 1920: 200 IRA men under Frank Aiken attack the RIC barracks in Newtownhamilton, county Armagh. A mine is used to breach the barracks wall and a potato spraying machine is used to spray it with petrol, before it is set alight. The six policemen inside refuse to surrender until the roof falls in, at which point they give in.

• 11 May 1920: IRA attack RIC barracks at Hollyford co Tipperary.

• 28 May 1920: IRA attack on RIC barracks at Kilmallock, county Limerick. Two RIC men killed, two wounded, ten more surrender. One IRA man killed, one wounded. Barracks' arms are seized, the building is burned.

[edit] June

• 6 June 1920: IRA ambush near Cullyhanna in south Armagh. RIC sergeant Tim Holland and a civilian Peter McReesh are killed in the shooting.

• 7 June 1920: IRA attack Drangan barracks on Tipperary/Kilkenny border.

• 12 June 1920: IRA ambush at Clonee Wood, county Cork; one RIC killed, one wounded.

• 16 June 1920: IRA attack RIC barracks at Cookstown, county Tyrone. IRA man Patrick Loughrane killed.

• 26 June 1920: About 200 IRA men attack an RIC barracks at Borrisokane, north county Tipperary. Attack is unsuccessful, but building is so badly damaged that it is evacuated the next day.

• 29 June 1920: IRA ambush in Ballina, north Mayo. One RIC man killed, one wounded.

• June 1920: RIC man killed in IRA ambush in south Armagh.

• June-July 1920: Summer assizes fail across the South and West. Trials by jury cannot be held because jurors will not attend. Hamar Greenwood informs the Coalition Cabinet that "the administrative machinery of the courts has been brought to a standstill". The collapse of the court system demoralizes the Royal Irish Constabulary. Many police resign and retire over the summer. What historian Peter Hart has called "a spirit of murderous self-reliance" grows among the remainder.

[edit] July

• 11 July 1920: Alexander Will, from Forfar in Scotland, becomes the first Black and Tan to die in the conflict, during an IRA attack on the RIC barracks in Rathmore, county Kerry.

• 13 July 1920: Two RIC men killed in IRA ambush in Dingle, county Kerry.

• 17 July 1920: British Colonel Gerard Smyth assassinated by IRA in Country Club in Cork city in reprisal for a speech he made to RIC men encouraging reprisals. Railway workers refuse to carry Smyth's body. Smyth is from Banbridge, county Down and his killing provokes retaliation in the north against Catholics in Banbridge and Dromore.

• 19/20 July 1920: IRA ambush a police party near Tuam, county Galway. Two police are killed. The remaining two surrender, and are released unharmed. After searching unsuccessfully for the ambushers, police reinforcements riot in Tuam, firing and throwing grenades in the streets, burning the town hall and a drapery warehouse and threatening to kill Republican suspects. The Tuam police riot inspires copycat reprisals across Ireland in the summer and autumn of 1920.

• 21 July 1920: Loyalists force over 7000 Catholic and left wing Protestants from their jobs at Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast. Sectarian rioting in Belfast and Derry, many Catholics and Protestants expelled from their homes.

• 23 July 1920: A critical meeting of the Coalition Government's Cabinet is held in London. The Cabinet is divided on how to proceed. Some Liberal ministers and Dublin Castle officials are in favour of offering dominion status to Ireland. Unionist ministers argue that the Government must crush the insurgency and proceed with the Government of Ireland Bill. Debate will continue after the meeting: Walter Long will warn of "the gravest consequences in Ulster" if the Government changes course; by 2 August, the hawks will prevail.

• 25 July 1920: RIC Intelligence officer assassinated by the IRA outside the local Catholic Church in Bandon as he is leaving Mass.

• 26 July 1920: IRA attack RIC cycling patrol at Ballyrush, county Sligo.

• 27 July 1920: RIC man shot dead by IRA in Clonakilty, county Cork.

• 28 July 1920: IRA ambush at Oola, county Limerick. Two British soldiers killed, two wounded.

• 29 July 1920: IRA ambush in Ballina, county Mayo. One RIC man is killed and one wounded.

• 30 July 1920: IRA man Paddy Daly shoots dead Frank Brooke, director of Great Southern and Eastern Railway in his office in Dublin. Brooke was a member of the British military's Advisory Council.

• July 1920: Two successful ambushes by the IRA South Tipperary unit under Dinny Lacey. In the first ambush at Thomastown, 6 British troops are killed and at the Glen of Aherlow, where 4 Black and Tans are killed.

[edit] August

• At various dates the IRA/Volunteers swear allegiance to Dáil Éireann; previously they had sworn to obey their Executive Council.

• 2 August 1920: The Restoration of Order in Ireland Bill is introduced and given first reading in the House of Commons. The Government uses cloture to limit debate.

• 9 August 1920: the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act receives Royal assent. The Act gives Dublin Castle the power to govern by regulation; to replace the criminal courts with courts martial; to replace coroners' inquests with military courts of inquiry; and to punish disaffected local governments by withholding their grants of money.

• 12 August 1920: Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork is arrested. McSwiney goes on hunger strike in protest and is joined by ten other prisoners. IRA officers Liam Lynch and Sean Hegarty are also arrested, but mistakenly released by the British.

• 16 August: British forces burn buildings in Templemore as reprisal for IRA actions.

• 18 August 1920, IRA under Sean MacEoin raids British army barracks in Longford town and Ballymahon for arms.

• 22 August 1920:
  • East Mayo IRA under Sean Corcoran and Sean Walsh capture RIC barracks in Ballyvarey, county Mayo. Arms and ammunition are taken.
  • RIC Detective Swanzy shot dead by Cork IRA men while leaving Church in Lisburn county Antrim. Swanzy had been blamed by an inquest jury for the killing of Cork Mayor Thomas MacCurtain. Catholic residential areas of Lisburn are burned in revenge by local loyalists. Several people are later prosecuted for the burnings.

• August 1920: Enniscrone Coast Guard station, county Sligo, burned by IRA. Also in Sligo, an IRA ambush near Tubbercurry kills one RIC man and wounds two more. Tubbercurry is then subjected to reprisals by the RIC.

[edit] September

• 20 September 1920:
  • IRA ambush of a lorry of British soldiers on Church St Dublin. Three soldiers killed, the first in the city since the Easter Rising of 1916. IRA man Kevin Barry arrested at the scene and charged with murder.
  • The Sack of Balbriggan. A newly promoted Head Constable is shot and killed by IRA in Balbriggan, in north county Dublin, near the training camp for British police recruits at Gormanston. Later that night, police riot and attack Balbriggan, killing two men, looting and burning four public houses, destroying a hosiery factory, and damaging or destroying forty-nine homes. This incident causes a sensation in Britain, making headlines in the British press, and making reprisals an important topic for debate in Parliament.

• 22 September 1920: IRA ambush at Rineen, county Clare. Five RIC men killed. Resident Magistrate Lendrum is kidnapped at a level crossing near Doonbeg, county Clare, by the IRA. He is shot dead and his body dumped at a nearby beach. Following this, and the ambush earlier in the day, the Black and Tans run amok, killing six civilians in Milltown Malbay, Lahinch and Ennistymon, and burned twenty-six buildings, including the town halls in Lahinch and Ennistymon.

• 23 September 1920: IRA ambush by East Mayo and South Sligo brigades at Ratra near Frenchpark, county Roscommon. Two RIC men and one volunteer killed. The Black and Tans mutilate his body and drag it through the streets of Ballaghaderreen.

• 25 September 1920: In revenge for previous actions of the Black and Tans, a small group of men from the East Mayo Brigade hijack a train and drive it past the barracks at Ballaghaderreen whilst firing at the building. The attack takes the crown forces by surprise but there are no casualties.

• 26 September 1920: Black and Tans burn the village of Kilkee, county Clare.

• 27 September 1920: Black and Tans burn the town centre of Trim, County Meath.

• 28 September 1920: Cork IRA raid military barracks at Mallow, county Cork for arms. Thirty seven rifles taken. British troops burn several businesses and homes in the town in reprisal.

• September 1920: a law clerk named John Lynch is murdered in his hotel bed. It was a mystery to most why he should have been killed, but the Propaganda Department successfully deflected journalists' attention from the fact that he was working on the cases of IRA men charged with killing policemen at the time.

[edit] October

• 11 October 1920: Shoot-out at IRA safe house in Drumcondra, Dublin. One civilian is killed, IRA man Dan Breen badly wounded.

• 12 October 1920: IRA ambush at Ballinderry, county Roscommon. Four RIC men are killed.

• 17 October 1920: Cork IRA volunteer Michael Fitzgerald dies on hunger strike.

• 20 October 1920: IRA gunman Sean Treacy killed in gunfight with British troops on Talbot Street, Dublin city centre.

• 22 October 1920: IRA West Cork Brigade ambush a lorry of British troops from the Essex Regiment at Toureen, on the road between Bandon and Cork. Five soldiers are killed, including a Captain, Dickson. Ten more are captured, disarmed and then released.

• 25 October 1920:
  • Terence MacSwiney dies on hunger strike in Brixton prison, London. Hours later, another Cork IRA man, Joseph Murray, also dies on hunger strike. Arthur Griffith then calls off further hunger strikes.
  • IRA ambush at Moneygold, county Sligo. Three RIC men killed and three wounded. Three IRA men and their woman driver subsequently arrested and imprisoned.

• 31 October 1920:
  • RIC Detective Kelleher shot dead by the IRA in a pub in Granard, county Longford.
  • Day and night of violence in county Kerry - ten people killed. Two RIC constables shot dead in Abbeydorney by IRA. Two more RIC men killed and two more wounded in nearby Ballyduff. Black and Tans burn the creamery in Ballyduff in reprisal and shoot and bayonet local man, James Houlahan. That night, two Black and Tans are shot dead by IRA men in Killorglin and two more wounded in Dingle. The Black and Tans burn the Sinn Féin hall, the Temperance Hall, a garage and the home of a Sinn Féin activist in Killorglin. A local civilian is shot and seriously wounded; he later dies. Two RIC men are kidnapped by IRA in Tralee, co Kerry. They are shot and killed but their bodies are never found. This provokes a week of police violence in Tralee as the RIC try to recover the bodies.

[edit] November

• 1 November 1920:
  • 18 years old IRA man Kevin Barry is hanged in Dublin for his part in an amush of British soldiers.
  • RIC man shot dead in Ballinalee, county Longford. Black and Tans burn the village of Granard in reprisal.
  • Helen Quinn shot dead by police in county Galway. Afraid of ambushes, police have begun to reconnoitre by fire, shooting blindly into woods and possible ambush sites. Helen Quinn is near one such site when the police open fire, and is hit by a ricochet. Irish public opinion is outraged when a military court of inquiry returns a verdict of "death by misadventure". Soon afterward, RIC Headquarters and the Chief of Police issue orders against wild firing from motor vehicles.
  • IRA ambush British army patrol at Piltown, county Waterford; two soldiers killed, six wounded and thirty captured but later released. A second IRA ambush on British reinforcements arriving from Tramore goes wrong and two IRA men are killed and two more wounded.
  • Simultaneous IRA attacks on the RIC barracks and Marine Station at Ardmore, county Waterford.
  • The RIC and Black and Tans burn the county hall in Tralee in revenge for the killing of two constables the previous day and fire shots at people going to Mass. Shops and businesses are forced by RIC and Tans to remain closed until 9 November in an effort to recover the bodies of the dead RIC men. Local man John Conway is shot dead by Police.

• 2 November 1920: Black and Tans shoot dead IRA man Tommy Wall in Tralee.

• 2 November 1920: Sean MacEoin's North Longford IRA column defends the village of Ballinalee from a Black and Tans assault, launched in response to the shooting of an RIC man there the previous day. British forces, consisting of eleven lorries of troops, retreat after a two and a half hour gunfight. The IRA column remains in the village for a week.

• 4 November 1920: Black and Tans burn the businesses of Sinn Féin sympathisers in Tralee.

• 8 November 1920: IRA ambush at Grange, county Limerick; four British soldiers killed when lorry fired on. IRA column under Tomas Malone retreat when seven more troop lorries arrive.

• 12 November 1920: Two IRA men killed in gunfight in Ballymacelligott, near Tralee, county Kerry.

• 14 November 1920: A Catholic priest, Father Michael Griffin, leaves his residence at St. Joseph's Church, county Galway; his housekeeper hears him talking to someone at the door and assumes that Fr. Griffin is going to visit a sick parishioner. He never returns. His disappearance is reported to the police the following day. Presumed killed by state forces.

• November 1920: Four IRA officers captured by the Auxiliaries in Durris, county Cork. Only the intervention of a colonel of the King's Liverpool Regiment prevented the men from being summarily executed.

• 17 November 1920: RIC sergeant James O'Donoghue assassinated by IRA men in Winter Street in Cork city.

• 18 November 1920: Three civilians shot dead in Cork city by masked men (presumed RIC/Black and Tans) in reprisal for killing of O'Donoghue.

• 19 November 1920: Joseph Devlin, MP for Belfast/Falls, accuses the security forces of kidnapping Fr. Michael Griffin of Galway. Chief Secretary Hamar Greenwood denies this accusation.

• 20 November 1920: The body of Fr. Michael Griffin is found in a shallow grave, in a bog near Barna, outside Galway city.

• 21 November 1920:
  • Morning: The IRA attacks eight addresses in central and south-central Dublin city, killing eleven men and wounding five, one of them fatally. Their victims are British Army officers, some of whom are intelligence agents (known as the "Cairo Gang"). In one case, a gun battle erupts between IRA and Auxiliaries who stumble across the scene of one assassination: two Auxiliaries are killed, and one IRA man is captured.
  • Afternoon: Police, Auxiliaries, and soldiers raid Croke Park (Dublin's GAA football ground) during a Gaelic football match in response to the IRA shootings that morning. For some unknown reason, police open fire on the crowd. Fourteen spectators are killed. That evening, Dublin Castle claims that the raiding party came under fire from rebel gunmen; this claim is contradicted by the press, and, later, by the findings of military courts of inquiry, which are suppressed by the Government. The shootings are generally considered a reprisal.^[2]
  • Evening: Two IRA prisoners, and a civilian friend who had been arrested with them, are "shot while trying to escape" in Dublin Castle.

November 21, 1920 becomes known as Bloody Sunday.

• 25 November 1920: Sinn Féin leaders Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeill are arrested by British in Dublin.

• 28 November 1920: Kilmichael ambush. The west Cork unit of the IRA, under Tom Barry, ambushes a patrol of Auxiliaries at Kilmicheal in county Cork, killing 17 of them. It has been alleged that some of the Auxiliaries were killed after they had surrendered, though the IRA men were adamant there had been a false surrender, after which no quarter was given.

[edit] December

• 6 December 1920: IRA attack the RIC barracks in Camlough, county Armagh. Roughly 300 IRA men assault the building, held by six RIC constables for several hours. Troops arriving from Newry are ambushed before the IRA retire. In reprisal, the Ulster Special Constabulary burn buildings in the village of Camlough. Local IRA leader Frank Aiken's home is burned the next day, as are ten homes of his relatives.

• 10 December 1920:
  • Martial law is proclaimed in counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary.
  • British capture an IRA bomb making factory in Dublin. Ernie O'Malley is captured in Kilkenny.

• 11 December 1920: The centre of Cork city burnt out by Crown forces, who then prevent firefighters from tackling the blaze in reprisal for an IRA ambush in the city. The Auxiliaries shoot dead two IRA men in their beds.

• 13 December 1920: two IRA officers, Michael McNamara and William Shanahan, abducted and shot by British forces in Clare, bodies found near Kilkee on December 19.

• 15 December 1920: An Auxiliary named Harte kills a boy and a priest, Fr. Magner, in an apparently motiveless attack at Dunmanway county Cork. He is discharged and declared insane by the British authorities.

• 16 December 1920: IRA ambush at Kilcommon Cross north Tipperary. Four British soldiers killed and three wounded.

• 20 December 1920: Kilkenny IRA ambush RIC/military patrol at Nine Mile House, county Kilkenny, eight soldiers and one RIC man are killed.

• 23 December 1920: The Government of Ireland Act receives Royal assent, creating the provinces of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, each with its own parliament.

• 25 December 1920: British patrol in Tralee co Kerry shoots dead two men, suspected of being IRA and burns their homes.

• 29 December 1920:
  • British generals attend a meeting of the Cabinet and predict victory in Ireland by the spring. Dublin Castle's Chief of Police agrees. "General Tudor said he thought that, in this area, in four months' time the terror would be broken if there was no truce. The great hope of the extremists was a change of policy."
  • British government sanctions "official reprisals". Begun with the burning of seven houses in Midleton, county Cork in reprisal for IRA ambush earlier in the day.

• 30 December 1920: Martial law is extended to counties Clare, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford.

[edit] 1921

[edit] January

• 1 January 1921: IRA ambush led by Eoin O'Duffy in Ballybay, county Monaghan, one RIC man and one civilian killed, three Auxiliaries are wounded.

• 7 January 1921: Police raid a cottage near Ballinalee, county Longford, looking for Sean MacEoin. MacEoin opens fire from the cottage, kills District Inspector Thomas McGrath, wounds a constable, and escapes.

• 15-17 January 1921: British soldiers impose a curfew in an area bounded by Capel St., Church St., North King St. and the quays in Dublin's inner city, sealing it off and allowing no-one in or out. They then conduct a house-to-house search, but no significant arrests or arms finds are made.

• 21 January 1921: Abortive IRA ambush at Drumcondra, Dublin city. One IRA man killed, five captured, of whom four later hung.

• 28 January 1921: British troops are tipped off by local Loyalist Mrs Lindsay about an IRA ambush at Macroom-Cork road. Two IRA men are killed and five captured by British soldiers. The five IRA prisoners are later executed under martial law. The local IRA kill Lindsay and her chauffeur in reprisal.

• January 1921: IRA man John Doran is abducted from his home in Camlough, county Armagh and killed by unknown gunmen.

• January 1921: IRA ambush in Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), Dublin city. Two Auxiliaries and three IRA men killed.

• January 1921: IRA ambush at Freeduff, county Armagh. Two RIC men are killed and more injured.

• End of January 1921: British army in Dublin start carrying republican prisoners in their trucks when on patrol to stop grenade attacks on them, with signs saying "Bomb us now". This is discontinued when foreign journalists in the city report it. They later cover the trucks with a mesh to prevent grenades entering the vehicles, to which the IRA respond by attaching hooks to what were then referred to as "Mills bombs", which would catch in the mesh.

[edit] February

• February 1921: British soldiers impose a curfew on the Mountjoy Square area of north Dublin city and conduct a house to house search. Shortly after another similar curfew imposed on the Nassau Street/Kildare Street area. Few arrests, but some arms seized.

• 1 February 1921: Led by Sean MacEoin, North Longford IRA ambush two lorries of Auxiliaries at Clonfin county Longford. A landmine is exploded under the lorries, followed by a two hour firefight. Four Auxiliaries and a driver are killed and eight wounded. IRA capture 18 rifles, 20 revolvers and a Lewis gun.

• 1 February 1921: the first execution under martial law of an IRA man takes place. Cornelius Murphy of Millstreet, county Cork, shot in Cork city.

• 3 February 1921: Limerick IRA ambush RIC patrol at Dromkeen, county Limerick. Eleven policemen killed, some allegedly killed after surrendering.

• 5 February 1921: British Intelligence officer John Ryan assassinated by IRA men in a pub on Corporation Street in Dublin.

• 9 February 1921: Drumcondra Murders. James Murphy and Patrick Kennedy are arrested by Auxiliaries in Dublin. Two hours later, Dublin Metropolitan Police find the two men lying shot in Drumcondra: Kennedy is dead, and Murphy is dying.

• 11 February 1921:
  • James Murphy dies in Mater Hospital, Dublin. Before the end, he declares that he and Kennedy were shot by their Auxiliary captors. A court of inquiry is held, and Captain W L King, commanding officer of F Company ADRIC, is arrested for the killings.
  • IRA attack on train near Millstreet county Cork. One British soldier killed, five wounded and fifteen captured (later released), arms and ammunition seized.
  • IRA ambush position at Mourne Abbey, county Cork, is betrayed by an informer, Dan Shields. Five IRA men are killed by British troops, four more wounded and captured. Two of the captured Volunteers are later executed.

• 14 February 1921: IRA prisoners Ernie O'Malley, Frank Teeling and Simon Donnelly escape from Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin.

• 15 February 1921: Disastrous IRA attack on a train containing British soldiers at Upton county Cork, 3 IRA men are killed, 8 captured, 2 of whom later executed. Six civilian passengers are killed, and ten wounded in crossfire.

• 20 February 1921: Twelve IRA volunteers are killed in Clonmult, near Midleton, county Cork by British soldiers and Auxiliaries after being surrounded in a house. The British allege a false IRA surrender and kill all the IRA men in the house. Four more IRA men are wounded and another four captured. The IRA suspect that informer is to blame and a spate of shootings of suspected informers follows.

• 21 February 1921: Two IRA men killed and two wounded in a shoot out in Friary Street in Kilkenny city.

• 23 February 1921: IRA men attack RIC men returning from lunch to Dublin Castle on Parliament street. Two Policemen are killed, another is badly wounded and dies that night.

• 25 February 1921: IRA ambush, by the Cork No. One Brigade led by Dan "Sandow" O'Donovan at Coolavokig, Co. Cork, British Major Grant killed, eight soldiers wounded.

• 28 February 1921: IRA ambush led by Sean Moylan at Tureengariff county Cork, two RIC men killed, two rifles taken.

[edit] March

• March 1921: IRA informer Dan Shields betrays the position of an IRA column in Nadd west Cork. Three IRA men killed in subsequent British ambush.

• 1 March 1921: IRA North Longford commander Sean MacEoin captured at Mullingar, charged with murder of RIC detective. Severe blow to the IRA in that area.

• 2 March 1921: IRA ambush, 2nd Cork Brigade and 2nd Kerry Brigade lay landmines near Millstreet. Thirteen British soldiers killed and fifteen wounded when landmines are exploded under their lorry.

• 5 March 1921: IRA ambush at Clonbannin, county Cork, British colonel Cumming and three other soldiers are killed when their armoured car breaks down and they are exposed to IRA fire. {note: Brigadier General Hanway Robert Cumming}

• 6 March 1921: The Limerick Curfew Murders. The Mayor of Limerick, George Clancy, former mayor Michael O'Callaghan and Volunteer Joseph O'Donoghue are shot dead in their homes at night after curfew. Forty years later, in his article "Portrait of a Killer", British writer Richard Bennett reveals that the murders were carried out by a British intelligence agent, George Nathan, assisted by an Auxiliary from G Company ADRIC. Nathan had become in 1918 the only Jewish officer in the Brigade of Guards, and later went on to command a British company of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. He was killed in action in 1937.

• 7 March 1921: The South Mayo flying column under Tom Maguire surrounds a British army patrol at Kilfall between Ballinrobe and Castlebar forcing it to surrender and give up its arms.

• 11 March 1921: North Longford IRA officer Sean Connolly and five other IRA men killed at Selton Hill, near Mohill, county Leitrim when their ambush position is betrayed by a local Orangeman.

• 12 March 1921: Firefight between Kilkenny IRA unit and British forces at Garrykerin House on the Clonmel-Kilkenny road. One Black and Tan is killed.

• 19 March 1921: Crossbarry Ambush- IRA Cork no. 3 Brigade under Tom Barry fights action against 1,200 British troops at Crossbary, county Cork. The IRA column escapes encirclement, inflicting between ten and thirty killed on the British side. British claim that six IRA men are killed.

• 21 March 1921: Kerry IRA attack a train at the Headford junction near Killarney. An estimated twenty British soldiers are killed, as well as two IRA men and three civilians.

• 22 March 1921: Three members of the West Mayo flying column attack a four man RIC patrol at Clady. Three policemen are wounded one killed.

• 23 March: IRA ambush on Strokestown-Longford road by south county Roscommon IRA. One British soldier and two policemen killed. Two Black and Tans surrender and are later shot dead. Arms and ammunition including Hotchkiss machine gun captured (Scramogue Ambush).

• 24 March: A bomb is thrown at a group of soldiers at Westport, county Mayo. Reprisals take place that night throughout West Mayo.

• March 1921: Cork IRA under Tom Barry attack RIC barracks at Rosscarbery.

Dublin IRA carry out 53 attacks on British forces in the city in the course of the month.

On various dates Dáil Eireann debates, resolves and finally does declare war on the British administration.

[edit] April

• 1 April 1921: IRA Mayo officer Sean Corcoran killed at Ballyhaunis co Mayo.

• 3 April 1921: IRA informer Vincent Fouvarge from Dublin shot dead at golf course near London, England. Note is left saying, "let spies and traitors beware, IRA".

• 9 April 1921: Abortive IRA ambush in Mullinglown, County Carlow - no casualties but several IRA men arrested.

• 13-15 April 1921: Captain W L King, commanding officer of F Company ADRIC, is tried by court-martial for the murder of James Murphy on 9 February. James Murphy's dying declaration is ruled inadmissible. Two Auxiliary officers provide alibis for Captain King at the time of the murder. King is acquitted.

• 14 April 1921: Arthus Vicars assassinated in Kilmorna County Kerry by IRA. {See Irish Crown Jewels}

• 15 April 1921: Major McKinnon, Auxiliary officer, shot dead at Tralee golf course, county Kerry.

• 28 April 1921: Volunteer Patrick Ronayne (b. 17 June 1897) of Greenhill, Mourneabbey, Mallow, Co. Cork is executed at Cork Military Detention Barracks for his involvement in the failed Mourneabbey Ambush, where eight Volunteer comrades were killed.

• April 1921: The IRA take the Protestant congregation of Creggan, County Armagh, hostage as they arrive for church and ambush the local B-Specials as they are arriving for the service, with grenades and small arms. One constable is killed, another is wounded. The Protestant civilians are released.

• April 1921: Auxiliaries mistake off duty RIC constables in hotel in Castleconnell, County Clare, for IRA men. Two RIC men, one Auxiliary and the hotel landlord killed in gunfight until the mistake is realised.

• April 1921: IRA in Belfast shoot dead two Auxiliaries in Donegal Place, in the city centre. The same night, two Catholics are killed in reprisal on the Falls Road.

Dublin IRA carry out 67 attacks on British forces in the city in the course of the month.

[edit] May

• 2 May 1921: IRA column ambushes British troops near Lackelly, county Limerick, but takes heavy casualties in ensuing fire fight. The IRA columns is ambushed another three times as it retreats during five and a half hour running fight. Between five and fourteen IRA volunteers killed and up to thirty wounded.

• 3 May 1921: IRA ambush by South Mayo flying column under Tom Maguire at Tourmakeady Mayo, six British soldiers and one IRA volunteer killed. IRA column pursued over the Partry Mountains by 600 British troops guided by aeroplanes. The column is surrounded by over 700 crown forces but manage to escape. British causaulties in the second engagement are not revealed.

• 4 May 1921: The Kerry IRA ambush RIC patrol, eight Policemen killed, with only one escapee from the RIC patrol. Five houses and a creamery were burned in reprisal by British forces. The IRA had left the body of an 80 year-old informer, Thomas Sullivan, they had killed at the side of the road near Rathmore, in order to lure the police into the ambush.

• 8 May 1921: IRA column surrounded by British troops in Lapinduff mountains, county Monaghan. One IRA man killed, two wounded and eleven captured.

• 9 May 1921: Kerry, near Castleisland, two RIC men are shot by IRA on their way home from Mass. One is killed, the other saved when his wife covers him with her body.

• 10 May 1921: Two RIC constables disappear near Clonmany, County Donegal. The body of one washed up on the shore the next day.

• May 1921: Pope Benedict XV issues a letter that encourages the "English as well as Irish to calmly consider ... some means of agreement".

• 12 May 1921: A group of Black and Tans travelling out from Listowel towards Athea arrest three young men in Gortaglanna. Prior to this the barracks in Listowel had been burnt out and the troops decide to execute the young men in revenge. One of the men, Dalton, attempted to free himself from captivity and escapes, though injured by a bullet. Both of the other two men are shot on the spot.

• 13-15 May 1921: "Black Whitsun". A general election for the parliament of Southern Ireland is held on 13 May. Sinn Féin wins 124 of the new parliament's 128 seats unopposed, and its elected members show every signs of refusing to take their seats. If that happens, under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act, the Southern Parliament will be dissolved, and Southern Ireland will be ruled as a crown colony. Over the next two days (14-15 May) the IRA kills fifteen police. These events mark the complete failure of the Coalition Government's Irish policy.

• 14 May 1921: IRA steal an armoured car on the North Circular Road in Dublin, killing two British soldiers. The car is then used to gain entrance to Mountjoy Prison in an effort to free IRA prisoner Sean MacEoin. However, the plot is discovered and the IRA men in the car have to shoot their way out of the prison. The car is later abandoned in Clontarf.

• 14 May 1921: IRA in Tipperary assassinate RIC detective Biggs and local Loyalist, Miss Barrington, who was sitting beside him in a police car.

• 15 May 1921: Ballyturin House Ambush. IRA in county Galway ambush a motor car as it leaves Ballyturin House near Gort. Two Army officers are shot dead, along with an RIC District Inspector and his wife. Margaret Gregory, daughter-in-law of Augusta, Lady Gregory, survives unharmed. Police come under fire when they arrive at the scene; one constable is wounded and dies six days later.

• 19 May 1921:
  • British troops surprise an IRA ambush party at Kilmeena, county Mayo; 6 IRA men killed, seven wounded. The remainder of the column flees over the mountains to Skerdagh. One RIC man and one Black and Tan killed in the action. British forces throw the dead and wounded IRA men into the street outside the Police barracks in Westport, causing widespread revulsion. The Marquess of Sligo visits the Police station to complain.
  • Two RIC men killed by IRA in Kinnitty, county Offaly.

• 25 May 1921: Dublin IRA units occupy and burn the Custom House, centre of local government in Ireland in Dublin city centre. The building and the IRA units are surrounded by several hundred British troops. Five IRA men killed and between eighty and one hundred and thirty captured. A disaster for the Dublin IRA.

• 31 May 1921: IRA ambush at Youghal co Cork, seven British soldiers (military bandsmen from Hampshire regiment) are killed, twenty more are wounded.

• May 1921: Ulster Special constable Goerge Lynas is shot dead in county Armagh. The B-Specials shoot dead two local Catholics in reprisal.

Dublin IRA carry out 107 attacks on British forces in the city in the course of the month.

[edit] June

• June 1921: Dublin IRA attack cricket match involving British soldiers in Trinity College Dublin. One woman spectator killed in crossfire.

• 1 June 1921:
  • IRA ambush a police bicylce patrol near Castlemaine, County Kerry. An RIC District Inspector and three constables are killed outright; a sergeant is wounded and dies later.
  • Two RIC men shot dead by IRA in Culleens, county Sligo.

• 2 June 1921: Carrowkennedy ambush, county Mayo. Michael Kilroy and the IRA's West Mayo Flying Column ambush a convoy of RIC and Black and Tans. Six police are killed and six are wounded, two of them fatally. The surviving seventeen police surrender, and the IRA seize a large quantity of arms. Many of the local people go into hiding to avoid the retribution of the Tans. The Irish fighters went on the run throughout the region sheltering in safe houses.

• 3 June 1921: IRA ambush at Modreeny north county Tipperary, four British soldiers/RIC are killed and fourteen wounded

• 4 June - 14 June 1921: Around 800 British troops sweep the Macroom area, of county Cork.

• 6 June 1921: British government calls off the policy of house burnings as official reprisals.

• 10 June 1921: Waterford IRA column surrenders after an abortive ambush at Piltown, county Waterford.

• 16 June 1921: IRA ambush at Rathcoole, near Banteer, county Cork. Landmines are exploded under three lorries, killing two Auxiliaries and wounding four.

• 22 June 1921: King George V addresses the first session of the parliament of Northern Ireland, calling on "all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment, and good will."

• 23 June 1921:
  • Over 1000 British troops sweep Millstreet area of county Cork.
  • IRA column encircled by British forces in Ballycastle, county Mayo; one IRA man killed, seven captured.

• 23 June 1921: IRA ambush of a troop train between Adavoyle and Jonesborough in county Armagh. A mine is exploded under the train, derailing it and killing four soldiers of the 10th Royal Hussar cavalry regiment and 63 of their horses. British troops sweep the area and shoot dead one local man when he failed to stop when challenged.

• 24 June 1921: British Coalition Government's Cabinet decides to propose talks with the leader of Sinn Féin. Coalition Liberals and Unionists agree that an offer to negotiate will strengthen the Government's position if the revolutionaries refuse. Austen Chamberlain, the new leader of the Unionist Party, says that "the King's Speech ought to be followed up as a last attempt at peace before we go to full martial law".

• 26 June 1921: IRA men in Dublin kill Temporary Cadet William F. H. Hunt in the dining-room of the Mayfair Hotel on Baggot Street. Cadet Hunt had previously been a policeman in England, and his widow takes advantage of a loophole in British law to claim two pensions.

• June 1921: Four Catholic civilians are taken from their homes in Bessbrook and Altnaveigh, Armagh and shot dead by the B-Specials.

Dublin IRA carry out 93 attacks on British forces in the city in the course of the month.

[edit] July

• 9 July 1921: Truce terms signed in Dublin, to be effective on 11 July.

• 10 July 1921: Gunfight at Castleisland, county Kerry; five IRA men are killed, four British soldiers are also killed and three wounded in the action.

• 10 July 1921: IRA ambush in Raglan Street in Belfast. In the following week, sixteen Catholics are killed and 216 Catholic homes burned in reprisal.

• 11 July: Actions commanded by IRA H.Q. end in the south at midday under the Truce. Violence in Northern Ireland and unofficial violence in the south continue.

[edit] December

• 6 December 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed between British Government and Irish delegation signed in London.

[edit] See also

• Chronology of the Irish Civil War

[edit] References

• Tom Barry, Guerilla Days in Ireland, Anvil, Cork 1981.
• Richard Abbott, Police Casualties in Ireland, 1919-1922, Mercier Press, Dublin 2000.
• M.E. Collins, Ireland 1866-1966, Educational Company of Ireland, Dublin 1993.
• T, Ryle Dwyer, The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins, Mercier Press, Dublin 2005.
• Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence, Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2004.
• Toby Harnden, Bandit country, The IRA and South Armagh, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1999.
• David Leeson, "Death in the Afternoon: The Croke Park Massacre, 21 November 1920", Canadian Journal of History Vol. 38, no. 1 (April 2003).
• Ernie O'Malley, Raid and Rallies, Anvil Books, Dublin 1982.

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ The war is often referred to as the "Irish War of Independence" in Ireland and as the "Anglo-Irish War" in Britain, the "Tan War" by anti-Treaty republicans and was known contemporarily as "the Troubles", not to be confused with the later conflict in Northern Ireland, which is also referred to as the "the Troubles".
2. ^ David Leeson, "Death in the Afternoon: The Croke Park Massacre, 21 November 1920", Canadian Journal of History Vol. 38, no. 1 (April 2003): 43-67.