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Osprey - Essential Histories 065 - The Anglo-Irish War 1913-1922

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<strong>The</strong> fighting 63<br />

Special Constables in the Troubles, and<br />

presaged the creation of the Ulster Special<br />

Constabulary or 'Specials' on 1 November<br />

1920. Although the Chief of the Imperial<br />

General Staff, Sir Henry Wilson, disliked<br />

the fact that most Specials were in the UVF,<br />

in a similar vein to the adoption of<br />

'official' reprisals, their use was probably<br />

the only chance that the Government had<br />

of controlling the forces that had been<br />

unleashed by the Troubles.<br />

IRA operations in<br />

mainland Britain<br />

<strong>The</strong> Troubles were not confined to Ireland<br />

but spilled over on to the mainland where<br />

IRA activists sought to bring the 'war'<br />

home to the British public. Over 1,000<br />

men were on the IRA's books in Britain;<br />

however, only a couple of hundred at most<br />

were active. Between 1920 and July 1921<br />

a total of six people were killed and 19<br />

wounded in bombings and shootings<br />

whilst several thousand <strong>Irish</strong> men and<br />

women were detained for questioning and<br />

around 600 were formally arrested and<br />

charged. Collins, who had joined the <strong>Irish</strong><br />

Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in London,<br />

never saw Britain as the main effort but<br />

viewed his people there as 'the auxiliaries<br />

of our attacking forces'. In reality, the IRA<br />

outside of London and Liverpool was<br />

relatively inactive although the Manchester<br />

battalion was responsible for 16 per cent of<br />

IRA activity in England.<br />

In December 1920, Collins sent Paddy<br />

Daly to London to head up the IRA<br />

campaign. Until Daly's arrival mainland<br />

IRA units had little real idea of Collins'<br />

strategy and as a result missed several<br />

opportunities whilst awaiting orders.<br />

Between February and July 1921 they<br />

intensified their attacks on farms and<br />

factories in revenge for British reprisals<br />

against creameries and farms in Ireland.<br />

Explosives were rarely used, as arson was<br />

their main weapon, and despite the<br />

abundance of firearms they rarely seemed<br />

adequately prepared for direct<br />

confrontation with the police. <strong>The</strong> table on<br />

the previous page, taken from Peter Hart's<br />

book on the IRA at war between 1916 and<br />

1923, illustrates the numbers of casualties<br />

suffered by both sides in mainland Britain.<br />

In Liverpool and Tyneside, IRA men cut<br />

telephone and telegraph lines and there<br />

were several skirmishes between the police<br />

and the IRA in Merseyside. As in Ireland,<br />

the IRA was a police matter and even<br />

though the army played a supporting role,<br />

Special Branch and MI5 adopted a preemptive<br />

policy based on counter-espionage.<br />

<strong>The</strong> British were convinced that the IRA<br />

was a Bolshevik-inspired conspiracy, and<br />

gave the Government the excuse to extend<br />

DORA into a permanent Emergency Powers<br />

Act (1920), giving it extensive powers of<br />

arrest and detention.<br />

On 4 May 1921 an IRA team shot dead<br />

two policemen whilst rescuing the<br />

commander of the Sligo Brigade from a<br />

prison van in Glasgow. Ten days later on<br />

14 May they attacked 15 houses belonging<br />

to RIC Auxiliaries or their relatives, burning<br />

several out and killing one person.<br />

Compared to the bigger IRA organizations<br />

in Carlow, Westmeath and Waterford,<br />

the relatively small mainland IRA with<br />

400-500 activists was much more<br />

aggressive. It burnt out 149 buildings and<br />

caused significant disruption to the Royal<br />

Mail, railways, roads and communication<br />

system at a cost to the British taxpayer<br />

of over £1.5m. <strong>The</strong> cost to the IRA was<br />

five dead, seven wounded and hundreds<br />

arrested.<br />

<strong>The</strong> IRA had a vague idea that attacks on<br />

the mainland would focus attention on the<br />

<strong>Irish</strong> Troubles and undermine the morale of<br />

the British public, thus putting pressure on<br />

the Government. Although Ireland did<br />

feature regularly in the news and took up<br />

a significant amount of police effort, the<br />

campaign played second fiddle to Britain's<br />

other post-war problems. Ultimately the<br />

mainland IRA was a microcosm of its<br />

parent organization, and reflected all its<br />

factions and divisions.

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