The Irish Revolution, 1916-1923 (30 page)

‘You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped; and you are bound to get the right parties sometime. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you, men, no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man.'

… Similar statements are known to have been made to the police by other police officials in other parts of Ireland. These promises had a marked effect. The murders jumped from one in the month of May and three in the month of June to FIFTEEN in the month of July . . . SIXTY-TWO Irishmen and women – none of whom was killed in armed conflicts with English military or police – have been murdered in the nine months of 1920. The murderers, with one single exception, are still in active service of the English Military Government in Ireland.

Source
: Irish Bulletin, 7 October 1920.

Document 15 ARTHUR GRIFFITH ON NATIONAL COURTS OF LAW

In 1906 Griffith published a pamphlet entitled ‘The Sinn Féin Policy’, outlining the policies that should be pursued by an independent Irish Parliament. These included the establishment of national arbitration courts, a policy that was subsequently implemented by the First Dáil.

And not less important to the nation than a National Civil Service are NATIONAL COURTS OF LAW … The prestige, the dignity, the strength such a national legal system would confer upon a movement for national independence is obvious; but in addition it would deprive the corrupt bar of Ireland of much of its incentive to corruption, save the pockets of our people, and materially help in bringing about that spirit of brotherhood – of national one-ness in Ireland which all who love their country desire to see … Eighty per cent of the cases which are now heard in the Civil Courts of Ireland, involving the expenditure by the people of an enormous sum of money which is utilised to keep up a corrupt judicial system, could be equally as
legally
decided in voluntary arbitration courts at no expense at all. The proposal then is this: That the Irish National Assembly shall appoint those of its members who by virtue of their positions are Justices of the Peace, but who decline to act as such under British law, to act as judges in the National Arbitration Courts, together with such men of character throughout the country, and such Irish barristers who have not devoted their time to hawking their souls for sale in the Four Courts, as it may be necessary to supplement them with as assessors or judges. No barristers or solicitors should be permitted to practice in the National Arbitration Courts, without the sanction of the Assembly, and without
renouncing their practice in the foreign ones; and the Assembly should retain the same power over the Arbitration Judges that the British Parliament retains over the British and West-British Judiciary. Here, then, Ireland will have wrested the judicial system, now used to her detriment, and use it for her own protection. The course is legal and feasible – its advantages are great and obvious.

Source
: Arthur Griffith,
The Sinn Féin Policy
, Dublin: National Council, 1906, pp. 22–3.

Document 16 EXTRACTS FROM KEVIN O'SHIEL'S MEMOIR OF THE DÁIL LAND COURTS

A memoir of the work of the Dáil land courts by one of its judges, Kevin O’Shiel, first published in the Irish Times in 1966.

From May until September 1920, I worked as a special judicial commissioner of Dáil éireann for agrarian disputes and afterwards as a judicial commissioner of the Dáil Land Commission. I functioned in those posts for about a year and a half, during which I was constantly moving around the west, midlands and south of the country . …

… The Dáil land courts were an amazing and unexpected success, completely justifying the optimism of their promoters. They survived the most violent attacks and carried on, and their order[s] were executed, even during the darkest period …

… The main reason for the surprising effect of those courts, dealing as they did with land, perhaps the most combustible subject in Ireland, was that the public had faith in their impartiality and were solidly behind them…

… Though we kept the land courts in operation all during that dreadful winter and spring, the intensive British attacks on us had their effects on our work. Early in 1921, Lloyd George addressed his Welsh constituents in exalted vein, claiming that, in Ireland, he had ‘murder by the throat’ and stating that ‘six months ago the Irish republican organisation had all the symbols and realities of a government … Sinn Féin courts were held openly and attended by litigants, jurors and advocates, and their decisions were respected’ … Today ‘Sinn Féin controls, military and police, have gone. Sinn Féin courts have disappeared into cellars’ … True, The Dáil courts were driven into cellars and sundry holes and corners; but they were certainly not obliterated. Nevertheless, there was undoubted substance in Lloyd George's boast, as our own statistics amply disclosed.

For example, in the period from May till the end of December, 1920, we dealt with 229 cases in 21 counties, involving an area of 49,600 acres and a purchase money of £140,330 whereas, in the succeeding six months, January to June, 1921, there was a steep drop in the returns, viz., 70 cases involving
13,400 acres, at a total purchase figure of but £88,700. Though, surprising as it was, in the circumstances, the work of the Dáil land courts hardly touched the fringe of the great agrarian problem, it can be claimed that it successfully checked a grave menace to property and life at a time of violent, revolutionary turmoil in the country.

Source
: Fergus Campbell, ‘The last land war? Kevin O’Shiel's memoir of the Irish revolution (1916–21)’, in
Archivium Hibernicum
, 57 (2003), pp. 155–200.

Document 17 THE MUNITIONS STRIKE, 1920

Between May and December 1920 dockers and railway workers refused to unload or transport military equipment or personnel. The strike was supported by the ITGWU and represented one of the labour movement's most important contributions to the revolution.

‘DOCKERS DOWN TOOLS. Decline To Deal With War Material.’ Dublin quayside workers have decided not to handle certain war material being imported into Ireland, and it is stated the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union have given instructions to this effect to all their members.

This is regarded as a grave development in the situation, and it is said that the policy of organised Labour will not be confined to the docks.

The decision, it is believed, was inspired by the action of the English dockers who are alleged to have refused at London, Hull, and other ports to ship munitions of war to aid the Polish campaign against Soviet Russia.

The policy was put into operation for the first time in Dublin last night.

A vessel from an English port, laden with motor cars and other articles for use by the Army in Ireland arrived at the North Wall.

She was berthed in the usual course by the Harbour authorities, but when it came to the question of discharge, and when the nature of her cargo became known … the workers belonging to the I.T. and G.W. Union refused to handle the cargo.

The result was that the vessel still remains at her berth undischarged.

A representative of the FREEMAN'S JOURNAL was informed on inquiry at the headquarters of the I.T. and G.W. Union, and amongst individuals, that under no circumstances would the cargo be handled locally, and should soldiers be employed in the discharge to-day, as in all probability they would, no facilities would be given.

Source: Freeman's Journal
, 21 May 1920.

Document 18 THE RESTORATION OF ORDER IN IRELAND ACT

The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act was passed in August 1920 and re-applied many of the First World War Defence of the Realm Regulations to Ireland. The resort to these coercive measures marked a change in British policy to take harsher measures to quash the republican movement
.

An Act to make provision for the Restoration and Maintenance of Order in Ireland, 10 & 11 Geo. V, Ch. 31 (9 August 1920)

1 (1) ‘Where it appears to His Majesty in Council that, owing to the existence of a state of disorder in Ireland, the ordinary law is inadequate for the prevention and punishment of crime or the maintenance of order, His Majesty in Council may issue regulations under the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act, 1914 … for securing the restoration and maintenance of order in Ireland …

(3) Regulations so made may also –

…

(b) confer on a court-martial the powers and jurisdiction exercisable by justices or any other civil court for binding persons to keep the peace or be of good behaviour … and for compelling persons to give evidence and to produce documents before the court;

…

(e) authorise the conveyance to and detention in any of His Majesty's prisons in any part of the United Kingdom of any persons upon whom a sentence of imprisonment has been passed in Ireland, whether before or after the passing of this Act;

(f) provide for any of the duties of a coroner or coroner's jury being performed by a court of inquiry constituted under the Army Act instead of by the coroner and jury;

…

(h) authorise the trial without a jury of any action, counter claim, civil bill, issue, cause, or matter in the High Court or a county court in Ireland which, apart from this provision, would be triable with jury; …

Source
: Statutes (1920), pp. 222–5.

Document 19 EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARIES OF MARK STURGIS

Mark Sturgis was one of a group of British civil servants sent to Ireland in 1920 to make the Dublin Castle administration more effective in dealing with the Republican campaign. While there he kept a diary covering the period from July 1920 to January 1922. The original five volumes are held in the National Archives in Kew.

1920

[
Sunday night 21 November
]

It has been a day of black murder.

… What happened was that at least a battalion of the IRA, perhaps more, systematically raided the houses occupied by Military officers – mostly either those who had been employed by Courts Martial or Secret Service men – in parties of twelve and upwards at 9 a.m. this morning. They have murdered ten officers, two civilians … and two of Tudor's Auxiliaries. Many of these were caught in bed and probably all unarmed and defenceless, and some were killed in the presence of their wives.

… We have heard some account but no substantiated detail of shooting this afternoon at the Hurley Match at Croke Park. It was arranged some time ago … to round up the crowd and search them for bad men and arms on the assumption that a large number of such, both from Dublin and Tipperary, might well be expected there … the police found a SF picket at the gate who fired on them – they returned the fire and ten were killed, eleven seriously wounded and about 50 slightly … 30 revolvers were said to have been picked up on the ground by the police afterwards.

[
Monday 22 November
] A strange and possibly unpleasant affair in the guard room at our Gates is the incident of to-day. Three men, Clancy, McKee, Vice Commandant, Dublin Brigade, IRA and a man Clune, classed as bad were prisoners there. This morning they were in charge of three or four Auxiliaries and were to have gone to Mountjoy [prison] to-night. It is reported that they suddenly made a desperate attack on the guards whose rifles were beside them as they sat reading – one got hold of a rifle and fired two shots another seized a spade and in the fight all were shot dead by the guard.

Source
: Michael Hopkinson (ed.),
The Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Diaries of Mark Sturgis
, Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1999, pp. 76–9.

Document 20 EXTRACTS FROM
AN TÓGLACH
ON GUERRILLA WARFARE

The Irish Volunteer/IRA journal An tÓglach
(The Volunteer)
was edited by Piaras Béaslaí during the War of Independence and acted as both a propaganda organ and a training manual, providing instructions on strategies for effective guerrilla warfare, training in the handling of explosives and printing details of successful engagements to encourage others to follow these examples.

Editorial on ‘Guerrilla Warfare’

It has been already pointed out that the position of the Irish Volunteers has now come to resemble a native army waging guerrilla warfare against a foreign army of occupation. It is the duty of Volunteers to take this fact seriously to heart, and to recognise in all their plans, in their methods of training and study, and in their general outlook, the existence of this state of guerrilla warfare and all that it implies. It is our business to develop those guerrilla tactics which we have found most serviceable in dealing with actual conditions in Ireland at present, and to bring them to the highest pitch of perfection of which they are capable. It is our business to wage war against the forces of the invaders whenever and however we find it can be done most effectively …

It is an axiom of warfare that one must reserve one's strength in order to strike when and where one is able to do so most effectively. A force greatly inferior to the enemy in numbers, armament, and equipment may strike very heavy blows against their enemy and ultimately render his position in the country untenable by the adoption of guerrilla tactics … Of all the forms of ‘small wars,’ that most dreaded by Imperialist armies of conquest is a prolonged guerrilla warfare in which they are unable to obtain a moment's security nor gain any opportunity of effectively crushing their ubiquitous foe. Particularly do they dread the adoption of well-organised guerrilla tactics by a civilised foe of keen intelligence and courage. Surprises, ambushes, raids on their fortified positions, sniping at their stragglers, capture of their arms and equipment, interruption of their communications, interference with their intelligence, are to be apprehended by them daily; and their forces are driven more and more into the position of invested garrisons in the midst of a hostile country, afraid to venture from their strongholds except in force, living in a state of perpetual apprehension. That such a state of affairs exists to a great extent in Ireland at present is obvious to all; and it is the business of the Irish Volunteers to see that it continues, grows more intense and more menacing to the invader.