Talk:Chronology of the Irish War of Independence
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Can I make a few suggestions?
First, Wikipedia is telling us that this article may be too long. A lot of this length is the result of including many very minor skirmishes. Although this accurately reflects the nature of the conflict, perhaps it would be better to leave out little-known incidents that do not meet some kind of minimum casualty number--say, the deaths of three ordinary people, or the death or capture of an officer. That would let us slim things down a bit, and still hit the highlights.
Second, Richard Abbot has published an excellent reference work, Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922, which lists every policeman and auxiliary killed in the War of Independence. I have revised a few entries after checking them against Abbott, and I suggest others do the same.
Third, I have tried to add some information about important British political decisions and events, like the failure of the Summer assizes in 1920, the Cabinet meeting of 23 July 1920, the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, and Black Whitsun in May 1921. I think that more information of this kind from the Republican side would be more useful than more details about ambushes and assassinations. --Cliodule 16:13, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
- Hi Clodule, good work on this article so far.
Re the length of the article. The 32k limit is only a guideline as certain browsers, my own included, cannot edit articles over this length in full. However many articles go over this limit and this one is only slightly over it. I do not feel that this article should be cut down from its present state.
Re the second point. The purpose of this article is to catalogue the events of the War of Independence. Most of these events were on a very small scale and this article should reflect this. If we were to apply a rule of only listing incidents where only three people were killed this would not only distort the picture, it would also mean leaving out seminal incidents like Soloheadbeg, where two RIC men were killed. Another advantage to this approach is that it means that much of the detail that still clutters the main article can be removed and moved to here. The main article, not this one, should confined to "highlights". Regarding political developments, I have nothing against their inclusion here, but I feel that wide-ranging or analytical points are better made in the main article.
Re the Police casualties, I have got most of my information from Michael Hopkinson's "Irish War of Independence", if his figures are found to be incorrect, then I have no problem with them being changed.
Jdorney 17:53, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
- Well, if the length of the article isn't a problem, then it isn't a problem, and there's no reason to limit what we include.--Cliodule 21:00, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
