IV.

The Irish War of Independence

On the day the Dáil Éireann first met, January 21, 1919, a group of Irish Volunteers attacked and killed two officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), an armed British police force, in County Tipperary. This act is generally regarded as the beginning of what became known as the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921).

Between January 1919 and June 1921, the Volunteers, now known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), mounted a military campaign against the British administration in Ireland. During the conflict, the IRA, under the direction of Michael Collins, used guerrilla tactics with marked success. The IRA also met with considerable success in penetrating the British intelligence system, which allowed the IRA to identify and assassinate several key British agents. As a result of these successes, Britain augmented the Royal Irish Constabulary with special forces recruited in Britain and known as Black and Tans because of the colors of their uniforms. Their ruthless tactics inadvertently aided the cause of Irish independence by uniting the Irish people against British rule. They also aroused public opinion in both the United States and Great Britain against British policy in Ireland.

By early 1921, more than 700 people had been killed in the conflict, of which almost 75 percent were RIC or Black and Tans. Southwestern Ireland was under martial law, and it became clear to the British government that the revolution in Ireland could not be suppressed militarily without considerable loss of life. On June 24, following a call by King George V for peace between Britain and Ireland, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George invited Eamon de Valera, the leader of Sinn Fein, to attend peace talks, and a truce went into effect on July 11, 1921. After protracted negotiations, Sinn Fein was invited to send delegates to London to discuss the situation.