Irish Republican Army (1919-1922)

Irish republicanism has a long history, starting with the " Society of the United Irish ", which staged revolts in 1798 and 1803 , continuing with the "Irish Republican Brotherhood" (IRB) ( English ), "Defenders" ( English ), "Ribbonists" ( English ), the Irish Land League ( English ) and other secret organizations. The reduction of the IRA was first applied by the American organization "Fenian Brotherhood" ( English ), which raided Canada .

By the start of World War I, the struggle between Gomrul's supporters and the Unionists was at its peak, and the British Parliament passed the Irish Autonomy Act, which was due to enter into force after the end of the war because of fears of a civil war . The Irish Volunteers split: the majority led by the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) John Redmond was ready to accept self-government and send 20,000 of its members to the front of the World War, but the 12,000 who left the name " Volunteers ”, together with the leaders of the RBI, agreed only to complete independence. Their leader, Young McNeill, announced a confrontation with the Irish call to the front and the admissibility of armed insurrection for independence. The “volunteers” were joined by a small but more militant “ Irish Civil Army ”, whose leader, James Connolly , entered the leadership of the IRB.

In the spring of 1916, the IRB was preparing an uprising in Dublin ; it agreed to supply 20,000 rifles and 10 machine guns with the Germans . But 3 days before the uprising, the “Aud” ship carrying weapons was discovered by the British fleet and flooded by the crew. Young McNeill found out about the upcoming uprising at the last minute and forbade the "volunteers" to participate in it, as a result, only 2 out of 12 thousand soldiers took to the streets. On April 24, the conspirators occupied the center of Dublin and resisted the British forces for a week . During the battle, more than 500 civilians died. The rebels hung out their flag and declared independence for Ireland. However, at first most Irish considered the rebels to be traitors; the Dubliners threw stones and pots of feces into the column of captured rebels.

However, Irish society's view of the rebels changed dramatically over the next two years. Initially, this was caused by indignation over the execution of 16 leaders, some of whom were considered only accomplices of the rebellion. In 1918, the British Parliament passed a law on the military service of the Irish, which caused outrage and a new crisis. Radical Imon de Valera infiltrated the nationalist party of Sinn Fein and became its leader, the party’s demands changed from dominion to complete separation and independence of the country. Sinn Fein fought IPP in the British parliamentary elections and won a landslide victory. Deputies left the British Parliament and created the national Irish Parliament ( Doyle Eren ), which declared the independence of the new state - the Republic of Ireland . The 100,000th contingent of Irish volunteers was reorganized by the parliament into a national army, called the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The first step in the reorganization was taken at the congress of Irish volunteers on October 27, 1917, in which about 250 members took part (many at that time remained in the camps after the Easter uprising). The congress passed the election of a new leadership, the following were elected: Eamon de Valera (president), Michael Collins (head of organization), Darmund Lynch ( eng. ) (Head of communications), Michael Staines ( eng. ) (Head of supply), Rory O'Connor ( eng. ) (chief engineer), Sean McGarry ( eng. ) (general secretary), Kahal Bru (chief of staff). Also selected were the chiefs of the Volunteers for the counties and Dublin. Many of the elect were members of the Irish Parliament.

On January 21, 1919, the first meeting of the Irish Parliament (in Irish ) was opened at the Dublin City Hall, and Bru was elected Prime Minister. The IRA was recognized by the national army, and was supposed to be subordinate to parliament, but in practice the management of local volunteers by the government is very problematic. The parliamentarians' fears were confirmed when two constables of the Royal Irish Police (KIP) were killed on the same day in South Tipperary with the sanction of Sean Tracy and Dan Brin. Attacks by "flying squads" on police facilities continued in different counties throughout the war.

On January 31, the headquarters of the IRA (Bru and Richard Mulkahi ) issued a list of principles in the future relations of Doyle Eren and the IRA:

• Government has the same rights and authority as ordinary government;
• The government, not members of the IRA, authorizes IRA campaigns;
• Government announces martial law .

As part of this reconciliation strategy between the parliament and the IRA in August, Bru proposed introducing a law on the mandatory oath to Doyle Eren, both by all IRA members and by the deputies themselves. Collins told de Valera (the new prime minister) that this law should be approved as soon as possible. However, only in August 1920, the Volunteers took the oath to the parliament.

The struggle between Bru and Collins flared up. Bru was nominally the Secretary of Defense, but Collins stood higher on the IRA hierarchical ladder. Bruch and de Valera demanded more military activity by the IRA, since they considered the propaganda to be insufficiently effective. However, Collins and Mulkahi managed to concentrate almost all power over the IRA in their hands. Only a few commanders, such as Tom Barry ( English ) and Liam Lynch in Cork and Sean MakYoin (Long) in Longford , were practically uncontrolled by the IRA.

The IRA took part in the war against the British army from January 1919 to July 1921, the most intense battles continued from November 1920 to July 1921. In general, the campaign of the IRA in the war can be divided into three stages.

The first stage (1919) is associated with the reorganization of the army. Organizers such as Ernie O'Maley , were sent across the country to create strong guerrilla units in the field. On paper, the IRA consisted of 100,000 people, but only about 15,000 took part in the guerrilla warfare. Collins, the intelligence chief, created a special small Squad in Dublin to kill police scouts (one of the members was the father of writer Brendan Bien , Stephen). The detachment also raided the police barracks, killing four members of the Dublin police ( English ) and 11 KIP by the end of the year. At the end of 1919, the KIP was forced to evacuate the employees of most of its rural barracks.

The second stage (January - July 1920) is characterized by IRA attacks on fortified instrumentation barracks located in cities (16 of them were destroyed and 29 badly damaged). At the same time, British measures led to an escalation of the conflict. Firstly, Great Britain declared martial law in parts of the country, which allowed sending and executing IRA members to camps. Secondly, she deployed additional police forces in Ireland, the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division, as well as soldiers. Thus, the third stage (August 1920 - July 1921) is characterized by an increase in the British contingent, which led to a change in the tactics of the partisans. Now they did not attack the barracks, but on the British columns, leaving after that in the mountains.

Although the war affected all Irish provinces, the main burden fell on Dublin and the southwestern province of Munster . In Dublin, patrols attacked, and in Manster ambushed on the roads. In Belfast, the peculiarity was a large number of Protestants and Unionists among residents, the IRA and Unionists killed representatives of the opposite religion. Here the war continued and after the signing of the peace treaty, about 500 people died.

The IRA was again reformed in April 1921: divisions were created on a territorial basis, units were enlarged. But this did not help to overpower the arbitrariness of the commanders of small detachments. In May, the IRA unsuccessfully attacked Dublin Customs ( English ) - 5 fighters were killed, 80 were captured. By July, Collins realized that the IRA was one step away from death: the army had only 3,000 modern rifles and the ammunition was almost gone, 5 thousand partisans were in prison. An unexpected end to the war saved the situation.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George has always called the IRA a “gang of killers,” but the large financial costs of the war and international reaction have made his position more compliant. In addition, King George V of Belfast unexpectedly called for reconciliation. On July 11, de Valera met with General Macridi for negotiations. As a result, the IRA received the right to retain arms; for the time of the armistice, the parties were to "remain in the barracks." IRA officers considered the ceasefire temporary and began to recruit and train new members.

In December 1921, an Irish delegation led by Collins and Foreign Minister Arthur Griffith arrived in London for new negotiations. Controversial issues were the status of the Irish state (Ireland became dominion) and the British use of ports in southern Ireland. These questions subsequently led to the split of the IRA. The Irish leaders were interested in the question of Northern Ireland , the parties agreed to determine its borders later on as a result of the work of the special commission.

In the IRA itself, the results of the peace conference were perceived ambiguously. At the General Staff, 4 out of 13 members were against the treaty; among ordinary members, the gap in the number of parties was even smaller. Many IRA members did not intend to swear allegiance to the new Irish parliament. On January 16, 1922, O'Maley resigned from the Headquarters and took control of the 2nd Southern Division. A month later, the head of the Central Limerick Brigade, Liam Ford, announced his withdrawal from obedience to the high command of the army and the non-recognition of the new Irish state, his brigade announced its affiliation with the Republic of Ireland. On March 22, Rory O'Connor announced that the IRA was no longer subordinate to the Irish government and would fight with him to restore the republic. On March 28, the new leadership of the pro-republican IRA ordered its members to abandon police and army positions in the Dominion and confirm the oath of office to the republic.

Members of the IRA who agreed to the agreement withdrew from its composition and became the core of the Irish Army (7,000-8,000 people). They entered the war with the IRA . On May 24, 1923, the chief of staff of the IRA, Frank Aiken, announced a ceasefire, but many militants disagreed with this and continued the struggle as part of another organization that called itself the IRA .

• Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA , 1970. ISBN 0-00-653155-5