In early August 1920 the people of Navan assembled at the local court. Held in the town’s RIC barracks, to hear the case of two young men, James Dalton and Patrick Kane who it was alleged had presented revolvers, threatened and cut of the hair of two girls, Margaret Cooney and Bridget Faulkner. Soldiers it was alleged were present at the time of the assault, perhaps suggesting the reason why the girls were targeted i...

  One of the features of the Irish newspaper industry at this time was the emergence of photographs, which gradually overtook sketches and cartoons. The Irish Examiner newspaper was among a number who regularly carried images in their pages, highlighting an number of important aspects of Irish life in the process. In early August 1920 the Examiner carried images of members of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union wh...

In August 1920 the British Government introduced the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act in an effort to gain control amid the growing lawlessness which prevailed across the country. These new powers gave the military more authority with respect to arrests and raids, which duly increased as the month unfolded. In many instances, the military and police acted beyond the law and increased their intimidation of the civilian p...

One of the most daring attacks of the Irish War of Independence was carried out in late July 1920 when more than sixty armed men stormed the RIC barracks in the village of Streamstown, county Westmeath. The constabulary were completely overwhelmed being only eight in number, three of home were apprehended returning from Divine Service where they were stripped of the weapons and uniform. What made the attack so daring was th...

As we have already seen, the cause of labour was very much to the fore in every town and village across the country in July 1920 where agricultural labourers and others aired their grievances. In Dublin and other large centres it was very much the same scenario although involving workers in a different industries. In July Dublin drapers rejected proposals for wage increases, while the issue of holiday entitlements and the n...

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...