Irish Republicanism - Assignment Example

Running Head: Irish Republicanism Irish Republicanism of Irish Republicanism Irish republicanism has been a political ideology based on Irish nationalism and the belief that all of Ireland should be a single independent republic. This ideology also advocated the use of non parliamentary insurrection as a method to end British rule. It was different from Irish nationalism which advocated a non violent approach towards independence. The ideology grew in the late eighteenth century as a response to British rule and an end to discrimination against Catholics. The Irish rebellion of 1798 saw the rise of Irish republicanism. The rebellions of 1848 and 1865 were crushed by the British forces with harsh reprisals. An uprising was organized in 1916 which was termed as the Easter Uprising which was suppressed by British forces and most of its leaders were executed. Between 1919 and 1921, the Irish Republican Army began a guerilla campaign against the British forces. The British responded by harsh reprisals and using paramilitary units like the Black and Tans to help the army. British atrocities and popularity of the republican cause led to widespread support for the IRA. A peace treaty was negotiated in 1921 between the British government and Michael Collins. Many people were not satisfied with the treaty as it partitioned Ireland into two dominions, one which was under the British crown. A civil war broke out in which anti treaty IRA forces were defeated. However the IRA’s best commander, Michael Collins was assassinated by anti treaty forces. Irish republicanism however grew in North Ireland as Catholics became disillusioned with discrimination and poor living conditions. The provisional Irish Republican Army was formed to protect Catholic neighborhoods and began a campaign of attacks against Protestants and British troops (Hopkinson, 2004). Irish republicanism has advocated the use of physical force for violent insurrection in Ireland since the 1860s till today. It has been marked by several common trends by Irish republicans like the commitment to an Irish republic which believed in the rights of the Irish people and the independence of Ireland. It has been characterized by rebellions or campaigns based upon parliamentary nationalism. All these movements have universally called for breaking links with the United Kingdom by using force. Secret societies and organizations like the Fenians and Irish Republican Brotherhood have been used to plot and organize rebellions. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret organization dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish republic. It also had a counterpart in the United States by the name of Fenian brotherhood. Both these organizations became known as the Fenians. Armed uprisings had previously taken place in the nineteenth century against British rule as the Irish population was mobilized in mass movements. The Irish famine of 1845 saw another catastrophe on the Irish people which further hardened opinions against the British. The Fenians advocated Irish republicanism as the guiding philosophy of an independent Ireland. Most of these uprisings were however crushed by the British government. It would be another forty nine years before any armed uprising or rebellion would be organized by the Irish republicans. The first Irish Republican Army was a successor organization to the Irish Volunteers which was established in 1919 by Dail Eireann. It was considered the legitimate army of the unilaterally declared Irish Republic which was proclaimed in the Easter Rising (Hopkinson, 2004). Many organizations claimed to be continuation of the Irish Republican Army from the 1920s till today. The signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 split the IRA into pro treaty and anti treaty forces. The pro treaty forces were led by the charismatic Michael Collins in 1922. The anti treaty IRA had been defeated in the subsequent Irish Civil War and by the late 1930s had lost the support it had in the Republican side. The idea of non parliamentary insurrection was dominant among the Irish people starting with the United Irish rebellions of 1798 and 1803. Other rebellions like the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 and Irish Republican Brotherhood rebellion of 1867 also were popular uprisings directed against British rule. The IRA was also inspired by the methods of Irish secret societies like the Ribbon men and Irish Land League. The acronym IRA was first used by the Irish Republican Brotherhood in America. This force comprised a number of regiments who fought at the Battle of Ridgeway on June 1866. The modern use of the word was used by Irish rebel forces during the Easter Rising. It was commonly used for guerillas that fought for an independent Irish republic. During the 1960s, the provisional IRA would be named to distinguish from the old IRA. Political violence in Ireland began because of demands by Irish nationalists for home rule within the United Kingdom and British Empire. By the start of World War I, Britain was ready to provide self rule to Ireland. The Irish nationalist demand was opposed by the unionists (Hart, 2003). The decision of the British government to allow home rule witnessed the formation of unionist and nationalist armed groups known as the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Irish Volunteers. The implementation of the home rule plan was postponed until the First World War The majority of Irish nationalists supported the British proposal to delay home rule and served in the war with the British Army. However a secret group of Irish Republican Brotherhood refused to join the British war effort. They were led by Eoin Mac Neil who was prepared to launch an armed insurrection in favor of Irish independence. The Easter uprising was a failure because many of the volunteers did not turn out. Irish public opinion was sharply against the rebels because the rebel volunteers were a minority faction among Irish nationalists. However following the execution of sixteen senior leaders, public opinion shifted to the rebels’ side. Another crisis was attempts by Britain to forcefully conscript Irish citizens into the British army which also alienated Irish people against British rule. The subsequent Irish war of independence also had its origin with the formation of the unilateral independent Irish parliament by the majority Sinn Fein members of Parliament. The general election of 1918 showed the disapproval of British policy by which Irish people gave seventy percent of support to Sinn Fein. The IRA was also formed because Britain had not passed the home rule act for the past seven years (Hart, 2003). The IRA began its armed campaign for independence in 1919 when Sean Treacy and Dan Breen killed two Royal Irish Constabulary Officers. The violence spread as volunteers began attacking British property and stealing arms. The major leaders of the movement were Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins. Valera favored a classical conventional war against the British government. Michael Collins and the broader IRA leadership preferred the use of guerilla tactics as conventional tactics had failed in previous uprisings. Arthur Griffith another leader advocated civil disobedience to achieve independence. The Catholic Irish police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary was the main target of the IRA. The British administration had collapsed as RIC barracks were burned and many of them withdrew to the countryside. Michael Collins was the main figure of the independence movement because he was instrumental in setting up an intelligence system that provided crucial information for the IRA’s attacks. A special group known as the “Squad” selectively targeted intelligence officers and collaborators. Richard Mulcahy was responsible for organizing IRA units throughout the country. The IRA had an estimated three thousand men on active service. The British response to the IRA attacks was that of using paramilitary forces like the Black and Tans to launch reprisal attacks against the local population for IRA attacks. Military courts of enquiry were used give military courts powers to cover the entire population and to use the death penalty and internment without trial. The British reprisals failed to contain the IRA and widespread support for the republican ideas continued (Hart, 2003). The Irish war of independence would end with a truce on July 1921 by which time the conflict had reached a stalemate. The British government first called upon the IRA to surrender its arms. However fresh talks were initiated as the government came under criticism for actions of their forces in Ireland. The Irish Republican Army leaders were also convinced that the group faced shortages in arms and ammunition and could not continue the struggle indefinitely with the deployment of regular British troops. Ultimately a peace treaty was signed in 1921 which split nationalist Ireland. A civil war between anti treaty and pro treaty forces ended with the victory of the later. The IRA reorganized itself and played a key role in election of the first government of the Fianna Fail party. The 1930s and 1940s saw the organization divided into splits and dissension. A bombing campaign against English cities was repelled and over by 1941. The British government reinforced partition of Ireland which was opposed by the Irish parties. The IRA carried out several border raids in Northern Ireland which were repelled. Northern Ireland since the 1960s became dominated by the Irish republicans as demands for more political and civil rights grew violent with attacks on Protestants and British troops. The IRA once again pursued a policy of armed struggle in 1969 and sought to gain support in nationalist districts in Northern Ireland. A campaign of bombings and assassinations was carried out against British army and economic targets in Northern Ireland. The conflict would escalate in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s but all efforts to defeat the IRA failed. The IRA launched a unilateral ceasefire in 1994 which eventually led to the Good Friday agreement (Hopkinson, 2004). The Irish republican uprising of 1867 was poorly organized with some outbreaks in the South and West of Ireland. The Fenians were bitterly opposed to the exclusion of Catholics from the Irish parliament. Like the republicans of later days they were militantly opposed to the British. James Stephens and John O’Mahony supported the organization to overthrow the British from Ireland. Their use of conventional warfare tactics and lack of support from the local Irish population were some of the reasons why their uprising failed. The Irish republican army which emerged in the early twentieth century advocated the use of conventional warfare to oust the British from Ireland. The Easter Uprising was a classical example of rebellion which was swiftly crushed by the British government. The failure of the Easter uprising, the execution of the leaders and harsh British policies helped support the Irish republican political ideology. The IRA organized itself after the Easter uprising under the charismatic leadership of Michael Collins into a guerilla force. The use of flying columns to launch swift and lightning attacks on the RUC and British troops was considered very effective and brutal. Republican strategy also focused on the use of a specialized network of domestic spies that would provide information for IRA attacks and root out collaborators. The shift towards guerilla tactics is seen as one of the reasons why the British government wanted an end to the conflict because of the heavy losses which they were suffering from IRA guerilla attacks (Hopkinson, 2004). The IRA had a special organization, the Squad which carried out assassinations of RUC officers and collaborators. They also launched many armed raids to steal arms from the Royal Irish Constabulary. Many RUC barracks were burned down by the IRA which forced the RUC to withdraw to the countryside. The IRA in 1920 pursued a policy of attacking fortified police barracks. The conflict also escalated as the British government declared martial law in parts of the country. Special laws were passed for the internment and executions of IRA men. Paramilitary forces like the Black and Tans and Auxiliary Division were deployed. The IRA escalated the conflict by attacking British forces using ambush tactics. They moved away from their strategy of attacking well defended barracks. These flying columns operated from mountainous bases and had twenty guerillas in each unit. The brunt of the conflict was fought in Dublin and Munster. The IRA carried out numerous successful operations against the British troops like the ambushing and killing of seventeen Auxiliaries at Kilmicheal in 1920. In Dublin, IRA f lying columns attacked British troops with shooting or grenade attacks. In Belfast, the war became a sectarian conflict as the IRA responded to attacks against the Catholic community from loyalists and state forces. Some of the exiled republican leaders in the United States advocated the use of conventional warfare to expel the British. This was rejected by Michael Collins and the broad leadership of the republican movement which favored the use of guerilla tactics to attack the numerically superior British troops and their RUC allies (Hopkinson, 2004). The provisional IRA emerged out of the partition of Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland in 1922. Most republicans had accepted the Free State and were willing to work within it. However a minority of the republicans argued that the IRA was the army of the republic. The IRA wanted to overthrow both the Irish states but in the late 1940s, republican leaders called for no armed actions against the Irish Free State. They would concentrate on overthrowing Northern Ireland. The late 1960s witnessed riots and demands by Catholics in Northern Ireland for greater political and civil rights. The IRA emerged into two groups which included the Official IRA and Provisional IRA. The Official IRA wanted to use political action as a tool to undermine partition. They rejected the use of violence or an armed campaign against Northern Ireland. The Provisionals by contrast called for a defense of Catholic communities in Northern Ireland and an offensive campaign to end British rule there (Hopkinson, 2004). Hostile loyalist reaction to the peaceful campaign by Catholics provoked communal disturbances in Northern Ireland. The intervention of British troops in Northern Ireland saw several clashes in which Catholics were killed. The Provisional IRA emerged as a guerilla group which launched an armed campaign against the Protestants and British army. The Provisional IRA’s strategy in this time period was modeled after the Irish war of independence in which they wanted to launch as much force as possible and cause heavy losses among British troops that would prompt the government to withdraw forces due to public opinion. However this did not take into account the strong unionist support for the United Kingdom. During the 1970s, the IRA changed its strategy to a longer guerilla war with small cells. Its objectives were to wage a war of attrition, make Northern Ireland ungovernable, sustain the war, escalate the conflict by striking at British economic targets and defend Catholics from loyalist attacks. The conflict has ended due to the Good Friday Agreement which calls for a power sharing between all Northern Ireland political parties and the decommissioning of all weapons. The Anglo-Irish treaty between Britain and Ireland concluded the Irish War of Independence. It partitioned Ireland into an Irish Free State and Northern Ireland to opt out of the Irish Free State. Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith were the envoys from the Irish Republic while the British government included David Lloyd George. The main parts of the treaty provided for the withdrawal of British forces from Ireland. Ireland would become a self governing dominion within the British Empire. The British monarch would be the head of state of the Irish State. Northern Ireland would have the option of withdrawing from the Irish Free State within one month of the treaty. A boundary would be drawn between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Britain for its own security would control a number of ports patrolled by the Royal Navy. There was some opposition to the treaty with Eamon de Valera leading the anti treaty forces. Some of them favored continuing the struggle against the British. The main dispute was regarding the status of the Irish Free State as a dominion rather than an independent republic. They also opposed the partition of Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland (Hopkinson, 2004). The dispute over the treaty would lead to an Irish Civil war in which Michael Collins was assassinated. However the anti treaty forces were defeated by the pro treaty forces. The treaty’s rules regarding the British government were deleted by the Constitution of the Irish Free State in 1932. It was free to change any laws passed by the British parliament. Michael Collins had said that the treaty was the best hope for Irish nationalists as it would give them the freedom to achieve freedom. De Valera also acknowledged this fact after he had entered government. The British government desired home rule for Ireland because of fears that Ulster Catholics would be massacred by Protestant paramilitary groups. The status of dominion for twenty six Irish counties and partition of six counties was the best compromise for the British government. Ireland achieved more in dominion status as compared with the Home Rule Act of 1914. The British had no idea about the fact that the IRA was in shortage of ammunition and weaponry. Collins accepted to the idea of reconciliation by the British government. He was surprised that the British had failed to realize that they were within days of striking a decisive blow against the IRA. However it is highly unlikely that any form of autonomy would have satisfied the Irish population because of their support for the republican ideology. De Valera acknowledged his greatest mistake was not accepting the treaty. The treaty is marked as the first step towards an independent Irish State (Hopkinson, 2004). Irish republicanism as a political ideology has attracted Irish nationalists since the 1860s till today. It has evolved into a political ideology which has been marked by several stages of armed insurrection, guerilla warfare and terrorism directed against the British. Initially Irish republicanism grew out of the failed rebellions of nineteenth century which were crushed by the British using harsh reprisals. The failure of the Easter uprising in the early twentieth century was another important event in the rise of Irish republicanism. The execution of the leaders, harsh reprisals by Britain and Irish famine all convinced the Irish population of ending British rule. Support for the republican ideology grew as seventy percent of Irish voted for the Sinn Fein. The Irish war of independence was launched using guerilla tactics. Michael Collins was the brilliant organizer of flying columns that launched daring and surprise attacks on the RUC and British troops. He also had a network of specialized spies that provided intelligence about spies and British army movements. These tactics were effective as they gave Ireland the status of a dominion by the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1920. The IRA’s manifesto was that it was the legal representative of the Irish people. It called for armed struggle against the British and collaborators. It called for fighting imperialism (Coogan, 1993). Irish republicanism was more successful in the 1920s because of the guerilla tactics of Michael Collins. Another factor which helped them achieve their goal was their pragmatism as they accepted dominion status which would give them the freedom to achieve freedom. References: Coogan, Tim Pat (1993). The I.R.A.. Northern Ireland: Fontana. Hopkinson, Michael. Green against Green, the Irish Civil War (Gill & Macmillan, 2004) Hart, Peter. The IRA at War 1916-1923 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003 Read More