Timeline of the Irish War of Independence

This is a timeline of the Irish War of Independence (or the Anglo-Irish War^[1]) of 1919-21. The Irish War of Independence was a guerrilla conflict and most of the fighting was conducted on a small scale by the standards of conventional warfare.

Although there were some large-scale encounters between the Irish Republican Army and the state forces of the United Kingdom (Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police paramilitary units—the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division—and the regular British Army), most of the casualties were inflicted in assassinations and reprisals on either side. The war began with an unauthorized ambush by IRA volunteers Dan Breen and Seán Treacy at Soloheadbeg in 1919 and officially ended with a truce agreed in July 1921. However, violence continued, particularly in the disputed territory of Northern Ireland, until mid-1922. In the rest of Ireland, the war was followed by the Irish Civil War between supporters and opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

1919

January

• 21 January:
  • Sinn Féin TDs assembled in Dublin forming the First Dáil and adopted a Declaration of Independence.
  • Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers, including Dan Breen, from the Third Tipperary Brigade, acting on their own initiative independently of the Dáil, killed Constables Patrick O'Connell and James McDonnell of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the Soloheadbeg Ambush in County Tipperary. The constables were accompanying and guarding a transport of 160 lbs of gelignite and thirty electric detonators. The two constables were accompanied by Patrick Flynn, a Tipperary County Council employee and the cart driver Edward Godfrey. Flynn and Godfrey were unharmed.
• 31 January: following a meeting of the Executive of the Irish Volunteers, the editorial of An t-Óglach (the official publication of the Irish Volunteers) stated that the formation of Dáil Éireann "justifies Irish Volunteers in treating the armed forces of the enemy – whether soldiers or policemen – exactly as a National Army would treat the members of an invading army".^[2]

February

• 3 February 1919: Éamon de Valera (president of Sinn Féin) escaped from Lincoln Gaol, along with Seán McGarry and Seán Milroy. The escape was masterminded by Harry Boland (TD for South Roscommon) and Michael Collins (TD for South Cork). All were members of Sinn Féin.^[3]

March

• 19 March 1919: IRA volunteers raid Collinstown airfield (now Dublin Airport) outside Dublin.^[4] They captured 75 rifles and 4,000 rounds of ammunition. (Henderson says the raid occurred on 20 March and that 6,000 rounds of ammunition were captured.)^[5]
• 29 March 1919: Resident Magistrate John Charles Milling shot dead in Westport, County Mayo for having sent IRA volunteers to prison for unlawful assembly and drilling.

April

• 1 April 1919: second meeting of Dáil Éireann – Éamon de Valera was elected President of Dáil Éireann (or Príomh Aire) and appointed the government of the 1st Dáil. De Valera issued a statement saying that "There is in Ireland at this moment only one lawful authority, and that authority is the elected Government of the Irish Republic".^[6]
• 6 April 1919: Limerick City IRA volunteers attempted to free a prisoner from Limerick Prison workhouse. Constable Martin O'Brien (aged 35) was killed,^[7] and another policeman was seriously injured. The prisoner, Robert Byrne, was also wounded and died later that same day.
• 10 April 1919: third meeting of Dáil Éireann – Dáil passed a motion calling on Irish people to ostracise the RIC. De Valera stated, "The Minister of National Defense is, of course, in close association with the voluntary military forces which are the foundation of the National Army".^[6]
• 15–27 April 1919: The Limerick Soviet, a general strike called by the Limerick Trades and Labour Council as a protest against the declaration of a "Special Military Area" under the Defence of the Realm Act. This covered most of Limerick city and a part of the surrounding area. Special permits were to be issued by the RIC, and would have been required to enter the city. The response was a general strike and boycott of British troops. A special Strike Committee was set up to print money, control food prices and publish newspapers.

May

• 13 May 1919: two RIC men, Sergeant Peter Wallace (aged 47) and Constable Michael Enright (aged 35), were shot in a shoot-out with members of the Third Tipperary and East Limerick Brigades. A number of volunteers were wounded, including Dan Breen and Seán Treacy, during the Rescue at Knocklong of IRA member Seán Hogan from the custody of the RIC, on a train in Knocklong, County Limerick. Enright was killed outright; Wallace died of his wounds the next day.^[8]
• 17 May 1919:
  • First of the Dáil Courts was set up at Ballinrobe, County Mayo.^[9]
  • Members of Dáil Éireann sent a letter to the head of the Paris Peace Conference, repudiating Britain's claim to speak for Ireland.^[10]
• 26 May 1919:
  • Members of Dáil Éireann sent a statement concerning "Ireland’s Case for Independence" to the Paris Peace Conference.^[10]
  • Destruction at Ticknock, County Dublin, of a military field kitchen and the capture of two mules in the charge of two unarmed British soldiers, by members of the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade IRA^[11]

June

• 1 June 1919: De Valera departs for the United States. He hoped to gain official recognition of the Irish Republic (from the US government), to secure the support of the American people, and to raise money for Dáil Éireann and the IRA.^[12]
• 6 June 1919: The United States Senate passes a resolution asking for the delegation appointed by Dáil Éireann to be given a hearing at the Paris Peace Conference, and expressing sympathy with the "aspirations of the Irish people for a government of their own choice".^[12]
• 18 June 1919: The Dáil officially established the Dáil Courts.^[12]
• 23 June 1919: IRA volunteers Jim Stapleton and James Murphy shoot D.I. Michael Hunt, chief intelligence officer, in the back, in Liberty Square, Thurles, County Tipperary. Hunt died of his injuries the same day.
• 24 June 1919: Attack and disarming of sergeant Bernard Oates and constable J.J. O'Connell, of Camp. They were attacked near Meenascarthy. After a hand-to-hand fight "all the fight was knocked out" of them. Ten IRA-men were arrested and five of them sentenced to prison terms.^[13]
• unknown date in June: Michael Collins is named president of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

July

• 4 July 1919: Sinn Féin, Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan and the Gaelic League are declared illegal in County Tipperary.^[14]
• 30 July 1919: The first assassination authorised by Michael Collins occurs. Detective Sergeant Smith, a father of eight children, is shot dead outside his home after refusing to desist from vigorously pursuing his duties.^[15]

August

• 4 August 1919: Two RIC officers (Sergeant John Riordan, aged 44, and Constable Michael James Murphy, aged 20) were shot while cycling on duty in an ambush near Ennistymon, County Clare, by three local IRA volunteers (Seamus Connelly, Martin Devitt, and John Joe Neylon). Devitt and Neylon were seriously injured but survived. Constable Murphy died the same day, and Sergeant Riordan succumbed to his injuries the following day, 5 August.^[16]
• 20 August 1919: Motion passed by Dáil that an Oath of Allegiance (to the Republic) should be taken by all members and officials of Dáil Éireann, and all Irish Volunteers.^[17] O'Malley (new ed. 1990) says that with this oath the Irish Volunteers became the Irish Republican Army (IRA).^[18]
• 23 August 1919: Francis Murphy, aged 15, of County Clare is shot by British soldiers and dies as a result of bullet wounds received while sitting by the fire reading a book. An inquest found the military responsible, but the military refuted this and claimed to have carried out an extensive investigation.^[19]
• 25 August 1919: IRA volunteers begin the oath and start using the name Irish Republican Army.
• 28 August 1919: Amount of national Dáil Loan issued reaches £250,000.
• Attack on military raiding party in Deansgrange, South Dublin.^[11]

September

• 2 September 1919: R.I.C. Sergeant Philip Brady (aged 48) is shot dead and Constable Foley is wounded when their bicycle patrol was ambushed by local IRA volunteers from the 1st Tipperary Brigade in Lorrha. Authorisation for the attack was given by Treacy and Breen, who were on the run in the area after the Soloheadbeg and Knocklong attacks earlier in the year.
• 7 September 1919: A government policy of reprisals began in Fermoy, County Cork. Some 200 British soldiers looted and burned several commercial buildings in the town, after twenty-three Cork IRA volunteers, under the leadership of Liam Lynch, augmented by Mick Mansfield and George Lennon of Waterford attacked members of the 2nd Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry en route to church services at the Wesleyan Church. One soldier, Private William Jones, 2nd Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry, was fatally wounded. Fifteen rifles were captured by the IRA. Lynch was wounded and taken to a Youghal safe house. Later he was transferred to West Waterford where he rested at Foley's in Ardmore and finally taken on to Cooney's farmhouse at Carriglea, Dungarvan, where he recovered from his wounds under the care of a physician, Dr Moloney, from a nearby town, before returning to Fermoy area.
• 12 September 1919: The Dáil was outlawed by the British.^[15]
• 19 September 1919: Official founding of "the Squad", an IRA counter-intelligence and assassination squad.^[20]

November

• 4 November 1919: British Cabinet's Irish Committee settled on a policy of creating two Home Rule parliaments - one in Dublin and one in Belfast - with a Council of Ireland to provide a framework for possible unity.^[21]
• 11 November 1919: First edition of the Irish Bulletin was produced by Dáil Éireann's Department of Publicity. It was to be produced every few days from this date onward and became very important in getting the Irish side of events known to a wide audience.^[21]

December

• 14 December 1919: Constable Edward Bolger (aged 48) is shot dead in an ambush as he walked unarmed to his barracks.^[8]
• 19 December 1919: The IRA attempted to assassinate British General John French in his car at Phoenix Park Dublin. French is unhurt, but one IRA volunteer, Martin Savage, is killed. Dan Breen and two Dublin Metropolitan Police men and a driver were wounded. A Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Sergeant was knocked unconscious.
• 22 December 1919: Better Government of Ireland Bill is introduced into the House of Commons. It proposed two parliaments; one for the six counties of north-east Ulster and one for the other twenty-six.^[22]
• 26 December 1919: Constable William James Murtagh (aged 21) is shot dead by the accidental discharge of a colleague's rifle.^[8]
• 31 December 1919: Constable Maurice Keough (aged 32) is fatally wounded at a disturbance when shot by mistake by a colleague.^[8]

1920

January

• Unionists lose control of Londonderry Corporation to Irish nationalists for the first time in the Irish local elections, 1920, adding to political tensions in Derry.^[23]
• 2 January 1920: IRA volunteers under Mick Leahy of the 1st Cork Brigade capture Carrigtwohill RIC barracks. This is reported as the first "official" attack on an RIC barracks.^[24]
• 6 January 1920: Drumlish Barracks in County Longford is attacked by Sean Connolly and others.^[25]
• 17 January 1920: West Waterford Brigade commanded by George Lennon attacks Ardmore RIC barracks.
• 20 January 1920: RIC Constable Luke Finegan (or Finnegan) is shot in Thurles, County Tipperary in an ambush by three IRA volunteers. He died two days, later, on 22 January.^[8] Afterward, policemen attacked property belonging to local republicans as well as some public property. This is the first reported instance of police reprisals.
• 21 January 1920: County Armagh-born RIC District Inspector William Charles Forbes-Redmond, Assistant Commissioner of "G" Division DMP, is shot in the back by "the Squad", and dies of his injuries.^[8]

February

• 11 February 1920: Commandant Séamus O'Brien, IRA Brigade Commander, is shot dead by RIC outside his shop in Rathdrum, County Wicklow.
• 12 February 1920:
  • Cork IRA members, commanded by brothers Tom and Seán Hales, attacked four RIC barracks in West Cork, but the attacks were unsuccessful.
  • 12 February 1920: Constable Michael Neenan (aged 32) died after being fatally wounded by a bomb when his barracks was attacked by IRA volunteers.
• 14 February 1920:
  • IRA unit commanded by Ernie O'Malley and Eoin O'Duffy captured an RIC barracks at Ballytrain, County Monaghan.
  • IRA unit commanded by Diarmuid Hurley captures an RIC barracks at Castlemartyr, County Cork.^[26]
• 20 February 1920: Counties Dublin, Wicklow, Louth, Longford, Westmeath, Sligo and Waterford proclaimed as being in a state of disturbance.^[26]
• 24 February 1920: IRA Vice Commandant Martin Devitt is killed in action during an ambush of a regular RIC patrol to take their rifles and ammunition. The ambush took place on the road between Fermoyle and Inagh, County Clare.
• 27 February 1920: Several DMP officers shot. One, John Walsh, is killed.^[27]

March

• 2 March 1920: British intelligence operative of Irish descent, John Charles Byrnes (alias "Jack Jameson"), is killed by "the Squad".^[28]
• 3 March 1920: Frank Shawe-Taylor, land agent, was shot dead near Athenry, County Galway.
• 5 March 1920: Constable John Martin Heanue (aged 24) was shot and fatally wounded as he called at a village grocers shop.^[8]
• 9 March 1920: Constable Thomas Ryan (aged 39) was fatally wounded during an IRA bomb attack on his barracks.^[8]
• 10 March 1920: Sergeant George Neazer (aged 42) was shot dead by an IRA gang while he was escorting a land steward.^[8]
• 11–12 March 1920: Constable Timothy Scully (aged 64) was shot dead on 11 March when his patrol was ambushed returning to barracks; RIC officers attacked homes in Cork City.^[29]
• 19 March 1920: Constable Joseph Murtagh (aged 45) was shot dead in an IRA ambush while he was returning from a colleague's funeral.^[8]
• 20 March 1920: Tomás Mac Curtain, Lord Mayor of Cork and a Sinn Féin member, was shot dead in front of his wife at his home, by men with blackened faces later reportedly seen entering the local police barracks.
• 25 March 1920: The Black and Tans arrive in Ireland.
• 26 March 1920: Resident Magistrate Alan Bell, aged 62, from Banagher, was assassinated. He was tasked by the British to track down Sinn Féin funds; he had successfully confiscated over £71,000 from Sinn Féin's HQ and, by investigating banks throughout the country, was set to seize much more. He was pulled from a tram in south Dublin and shot three times in the head.
• 29 March 1920: Better Government of Ireland Bill was passed by 348 votes to 94 in Westminster.^[29]
• March 1920:
  • March 1920: West Limerick IRA volunteers killed a man for spying. This was the first such killing in the conflict.
  • March 1920: Raid on the Rotunda Rink Post Office, Dublin for mails from Dublin Castle by members of B Coy, 2nd Battalion Dublin Brigade.^[30]

April

• 3/4 April 1920:
  • IRA burned over 300 abandoned RIC barracks in rural areas and almost 100 income tax offices. As many as 150 barracks were destroyed on the night of 5/6 April.^[31]
  • Two RIC constables (Sgt. Carroll and Const. Ryan) shot and wounded in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo by members of the Bekan Company, Ballyhaunis IRA.^[32]
• 5 April 1920: IRA prisoners began a hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison, demanding prisoner of war status.^[31]
• 14 April 1920:
  • Detective Constable Harry Kells of Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) "G" Division is shot dead on Camden Street, Portobello, Dublin.
  • After large demonstrations and a general strike in support of the prisoners, all 90 were released. In Milltown Malbay a group of RIC and British Army shot into a crowd celebrating the prisoners' release, killing three people and wounding nine others.^[31]
• 18 April 1920: Sergeant Patrick J. Carroll (aged 41) is shot in the back and killed by IRA gunmen while leaving church.^[8]
• 21 April 1920: IRA prisoners begin a hunger strike in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, London.^[31]
• 24 April 1920: IRA shot and kill a DMP sergeant in Clonakilty, County Cork.
• 25 April 1920: IRA ambush and kill two RIC constables (Sgt Cornelius Crean, aged 48, and Constable Patrick McGoldrick, aged 59), near Upton, County Cork^[8]
• 27 April 1920: IRA capture and destroy RIC barracks at Ballylanders, County Limerick, seizing arms and ammunition. In reprisal, Black and Tans rampage through Limerick City.
• April 1920:
  • Rioting erupted in Limerick City on Roches Street between the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the local population. The troops used rifles and bayonets and the crowd threw stones and bottles. The troops fired indiscriminately, killing a publican and an usherette from the Coliseum Cinema.
  • Rioting erupts in Derry between Irish nationalists and unionists, culminating in gun battles between the IRA, facing the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Dorset Regiment and the RIC.^[33]

May

• 8 May 1920: Irish Volunteers of the 1st Cork Brigade, led by Mick Leahy, capture Cloyne RIC barracks.^[34]
• 9 May 1920: Some 200 volunteers under Frank Aiken attacked the RIC barracks in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh. A mine was used to breach the barracks wall and a potato-spraying machine was used to spray it with petrol, before it was set alight. The six policemen inside refused to surrender until the roof fell in.
• 11 May 1920: IRA volunteers destroyed the RIC barracks at Hollyford, County Tipperary.
• 12 May 1920:
  • Destruction of vacated RIC barracks at Kill O'the Grange, Dublin, by members of 6th Battalion Dublin Brigade IRA. During this operation two IRA volunteers, Lt. Tom Dunne and Q/M Pat Meaney, were badly burned, and died at Mater Hospital, on the 14th and 20th, respectively.^[35]
  • The surrendered RIC barracks at Rockbrook, Dublin are completely burned.^[36]
• 13 May 1920: W.J. McCabe, an employee of the Rt Hon Laurence Waldron PC, was shot dead at his home in Killiney.^[11]
• 14–16 May 1920: Every member of the Dáil (not already in prison) received a note through the post that said "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Therefore a life for a life".^[34]
• 15 May 1920:
  • An assault on patrolling British soldiers leads to further rioting and the involvement of the IRA, UVF and RIC. UVF establish checkpoints on Carlisle Bridge, Derry and assault Catholics. Low-level violence would continue into June.^[37]
• 20 May 1920: Dublin dock workers refuse to handle war materiel, and were soon joined by members of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. Despite hundreds of sackings the strike continued. Train drivers were brought over from England after Irish drivers refused to drive trains carrying British troops.
• 28 May 1920: IRA volunteers attacked the RIC barracks at Kilmallock, County Limerick. Two RIC men were killed, two were wounded, and ten more surrendered. Volunteer Liam Scully from Glencar, County Kerry was killed.
• 29 May 1920: IRA volunteer Thomas Sheridan, West Cavan Brigade, died of wounds received in a failed attempt to ambush two RIC men at a fair in Crossdowney to take their weapons. Sheridan was shot and mortally wounded. His brother Paul and one of the policemen were injured. Sheridan was one of only three IRA volunteers to be killed in Cavan county during the Irish War of Independence.^[38]

June

• 1 June 1920: IRA volunteers destroy two RIC barracks in County Cork, one in Blarney and one in Carrigadrohid.^[39]
• 3/4 June 1920: IRA volunteers destroy Drangan RIC barracks in Tipperary and capture weapons.^[39]
• 6 June 1920: RIC sergeant Tim Holland^[8] and a civilian, Peter Charles McCreesh, are killed by gunfire in an IRA ambush near Cullyhanna, South Armagh. Two other RIC officers were also present. Constable Rossdale was shot in the forehead but survives, and Constable Rafferty escaped unharmed.
• 7 June 1920: IRA volunteers attacks Drangan barracks on the Tipperary/County Kilkenny border.
• 12 June 1920: An RIC policeman is killed and another is wounded in an IRA ambush at Clonee Wood, County Cork.
• 13 June: Further rioting in Derry leads to displacement of Catholics and nationalists from the Waterside area by unionists and an attack on the Bogside area by the UVF and Dorset Regiment. IRA reinforcements from County Donegal under Peadar O'Donnell eventually lead to the restoration of order. 40 people had been killed since April.^[40]
• 15 June 1920: Percival Lea-Wilson (or Lee-Wilson), a District Inspector in the RIC stationed at Gorey, was shot dead by the IRA outside his home on the orders of Michael Collins, over a grudge from the Easter Rising, when Lea-Wilson (or Lee-Wilson) and Dennis Hoey (who was also assassinated during the war) identified Seán Mac Diarmada (né McDermott), who almost was overlooked amid the chaos of the end of the rising, removing him from a group bound for internment and ensuring McDermott/Mac Diarmada's execution as one of the leaders of the uprising.^[41]
• 16 June 1920: The IRA attacked the RIC barracks at Cookstown, County Tyrone; an IRA volunteer, Patrick Loughran (aged 27), a native of Dungannon, died of his injuries two days later, on 18 June.
• 25 June 1920: Constable Michael Horan (aged 38) was shot dead after his name had been put on an IRA "black list".
• 26 June 1920: About 200 IRA volunteers attacked an RIC barracks at Borrisokane, North Tipperary. The attack was unsuccessful, but the building was so badly damaged that it was evacuated the next day.
• June 1920:
  • June–July 1920: Summer assizes failed across the south and west, and trials by jury could not be held because potential jurors refused to participate. Hamar Greenwood told the Coalition Cabinet that "the administrative machinery of the courts has been brought to a standstill". The collapse of the court system demoralized the RIC; many policemen resigned or retired. What historian Peter Hart described as "a spirit of murderous self-reliance" grew among the remainder.

July

• 2 July 1920: The Newtown Cross Ambush in County Tipperary, A four-man RIC patrol was making its way back from Cashel to its Barracks at Ballinure when it was ambushed midway between the village of Dualla, County Tipperary and the Barracks. Sergeant Robert Tobin (aged 42) was killed and Constable Brady was wounded. Michael Burke, who lived about three miles from the scene, was arrested on 9 August 1920 to await trial by court martial for the incident. It was alleged that at the time of his arrest he had in his possession an automatic revolver which had been removed from Constable Maloney, another member of the ambushed patrol.^[42]
• 11 July 1920: Alexander Will, from Scotland, became the first Black and Tan to die in the conflict, during an IRA attack on the RIC barracks in Rathmore, County Kerry.
• 13 July 1920: Two RIC constables (Michael Lenihan, aged 34, and George Roche, aged 32) arr shot dead when their mobile patrol is ambushed by IRA gunmen in Dingle, County Kerry.^[8]
• 17 July 1920: Colonel Gerald Smyth^[43] assassinated by the IRA in a Cork City country club in reprisal for a speech he made to RIC men encouraging reprisals. Railway workers refused to carry Smyth's body back to his native Banbridge, County Down. The assassination provoked retaliation in the north against Catholics in Banbridge and Dromore.
• 17 July 1920: Two members of the Border Regiment severely wounded in an ambush at Swinford, County Mayo.
• 19/20 July 1920: IRA volunteers ambushed a police party on the Dunmore-Tuam road about 3 miles from Tuam. Two policemen were killed. The remaining two surrendered, and were released unharmed. After searching unsuccessfully for the ambushers, police reinforcements rioted in Tuam, firing and throwing grenades in the streets, burning down the town hall, Adergoole Sinn Féin Hall, and Canny's drapery warehouse, and threatening to kill some republican suspects. Townspeople who endeavoured to extinguish the flames were shot at. The riot inspired copycat reprisals across Ireland in the summer and autumn of 1920.^[44]
• 21 July 1920: Loyalists force more than 7,000 Catholics and dissidents from their jobs at Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast. There was sectarian rioting in Belfast and Derry, where many Catholics and Protestants were expelled from their homes. Up to 40 people were killed in Derry disturbances. Another 22 people were killed in rioting in Belfast.
• 23 July 1920: A critical meeting of the Coalition Government's Cabinet was held in London. The Cabinet was divided on how to proceed. Some Liberal ministers and Dublin Castle officials were in favor of offering dominion status to Ireland. Unionist ministers argued that the Government must crush the insurgency and proceed with the Government of Ireland Bill. Debate continued after the meeting: Walter Long warned of "the gravest consequences in Ulster" if the Government changed course; by 2 August, the hawks prevailed.
• 25 July 1920: An RIC intelligence officer, D/Sgt William Mulherin (aged 38), is assassinated by the IRA outside church in Bandon, County Cork after Mass.
• 26 July 1920: IRA volunteers attack an RIC cycling patrol at Ballyrush, County Sligo.
• 27 July 1920: An RIC constable is shot dead by IRA volunteers in Clonakilty, County Cork.
• 28 July 1920: Two British soldiers are killed and two wounded in an IRA ambush at Oola, County Limerick.
• 29 July 1920:
  • One RIC constable killed and another wounded in an IRA ambush in Ballina, County Mayo.
  • A party of approximately twenty Military Police on guard outside the old House of Parliament on College Green, Dublin were taken by surprise and disarmed by members of G Coy, 3rd Battalion ^[45][46]
• 30 July 1920:
  • The East Limerick flying column, led by George Lennon, ambushed a British Army cycling patrol of six men at Tankardstown on the Bruree to Kilmallock road. One soldier was killed.
  • IRA volunteer Paddy Daly shot and killed Frank Brooke, director of Great Southern and Eastern Railway in his office in Dublin. Brooke was a member of the British military's Advisory Council.
• 31 July 1920: Colonels Danford and Tyrrell of the Royal Engineers are abducted. Danford was seriously wounded in an escape attempt from a moving car, and Tyrrell was released to attend the injured man. General Lucas was also kidnapped by the IRA but escaped.^[47]

August

• On various dates in August, IRA volunteers swore allegiance to Dáil Éireann. They had previously sworn to obey their Executive Councils.
• 2 August 1920:
  • The Restoration of Order in Ireland Bill was introduced and first read in the House of Commons. The government used cloture to limit the debate.
  • A gun battle took place between British soldiers and the Ballyhaunis IRA at Holywell on the Ballyhaunis-Claremorris Road, County Mayo. Five British soldiers and IRA Cmdt. P Kenny wounded.^[48][49]
• 7 August 1920: The IRA's East Limerick Flying Column under Donnacha O'Hannigan and George Lennon, joined forces with a Cork Column under Tom Barry to ambush a six-man RIC foot patrol near Kildorrery, County Cork. All the RIC men were wounded, one fatally (Ernest S. Watkins). Six revolvers and 250 rounds of ammunition were seized.
• 9 August 1920: The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act received royal assent. The Act gave Dublin Castle the power to govern by regulation; to replace the criminal courts with courts martial; to replace coroners' inquests with military courts of inquiry; and to punish disaffected local governments by withholding their grants of money.
• 12 August 1920: Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork was arrested. McSwiney began a hunger strike in protest and was joined by ten other prisoners. IRA officers Liam Lynch and Seán Hegarty were also arrested, but mistakenly released by the British.
• 15 August 1920: Constable Cyril Henry Nathan (aged 19), is fatally shot off duty when attacked while leaving church.
• 16 August 1920: District Inspector William Harding Wilson (aged 56) is shot in the head and killed, although wearing plain-clothes as he was about to enter a shop.
• 18 August 1920: IRA volunteers led by Seán Mac Eoin raid the British army barracks in Longford Town and Ballymahon for arms.
• 21 August 1920: IRA volunteers ambush a RIC patrol near Merlin Park in Galway City. Constable Martin Foley (aged 33) is killed and another constable is wounded.^[50] Businesses belonging to prominent Irish nationalists are attacked and looted in Dundalk after a constable is shot dead and three others wounded.^[51]
• 22 August 1920:
  • Sergeant Thomas Martin Craddock (aged 43) is shot dead while off duty after leaving a club in the early hours.
  • RIC District Inspector Oswald Ross Swanzy is shot dead by Cork IRA volunteers while leaving a church in Lisburn, County Antrim. Swanzy had been among those blamed by an inquest jury in the killing of Cork Mayor Tomás Mac Curtain (né Thomas MacCurtain). Catholic residential areas of Lisburn were burned in revenge by local UVF men, causing many Catholics to flee the town. Several Special Constables later had their charges in relation to the arson dropped.^[52] Loyalists attacked Catholic areas of Belfast in reprisal. A total of 33 people died over the next ten days in sectarian rioting and shooting in the city.
  • IRA forces from East Mayo, led by Seán Corcoran and Seán Walsh capture the RIC barracks in Ballavarry, County Mayo. Arms and ammunition were taken.

September

• 10 September 1920: IRA volunteer Patrick Gill is shot dead by the Black and Tans in Drumsna, County Leitrim.
• 14 September 1920: James Connolly, Unshinnagh, Kinlough, County Leitrim, is shot dead by the Black and Tans in front of his own house by military who came to arrest his son. Being deaf he did not hear an order to put up his hands.
• 14 September 1920: Three IRA volunteers (Pat Glynn, Michael Keane, and Michael Glavey) are killed in an ambush by Crown forces at Ballinlough, County Roscommon.
• 16 September 1920: British double agent John Henry Gooding aka F. Digby Hardy offers to betray his superior, Basil Thomson, to the IRA. It is unknown if his offer was genuine or part of a trap for Michael Collins. However, exposed in the Irish press as an ex-convict, forger, and bigamist, Gooding admits his past and scores a propaganda victory for the IRA. He is allowed to leave Ireland unharmed and dies of natural causes in 1930.
• 20 September 1920:
  • IRA members ambushed a lorry full of British soldiers on Church Street, Dublin. Three soldiers were killed, the first in the city since the Easter Rising of 1916. IRA volunteer Kevin Barry, aged 18, was arrested at the scene and charged with murder.
  • Head Constable of the Royal Irish Constabulary Peter Burke was shot and killed by IRA volunteers at Smith's Public House, the Square, Balbriggan, County Dublin.^[53] Later that night, police rioted and attacked Balbriggan, looting and burning some fifty four businesses, including four pubs, and killing two suspected IRA men (Séamus Lawless and Seán Gibbons) in retaliation.^[54] The incident, known as "the Sack of Balbriggan", caused a sensation in Britain, receiving headlines from the British press, and making reprisals an important topic for debate in Parliament.

• 22 September 1920:
  • Six RIC constables are killed by the IRA in the Rineen Ambush in County Clare.
  • Resident Magistrate Alan Cane Lendrum is shot dead at Caherfeenick railway crossing, near Doonbeg, West Clare by the IRA in an attempt to commandeer his car. His body was concealed in a lake, and returned to his family at their request.^[55]
  • Following this, and the ambush earlier in the day, the Black and Tans carried out reprisals, killing six civilians in Milltown Malbay, Lahinch and Ennistymon, and burned twenty-six buildings, including the town halls in Lahinch and Ennistymon.
• 23 September 1920: Two RIC constables (Burke and McCarthy) are killed in an ambush by East Mayo and South Sligo IRA brigades, at Ratra near Frenchpark. One IRA volunteer (Thomas McDonagh) is killed in the ambush, as well.
• Sinn Féin County Councillor John Aloysius Lynch of Kilmallock, Limerick was assassinated at the Exchange Hotel in Dublin by a British agent (Captain John Fitzgerald, a native of Cappawhite, County Tipperary, who was later assassinated himself on Bloody Sunday).^[56]
• 25 September 1920: In revenge for previous actions by the Black and Tans, a small group of men from the East Mayo Brigade hijacked a train and drove it past the barracks at Ballaghaderreen, firing at the building. The attack took the Crown forces by surprise but there were no casualties.
• 26 September 1920: Black and Tans burned the village of Kilkee, County Clare.
• 27 September 1920: Black and Tans burn the town centre of Trim, County Meath.
• 28 September 1920: Cork IRA volunteers raid military barracks at Mallow to obtain arms. Thirty-seven rifles were taken. British troops burned several businesses and homes in the town in reprisal.
• 30 September: An IRA ambush killed District Inspector James Brady and wounded two other policemen near Tubbercurry. A gang of 30 RIC and Black and Tans burn several houses and businesses in the town that night, as well as two nearby creameries.^[57]
• September 1920: John Lynch, a law clerk, was shot dead in his hotel bed. It was a mystery to most people why he was killed, but the IRA Propaganda Department successfully deflected journalists' attention from reporting his work on the cases of IRA volunteers charged with killing policemen.

October

• 10 October 1920: A Royal Air Force lieutenant was killed at an ambush in Bandon, County Cork.^[58]
• 11 October 1920: One civilian is killed and Dan Breen badly wounded in a shoot-out at an IRA safe house in Drumcondra. Two British officers died of their wounds the next day, Major E. Smyth and Captain A.P. White.^[59][60] Major Smyth was a brother of Colonel Gerard Smyth, who had died at the hands of the IRA in July.

• 12 October 1920:
  • Four RIC constables are killed by the IRA in an ambush at Ballinderry, County Roscommon.
  • In County Wexford, five IRA volunteers are killed and nine were injured (five severely), when explosives being prepared accidentally detonated in an old unoccupied house located at St Kearns, Saltmills.
• 16 October 1920: Peter O'Carroll, a prominent republican with two IRA volunteer sons, was shot dead at his home in Manor Street, Dublin. David Neligan identified the engineer of the killing as Major Jocelyn Lee Hardy (DSO).^[61]
• 17 October 1920: Cork IRA volunteer Michael Fitzgerald died on hunger strike.
• 18 October 1920: Two IRA volunteers (brothers Ned and Frank O'Dwyer) were killed by British forces in Bansha, County Tipperary.^[62]
• 20 October 1920: Seán Treacy is killed in a gunfight with British troops on Talbot Street, Dublin. Two civilians were also killed in the firefight. A British soldier, Lt. Price, was killed by friendly fire.^[63][64]
• 22 October 1920: IRA 3rd Cork Brigade personnel attack a lorry carrying British troops from the Essex Regiment at the Toureen Ambush, on the road between Bandon and Cork. Two soldiers were killed, including Lt W.A. Dixon, and another four wounded, one of them mortally.^[65] Ten more were captured, disarmed and then released.^[66]
• 25 October 1920:
  • Terence MacSwiney dies in Brixton Prison, London, on hunger strike. Two other Cork IRA volunteers, Michael Fitzgerald and Joseph Murray died on hunger strike. Both men, along with eight others, had been arrested along with MacSwiney. They were known as the Cork Ten because all ten went on the hunger strike together. After Fitzgerald and Murray died, Arthur Griffith called off the hunger strike and the other eight recovered.
  • Three RIC men were killed and three wounded in an IRA ambush at Moneygold, County Sligo. Three IRA volunteers and their female driver are subsequently arrested and imprisoned.
  • An IRA assault on the RIC barracks in Tempo, County Fermanagh, is repulsed by the UVF and the IRA retreats. RIC Sergeant Samuel Lucas later dies from his injuries, however. A Catholic civilian, Philip Breen, believed to have republican sympathies, is later shot in the doorway of his family's pub in the village and also dies later.^[67]
• 28 October 1920: Private G. Robertson of the Royal Scots Regiment executed by the IRA near Connolly, County Clare.^[68]
• 28 October 1920: Ambush carried out by Dinny Lacey's flying column of the Third Tipperary Brigade, at Thomastown near Golden in County Tipperary, six British troops were killed.^[69]
• 31 October 1920:
  • RIC Detective Philip Kelleher is shot dead by IRA volunteers at The Greville Arms, Granard, County Longford.^[53]
  • Ten people are killed in County Kerry. Two RIC constables are shot dead in Abbeydorney by IRA volunteers. Two other constables killed and two more wounded in nearby Ballyduff. Black and Tans burned the creamery in Ballyduff in reprisal, and shot and bayoneted a local man, James Houlahan. That night, two Black and Tans were shot dead by IRA volunteers in Killorglin and two more were wounded in Dingle. Black and Tans burn the Sinn Féin hall, the Temperance Hall, a garage, and the home of a Sinn Féin activist in Killorglin. A local civilian was shot and seriously wounded; he later died of his injuries. Two RIC men were kidnapped by IRA volunteers in Tralee. It is thought that they were shot and killed. This provoked a week of police violence in Tralee^[70] (called in several international newspapers "the Siege of Tralee") as RIC personnel tried to recover the bodies. Reportedly, the remains of one of the two missing men was found later.^[71]

November

• 1 November 1920:
  • 18-year-old IRA volunteer Kevin Barry hanged in Dublin for his part in an ambush, in which three British soldiers were killed.
  • An RIC man shot dead in Ballinalee, County Longford. The Black and Tans burned the village of Granard in reprisal.
  • Civilian Helen (or Ellen) Quinn shot dead by the police in County Galway. Afraid of ambushes, police had begun to 'reconnoiter by fire', shooting blindly into woods and possible ambush sites. Quinn was near one such site when the police opened fire, and was hit by a stray bullet. Irish public opinion was outraged when a military court of inquiry subsequently returned a verdict of "death by misadventure". Soon afterward, the RIC Headquarters and the Chief of Police issued orders against wild firing from motor vehicles.
  • IRA fighters from West Waterford, under Column O/C George Lennon, ambushed a British army patrol at Piltown (Kinsalebeg), County Waterford. Two soldiers were killed, six wounded and thirty captured. Those captured were later released. RIC Constable Maurice Prendiville was fatally shot the next month at the Youghal Bridge.
  • Simultaneous IRA attacks were carried out on the RIC barracks and Marine Station at Ardmore, County Waterford.
  • Police burned the County Hall in Tralee in revenge for the killing of two constables the previous day and fired shots at people going to Mass. Shops and businesses were forced by the RIC and Tans to remain closed until 9 November in an effort to recover the bodies of the dead RIC men. A local, John Conway, was shot dead by police in the town.
  • Two English RIC officers went "missing" (presumed killed)^[72]
• 2 November 1920:
  • Black and Tans shoot dead an IRA volunteer, Tommy Wall, in Tralee.
  • Seán Mac Eoin's North Longford IRA column defended the village of Ballinalee from an assault by the Black and Tans, launched in response to the shooting of a constable there the previous day (1 November). British forces, consisting of eleven lorries of troops, retreated after a two and a half hour gunfight. The IRA column remained in the village for a week.
• 4 November 1920: Black and Tans burn the businesses of Sinn Féin sympathisers in Tralee, County Kerry.
• 6 November 1920: Auxiliaries Section Leader Lt L. Mitchell and Tem. Cadet Lt. B.V.A. Agnew attached to Company "C" A.D.R.i.C at Macroom coming back from a 24-hour pass to Cork City are captured at Emmet Place and shot dead.^[73]
• 8 November 1920: An IRA column mounted an ambush at Grange, County Limerick; four British soldiers killed when their lorry was fired on. The IRA column under Tomás Malone retreated when seven more British troop lorries arrived.
• 12 November 1920: Two IRA volunteers killed in a gunfight in Ballymacelligott, near Tralee, County Kerry.
• 14 November 1920: A pro-republican Roman Catholic curate,^[74][75]Father Michael Griffin, disappeared. He had left his residence at St Joseph's Church, in Galway; his housekeeper heard him talking to someone at the door and assumed he was going to visit a sick parishioner. He never returned. His disappearance was reported to the police the following day. It afterwards emerged that he had been abducted and killed by loyalist forces at Barna.^[74][75]
• 15 November 1920: Three British officers are kidnapped and killed.^[72]
• 16 November 1920: Three IRA men are arrested by the Auxiliaries near Killaloe, County Clare. They were beaten, interrogated and then shot dead.
• 17 November 1920: RIC sergeant James O'Donoghue was assassinated by IRA volunteers in White Street in Cork city.
• 18 November 1920: Three civilians shot dead in Cork city by masked men in reprisal for the killing of RIC sergeant James O'Donoghue the previous day.
• 19 November 1920:
  • Four IRA officers captured by the Auxiliaries in Durris, County Cork. Only the intervention of a colonel of the King's Liverpool Regiment prevented the men from being summarily executed.
  • Joseph Devlin, MP for Belfast/Falls, accused the security forces of having kidnapped Fr. Griffin, a Catholic priest, on 14 November. Chief Secretary Hamar Greenwood denied this accusation.
• 20 November 1920: The body of Fr. Griffin was found in a shallow grave, in a bog near Barna, outside Galway City.

• 21 November 1920 - Bloody Sunday:
  • Morning: The IRA attacked eight addresses in central and south-central Dublin city, killing eleven men and wounding five, one of them fatally. The targets were British intelligence agents (mostly part of the "Cairo Gang"), although not all of those shot were, in fact, intelligence agents. A gun battle erupted between IRA gunmen and auxiliaries who stumbled across the scene of one assassination: two auxiliaries were killed, and one IRA man, Frank Teeling, was captured in the shootout but extricated somehow by the IRA later that day.
  • Afternoon: Police, Auxiliaries, and soldiers raided Croke Park during a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary in response to the IRA shootings that morning. For some unknown reason, police opened fire on the crowd. Fourteen spectators were killed. That evening, Dublin Castle claimed that the raiding party came under fire from rebel gunmen; this claim was contradicted by the press, and, later, by the findings of military courts of inquiry, which were suppressed by the Government. The shootings were generally considered to be a reprisal.^[76]
  • Evening: Two IRA operatives (Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy) who had helped compile the intelligence used in assassinating most of "the Cairo gang", along with Conor Clune (a relative of Patrick Clune, Bishop of Perth, Australia), who had been arrested with them, were "shot while trying to escape" in Dublin Castle. Clune, a nationalist and Irish language scholar, does not not appear to have been a member of any proscribed organisation or group, although a commemorative plaque in Dublin Castle refers to him as "Volunteer Conor Clune".
  • Attacks on RIC barracks at Bray, Cabinteely, Enniskerry, and Dundrum were carried out by the 6th Battalion, under specific order of the Dublin Brigade IRA in an effort to draw reinforcements from the city and relieve pressure on the Dublin city Battalions. The attacks continued until the early hours of Monday 22nd.^[35]
  • Attack on armoured car at Temple Hill, Blackrock, Dublin.^[11]
  • Three IRA volunteers of the West Waterford Flying Column, were recognised by the RIC while driving past Walsh's Hotel, Cappoquin, and, in an exchange of fire, fatally wound Constable Isaac Rea.
• 23 November 1920: Constable Michael Dennehy, while out walking with a girl at Knockhall, Strokestown, was captured and shot dead by the IRA.^[77]
• 25 November 1920: Sinn Féin leaders Arthur Griffith and Eoin Mac Neill arrested by British troops in Dublin.
• 26 November 1920: IRA volunteers and siblings Patrick and Harry Loughnane abducted and killed by Black and Tans at Kinvara, County Galway.
• 27 November 1920: RIC Constable Maurice Quirk is fatally shot outside Walsh's Hotel, Cappoquin, by Waterford Column volunteers George Lennon, Mick Mansfield, and Pat Keating.
• 28 November 1920: Kilmichael ambush. The West Cork unit of the IRA, under Tom Barry, ambushed a patrol of 18 Auxiliaries at Kilmichael, killing 17. Three IRA volunteers were killed in the action.
• 30 November 1920: Two IRA volunteers were killed by British forces in Ardee, County Louth.^[78]
• November 1920: Attack on Military Lorry on the Bray road at Crinken, Shankill, County Dublin, by IRA volunteers from the Shankill/Bray Coy 6th Battalion Dublin brigade. One soldier was killed and three others wounded.^[11][35]

December

• 6 December 1920: An IRA unit attacked the RIC barracks in Camlough, South Armagh. Roughly 300 IRA volunteers assaulted the building, which was held by six RIC constables, for several hours. Troops arriving from Newry were ambushed by the IRA before they retired. In reprisal, the Ulster Special Constabulary burned buildings in the village of Camlough. Local IRA leader Frank Aiken's home was burned the next day, as were the homes of ten of his relatives.
• 10 December 1920:
  • Martial law was proclaimed in counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary.
  • British troops captured an IRA bomb making factory in Dublin. Ernie O'Malley was captured by British troops in Kilkenny, in possession of a pistol and incriminating documents.
  • IRA volunteer William Owens was shot dead by a Major Shore of the British military during a raid on the Sinn Féin hall in Shankill, County Dublin. Several unsuccessful attempts were made by the Shankill IRA to get Shore later.^[11][35]

• 11 December 1920: The Burning of Cork. A lorry of Auxiliaries was ambushed by the IRA near Dillons Cross: one Temporary Cadet, Spencer Rougier Chapman, was critically wounded and died a few days later. Several other cadets were also wounded but survived. That night, Crown forces killed two Cork IRA volunteers (the Delaney brothers killed in their home), set fire to the commercial centre of Cork city, and burned City Hall and the Carnegie Library.
• 12 December 1920: The Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork, Daniel Colahan, issued a decree saying that "anyone within the diocese of Cork who organises or takes part in ambushes or murder or attempted murder shall be excommunicated". The edict goes unheeded.^[79]
• 13 December 1920: Two IRA officers, Michael McNamara and William Shanahan, were abducted and shot by British forces in Clare. Their bodies were found near Kilkee on 19 December.
• 14 December 1920:
  • Passenger services suspended on the Cavan and Leitrim Railway, until 1921, due to the refusal of drivers and enginemen to carry the Black and Tans on trains at Mohill and Ballinamore, leading to the arrest and internment of railway employees.^[80]
  • Attack on Auxiliaries at Ballsbridge Post Office by members of the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade IRA.
• 15 December 1920: An Auxiliary officer, identified as Vernon Anwyl Hart,^[81] killed a Catholic priest (Very Rev. Canon Thomas J. Magner PP) who "got a note from the Tans telling him to toll his bell on Armistice Day or else. He refused and the bell tolled for him on a quiet road near Bandon on 15 December". A young parishioner, walking with the priest, Tadgh O'Crowley was also shot dead.^[82] Hart, who had been a close friend of T/Cadet Chapman who had been killed by the IRA, was discharged and declared insane by the British authorities. Hart died in 1937 in Cape Town.^[83][84]
• 16 December 1920: IRA fighters ambushed British troops at Kilcommon Cross, County Tipperary. Four British soldiers were killed and three others were wounded.
• 17 December 1920: The Roman Catholic Bishop of Kilmore, Patrick Finnegan, stated that "Any war...To be just and lawful must be backed by a well-grounded hope of success...What hope of success have you against the mighty forces of the British Empire? None, none whatever...and if it unlawful as it is, every life taken in pursuance of it is murder".^[79]
• 20 December 1920: The Kilkenny IRA unit ambushed an RIC/military patrol at Nine Mile House, County Kilkenny, eight soldiers and one constable killed.
• 22 December 1920: Two IRA men were arrested by the Auxiliaires at a safe house near Doonbeg, County Clare. They are shot dead on the road back to Ennis.
• 23 December 1920: The Government of Ireland Act received Royal assent, creating the provinces of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, each with its own parliament.
• 25 December 1920: A British patrol in Tralee, County Kerry shot dead two men suspected of being IRA volunteers and burned their homes.
• 27 December 1920: Republicans took over the unoccupied mansion at Caherguillamore, County Limerick, for a fund-raising dance. However British troops and RIC police surrounded them. In the ensuing gun battle five IRA volunteers and one Black and Tan were killed.^[85]
• 29 December 1920:
  • British generals attended a meeting of the Cabinet and predicted victory in Ireland by the spring. Dublin Castle's Chief of Police agreed. "General Tudor said he thought that, in this area, in four months' time the terror would be broken if there was no truce. The great hope of the extremists was a change of policy."
  • British government sanctioned "official reprisals". They were begun with the burning of seven houses in Midleton, County Cork in reprisal for an IRA ambush earlier in the day.
• 30 December 1920: Martial law was extended to Counties Clare, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford.
• December 1920: Attack on RIC patrol at Main Street, Dundrum, County Dublin; one RIC constable wounded.^[11]

1921

January

• 1 January 1921: An IRA column led by Eoin O'Duffy mounted an ambush in Ballybay, County Monaghan. One RIC constable and one civilian were killed, three Auxiliaries were wounded.
• 2 January 1921:
  • Two RIC men were shot dead by the IRA in a Belfast hotel.
  • West Waterford Column under George Lennon ambush a British patrol at the intersection outside Cappoquin on the Cappoquin-Mt Mellary road.
• 5 January 1921: Martial law was extended to Clare and Waterford.^[86]
• 7 January 1921:
  • A British Army patrol was ambushed by a combined Waterford force at Pickardstown following a feint attack on the Tramore RIC barracks. Present were W. Waterford O/C Pax Whelan, E. Waterford O/C Paddy Paul and Flying Column O/C George Lennon. Two IRA volunteers (Thomas O'Brien and Michael McGrath) were reportedly taken away and shot dead by members of the Devon Regiment.
  • The RIC raided a cottage near Ballinalee, County Longford, looking for Seán Mac Eoin, who fired from the cottage, killing District Inspector Thomas McGrath and wounding a constable, then escaping.
• 8 January 1921: Thomas Kirby was abducted near Golden, County Tipperary and shot dead by the IRA as an alleged spy and informer. His body was never recovered until 1990, some four miles from where he disappeared.^[87][88]
• 13 January 1921: British troops manning a checkpoint at O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, opened fire on a crowd of civilians, killing two and seriously wounding five.
• An Ulster Special Constable (USC) was shot dead in Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
• 15 January 1921 – 17 January 1921: British soldiers imposed a curfew in an area bounded by Capel, Church, and North King streets and the quays in Dublin's inner city, sealing them off, allowing no-one in or out. They then conducted a house-to-house search, but no significant arrests or arms finds were made.
• 20 January 1921: The IRA in Clare, under Michael Brennan, ambush an RIC lorry at Glenwood, between Sixmilebridge and Broadford. Six constables were killed and two others wounded but escaped. The IRA took their weapons and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition before burning the lorry. Among the dead was RIC District Inspector William Clarke. In reprisals, British forces burned 21 homes in the vicinity and arrested 22 people.
• 21 January 1921: An abortive IRA ambush took place at Drumcondra. One IRA volunteer, Michael Francis Magee, was wounded and died the next day at King George V Hospital. Five men were captured: Patrick Doyle, Francis X Flood, Thomas Bryan and Bernard Ryan, all of whom were hanged at Mountjoy Prison on 14 March 1921. A fifth, Dermot O'Sullivan, was imprisoned. The last, Séan Burke, successfully escaped.^[89]
• 23 January: A member of a 15-strong group of Newtownbutler USC is killed and another seriously wounded after they open fire on an RIC patrol which interrupted their looting of a pub in Clones.^[90]
• 24 January 1921: The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Thomas Gilmartin, issued a letter saying that IRA volunteers who took part in ambushes "have broken the truce of God, they have incurred the guilt of murder".^[91]
• 28 January 1921: British troops in county Cork were tipped off by Mrs Mary (or Maria) Lindsay, a local Protestant, about an impending IRA ambush at Dripsey to which she had somehow become privy. She first told the local Catholic priest who tried unsuccessfully to dissuade the IRA from the ambush. Two IRA volunteers were killed and five captured. The five IRA prisoners were later executed under martial law. The IRA executed Mrs Lindsay and her chauffeur, James Clarke, and burned down her home, Leemount House, in reprisal.
• January 1921:
  • IRA volunteer John Doran abducted from his home in Camlough, South Armagh and killed by unknown gunmen^[92]
  • An IRA ambush was mounted at Freeduff, County Armagh. Two RIC men killed and others injured.
  • K Coy, 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade ambushed a number of lorries of British soldiers at the junction of Merrion Square/Mount Street. IRA men were posted at various points along the route of the convoy (at Holles Street, midway along Merrion Square and from Merrion Street). Clare St. was barricaded and a standing fight developed. The British withdrew after some time. British casualties were believed to be high. No IRA casualties (this was the only operation carried out in Dublin where all of the IRA involved were from a single company)^[93][94]
  • IRA members from E Coy, 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade attacked government forces at Mespil Road.^[93]
• End of January 1921: The British army in Dublin started carrying republican prisoners in their trucks when on patrol to stop grenade attacks on them, with signs saying "Bomb us now". This was discontinued when foreign journalists in the city reported it. They later covered the trucks with a mesh to prevent grenades from entering the vehicles, to which the IRA responded by attaching hooks to what were then referred to as "Mills bombs", which would catch in the mesh.

February

• 1 February 1921:
  • Led by Seán Mac Eoin, the North Longford IRA attacked two lorries of Auxiliaries at the Clonfin Ambush. A landmine was exploded under the lorries, followed by a two-hour firefight. Four Auxiliaries and a driver were killed and eight wounded. The IRA volunteers captured 18 rifles, 20 revolvers and a Lewis gun.
  • The first execution under martial law of an IRA man took place. Cornelius Murphy of Millstreet, County Cork, was shot by firing squad in Cork city.
• 3 February 1921:
  • The Limerick IRA ambushes an RIC patrol at Dromkeen, County Limerick, killing 11 constables.^[95]
• An IRA volunteer is shot dead when British troops raided his safe house in west Cork.
• 5 February 1921: British Intelligence officer Lance Corporal MPC/MFP John Ryan^[96] is assassinated by IRA volunteers in a pub on Corporation Street in Dublin.
• An IRA volunteer of Cork 3 Brigade dies in an accidental shooting.
• 6 February: Two attacks on British soldiers at Merrion Square and Camden Street, Dublin by the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade.^[93]
• 9 February 1921: Irish republicans James Murphy and Patrick Kennedy were arrested by Auxiliaries in Dublin. Two hours later, Dublin Metropolitan Police found the two men shot in Drumcondra: Kennedy was dead, and Murphy was dying when they were discovered. Murphy died two days later.
• 11 February 1921:
  • James Murphy died in Mater Hospital, Dublin. Before the end, he declared that he and Kennedy were shot by their Auxiliary captors. A court of inquiry was held, and Captain W L King, commanding officer of F Company ADRIC, was arrested for the killings.
  • 3rd Cork Brigade volunteers make an attack on a troop train at Drishabeg, near Millstreet, County Cork. One British soldier is killed, five wounded, and fifteen captured but later released. The IRA seized arms and ammunition.
• 13 February: Attack on Crown forces at Merrion Square, Dublin, by 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade volunteers.^[93]
• 14 February 1921:
  • IRA prisoners Ernie O'Malley, Frank Teeling and Simon Donnelly escape from Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin.
  • Two IRA volunteers, the Coffey brothers, were assassinated in their beds by unknown gunmen in Enniskeane, Cork.
  • Pvt A. Mason of the Manchester Regiment went missing near Ballincollig.^[97]
• 15 February 1921:
  • Upton Train Ambush: an IRA column from the 3rd Cork Brigade, led by Charlie Hurley mounts a disastrous attack on a train containing British soldiers at Upton, Cork. Three volunteers are killed and three captured. Six civilian passengers are killed and ten wounded in crossfire. Six British soldiers are wounded, three seriously.
  • An IRA ambush position at Mourne Abbey, County Cork, is allegedly betrayed by an informer, Dan Shields. Five IRA volunteers killed by British troops, four more were wounded and captured. Two of the captured volunteers were allegedly later executed.
• 16 February 1921:
  • Four unarmed IRA volunteers, who had been digging a trench at Kilbrittain, County Cork, were arrested by troops of the Essex Regiment, and then shot dead.^[98]
  • British soldiers attacked at Lower Mount Street Dublin by 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade volunteers.^[93]
• 19 February 1921: Three British soldiers (privates) of the Oxford Regiment were found by IRA men, unarmed and wearing civilian clothes near Feakle, County Clare. The soldiers said they were deserters but the IRA suspected they were spies, shot them and dumped their bodies near Woodford, County Galway.
• 20 February 1921:
  • The Clonmult Ambush – A dozen IRA volunteers killed at Clonmult, County Cork, near Midleton, after being surrounded in a house. The British alleged a false IRA surrender and killed all the IRA volunteers in the house. Four other IRA volunteers were wounded and another four were captured unscathed. Only one escaped. The IRA claimed an informer was to blame and a spate of shootings of six alleged informers ensued during the following week.
  • Pvt B. Tinehes of the Manchester Regiment went missing near Ballincollig.^[97]
• 21 February 1921: Two IRA volunteers were killed and two wounded in a shoot-out in Friary Street in Kilkenny city.
• 22 February:
  • The IRA killed RIC Constable Thomas Satchwell outside Mountcharles and wounded others. The RIC began looting and burning buildings in Donegal and later Mountcharles in reprisal. RIC Sergeant John Hughes was shot dead by a drunken Auxiliary in Mountcharles. The RIC later shot dead Mary Harley, a young local woman, outside her home.^[99]
  • The bodies of three British soldiers (Privates Williams, Walker and Morgan of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry) were discovered by a farmer on the Woodford–Cahir road near Lough Atorick by the Clare–Galway border. The three, who had said that they were deserting, were shot dead by the IRA's East Clare Brigade, which believed the three were spies not deserters. One of the victims had a label hung around his neck which read, “Spies. Tried by courtmartial and found guilty. All others beware.”^[100]
• 23 February 1921:
  • IRA volunteers from the Squad attacked RIC men returning from lunch to Dublin Castle on Parliament street. Two policemen were killed, another was badly wounded and died that night.
  • Two soldiers of the Essex Regiment kidnapped and killed.^[101]
• 25 February 1921:
  • The IRA Cork Number One Brigade led by Dan "Sandow" O'Donovan at Coolavokig, County Cork killed Major Grant, a British officer, and wounded eight soldiers.
  • A British review stated that two British soldiers (excluding RIC personnel) had been killed in the preceding week, the lowest total so far for a week in 1921. The review listed ten ambushes in the preceding seven days. Seven people had been killed as spies by the IRA during the week.
• 28 February 1921:
  • An IRA column led by Seán Moylan ambushed an RIC patrol at Tureengariff, County Cork. Two RIC constables were killed and two rifles were taken.
  • Six IRA prisoners executed by Crown forces in Cork.
  • Attack on British soldiers at Camden Street, Dublin, by the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade.^[93]
• 29 February 1921: In retaliation for the previous day's executions, the IRA shot and killed six off-duty British soldiers and wounded five more in separate incidents in Cork.^[102] Two of the British soldiers killed were William Gill and Corporal L.D. Hodnett.^[103]
• February 1921:
  • British soldiers impose a curfew on the Mountjoy Square area of North Dublin and conduct a house-to-house search. Shortly afterwards another similar curfew was imposed on the Nassau Street/Kildare Street area. Few arrests were made but some arms were seized.
  • There were attacks on British soldiers at Nassau Street and Merrion Square Dublin by the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade^[93]
  • British soldiers were ambushed at the junction of Aungier Street/Bishop Street by C Company, 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade.^[93]

March

• March 1921: An informer (identified as Dan Shields) reportedly betrayed the position of an IRA column in Nad, County Cork. Three IRA volunteers were killed in the subsequent British ambush.
• 1 March 1921:
  • IRA North Longford commander Seán Mac Eoin was captured at Mullingar and charged with the murder of an RIC detective.
  • Two IRA volunteers are killed in a skirmish with British forces at Ballynamrossagh, County Tipperary.^[104]
  • Attack on Crown forces at College Green Dublin by IRA volunteers from the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade.
• 2 March 1921:
  • IRA fighters from the 2nd Cork Brigade and 2nd Kerry Brigade lay landmines near Millstreet. Thirteen British soldiers are killed and fifteen wounded when the mines explode under their lorry.
  • Attack on Crown forces at South Richmond Street Dublin by Volunteers from the 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade.
• 3 March 1921:
  • A train of jurors bound for Waterford was ambushed by the West Waterford Column under George Lennon, at Durrow/Ballyvoile. A firefight resulted at Durrow Station and IRA claimed two kills and a number of wounded on the opposing side.
  • A Black and Tan is wounded in an ambush at Bonniconlon, County Mayo.
• 4 March 1921: The South Leitrim Brigade of the IRA ambush a Black and Tan Convoy, at the Sheemore ambush, near Carrick on Shannon. Several casualties result, including the death of a Captain in the Bedfordshire Regiment. Black and Tans later ran amok in Carrick, burning and looting, and burned both the premises of the Leitrim Observer newspaper and the local rowing club to the ground.
• 5 March 1921:
  • An IRA column mounted an ambush at Clonbanin, County Cork. A British general, Cumming,^[105] and three other soldiers were killed when their armoured car broke down and they were exposed to IRA fire.
  • Two ambushes took place in Dublin, one near present-day Parnell Square, and the other in Clontarf, both in the north of the city. In both incidents, IRA volunteers threw hand grenades and exchanged fire with British troops. One civilian was killed and four wounded. No combatant casualties were reported.
• 6 March 1921: The Limerick Curfew Murders. The Mayor of Limerick, George Clancy, former mayor Michael O'Callaghan, and IRA volunteer Joseph O'Donoghue, were all shot dead in their homes at night after curfew by a British intelligence agent, George Nathan, assisted by an Auxiliary from G Company ADRIC.^[106]
• 7 March 1921: The South Mayo IRA flying column under Tom Maguire surrounded a British army patrol at Kilfall, between Ballinrobe and Castlebar, forcing it to surrender and give up its arms.
• 9 March 1921: A party of masked policemen entered the home of the Loughnane family in Mitchel St., Thurles. William Loughnane (23 years old) was shot dead in his bed. William, his father & 3 brothers were active members of local IRA company. The same night, Laurence Hickey (well known Republician, was also shot in his home in Main St., Thurles. A third man, Denis Regan, a prominent Thurles IRA man, was shot several times the same night, by masked RIC men, in a seperate incident but survived the attempted killing. It is thought that the 3 attacks were reprisals for the IRA's execution of 2 informants in Thurles who were close friends of local RIC & Black and Tans on March, 1st, 1921. (For extra details see records from Commandant Leahy, No. 2 Mid-Tipp-Brigade. His details are present in the Irish Bureau of Military History statements: (See File No S.790. Document No. w.s. 1454. Pages 66, 67, 68 & 69.))
• 10 March 1921: A large British force carried out a large scale sweep at Nad, County Cork (in the Boggeragh Mountains). A house with six members of the Mallow IRA column asleep in it was surrounded. Two make their escape (Joe Morgan and John Moloney) but the other four volunteers are shot dead.
• 11 March 1921:
  • Dáil Éireann debated, resolved and finally on 11 March declared war on the British administration.^[107]
  • The North Longford IRA officer Seán Connolly and five other IRA volunteers were killed by British troops at the Selton Hill ambush, near Mohill, County Leitrim when their ambush position was allegedly betrayed by a local Orangeman.^[54]
  • Three RIC men attacked and killed by the IRA near the corner of Victoria Square and Church Street in Belfast. Two civilians injured in the attack, one of whom later died in the hospital.
• 12 March 1921: A firefight took place between the Kilkenny IRA unit and British forces at Garrykerin House on the Clonmel-Kilkenny road. One Black and Tan constable was killed.
• 14 March 1921:
  • Six IRA prisoners were hanged by the British in Mountjoy Prison.^[108]
  • The Battle of Brunswick Street. An Auxiliary patrol of two lorries and an armoured car, which was on its way to raid St Andrews Club, 144 Brunswick Street, Dublin, was attacked on Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street) near the corner of Erne Street. In the gun battle that followed, three IRA volunteers and two policemen as well as two civilians were killed. A number of IRA volunteers were captured.One, Thomas Traynor, was hanged on 25 April.^[109]
• 16 March 1921:
  • The IRA in Galway attacked the RIC barracks in Clifden, killing two constables. The IRA column retreated to the Maam valley, where they ambushed British reinforcements at Munterowan and Screebe. The RIC burned several buildings in Clifden in reprisal for the attacks.
  • Dublin: A troop lorry from Wellington Barracks, carrying British soldiers from the South Lancashire Regiment, was hit by two grenades hurled from overlooking buildings on Wexford Street, killing two soldiers (Lance Corporal Jarvis and Private G. Thomas) and wounding six others, one of whom, Private Whiting, died from his wounds two days later.^[110]
• 18–19 March 1921:
  • Burgery ambush - West Waterford IRA under Pax Whelan, George Lennon and George Plunkett from Dublin HQ, ambushed a convoy of Black and Tans returning to Dungarvan via the Burgery. One Black and Tan was killed along with two IRA volunteers (Pat Keating and Seán Fitzgerald).
  • An IRA firing squad executed a Dungarvan constable, Michael Hickey. Affixed to his tunic was the notation "police spy". He was later interred, upon the intercession of the parish priest, in an unmarked grave belonging to his fiancee's family at St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Dungarvan.
• 19 March 1921:
  • Crossbarry Ambush - The IRA Cork no. 3 Brigade under Tom Barry fought an action against 1,200 British troops at Crossbarry, County Cork. The IRA column, comprising roughly 100 men, escaped encirclement. One RIC constable and six soldiers killed.^[111] The British claimed six IRA volunteers were killed; however, the IRA claimed only three were killed and the other three were wounded.
  • An RIC Constable and a RIC Sergeant killed in IRA ambushes.^[111]
• 21 March 1921:
  • The Kerry IRA attacked a train at the Headford junction near Killarney. The IRA claimed twenty British soldiers were killed, as well as two IRA volunteers and three civilians. The British reported only 7 soldiers killed and 12 wounded.
  • In an ambush at Lispole, County Kerry, three IRA volunteers were killed ^[112]
  • Attack on RIC patrol at Rosemount, Dundrum, County Dublin. Two RIC constables wounded.^[11]
• 22 March 1921:
  • Three members of the West Mayo IRA flying column attacked a four-man RIC patrol at Clady. Three policemen were wounded and one was killed.
  • IRA volunteers in Fermanagh burned the homes and farms of ten local men who were members of the Ulster Special Constabulary. Two Special Constables were shot dead in their beds.
  • Attack on Auxiliaries at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire. 3 Auxiliaries killed and at least 1 wounded. One IRA volunteer (Lt. Jim McIntosh) was killed.^[11]
• 23 March 1921:
  • An IRA ambush on the Strokestown-Longford road by the IRA's South Roscommon Brigade claims the lives of one British soldier and two constables. Two Black and Tan constables {Agnew and Buchanan} surrender and are later shot dead by the IRA.^[77] Arms and ammunition including a Hotchkiss machine gun were captured by the IRA. One volunteer was killed in the Scramogue Ambush.
  • The Press reports that 28 people were killed and 33 wounded in various ambushes on this day, bringing the total for the previous five days to 65 killed and 67 wounded.^[113]
  • Six IRA volunteers of the Cork number 1 Brigade were captured Cork by British forces at Clogheen, County Cork and summarily shot.
• 24 March 1921: A bomb was thrown at a group of soldiers at Westport, County Mayo. British reprisals took place that night throughout West Mayo.
• 28 March 1921: Attack on mixed patrol of Auxiliaries and military on Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire. One lorry was hit by a grenade, and sped away to George's Street, where it ran into a burst of fire from an IRA patrol. This convoy then proceeded to the Blackrock area where it was ambushed at Temple Hill. Tender disabled by bomb. Several auxiliaries and one IRA volunteer were wounded^[11][35]
• 29 March 1921: RIC Constable Stephenson shot and killed in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo.^[32]
• 30 March: Two RIC men are killed in an ambush in Ballyfermot, County Dublin.
• March 1921:
  • The West Cork IRA column under Tom Barry attacked the RIC barracks at Rosscarbery.
  • A County Donegal IRA column under Peadar O'Donnell attacks the RIC station at Falcarragh; one constable is killed.

April

• 1 April 1921: The IRA's East Mayo Brigade O/C Seán Corcoran is killed by British troops at Crossard near Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. Vice Cmdt. Maurice Mullins also captured and almost beaten to death. Later that day, a reportedly uninvolved man, Michael Coen, of Lecarrow, was tortured, mutilated and murdered in retaliation for the killing of Constable Stephenson in Ballyhaunis on 29 March.
• 2 April 1921: An IRA informer, Vincent Fovargue (aged 20) from Dublin, was shot dead at a golf course near London, England. A note was left saying, "let spies and traitors beware, IRA".
• 3 April 1921: The South Leitrim Brigade of the IRA hold up the Cavan and Leitrim Railway and intercept the Mail Car. A letter implicates a local farmer, John Harrison, as an informer; he is later killed.^[114]
• 9 April 1921: An abortive IRA ambush took place in Mullinglown, County Carlow - no casualties resulted but several IRA volunteers are arrested.
• 10 April 1921: Privates George Motley and John Thomas Dixon Steer, both of the East Lancashire Regiment, are captured by the IRA at Barraduff, County Kerry. Moved around the countryside for about six months before being shot, their bodies were dumped in Anablaha bog and not recovered until January 1927 when Motley was buried in Nab Wood Cemetery near his home town of Shipley, West Yorkshire, and Steer in Immanuel Church, Accrington, Lancashire, both with full military honours.^{[115][116][117]}
• 13–15 April 1921: Captain W.L. King, commanding officer of F Company Auxiliary Division, RIC, was tried by court-martial for the murder of James Murphy on 9 February. Murphy's dying declaration was ruled inadmissible. Two Auxiliaries provided alibis for Captain King at the time of the murder. King was acquitted.
• 14 April 1921: Sir Arthur Vicars is assassinated in Kilmorna County Kerry by IRA.
• 15 April 1921: Major McKinnon, an Auxiliary officer, is shot dead by the IRA at Tralee golf course, County Kerry.^[118]
• 18 April 1921: Attack on Cabinteely RIC barracks in County Dublin.
• 19 April 1921: After a shootout near Loughglynn, County Roscommon, Black and Tan forces killed two IRA volunteers, John Bergin and Stephen McDermott, and injured two others, Joe Satchwell and Thomas Scally.
• 23 April 1921:
  • In central Belfast, two IRA volunteers shot dead two Black and Tans. They exchanged fire with other RIC men as they made their escape and two civilians were injured in the crossfire. Loyalist gunmen killed two Catholic civilians in reprisal. Uniformed RIC men assassinated two republicans, the Duffin brothers, in revenge.
  • The Third Tipperary Brigade, IRA ambushed a small party of British soldiers accompanying two horse-drawn carts approached from Clogheen, near Curraghcloney, close to the village of Ballylooby.The IRA volunteers withdrew southwards towards the Knockmealdown Mountains leaving one British soldier dead and two others wounded, one fatally. By chance, RIC District Inspector Gilbert Potter was returning by car from police duties at Ballyporeen, drove into a section of the withdrawing Column. Potter was held as a hostage for the safe release of Thomas Traynor, an IRA Volunteer under sentence of death. Following Traynor's hanging, Potter was shot dead by the IRA.
• 26 April 1921: A private from the East Lancashire Regiment killed.^[119]
• 28 April 1921: IRA volunteer Patrick Ronayne of Greenhill, Mourneabbey, Mallow, County Cork is executed at Cork Military Detention Barracks for his involvement in the failed Mourneabbey Ambush, in which eight other volunteers were killed.
• 29 April 1921: West Waterford Flying Column under George Lennon ambushed a train carrying British troops at the Ballylynch level crossing. One volunteer was wounded and two British military were killed in a fire-fight.
• 30 April 1921: Major Geoffrey Lee Compton-Smith (DSO),^[120] of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, is captured and later shot dead by the IRA.
• April 1921:
  • A series of shootings took place in and around Dromore, County Tyrone. First, one RIC constable was killed and four Special Constables wounded in an IRA ambush near the town. The following day, an RIC officer shot a Catholic girl, Eileen Doherty, whose brother was an IRA volunteer, in the legs. The brother sought out the constable and shot him dead. The next day, a group of Special Constables abducted three IRA volunteers, shot them dead and dumped their bodies half a mile outside the town. In another ambush later that month, one IRA volunteer was killed and four RIC constables were wounded.
  • An IRA unit took the Protestant congregation of Creggan, County Armagh hostage as they arrived for church and ambushed the local B-Specials as they were arriving for the service with grenades and small arms. One constable was killed, another wounded. The Protestant civilians were released unharmed.
  • A group of Auxiliaries mistook a group of off-duty RIC constables drinking in a hotel in Castleconnell, County Clare for IRA volunteers and opened fire on them. Two RIC men, one Auxiliary and the hotel landlord were killed in the gunfight until the mistake was realized.
  • The IRA in Belfast shot two Auxiliaries dead in Donegall Place, in the city centre. The same night, two Catholics were killed in reprisal on the Falls Road.
  • The Dublin IRA carried out 67 attacks on British forces in the city in the course of the month.
    • Road trenching by IRA party on Churchtown Road, Churchtown Park, County Dublin surprised by two parties of RIC and B&T's coming from two different directions. Running battle ensued for more than two hours and was eventually broken at Milltown.^[11]
    • Large quantities of clothing belonging to the Auxiliaries and military officers in Dublin Castle and other barracks in the city seized in Milltown & Dundrum laundries and destroyed. These operations were repeated weekly until the enemy stopped sending its soiled clothes to the laundries.^[11]
    • A party of IRA engaged in destroying Classons bridge, Milltown, Dublin, were attacked by a large force of military and Auxiliaries who had penetrated a ring of outposts owing to the defection of one of the outposts. They advanced to within 50 yards of the bridge and then opened fire with machine guns. Ensuing engagement lasted over an hour. One IRA volunteer was wounded and three members of the Crown forces were wounded; one of whom later died of his injuries.^[11]
    • Telephone and telegraph equipment seized in all post offices and telephone exchanges in south County Dublin.^[11]
    • General attack on RIC, B&T and Military posts in Barracks, Courthouse, Royal Hotel and Coastguard station in Bray. Shooting lasted for 2 hours. Several B&T's and civilians wounded.^[11]
    • Attack on mixed patrol of Auxiliaries and B&T near Bray RIC barracks. 1 B&T and Auxie wounded.^[11]
    • Attack on residence of Mr Cross (an Orangeman) in Ballycorus, County Dublin. The attack continued until a shortage of ammo forced the IRA to retire. One IRA volunteer (Peter Little) was wounded. It was later reported that one occupant of the house had been killed and another wounded.^[11][35]
    • Attack on RIC barracks, Dundrum, County Dublin. IRA party advanced to positions behind a wall at the railway accommodation and attacked the courthouse and barracks machine gun post which was put out of action and gunner wounded.^[11]
    • British soldiers held up at the Dodder banks, South Dublin while were rendezvousing with girlfriends. They were ordered to return to the city minus all clothing except trousers and shirt.^[11]
    • Attack on Dundrum RIC barracks, County Dublin by seven IRA riflemen who shot only one round each at delayed intervals. The RIC continued firing for many hours after the attackers had withdrawn.^[11]
    • Attack on military lorry at Jamestown, Sandyford, County Dublin. Lorry raced away with the occupants shooting wildly. Casualties unknown.^[11]
    • Attack on military and B&T's in lorries at William park near Booterstown, County Dublin. British casualties unknown.^[11]
    • Attack on private car carrying British Colonel McCabe and escort lorry at Kilgobbin, County Dublin. Two vehicles speed up and race away. One member of the escort party wounded.^[11]

May

• 1 May 1921:
  • An abortive IRA ambush at Islandeady, County Mayo leads to the death of two IRA volunteers.
  • Two RIC men killed.^[95]
• 2 May 1921: An IRA column ambushed British troops near Lackelly, County Limerick, but took heavy casualties in the ensuing fire fight. The IRA columns was itself ambushed another three times as it retreated during a five and a half hour running fight. Between five and fourteen IRA volunteers were killed and up to thirty wounded.
• 3 May 1921: The South Mayo IRA flying column under Tom Maguire together with members of the east Mayo flying column ambush British troops at Tourmakeady, killing six British soldiers. The IRA volunteers were then pursued across the Partry Mountains by over 600 members of the crown forces guided by airplanes. They surrounded but managed to escape despite Maguire being badly wounded. One volunteer was killed in this engagement. Four constables killed.^[95]
• 4 May 1921: The Kerry IRA ambushed an RIC patrol. Eight out of nine constables were killed or died of their wounds.^[121] Five houses and a creamery were burned in reprisal. The IRA had left the body of an 80-year-old informer, Thomas Sullivan, whom they had killed, at the side of the road near Rathmore, to lure the police into the ambush.
• 8 May 1921:
  • An IRA column was surrounded by British troops in the hills of Lappanduff, County Cavan. One IRA man was killed, two wounded and eleven captured.
  • British forces in Carrigtouhil, Cork, shot dead an IRA volunteer.^[122]
• 9 May 1921:
  • In Kerry, near Castleisland, two RIC men were shot by IRA volunteers on their way home from Mass. One was killed, the other saved when his wife covered him with her body.
  • Attack on Dundrum RIC barracks, County Dublin. When the IRA attacking party had withdrawm the RIC and B&T's came out of the Barracks presumably to search for the attackers. Some IRA men had remained hidden near to the barracks and threw two grenades into the middle of the assembled RIC and B&T's. One IRA volunteer was wounded. Number of constables and B&Ts killed unclear.^[11]
• 10 May 1921:
  • Two RIC constables, Alexander Clarke and Charles Murdock, disappeared near Clonmany, County Donegal. The body of Clarke was washed up onshore the next day.^[123][124] Murdock was reportedly buried in a bog^[71]
  • Attack on Cabinteely RIC barracks, County Dublin with grenades from a motor car at the front entrance and with rifles from the rear by IRA men from the 6th Battalion Dublin Brigade. Casualties admitted by RIC but no number given.^[11][35]
• 11 May 1921: A party of Black and Tans shoot dead Christopher Folan, Woodquay, Galway, and injure Joseph Folan, while searching the family home for James Folan, Battalion-Quartermaster of the Galway Brigade, who had just been released from prison for republican activities. They then went to another house and shot dead Hubert Tully, a republican suspect and contact of Seán Broderick, a Galway republican leader.^[125]
• 12 May 1921:
  • A group of Black and Tans traveling from Listowel towards Athea arrested three young men in Gortaglanna. Prior to this the barracks in Listowel had been burnt out and the troops decided to execute the young men in revenge. One of the men, Dalton, attempted to free himself from captivity and escaped, though injured by a bullet. Both of the other two men are shot on the spot.
  • Attack on Cabinteely RIC barracks, County Dublin. One IRA volunteer was wounded and later died on 28 May.^[11][35]
• 13 May 1921: Attack on Cabinteely RIC barracks. 1 B&T (Constable Skeates) shot dead by IRA sniper.^[11][35]
• 13–15 May 1921: "Black Whitsun": a general election for the parliament of Southern Ireland was held on 13 May. Sinn Féin won 124 of the new parliament's 128 seats unopposed, and its elected members refused to take their seats. Over the next two days (14–15 May) the IRA killed fifteen policemen.
• 14 May 1921:
  • IRA volunteers, led by Paddy Daly and Emmet Dalton seized an armoured car on the North Circular Road in Dublin, killing two British soldiers. The car was then used to gain entrance to Mountjoy Prison in an effort to free Seán Mac Eoin. However, the plot was discovered and the IRA volunteers in the car had to shoot their way out of the prison. The car was later abandoned in Clontarf.^[126]}
  • IRA in Castletownbere, led by Michael Óg O'Sullivan, kill four soldiers of the King's Own Scottish Borderers and wound two others at Furious Pier.
  • IRA battles Black and Tans outside Castletownbere - no casualties on either side
  • IRA volunteers in Tipperary assassinated an RIC Detective Inspector, Harry Biggs, and a local Protestant woman, Miss Barrington, sitting beside him in a police car.
• 15 May 1921:
  • Ballyturin House Ambush: An IRA unit in County Galway ambushed a motor car as it left Ballyturin House near Gort. Two Army officers were shot dead, along with an RIC District Inspector and his wife. Margaret Gregory, daughter-in-law of Lady Gregory, was unharmed. The RIC came under fire when they arrived at the scene; one constable was wounded and died six days later.
  • British forces in Carrigtouhil, Cork, shoot three civilians dead.^[127][128]
  • Execution of Peter Grey (or Graham), a purported spy, at Killiney, County Dublin golf links by IRA Volunteers from the 6th Battalion Dublin Brigade.^[11][35]
• 16 May 1921:
  • Two IRA volunteers are killed in an attempted ambush of an RIC patrol at Barrowhouse, county Kildare.^[129]
  • Attack on RIC cycle patrol near Foxrock, County Dublin. RIC retire in disorder leaving equipment behind.^[11]
• 17 May 1921: Pvt of 8th Royal Marine Battalion RMLI was kidnapped and killed.^[130]
• 18 May 1921: British I/O Sgt. Dummy taken from his home in Inchicore by members of the 4th Battalion Dublin Brigade ASU and executed near Crumlin.^[11]
• 19 May 1921:
  • Kilmeena ambush, British troops surprised an IRA ambush party at Kilmeena, County Mayo; 6 IRA volunteers were killed and seven wounded. The remainder of the column fled over the mountains to Skerdagh. One RIC man ^[8] and one Black and Tan were killed in the action. British forces threw the dead and wounded IRA volunteers into the street outside the Police barracks in Westport, causing widespread revulsion. The Marquess of Sligo visited the Police station to complain.
  • Two RIC men were killed by IRA members in Kinnitty, County Offaly.^[131]
• 21 May 1921: IRA ambush at Ballyvaughan of ten members of the British 8th Royal Marine Battalion RMLI (RMBs). At least two RMBs were killed and another two wounded.^[130]
• 22 May 1921: Attack on military lorry at Foxrock, County Dublin. One soldier is wounded.^[11]
• 23 May 1921:
  • The IRA in Clare ambushed an RIC patrol at Glenwood, between Sixmilebridge and Broadfoot. Six RIC constables killed including a District Inspector and two were wounded. The IRA volunteers captured ten rifles.
  • A British Army Officer disappears, presumed killed, in County Cork.^[132]
• 24 May 1921: Members of K Coy, 3rd Battalion Dublin Brigade IRA attacked Black and Tans on Merrion Row. Heavy Tan casualties. No IRA casualties.^[94]
• 25 May 1921:
  • Dublin IRA units occupied and burned the Custom House, centre of local government in Ireland in Dublin city centre. The building and the IRA units were quickly surrounded by first two companies of Auxiliaries and then several hundred more British Army troops. Five IRA volunteers and three civilians were killed and about eighty volunteers were captured. Four Auxiliaries were wounded in the firing. The operation was a publicity coup but a military disaster for the Dublin IRA.^[133]
  • Attacks on Dundrum RIC barracks, Cabinteely RIC barracks (twice), Enniskerry RIC barracks, Military patrol on the Bray road at Stillorgan, Naval base and wireless station Dún Laoghaire, Military lorry, Alma Road, Monkstown.These attacks were carried out by IRA Volunteers from the 6th Battalion on orders from Dublin Brigade HQ to relieve pressure on the city Battalions as a result of the Customs House attack.^[11][35]
• 26 May 1921: Attack on Naval base and wireless station Dún Laoghaire. When the attack was in progress 1 hour, an armoured car leading a party of troops from the naval base advanced up Marine road. Another party from the wireless station proceeded from Clarence Street. Both patrols were attacked on the way and shortly after capturing Georges Street. they (British patrols) clashed and opened fire on each other. They suffered some killed and 5 wounded before they realised their mistake.^[11]
• 27 May 1921: Cpt. Paddy Boland O/C Crossard Coy, Ballyhaunis IRA killed by Crown forces.^[32][49]
• 30 May 1921:
  • Volunteer Tommy Murphy was shot dead in his home in Foxrock, County Dublin, by British forces. Before leaving his house the raiders attached a label to Murphy's body "Executed by the IRA". This allegation was refuted in a subsequent issue of An tÓglach.^[11]
  • After an attack on RIC patrol at Kill O'The Grange, IRA volunteers from the Deansgrange Coy, 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade encountered another party of RIC at Monaloe under Sergeant Cullen. An engagement ensued but both sides retired safely.^[11][35]
• 31 May 1921: IRA volunteers explode a remotely detonated mine under a British Military band at Youghal, County Cork. Seven British soldiers (military bandsmen from Hampshire regiment) are killed. 20 others are wounded in the explosion.
• May 1921:
  • Pope Benedict XV issued a letter that encouraged the "English as well as Irish to calmly consider ... some means of agreement".
  • Ulster Special Constable George Lynas is shot dead in County Armagh; the B-Specials shoot dead two local Catholics in reprisal.
  • A Black and Tan is killed in Ballyhaunis County Mayo by a sniper.
  • Lt. Breeze of the Warickshire Regiment is shot dead by IRA at Foxrock, County Dublin.^[11]
  • Large consignment of Postman uniforms, boots and bicycles for Post Offices in Dundrum, Stillorgan, Sandyford, Foxrock, Kilternan, Shankill & Bray captured at Dundrum railway station. The bicycles were replacements for up to 12 seized in March/April.^[11]
  • Consignment of clothing sent by Dublin castle to be dyed RIC colour at Dartry Dye works captured and burned by the IRA. The fire attracted the attention of passing Auxiliary lorry and an engagement ensued. The IRA retired across the Dodder.^[11]
  • Attack on military lorry at Castle Street, Dalkey, by IRA volunteers from the 6th Battalion Dublin Brigade. The driver was shot dead. The lorry crashed and was later destroyed. An undisclosed amount of ammunition was seized by the IRA.^[35]
  • Destruction of Jamestown Bridge near Sandyford.^[11]
  • Second attack on the home of a member of the Orange Order, Mr Cross, Ballycorous, County Dublin. One occupant wounded and two killed. 6th Battalion Cmdt. Andy McDonnell (IRA) is wounded and taken to hospital.^[11][35]

June

• 1 June 1921: IRA volunteers ambushed a police bicycle patrol near Castlemaine, County Kerry. An RIC District Inspector and three constables were killed outright; a sergeant was wounded and died later.^[95]
• 2 June 1921: Carrowkennedy ambush, County Mayo. Michael Kilroy and the IRA's West Mayo Flying Column ambushed a convoy of RIC and Black and Tans. Seven policemen were killed and six were wounded, two mortally.^[121] The surviving seventeen police surrendered and the IRA seized a large quantity of arms. Many of the locals went into hiding to avoid retribution from the Black and Tans. Volunteers went on the run throughout the region sheltering in safe houses.
• 3 June 1921: IRA volunteers ambushed British troops at Kylebeg near Modreeny in County Tipperary. Members of the IRA's Northern Tipperary Flying Column led by Sean Gaynor attacked a mixed group of 25 British soldiers, RIC policemen and Black & Tans, travelling from Borrisokane to Cloughjordan killing four and injuring 14.
• 4–14 June 1921: Around 800 British troops swept the Macroom area, of County Cork.
• 5 June 1921: 3 members of Manchester Regiment killed at Kilcrea.^[101]
• 6 June 1921: The British government called off the policy of house burnings as official reprisals.
• 7 June 1921: The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland appoints James Craig as the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Several other members of the new Northern government are also appointed.
• 10 June 1921: Seven Waterford IRA men were captured when a party of Marines, having crossed from Youghal by boat to Ferrypoint by night, surprised them near Piltown, County Waterford.
• 12 June 1921: Three RIC men were shot by the IRA on the Falls Road in Belfast. Two were wounded and one died. Uniformed RIC/Black & Tans including DI Nixon arrested and murdered three Catholic male civilians in north Belfast. Over the following two days, loyalist gunmen killed six more Catholics and the IRA assassinated three Protestants in the city.
• 15 June 1921:
  • Members of the East Clare Brigade IRA were ambushed by British soldiers at Woodcock Hill, Meelick, while attempting to raid the Limerick to Ennis train. Captain Christopher McCarthy of the IRA was wounded during the ambush and Captain Michael Gleeson returned under fire to rescue McCarthy. Both men were subsequently captured by British soldiers and executed.
  • Constable Pierce Doogue (aged 42) was killed by a stone while on leave aiding colleagues at a disturbance.
• 16 June 1921: An IRA ambush was mounted at Rathcoole, County Cork. Landmines were exploded under three lorries, killing two auxiliaries and wounding four others.
• 17 June 1921: Ballyhaunis RIC Barracks attacked.^[32]
• 18 June 1921: 36 IRA volunteers in Kilkenny try to ambush a British Army convoy between Castlecomer and Athy, travelling with a mine. However the British were tipped off by a local woman informer, Florrie Draper. British troops crept up on the would-be ambushers and opened fire, killing two volunteers (Seán Hartley and Nicholas Mullins), and injuring another. Draper's house was burned in reprisal.^[134]
  • The 9th Battalion of the Kilkenny IRA ambushed a patrol of Black and Tans from Fiddown Barracks at Sinnotts Cross, near Clogga, Mooncoin, County Kilkenny. One Black and Tan was killed and another injured. No volunteers captured or lost.^[135]
  • Three British officers, dressed in civilian clothes but carrying pistols, were captured near Fethard, County Tipperary, by IRA volunteers under Ernie O'Malley. The three were shot by firing squad at dawn the next day in reprisal for the execution of captured IRA men by the British.^[136]
• 22 June 1921: King George V addressed the first session of the parliament of Northern Ireland, calling on "all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment, and good will."
• 23 June 1921:
  • Over 1000 British troops mounted a sweep of Millstreet, County Cork and environs.
  • An IRA column was encircled by British forces in Ballycastle, County Mayo; one IRA volunteer was killed and seven volunteers were captured.
• 23 June 1921: IRA volunteers ambushed a troop train between Adavoyle and Jonesborough in County Armagh. A mine was exploded under the train, derailing it and killing four soldiers of the 10th Royal Hussar Cavalry Regiment, two drivers and 63 horses. British troops conducted a sweep of the area and shot dead one local man when he failed to stop when challenged. One source reports British casualties as 3 killed/1 DOW/4 injured.^[66]
• 24 June 1921: The British Coalition Government's Cabinet decided to propose talks with the leaders of Sinn Féin. Coalition Liberals and Unionists agreed that an offer to negotiate would strengthen the Government's position if the revolutionaries refused. Austen Chamberlain, the new leader of the Unionist Party, said that "the King's Speech ought to be followed up as a last attempt at peace before we go to full martial law".
• The IRA mounted an attack on Grafton Street, central Dublin, killing two Auxiliaries.^[137]
• 26 June 1921: IRA volunteers in Dublin killed Temporary Cadet William F. H. Hunt in the dining-room of the Mayfair Hotel on Baggot Street. Hunt had also been a policeman in England.
• 30 June 1921: In Coolacrease, County Offaly (near Cadamstown), Richard Pearson (aged 24) and his brother Abraham (aged 19) were shot in their genitals and buttocks in front of their mother and sisters. It took 14 hours for the two brothers to slowly bleed to death from their groin injuries. The family home was later burned. There are conflicting versions of the incident. Some contend that the two were killed for sectarian reasons and to steal the family's property. Others claim the family were British informers and had fired at an IRA party some days before.^[138]
• June 1921:
  • Four Catholic civilians were taken from their homes in Bessbrook and Altnaveigh, County Armagh, and shot dead by the B-Specials.
  • The Dublin IRA attacked a cricket match involving British soldiers in Trinity College Dublin. One woman spectator was killed in the crossfire.
  • The Dublin IRA carried out 93 attacks on British forces in the city in the course of the month.
  • A reported deserter, Lt John Watts, is captured and executed by the IRA near Rivertown, County Sligo^[139]

July

• 1 July 1921: Seven-man RIC patrol was ambushed by the IRA; the RIC had 4 casualties-2 wounded and two ^[95] captured and later shot dead by the IRA in County Sligo.^[140]
• 4 July 1921 Local IRA Volunteers joined West Waterford Column under George Lennon in an attack on a Waterford-bound military train. After a fire fight of some fifteen minutes the train smashed through the crossing gates. This was the last engagement between British forces and the Waterford Brigade Flying Column.
• 6 July: Four Catholic men are killed by the USC in their homes in South Armagh.^[141]
• 8 July: IRA volunteer Dennis Spriggs taken from his home in Cork and executed by British forces.^[142]
• 9 July 1921:
  • Truce terms were signed in Dublin, to be effective on 11 July.
  • Filling in a trenched area at Kilgobnet, just north of Dungarvan, six civilians were killed when a secretly buried British mine exploded.
  • 4 British soldiers (Alfred Cannim, Albert Powell, Harold Daker, and Henry Morris) were captured and shot dead at Ellis Quarry, Cork City by the IRA.^[143]
  • The IRA kill Draper Holmes, a Protestant railway worker, in Newry.^[144]
• 10 July 1921:
  • Belfast's Bloody Sunday The IRA mounted an ambush in Raglan Street in Belfast, killing two policemen. This sparked an outbreak of ferocious fighting between Catholics and Protestants in west Belfast in which 16 civilians (11 Catholics and 5 Protestants) lost their lives and 161 houses were destroyed.^[145] Of the houses destroyed, 150 belonged to Catholics. Four more civilians died in the shooting over the next two days.^[146]
  • A gunfight took place at Castleisland, County Kerry; five IRA volunteers and four British soldiers were killed. Three British troops wounded in the action.
  • An Auxiliary is wounded in a gun battle with two members of the East Mayo Brigade at Ballaghaderreen.
• 11 July: The Truce: Actions commanded by IRA HQ ended outside Northern Ireland at midday under the Truce. Violence in Northern Ireland and unofficial violence in the south and west continue.
• 12 July: The IRA shoot dead Special Constable Thomas Sturdy at the junction of Dock and North Thomas streets in Belfast. Later that night, the USC take Patrick Milligan and Thomas Millar from their homes (on Dock Lane and New Dock Lane respectively), and shoot them dead in the street.^[147]
• July 1921: In County Kildare, an RIC constable was wounded and died of his wounds on 14 September 1922.^[95]

August

• 27 August 1921: A house in Belfast was bombed by loyalists. Over the next two days, two Protestants are killed by republican snipers.
• 30–31 August 1921: Eighteen people were killed during street battles in Belfast; nine Protestants and nine Catholics.^[148]

September

• 7 September 1921: In a letter to de Valera regarding counties Fermanagh and Tyrone, Lloyd George acknowledged that his government had a very weak case on the issue of "forcing these two counties against their will" to be part of Northern Ireland.^[149]
• 11 September 1921: De Valera received nationalist delegations from counties Down, Londonderry, Antrim and the city of Belfast who expressed anxiety at partition. Referring to the unionists, one Protestant member of the Belfast delegation said that "partition would place power in the hands of those responsible for the pogroms".^[149]
• 15–18 September 1921: There was further riots in Belfast and two Protestants were killed by a sniper.^[149]
• 24 September 1921:
  • Speaking in Dundee, Winston Churchill threatened war if the Dáil refused to accept the British offer.
  • During rioting in Belfast, a grenade was thrown at a loyalist mob advancing towards a nationalist area. Two were killed and more than twenty injured.^[149]
• 25 September 1921: In Belfast, an IRA volunteer was killed by a loyalist mob; one civilian was killed by a stray RUC bullet; and another civilian was killed by a grenade thrown into his home.^[149]

October

• 9 October 1921: The delegation from Dáil Éireann arrived in London.
• 11 October 1921: The first meeting of the British-Irish conference was held. Over the next two months there would be seven plenary sessions, 24 sub-conferences and 9 meetings of special committees.^[150]
• From July–October 1921, membership of the IRA's Belfast Brigade had gone from 998 to 1,506. In addition it was bringing in a considerable number of weapons.^[150]

November

• 21–25 November 1921: Thirty people were killed during violence in Belfast.
• 28 November 1921: After Westminster decided to hand over responsibility for local government to Stormont, Tyrone County Council pledged its allegiance to Dáil Éireann. Eight smaller public bodies followed. That same day a bill was introduced in Stormont which allowed it to dissolve any local authority. Offices of Tyrone County Council were subsequently raided by the police and their records seized on 2 December 1921.^[151]
• 30 November 1921:
  • Speaking to the IRA's Mid Clare Brigade, de Valera said "We know the terrorism, we know the savagery that can be used against us, and we defy it". He and Cathal Brugha had spent a week reviewing IRA brigades in counties Galway, Clare and Limerick. Preparations were being made in case the negotiations broke down.
  • In the NI Parliament, James Craig blamed Sinn Féin for the recent violence and stated that 700 A-Specials and 5,000 B-Specials would be enrolled immediately. Around this time, Divisional Commissioner of the RIC in the North ordered his men to regard the truce as non-existent.^[151]

December

• 6 December 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed between the British Government and the Irish delegation. It was signed in London.
• 9 December 1921: IRA prisoners begin to be released.^[152]
• 10 December 1921:
  • At a meeting of the Supreme Council of the IRB, 11 supported the Treaty and 4 opposed it.
  • In Belfast, nationalist areas came under sustained attack from loyalist gunmen.^[152]
• 14 December 1921: Both the British Parliament and Dáil Éireann began to debate the Treaty.
• 15 December 1921: Fermanagh County Council pledged allegiance to Dáil Éireann. After the meeting the RIC took over the council chamber.^[152]
• 16 December 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty is passed in the British House of Commons (401 support, 58 oppose) and House of Lords (166 support, 47 oppose).^[152]
• 17 December 1921: In Belfast, four people were shot dead. Meanwhile, six IRA volunteers were captured in an attempted raid at Balmoral military base, also in Belfast.^[152]
• 27 December 1921: In Belfast there was a shootout between an RIC patrol and an IRA unit, one RIC constable and one IRA volunteer were killed.^[152]

1922

January

• 1–2 January 1922: In Belfast, five people are shot dead by snipers.^[153]
• 7 January 1922:
  • Anglo-Irish Treaty was approved by Dáil Éireann (64 support, 57 oppose).
  • In Ireland, 328 statutory public bodies endorsed the Treaty; 5 declared against. Curran says 369 elected and other bodies endorsed the Treaty by this date; 14 had declared against.^[153]
• 10 January 1922: Arthur Griffith was elected President of Dáil Éireann.
• 12 January 1922: In Belfast, loyalists threw five grenades at groups of Catholic civilians.^[153]
• 14 January 1922:
  • In County Tyrone, members of Monaghan GAA were arrested on their way to Derry. Among them were IRA volunteers, who carried plans to free IRA prisoners from Derry prison.
  • Sixty Pro-Treaty TDs and four Unionist MPs met as the "Southern Parliament" and set up a Provisional Government. Michael Collins was elected Chairman.
• 16 January 1922: Dublin Castle was surrendered to the Provisional Government under the terms of the Treaty^[154]
• 31 January 1922: The first regiment of the Irish National Army was set up in Dublin.^[153]

February

• 1 February 1922: An RIC constable was shot dead in battle with the IRA in Killarney, County Kerry.^[95]
• 3 February 1922: Two RIC constables were shot dead after leaving a pub in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare.^[155]
• 7–8 February 1922: IRA kidnapped 42 prominent loyalists and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) constables in counties Fermanagh and Tyrone (northeastern Ulster). They were to be held as hostages for the Monaghan GAA team who had been arrested in January. This operation had been approved by Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy, Frank Aiken and Eoin O'Duffy.^[155]
• 10 February 1922: IRA volunteers attacked an USC patrol in Clady, County Tyrone. One constable was shot dead.^[155]
• 11 February 1922: IRA volunteers stopped a group of USC constables on a train in Clones, County Monaghan (a short distance from the area that would become the Irish Free State); a gunfight began in which one IRA officer and four USC were killed. The remaining USC constables were captured.^[155]
• 12–15 February 1922: In Belfast, violence erupted in response to the Clones shootings. Between 37 and 39 people were killed. This included six children who were killed when loyalists threw a grenade into their school yard. Forty other children were injured in this attack.^[155]
• 22 February 1922: Michael Collins secretly authorised the formation of a specially-paid unit of 70 IRA volunteers (Parkinson says 72, including 12 officers), known as the Belfast City Guard, to protect districts from loyalist attacks. It operated until August 1922, the same month that Collins was killed.^[155]
• 26 February 1922. Anti-Treaty IRA under Ernie O'Malley seized an RIC barracks in Clonmel, County Tipperary. They captured a large number of weapons.^[155]
  • It was reported that there had been 80 attacks on the RIC in Southern territory since the previous December, resulting in the deaths of 12 constables.

March

• 2 March 1922: Anti-Treaty IRA smuggle weapons from Germany to Helvic Head, County Waterford.^[156]
• 3 March 1922: IRA volunteers shoot two RIC constables dead in Tipperary, County Tipperary.^[156]
• 4 March 1922: IRA volunteers under Mick Mansfield seize the RIC barracks in Dungarvan, County Waterford.
• 6 March 1922: In Belfast, four people are shot dead (three civilians and one IRA volunteer).^[156]
• 7 March 1922: In Belfast, four people are shot dead.^[156]
• 9 March 1922: In Belfast, three people are shot dead.^[156]
• 10 March 1922: In Belfast, six people are shot dead (three civilians, two RIC constables, one British soldier).^[156]
• 15 March 1922: IRA volunteers shoot two RIC constables dead and injure another at St Brigid's Hospital, Galway.^[156]
• 16 March 1922:
  • In the NI Parliament, Dawson Bates declares "we are at war" with the IRA.
  • In Belfast, four people are killed and numerous others injured by grenades.^[156]
• 18 March 1922: In Belfast, the RIC and USC raid IRA headquarters, seizing weapons and the names of IRA volunteers. The Provisional Government in Dublin condemns this as a breach of the truce. Meanwhile, four people are killed in the city.^[156]
• 19 March 1922:
  • IRA volunteers raid two RIC barracks in the North; one in Pomeroy and one in Maghera. They tie up a policeman and seize rifles and ammunition.
  • In separate incidents along the border, the IRA shot two Special Constables and one Protestant civilian. One of the constables survived, the other constable and the civilian were killed.
• 20 March 1922: IRA volunteers cross into the North and attack the USC barracks at Aughnacloy, County Tyrone.
• 21–22 March 1922: IRA volunteers shoot dead two RIC men in Trillick, County Tyrone; in reprisal, local loyalists shoot dead three Catholic civilians.^[156]
• 23 March 1922: McMahon Murders – In Belfast, members of the RIC/USC shoot dead six members of the Catholic McMahon family at their home. Prior to this incident, six people had been shot dead in Belfast (including two USC constables).^[156]
• 28 March 1922: IRA volunteers seize the RIC barracks in Belcoo, County Fermanagh in the North after a three-hour gun battle. Fifteen policemen were taken prisoner and marched across the border and held until 18 July.
• 29 March 1922:
  • IRA volunteers shoot dead two RIC men in Cullaville, County Armagh, in the North.
  • IRA volunteers under Seán O'Hegarty seize the British ship Upnor off the coast of Ballycotton, County Cork, taking a large cache of weapons.^[156]
• 31 March 1922:
  • In Newry and South Armagh (in the North), the IRA kill three USC constables and injure at least five others.
  • In Belfast, the IRA kill one USC constable and injure another. In retaliation, the USC kill four Catholic civilians in the environs.^[156]

April

• 1 April 1922: The Arnon Street Massacre took place in Belfast. Five Catholic civilians were shot dead in a home on Arnon Street after the IRA killed a constable.^[157]
• 6 April 1922:
  • Six ex-RIC men are shot dead in counties Mayo, Clare and Kerry.
  • Two USC men are shot dead in counties Tyrone and Armagh (Northern territory).^[158]
• 13 April 1922:
  • In Belfast, IRA volunteers shoot dead two RIC men. In New York, IRA volunteers from Cork shoot and wound a suspected informer.^[159]
  • Anti-Treaty IRA under Rory O'Connor took over the Four Courts building in Dublin.
• 19 April 1922: In Belfast, four people are shot dead and many others injured.^[158]
• 21 April 1922:
  • In Belfast, six people are killed. Fr Bernard Laverty (chair of the Belfast Catholic Protection Committee) sends a telegram to Winston Churchill saying that Catholics were "being gradually but certainly exterminated".
  • Ulster Council of IRA met in Clones and agree that every division with territory inside the six counties would carry out operations in about two weeks. McDermott says Collins sanctioned this policy. He goes on to say that "The aim of the new campaign was to make the government of the six counties as difficult as possible, rather than the overthrow of the state".^[158]
• 24 April 1922: A general strike took place, called by the Labour Party (and supported by 75,000 workers) against the prospect of civil war.^[158]
• 26 April 1922: Provisional Government’s Northern Advisory Committee met and urged Collins to start IRA operations again by 2 May if Craig did not accede to his three demands. At this time, Collins was preparing for a major Northern offensive (without the knowledge of his cabinet colleagues). Northern IRA staff paid for as part of pro-Treaty army and supplied with arms from anti-Treaty divisions after Collins negotiated this with Liam Lynch.^[158]
• 26–28 April 1922: Dunmanway Massacre: After the fatal shooting of a local anti-Treaty IRA officer, Michael O'Neill, in a dispute over a car which the IRA wanted to commandeer, elements of the local IRA shot 14 local Protestant men in and around Dunmanway, County Cork, killing all but one, in revenge.

May

• 2 May 1922: The IRA launches a series of attacks on RIC barracks in counties Londonderry and Tyrone. Six RIC and USC men are killed in the attacks. In reprisal, Ulster Special Constabulary personnel killed nine Catholic civilians in the area, two on 6 May, three in Magherafelt on 11 May, and four more in Desertmartin on 19 May.
• 17 May 1922 – 19 May 1922: The IRA launched a series of attacks across what is Northern Ireland. RIC barracks at Martinstown, Ballycastle and Cushendall, all in County Antrim, are attacked, but none taken. IRA units in Belfast targeted commercial buildings and destroy 80-90 buildings over the next two months.
• 18 May 1922:
  • The IRA in Belfast attack Musgrave Street RIC barracks. Two RIC men are shot, one fatally. A number of IRA volunteers were also wounded. The IRA team, 20 strong under Roger McCorley, got away with some weaponry.
  • Loyalists boarded a tram in central Belfast and killed three workers whom they identified as Catholics.
• 19 May 1922: In revenge for the tram killings of the previous day, IRA volunteers entered Garret's cooperage on little Patrick street in Belfast and shot four Protestant workers, killing three.
• 22 May 1922: Unionist MP William Twaddell was assassinated by the IRA in Belfast city centre. The Unionist government of Northern Ireland introduced internment in response and arrested up to 350 republican suspects. A total of 724 people were interned in Northern Ireland up to the end of 1924.
• 24 May 1922: Gun battles break out for several hours between loyalists and republican gunmen on the Falls Road in Belfast. Three people were killed and 20 injured.
• 26 May 1922: The IRA in Belfast planted seven bombs at the Protestant Model School on Divis Street in Belfast, destroying the school, but causing no casualties.
• 28 May 1922: An IRA unit of 100 men occupied Pettigo, just on the Northern side of the border. A gun battle broke out between them and 100 Ulster Special Constables, in which one USC man was killed. A battalion of British troops and an artillery battery of six field guns was then mobilised to dislodge the IRA party.
• 31 May 1922. IRA volunteers shot dead one Special Constable in central Belfast and wounded another. That night, nine Catholics were killed by loyalists and the Special Constabulary in the city. Two Protestant civilians were also killed.
• May 1922: A total of 75 people were killed in Belfast during the month.

June

• 1 June 1922:
  • The newly created Royal Ulster Constabulary took over primary responsibility for the policing of Northern Ireland.
  • Fighting between the IRA and USC took place around Pettigo. Two civilians were killed in the crossfire.
• 3 June 1922: British troops re-take Pettigo, bombarding the village with artillery and then storming it. Seven IRA volunteers were killed, six wounded and four captured. Another 50 IRA volunteers were later taken prisoner. The remainder made it back across the border. One British soldier died in the engagement.
• 17 June 1922: In revenge for the killing of two local Catholics and the sexual assault of a Catholic woman, part of Frank Aiken's IRA unit attacks a USC patrol at Drumintee, killing Constables Arkwright and Russell. The same night, another section attacked a series of Protestant-owned farms in nearby Altnaveigh, killing six Protestant civilians, including a woman.^[160]
• 20 June 1922: Three Catholic carters on their way to work in Belfast are shot dead by loyalists.
• 22 June 1922: British General Sir Henry Wilson, who had been a military adviser to the Northern Ireland government, is shot dead at his home in London by IRA volunteers Reginald Dunne and Joseph O'Sullivan, purportedly in reprisal for attacks against Catholics in Ulster; two policeman and a passerby were also wounded. The two IRA volunteers were captured and hanged on 10 August 1922.
• 23 June 1922: Three Catholic civilians are shot dead by British troops and Special Constables in Cushendall, County Antrim, in apparent revenge for the killing of Sir Henry Wilson in London the previous day. The details were not released by the British government until 1997.
• 28 June 1922: Fighting broke out in Dublin between pro- and anti-Treaty units of the IRA. This marked the start of the Irish Civil War. This conflict effectively ended serious violence in Northern Ireland as it distracted attention from the continued British presence in the North.

August

• 10 August 1922, IRA volunteers Reginald Dunne and Joseph O'Sullivan, who assassinated Sir Henry Wilson on 22 June, are hanged in London.

December

• 17 December 1922: Following the creation of the Irish Free State on 6 December, the last British (U.K.) forces hand over the "Royal Barracks" in Dublin and embark that evening.

See also

• Timeline of the Irish Civil War

References

• Tom Barry, Guerilla Days in Ireland, Anvil, Cork 1981.
• Richard Abbott, Police Casualties in Ireland, 1919-1922, Mercier Press, Dublin 2000.
• M.E. Collins, Ireland 1866-1966, Educational Company of Ireland, Dublin 1993.
• T. Ryle Dwyer, The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins, Mercier Press, Dublin 2005.
• Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence, Gill & MacMillan, Dublin 2004.
• Toby Harnden, Bandit country, The IRA and South Armagh, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1999.
• David Leeson, "Death in the Afternoon: The Croke Park Massacre, 21 November 1920", Canadian Journal of History, vol 38, no. 1 (April 2003).
• Ernie O'Malley, Raid and Rallies, Anvil Books, Dublin 1982.
• Alan F Parkinson, Belfast's Unholy War'[', Four Courts Press, Dublin 2004. ISBN 1-85182-792-7 hbk
• Robert Lynch, The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, Irish Academic Press, Portland Oregon, 2006.

Footnotes

External links

• War of Independence: Clare and Galway
• Chronology of Irish History, 1919-1923
• RIC Memorial Roll 1837-1922
• Cork's War of Independence
• Killdare and the War of Independence