The ancestor of many groups also known as the Irish Republican Army, and distinguished from them as the Old IRA, it was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916.
Having lost the civil war, this group remained in existence, with the intention of overthrowing the governments of both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland and achieving the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916. ==Origins== The Irish Volunteers, founded in 1913, staged the Easter Rising, which aimed at ending British rule in Ireland, in 1916.
The ancestor of many groups also known as the Irish Republican Army, and distinguished from them as the Old IRA, it was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916.
Having lost the civil war, this group remained in existence, with the intention of overthrowing the governments of both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland and achieving the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1916. ==Origins== The Irish Volunteers, founded in 1913, staged the Easter Rising, which aimed at ending British rule in Ireland, in 1916.
It was reorganised in 1917 following the release of first the internees and then the prisoners.
On paper, there were 100,000 or so Volunteers enrolled after the conscription crisis of 1918.
In 1919, the Irish Republic that had been proclaimed during the Easter Rising was formally established by an elected assembly (Dáil Éireann), and the Irish Volunteers were recognised by Dáil Éireann as its legitimate army.
Thereafter, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against the British occupation of Ireland in the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence. Following the signing in 1921 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the War of Independence, a split occurred within the IRA.
In August 1919, Brugha proposed to the Dáil that the Volunteers be asked to swear allegiance to the Dáil, but another year passed before the Volunteers took an oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic and its government, "throughout August 1920".
Hart wrote that in his study of the IRA membership that he found only three Protestants serving as "active" IRA men between 1919 and 1921.
Of the 917 IRA men convicted by British courts under the Defence of the Realm Act in 1919, only one was a Protestant.
The majority of the IRA men operating in Britain were Irish-born, but there a substantial minority who were British-born, something that made them especially insistent on asserting their Irish identity. ==Irish War of Independence== ===IRA campaign and organisation=== The IRA fought a guerrilla war against the Crown forces in Ireland from 1919 to July 1921.
The first, in 1919, involved the re-organisation of the Irish Volunteers as a guerrilla army and only sporadic attacks.
In 1919, Collins, the IRA's Director of Intelligence, organised the "Squad"—an assassination unit based in Dublin which killed police involved in intelligence work (the Irish playwright Brendan Behan's father Stephen Behan was a member of the Squad).
By the end of 1919, four Dublin Metropolitan Police and 11 RIC men had been killed.
The RIC abandoned most of their smaller rural barracks in late 1919.
In rural areas, the flying columns usually had bases in remote mountainous areas. While most areas of the country saw some violence in 1919–1921, the brunt of the war was fought in Dublin and the southern province of Munster.
The Irish delegation was led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. The most contentious areas of the Treaty for the IRA were abolition of the Irish Republic declared in 1919, the status of the Irish Free State as a dominion in the British Commonwealth and the British retention of the so-called Treaty Ports on Ireland's south coast.
In August 1919, Brugha proposed to the Dáil that the Volunteers be asked to swear allegiance to the Dáil, but another year passed before the Volunteers took an oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic and its government, "throughout August 1920".
The most intense period of the war was from November 1920 onwards.
Around 400 of these were burned in a co-ordinated IRA operation around the country in April 1920. The second phase of the IRA campaign, roughly from January to July 1920, involved attacks on the fortified police barracks located in the towns.
Between January and June 1920, 16 of these were destroyed and 29 badly damaged.
Several events of late 1920 greatly escalated the conflict.
Thus, the third phase of the war (roughly August 1920 – July 1921) involved the IRA taking on a greatly expanded British force, moving away from attacking well-defended barracks and instead using ambush tactics.
In Munster, the IRA carried out a significant number of successful actions against British troops, for instance the ambushing and killing of 17 of 18 Auxiliaries by Tom Barry's column at Kilmicheal in West Cork in November 1920, or Liam Lynch's men killing 13 British soldiers near Millstreet early in the next year.
One of the strongest critics of the Black and Tans was King George V who in May 1921 told Lady Margery Greenwood that "he hated the idea of the Black and Tans." The most high-profile atrocity of the war took place in Dublin in November 1920, and is still known as Bloody Sunday.
The Church of Ireland Gazette recorded numerous instances of Unionists and Loyalists being shot, burnt or forced from their homes during the early 1920s.
In County Cork between 1920 and 1923 the IRA shot over 200 civilians of whom over 70 (or 36%) were Protestants: five times the percentage of Protestants in the civilian population.
These issues were the cause of a split in the IRA and ultimately, the Irish Civil War. Under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Ireland was partitioned, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
Thereafter, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against the British occupation of Ireland in the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence. Following the signing in 1921 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the War of Independence, a split occurred within the IRA.
The Dáil belatedly accepted responsibility for IRA actions in April 1921, just three months before the end of the Irish War of Independence. In practice, the IRA was commanded by Collins, with Richard Mulcahy as second in command.
Hart wrote that in his study of the IRA membership that he found only three Protestants serving as "active" IRA men between 1919 and 1921.
The majority of the IRA men operating in Britain were Irish-born, but there a substantial minority who were British-born, something that made them especially insistent on asserting their Irish identity. ==Irish War of Independence== ===IRA campaign and organisation=== The IRA fought a guerrilla war against the Crown forces in Ireland from 1919 to July 1921.
Thus, the third phase of the war (roughly August 1920 – July 1921) involved the IRA taking on a greatly expanded British force, moving away from attacking well-defended barracks and instead using ambush tactics.
At the Crossbarry Ambush in March 1921, 100 or so of Barry's men fought a sizeable engagement with a British column of 1,200, escaping from the British encircling manoeuvre.
In County Mayo, large-scale guerrilla action did not break out until spring 1921, when two British forces were ambushed at Carrowkennedy and Tourmakeady.
The violence in Belfast alone, which continued until October 1922 (long after the truce in the rest of the country), claimed the lives of between 400 and 500 people. In April 1921, the IRA was again reorganised, in line with the Dáil's endorsement of its actions, along the lines of a regular army.
In practice, this had little effect on the localised nature of the guerrilla warfare. In May 1921, the IRA in Dublin attacked and burned the Custom House.
The action was a serious setback as five members were killed and eighty captured. By the end of the war in July 1921, the IRA was hard-pressed by the deployment of more British troops into the most active areas and a chronic shortage of arms and ammunition.
An ambitious plan to buy arms from Italy in 1921 collapsed when the money did not reach the arms dealers.
Towards the end of the war, some Thompson submachine guns were imported from the United States; however 450 of these were intercepted by the American authorities and the remainder only reached Ireland shortly before the Truce. By June 1921, Collins' assessment was that the IRA was within weeks, possibly even days, of collapse.
However, in the summer of 1921, the war was abruptly ended. ===Violent exchange=== The Irish War of Independence was a brutal and bloody affair, with violence and acts of extreme brutality on both sides.
One of the strongest critics of the Black and Tans was King George V who in May 1921 told Lady Margery Greenwood that "he hated the idea of the Black and Tans." The most high-profile atrocity of the war took place in Dublin in November 1920, and is still known as Bloody Sunday.
The Truce was agreed on 11 July 1921.
They continued to recruit and train volunteers, with the result that the IRA had increased its number to over 72,000 men by early 1922. Negotiations on an Anglo-Irish Treaty took place in late 1921 in London.
Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish agreement of 6 December 1921, which ended the war (1919–21), Northern Ireland was given the option of withdrawing from the new state, the Irish Free State, and remaining part of the United Kingdom.
The anti-treaty IRA fought a civil war against the Free State Army in 1922–23, with the intention of creating a fully independent all-Ireland republic.
The violence in Belfast alone, which continued until October 1922 (long after the truce in the rest of the country), claimed the lives of between 400 and 500 people. In April 1921, the IRA was again reorganised, in line with the Dáil's endorsement of its actions, along the lines of a regular army.
A convention of Irish Protestant Churches in Dublin in May 1922 signed a resolution placing "on record" that "hostility to Protestants by reason of their religion has been almost, if not wholly, unknown in the twenty-six counties in which Protestants are in the minority." Many historic buildings in Ireland were destroyed during the war, most famously the Custom House in Dublin, which was disastrously attacked on de Valera's insistence, to the horror of the more militarily experienced Collins.
They continued to recruit and train volunteers, with the result that the IRA had increased its number to over 72,000 men by early 1922. Negotiations on an Anglo-Irish Treaty took place in late 1921 in London.
In early 1922, he sent IRA units to the border areas and sent arms to northern units.
The majority of the IRA rank-and-file were against the Treaty; in January–June 1922, their discontent developed into open defiance of the elected civilian Provisional government of Ireland. Both sides agreed that the IRA's allegiance was to the (elected) Dáil of the Irish Republic, but the anti-Treaty side argued that the decision of the Dáil to accept the Treaty (and set aside the Irish Republic) meant that the IRA no longer owed that body its allegiance.
In County Cork between 1920 and 1923 the IRA shot over 200 civilians of whom over 70 (or 36%) were Protestants: five times the percentage of Protestants in the civilian population.
On 24 May 1923, Frank Aiken, the (anti-treaty) IRA Chief-of-Staff, called a cease-fire.
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