By Terry Dunne On 20 August 1921 a band of Irishmen were making a fighting retreat in south-west India at the start of the Malabar rebellion. They were men from the Calicut garrison of the 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment. This was the last combat of the southern Irish regiments of the British Army, as these … Read more
By Elaine Callinan In April 1921 Éamon de Valera outlined a scheme for Sinn Féin propaganda against partition and against a unionist victory for seats in the new Northern Ireland parliament. A sum of £2,000 was raised—the Dáil contributed £1,000 and Sinn Féin the other £1,000. That same month, James Craig, leader of the Ulster … Read more
By Eugene Dunphy By late 1920, liberal-minded English men and women had grown weary of hearing daily reports from Ireland about the thuggish behaviour of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries (‘Auxies’). ‘Not in our name’, was their response, when reading of the burning of Balbriggan and other acts of violence perpetrated by Crown … Read more
By Áine Hensey In Freedom and the Fifth Commandment: Catholic priests and political violence in Ireland, 1920–21, Brian Heffernan describes the considerable diversity of opinion that existed among Irish Catholic priests during the political and military developments of the years following the 1916 Rising. Particularly intriguing are his references to the unusually revolutionary environment of … Read more
By Dean Jobb They wore workmen’s clothing, making them indistinguishable from the thousands of Irish newcomers in search of jobs in Nova Scotia’s mines or building its railways. James Holmes, almost six feet tall, with a dark complexion and a drooping black moustache, had been born in St Joseph, Missouri. His companion, William Bracken, came … Read more