Sir,—The centenary of the Irish revolution has generated a huge and varied literature on what is often called the ‘Irish war of independence’. A number of other terms such as the ‘Tan War’ or the ‘Irish revolution’ were also in use.
My tuppence-worth was an essay questioning the appropriateness of the term ‘war of independence’ in the Irish case. This was republished as the final chapter of Unhappy the land (2016), in which I stated, among other things, that this was not a title or term used at the time (1919–21). However, Dr Brian Hanley has pointed out to me that the phrase does indeed appear in An tÓglach and elsewhere. I am grateful for this correction. I was wrong.
I’ve since had a look at the first 100 references to ‘War of Independence’ thrown up by a word search of the Radical Archive on the online Irish Newspaper Archives. This is where one might expect to find the term in widespread use. This is what I found, restricting the search to the period 1919–23 (and excluding references to the American and other wars of independence outside Ireland): An tÓglach, 8 references; An Phoblacht, 0; Éire, 2; Irish Bulletin, 3; Irish Statesman, 0; Nation, 2; Sinn Féin, 0; Weekly Summary, 1. It might be interesting to pursue this further to see how frequently the term was in use in the 1920s and later.—Yours etc.,
LIAM KENNEDY
Institute of Irish Studies
Belfast