A guerrilla war between the Irish Republican Army and the British forces in Ireland that resulted in the independence of the south of Ireland. The War of Independence began on January 21, 1919, and continued until a truce was declared on July 11, 1921. Two events on January 21 encapsulated the dual nature of the war: the secessionist Irish parliament, Dail Eireann, had its inaugural meeting in Dublin, and two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary were shot by Irish Volunteers in an ambush at Solo-headbeg, County Tipperary. As physical resistance to British rule increased, politicians were forced into hiding and large parts of the country were declared by the British government to be under martial law, allowing for arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.
The strategy of the Irish party Sinn Fein (the party for an independent Irish republic; the term means "we ourselves") was to supplant British authority in Ireland through the creation of its own Irish institutions. In December 1918, following the ending of World War I, the British government had called elections in Britain and Ireland. It was the first occasion when women could vote and stand for office, and the imprisoned Constance Markievicz became the first woman to be elected to Westminster. Nationalists had been arrested for alleged involvement in a German plot, and Markievicz was imprisoned in England, together with Maud Gonne MacBride and Kathleen Clarke, both of whom had husbands executed by the British because of their involvement in the Easter Rising. The elected Sinn Fein members boycotted the British Parliament in favor of a new Irish assembly. Markievicz became minister for labor. Dail Eireann courts were created, and many women served as judges in this underground network. Cumann na mBan, the women’s auxiliary organization of the Irish Republican Army, developed in strength, with 600 branches located throughout Ireland. They provided essential support for both Dail Eireann and the guerrilla fighters of the Irish Republican Army, who operated in locally based flying columns. Cumann na mBan squads provided safe houses, carried food and clothing to men hiding in hillsides, transported weaponry, scouted for targets, undertook intelligence work, and formed guards of honor at funeral processions.
In late 1919, all nationalist organizations were declared illegal, meetings were forbidden, and the dangers of opposing British rule intensified. In March 1920, the British brought in reinforcements, known as Black and Tans because of the motley nature of their uniforms. They began a reign of terror, burning down houses and workplaces and assassinating leading political figures, sometimes in front of their wives. That year, British forces killed 203 people, including 6 women and 12 children, outside of the casualties of combat, and almost 50,000 homes were raided. The U.S. Commission into Conditions in Ireland heard evidence from witnesses in 1920 and 1921. Their conclusion was that the "sanctity of the family home was violated" by the activities of the British forces (Ward 1983, 143). In December 1920, the U.S. Committee for Relief in Ireland organized fund-raising, and the White Cross organization was formed in Ireland to help the 100,000 people who had been left destitute. Nationalist women formed the backbone of the organization, which was headed by Aine Ceannt, another widow of one of the leaders of the 1916 rising.
Women were elected to local government positions in 1920, and in elections to the Second Dail in 1921, six women were returned: Markievicz; Kate O’Callaghan, whose murdered husband had been a mayor of Limerick; Mary MacSwiney, sister of Terence, the Lord Mayor of Cork who died after a lengthy hunger strike; Kathleen Clarke; Margaret Pearse, mother of Patrick Pearse; and Dr. Ada English.
Intelligence was a vital part of the war effort. Michael Collins, who combined roles of adjutant general of the volunteers, director of intelligence, and minister of finance, used women as couriers and as spies within the British administration in Dublin Castle. Women were also invaluable in the production of the underground Sinn Fein paper, the Irish Bulletin, which defied censorship laws in providing information to the foreign press relating to the war. Around 50 women were imprisoned during this period, comparatively few when measured against the male figure of 4,000. This reflected the nature of their work and the difficulties in getting evidence for conviction. Many were untried prisoners. After the truce, 40 women still remained in detention in Mountjoy Jail, although some prominent political figures, including Countess Markievicz (rearrested in April 1921 and sentenced to 2 years of hard labor on the charge of having organized the nationalist boy-scout movement, Fianna Eireann, in 1909), had been released so that they could participate in peace talks. Four women, including Linda Kearns, serving a 10-year sentence for driving a car full of IRA men and weaponry, escaped on October 31 by climbing over the prison wall with a rope ladder. They remained in hiding until the signing of the treaty in December 1921.
No women were included among the Dail delegates chosen to negotiate terms with the British government, although Lily O’Brennan, sister of Aine Ceannt, former secretary of Cumann na mBan, was a secretary for the Irish delegation. The final terms did not give Ireland the status of a republic, requiring members of the Dail to take an oath of allegiance to the British monarchy and confirming the exclusion of six counties of Ulster from the settlement. Cumann na mBan was the first organization to declare its opposition. All six female deputies also opposed the treaty, which was accepted by the Dail in January 1922. A subsequent motion introduced by Kate O’Callaghan to enfranchise women between the ages of 21 and 30 was defeated before the country voted on the issue. This symbolized the nature of the new Free State in some antitreaty quarters. A provisional government, opposed by many IRA and Cumann na mBan members, was formed, but irreconcilable differences led to the subsequent civil war between 1922 and 1923. In that period, more than 400 women were imprisoned, an indication both of their activities and of the greater understanding of the former comrades of their capabilities.
Sinn Fein Standing Committee, March 1922. Left to right, front row: Mrs. Ceanant, Mr. E. Duggan, Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Arthur Griffiths, Eamon De Valera, Michael Collins, Harry Boland, Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington. Middle row: Mrs. Wyse Power, George Lyons, Farrell Figgis, Mr. Murnaghan, Mr. A. Stack, and Dr. Dillon. Top row: Sean Milroy, Walter Cole, Sean MacCaoilte, P. O’Hanrahan, P. O’Keefe.
