Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The War of Independence
In the 1918 general election, the more radical Sinn Féin party won three-quarters of the
Irish seats. In May 1919, they declared independence and established the first Dáil Éireann
(Irish Assembly) in Dublin's Mansion House, led by Éamon de Valera. This was effectively
a declaration of war.
Mindful that they could never match the British on the battlefield, Sinn Féin's military
wing - made up of Irish Volunteers now renamed the Irish Republican Army (IRA) - began
attacking arms dumps and barracks in guerrilla strikes. The British countered by strength-
ening the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and introducing a tough auxiliary force made up
of returning WWI servicemen known as the Black and Tans (after the colour of their uni-
forms).
They met their match in Michael Collins, the IRA's commander and a master of guerrilla
warfare. Although the British knew his name, Collins masterfully concealed his identity
and throughout the war was able to freewheel around the city on his bicycle like he didn't
have a care in the world.
On 10 November 1920, Collins learned that 14 undercover British intelligence operat-
ives known as the 'Cairo Gang' had just arrived in Dublin. The following morning, he had
his own crack squad ('the Apostles') assassinate each one of them as they lay in their beds.
That afternoon, British troops retaliated by opening fire on the crowd at a hurling match in
Croke Park, resulting in the deaths of 10 spectators and one player, Michael Hogan, whose
death was later commemorated when the main stand at the stadium was named after him.
The events of 'Bloody Sunday' galvanised both sides in the conflict and served to quash
any moral doubts over what was becoming an increasingly brutal struggle.
Brutalities notwithstanding, the war resulted in relatively few casualties - 2014 in total -
and by mid-1921 had ground to a kind of stalemate. Both sides were under pressure to end
it: the international community was urging Britain to resolve the issue one way or another,
while, unbeknownst to the British, the IRA was on the verge of collapse. A truce was
signed on 11 July, 1921.
Éamon de Valera, the leader of the first Dáil Éireann, was spared the firing squad in 1916 because of his
US birth; killing him would have been a public-relations disaster.
