By July 1920 the IRA had intensified its campaign and sought new methods in engaging the military and police.   While some had studied the practice of warfare in other countries, more practical advice was also supplied to volunteers through radical newspapers such as an t-Oglach. Military instruction was offered in the engineering notes of the newspaper on the use of paraffin oil for arson, which was deemed to be be...

Labour disputes all across Ireland continued in July 1920 and were championed by newspapers such as The Watchword of Labour. In its pages amid the ongoing War of Independence, The Watchword carried news of these ongoing labour disputes which were in many communities as the national struggle. In Killucan, county Westmeath there was an ongoing dispute over payment to farm workers from which farmers had tried to renege from t...

The murder of James Dunne in Ferns, county Wexford in early July 1920 highlighted the rapacity with which the British military were prepared the engage with as the Irish War of Independence continued. Stopping at a public house in Ferns for a drink, two policemen asked Dunne to join them. When he refused the request, the soldiers became infuriated and began to shoot up the public house and shop. When Dunne left he was pursu...

By mid 1920 the IRA had turned their attention from raiding country houses for weapons to occupying and burning them. Using the pretense that the house was soon to be occupied by the military, the IRA torched these ‘Big Houses’. Already a number including those in Offaly, Limerick and Wicklow had been burned. Usually allowing the occupants about fifteen minutes to whatever contents they wished, it was a scene reenacted ...

As the IRA attempted to make the country ungovernable, in July the Military struck back with almost daily raids on houses and business premises, stopping people as they went about their daily life. Their idea was to make the country unliveable and to deny the IRA the use of its civilian support network, which of course was crucial to their success in the war. A series of raids were carried out in county Cork in July 1920 wh...

In the wake of the 1916 Rising Republican leaders realised that mistakes had been made in the planning and implementation of the rising. Indeed, it was realised that several generations of republicans had done likewise. In the intervening period IRA leaders began to study the guerilla warfare tactics of the Boer army in South Africa, while Michael Collins and others had been in communication with Boer generals. In July 1920...

Ernie O’Malley’s great account of the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War was entitled ‘Raids and Rallies’. In July 1920 raids of a different nature were carried out all across the country by the British military who were determined to exert their influence and to turn the tide of the war. In county Meath it seems not even a church was safe. At Bellewstown, the Catholic Church in the village was f...

  The murder of James (or Seamus) Cogan, a member of the Irish Volunteers, shot dead in Oldscastle, county Meath on 21 July 1920 was a deliberate attempt to try and regain control at a local level. The British military, particularly the newly arrived recruits, were determined to prevent the holding of Republican courts and stamp out the authority of the Republican police. When members of the Oldcastle Republican Police were...

The wreck of the town Killmallock in county Limerick in July 1920 emphasised how violent the military response to IRA actions could be.   During the night of the 23 July the military arrived in Killmallock, county Limerick in lorries and having alighted from them sprayed the towns houses and business premises with a volley of bullets. The attack on the village sent came as a terrifying surprise to its inhabitants. T...

  After almost eighteen months of conflict, the Irish War of Independence showed no sign of abating in July 1920. This would be another month of murder and mayhem, and in terms of engagement with the police and military the IRA inflicted almost a dozen deaths during July alone. The military naturally struck back and a month of raids and destruction followed with the civilian population bearing the brunt of most of ...