Book review: ‘The Irish Munitions Embargo of 1920’ by Peter Rigney, Umiskin Press, Dublin. Free article

Martin McGuinness once said that the deaths of the ten hunger strikers in 1981 was “our 1916”. The impact of the hunger strike was so profound that he was comparing it to the epoch-making events of the 1916 Rising and the executions of the 16 leaders. Free article

While Tom Barry and the IRA’s West Cork Flying Column are best known for the Kilmichael ambush in November 1920, the Column’s success at the battle of Crossbarry in March 1921 was at least as important, as the IRA outwitted and outfought a British force more than ten times its size. Free article

100 years ago the British regime executed six IRA Volunteers in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin.  They were hanged on the morning of 14 March as tens of thousands of people, including their families, gathered outside the prison and as hundreds of thousands of workers staged a half-day general strike in protest.  Free article

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Selton Hill ambush - a significant engagement in the Tan War and a tragic chapter in the story of Co. Leitrim and the struggle for Irish freedom.

On Friday, 11th March 1921, the IRA’s Leitrim No. 2 Flying Column was ambushed by British forces at Selton Hill, which lies on the road between Mohill and Ballinamore.

Six officers of the... Free article

In March 1921 the City and County of Limerick were under martial law. In the City a strict nightly curfew was enforced by the RIC, the Black & Tans, the Auxiliaries and the British Army. People left their homes at their peril. And for Republicans their homes were not safe, especially on the night of 6th and 7th March when a British murder gang stalked the streets. Free article

One hundred years ago, the spring of 1921 saw an escalation of the war in Ireland as the British regime carried out widespread ‘reprisal’ attacks on civilians and used military courts to sentence prisoners to death. Free article

Book review ‘Rebel Aghada 1798-1923 - the Untold Story of an East Cork Parish’ by Billy Fitzpatrick. Free article

““What’s happening with Moore Street?” is a question often asked and not surprisingly as years pass and this historic area of Dublin City Centre continues to decline, seemingly stuck fast in a planning and political stalemate. Free article

On 25 October 2020, one hundred years after his death, a small gathering of London-based Irish republicans assembled outside Brixton Prison to remember, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney. Free article

In the fight for freedom 1919-1921 no County matched Cork for the level and intensity of armed resistance to British rule. It was there that some of the fiercest fighting took place. The IRA’s three Cork brigades inflicted heavy casualties on the crown forces but also suffered serious setbacks themselves, notably on 15 February 1921 at Mourne Abbey and Upton Station and worst of all five days later at Clonmult. Free article

January 2021 marks the centenary of the ambush in Drumcondra, Dublin, which was a tragic and costly defeat for the IRA and led to the fatal wounding of one Volunteer, the capture and subsequent executions of four Volunteers, and a life sentence for another. Free article

The centenary of the passing of the 1920 Government of Ireland Act falls on 23 December, the day 100 years ago when the legislation received ‘royal assent’ and became law, setting the British legal framework for the Partition of Ireland. The British government plot to divide Ireland was long in the making and it was accomplished by a combination of deception and terror. Free article

The burning of Cork City centre 100 years ago this week was not only one of the worst ‘reprisals’ carried out by British crown forces, it was also a direct attack on democracy with the destruction of the City Hall, seat of the City Council. That attack on democracy was seen again soon afterwards in Dublin when British forces seized the City Hall. 

The Auxiliaries went on a... Free article

On the late afternoon of Sunday 28 November 1920, the flying column of the Third West Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army lay concealed in ambush positions in a rocky, heathery glen. Their leader was Tom Barry, a former member of the British Army, who had joined the Republican Movement and helped to pioneer guerilla warfare by the IRA’s flying columns. Free article