The election, on May 24 1921 in the six counties of what was to become Northern Ireland, resulted in the Unionist Party winning 40 of the 52 seats. Catholics in the six counties would now be forced to stare down the barrel of partition and sectarianism as a new order was set in place.
In County Down, at the residence of Mr EA Robison, a well known Unionist, a victory party was held. Following the speeches in an adjoining field a pageant was enacted for Robison’s guests, “a bonfire was prepared. A mock trial was then staged, when Mr de Valera was indicted, found guilty, and condemned to death by burning. The Republican leader’s effigy was then saturated with oil and placed on the burning wood. Finally the ‘Dead March’ was played.” Variations of this event are re-enacted across the North by certain Unionist groups to this day.
More British troops arrive
As the evenings grew brighter, the war grew darker and by June 1 1921 the death toll had reached 531 IRA volunteers and civilians killed by Crown Forces. House burnings now stood at 25 for the month of May alone. In Westminster the Chief Secretary of Ireland, Sir Hamar Greenwood, continued to deny the involvement of Crown Forces in attacks on houses and businesses in places like Gort, An Spidéal, and Moycullen.
He claimed “there was no foundation for the allegation that members of the Crown Forces were implicated”. Across the floor the Opposition burst into laughter at this brazen attempt to mask the reality of reprisals. However, the effect of this prolonged policy was to further fan the flames of
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It was no surprise that international newspaper reports on the recent election in the six counties and the burning of houses, co-ops and creameries in the twenty-six counties drew an angry response from the Irish diaspora, especially in America.
The humanitarian group The White Cross was sent to assess Ireland’s situation and offer financial assistance, while the Irish national papers reported arms shipments from America being intercepted in Belfast and Dublin.
'In Galway, information had made its way to Crown Forces that weapons were arriving into the town'
The British Government’s view was that there was a very high possibility of large shipments of weapons making their way through to the IRA. The notion of an equally armed opponent was something the British feared most as the war escalated between January and May 1921. Attacks on Crown Forces and barracks had risen from 12 in January to 264 by the end of May. Action was needed and the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, dispatched an additional 15,000 troops who arrived by mid-June.
Incidents across County Galway
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In Galway, information had made its way to Crown Forces that weapons were arriving into the town. On Sunday June 4, checkpoints were set up along all main entrances and people were stopped and searched. Several were arrested and brought to Eglinton RIC Station for interrogation. In the north of the town, several houses were ransacked and searched and further arrests made. Nothing of consequence was found.
In Connemara, two bridges between Leenane and Clifden were blown up by the IRA. The Cornamona and Costello bridges were also destroyed and the recent attack at Ballyturin House outside Gort by a mixed force of Galway and Clare IRA men did nothing to reassure the foot soldiers of the empire that they were winning this war.
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Across Moylough and Loughrea, a strong IRA presence was being felt. On the evening of Sunday June 5, RIC Officer Patrick Nolan was returning to his family home in Moylough when two IRA men opened fire on him as he turned the key in his door.
Nolan made a dash for it and managed to run a mile and a half across some nearby fields to sound the alarm in Mountbellew RIC Station. It is believed around 14 mixed Crown Forces were stationed there at the time and on hearing of the attack, they got into their lorries and made their way to Moylough but were ambushed about half way there. A battle ensued but there was no report of any casualties and the IRA unit had made a bold statement and got away.
Massive military operation
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East Galway was spiralling out of control, so much so that one of the biggest military operations in the war in the west was launched. It began on June 9 when two RAF by-planes stationed at the aerodrome at Oranmore dropped anti-Sinn Féin propaganda across the Loughrea area over the course of the day. The leaflets encouraged people to give up the whereabouts of the ‘on the runs’, and 48 hours later, more than 2,000 mixed Crown Forces with air support descended on the region.
They consisted of cavalry units and horse drawn field artillery, RIC officers and members of D Company Auxiliaries. The objective was to comb the area for the IRA units.
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The two RAF planes managed to spot six Clare IRA men who were hiding in a dugout over the Galway-Clare border. They were arrested but it is unclear if they were the men active in Galway. Apart from this, it appears that this massive exercise was all in vain.
'If Mr Lloyd George wants a parallel from American history for our fight for the Republic, he will find it, not in the civil war but in the War of Independence following 1776'
The IRA units were still in the area. In Marble Hill, just outside Loughrea, on the morning of June 14, the house of Sir Gerard Burke was attacked by an IRA unit. They quickly evacuated all staff and family from the premises. Then they set the house ablaze. A few hours later the home of Mr E Hardy at Crannagh was also burnt to the ground. Michael Collins would later endorse this tactic and describe it as a justifiable act of retaliation.
A bomb in Athenry
In Galway on June 27, at Cnocán Mór, Milltown, seven members of the IRA’s North Galway Flying Column prepared an ambush for a patrol of Black and Tans and RIC officers. The attack resulted in the death of two officers - Sgt James Murrin and officer Edgar Day - and the wounding of two other members of the patrol.
Finally, on June 30, IRA volunteers William Freeney and Thomas Kennedy were planting a bomb in the tennis pavilion in Athenry, a popular place for members of the Crown Forces to spend free time. Both men got locked into the building when the main door locked behind them, the device went off prematurely killing Freeney and leaving Kennedy with severe burns to his body.
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Meanwhile in Wales, British PM Lloyd George addressed a Calvinist Methodist conference. While discussing the Irish question he compared himself to Abraham Lincoln and attempted to draw a comparison between the American civil war and the war he was waging in Ireland. Éamon de Valera, while being interviewed by a reporter for The United Cable Service of Australia, was asked for a reply to this statement.
“If Mr Lloyd George wants a parallel from American history for our fight for the Republic,” he said, “he will find it, not in the civil war but in the War of Independence following 1776.”
Damien Quinn is a military historian specialising in Irishmen in the service of the British Crown Forces. He studied politics and history as an undergraduate, and gained a Masters of Literature in History from NUI Galway.
