CELTIC
CORNER
The
Road to Freedom
The Rising
of 1916, the disgraceful acts of the British Government and the continuing War
of Independence that followed in 1919-21 had a profound influence on the
shaping of modern Ireland. In 1914 the Irish Parliamentary Party, dedicated to
autonomy for Ireland within the British Empire, appeared unassailable. After
the General Election of 1918 the party disappeared from the Irish political
scene. In the same election Sin Fein, dedicated to the establishment of an
independent Republic, was returned as the virtually unopposed voice of Irish nationalism.
This was followed by the setting up of an Irish parliament, Dail Eireann, and an even more comprehensive victory at the polls for
Sinn Fein in 1921. The great swing in public opinion that brought about this change
can only be explained in the context of 1916 and its aftermath.
The local
elections of January 1920, conducted under the new system of proportional
representation, resulted in another comprehensive victory for Sinn Fein. Irish
American opinion was mobilized and a fund known as the Dail Loan was extended
to the United States with considerable success. The various Dail departments
continued to operate with varying degrees of effectiveness, despite
surveillance. Gradually the existing judicial and local government systems
crumbled or were taken over. This process, given increased momentum by the
results of the 1921 election, continued up to the Treaty.
Increasingly
frustrated by their failure to curb the IRA, British forces began to adopt a
policy of reprisals, unofficially at first. Houses of suspected IRA members,
creameries newspaper offices mills and whole villages were burned down by the
Auxiliaries and Black and Tans as the violence escalated. On September 20,1920
the Black and Tans burned Balbriggan in County Dublin. Other towns such as
Granard, County Longford, Trim, County Meath and Templemore, County Tipperary
were also attacked, and on December 11 the Auxiliaries burned the centre of
Cork. Official reprisals, such as the burning of houses whose inhabitants
neglected to give information to the military and police became increasingly
common, while on the other side the IRA shot informers and burned down the
houses of active pro-unionists. Finally, with the military conflict in
stalemate, and following preliminary negotiations, the terms of a Truce were
agreed on July 9, 1921 and came into effect on July 11.
