Century: War of Independence

It invokes such partiality that, 100 years later, untangling its knotted legacy is not easy

The summer of 1920 saw a period of intense political violence in the north against a background of a post-war economic slump

When the long-established RIC proved not up to the task of crushing the IRA, the British government made the fateful and fatal decision to draft in the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries

The year saw the War of Independence begins in earnest with an escalation of murder and violence by the British and IRA

Decade of Centenaries programme adapted for Covid-19 restrictions

Women played a vital role in the conflict but many of their stories are lost forever

The Mutiny of the Connaught Rangers in India was a military failure but a moral victory

Reporting of atrocities by crown forces in Ireland by European and American newspapers caused deep unease in Britain

Peaceful mass mobilisation, collective action against state institutions, boycott and ostracisation were powerful weapons in the conflict

Patrick and Harry had been savagely beaten and brutally tortured following their arrest

Women proved easy targets for the Black and Tans and were regularly terrorised in their homes by threatening, abusive and drunk soldiers

Helping students to explore the War of Independence

The events of the year and the feelings they engendered are still felt to the present day

How did the untrained, poorly armed IRA succeed against the superior British forces?

Violence against women, by both sides, was an integral aspect of the War of Independence

14 British officers were shot dead in Michael Collins’s bid to destroy ‘the undesirables’

Scarred by his wartime service, angered by the treatment of ex-servicemen, unable to secure government employment and inspired by the Easter Rising, in the summer of 1920 Tom Barry made a decision that would change both his life and the nature of the conflict then raging in Ireland

The lord mayor of Cork’s feat of endurance and the drawn-out circumstances of his death magnified the cause of Irish independence in the international arena

The Act, brought in by David Lloyd George’s government in an attempt to address the Ulster question, caused great confusion and was widely condemned both north and south

Rebel songs were an integral part of the culture of Republicanism in the early 20th century