Modern World Study: Conflict in Ireland

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Modern World Study: Conflict in Ireland

Which of these events has had the biggest impact on the history of the Conflict in Ireland?

  1. The Easter Rising, 1916.
  2. The deployment of British troops in Northern Ireland, 1969.
  3. “Bloody Sunday”, 30th January 1972.

(a) The Easter Rising, 1916.

Event

On Monday April 24th 1916, a force between 1,000 and 1,500 Irishmen and women consisting of volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army seized control of the General Post Office in Dublin which became Pearse and Connolly’s (organisers of the rebellion) command post for the rebellion along with the Four Courts, Jacob’s Factory, Boland’s Bakery, the South Dublin Union, St. Stephen’s Green and later the College of Surgeons with the advantage of surprise over the British intelligence. British intelligence failed hopelessly and the properties were taken with virtually no resistance. By Friday April 28th 1916, the authorities drafted 18,000 – 20,000 soldiers to deal with the rebellion. In total the rising cost the lives of 450 people, 2,614 were injured and 9 missing, almost all in Dublin. Military casualties were 116 dead, 368 were wounded and 9 missing, and the Irish and Dublin police forces lost 16 officers with 29 wounded. There were also 254 civilians and 64 rebels killed. Over 3,500 people were arrested country wide including Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins although 1,500 were freed after questioning, 1,841 people were interned in England with no trial, 171 were tried in a secret court with 170 imprisoned. 90 were sentenced to death and 75 were convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Short Term Consequences

As a result of the rising Sinn Fein became the most influential political party in Ireland. This was because of the mistake made by Britain of executing people. Thus causing Sinn Fein to win two parliamentary elections in 1917 to take two previously held nationalist seats by the end of that year. There were now more than 200,000 Sinn Fein members and they could finally challenge the Irish Nationalists. The British parliament tried to combat this by setting up a convention which lasted about a year before Sinn Fein stopped it. In the general election of 1918 Sinn Fein won 73 seats and the Nationalists 7 and Ulster 23.  In January 1919 Sinn Fein members assembled in Dublin as the ‘Dáil Éireann’ with Eamon de Valera their president proclaiming Ireland’s independence which demonstrated their commitment to the cause of freeing Ireland from British rule. They then organised a guerrilla unit led by Michael Collins which attacked and bombed the British responsible for controlling Ireland. The guerrilla unit later formed the IRA ‘freedom fighters’.

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The British Government were unable to stop the IRA politically, so they called upon  armed units called the ‘Black and Tans’ and the ‘Auxiliaries’ to destroy the IRA by raiding and burning houses, killing and torturing IRA members  suspects as well as innocent people. They failed to defeat the IRA even though they heavily outnumbered them. This was because Michael Collins organised his guerrilla unit very well with a series of ‘hit and run attacks’ with the freedom fights being able to blend back in to the community as they did not wear uniform making them very hard to ...

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