1919

The Dead of the Irish Revolution ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300123821.003.0005 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 107-118

Author(s):

Eunan O’Halpin ◽

Daithí Ó Corráin

Keyword(s):

Irish Republican Army ◽

The People

This chapter describes the deaths of the people who died in Ireland in 1919. For a while, postman Daniel Joseph McGandy had been helping Michael Sheerin, who had been pilfering a stock of grenade casings in Craig's engineering works, by carrying these off in his postman's bag. On January 19, 1919, McGandy failed to attend a rendezvous with Sheerin. Next day his coat, revolver, and post bag were found on the quay outside Craig's; a week later his body was recovered from the River Foyle. It was believed 'that he had lost his life on account of unofficial hostile action'. Meanwhile, farmer James McDonnel joined the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) on October 18, 1882, serving in Wexford, the RIC Reserve, and Wexford again before transfer to Tipperary town in 1891. He died during the Soloheadbeg ambush by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) party in 1919.

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1921

The Dead of the Irish Revolution ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300123821.003.0007 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 268-542

Author(s):

Eunan O’Halpin ◽

Daithí Ó Corráin

Keyword(s):

Irish Republican Army ◽

War Of Independence ◽

Left Behind ◽

The People ◽

The Family ◽

Big House

This chapter looks at the deaths of the people who died in Ireland in 1921. Ex-serviceman Martin Heavy was abducted along with his mother, sister, young niece, and nephew on the night of December 30, 1920, by masked members of the Curraghboy Company, 4th Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade. Held overnight in a cattle shed, the family were taken next evening by 'mule and trap' through Knockcroghery to 'a big house'. His family were expelled, while Heavy 'was left behind with his hands tied'. Thrown into the Shannon River, his body was never recovered. Ten Curraghboy Company Volunteers were arrested in January of 1921, each suffering 'a severe beating'. Meanwhile, Michael McGrath was one of about fifty of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who mounted an ambush at Pickardstown. McGrath was killed on the Ballinattin road; he was the first Waterford city volunteer killed during the War of Independence.

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1920

The Dead of the Irish Revolution ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300123821.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 119-267

Author(s):

Eunan O’Halpin ◽

Daithí Ó Corráin

Keyword(s):

Criminal Investigation ◽

Metropolitan Police ◽

Irish Republican Army ◽

The People

This chapter details the deaths of the people who died in Ireland in 1920. Some of these people were victims of targeted killings by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). On January 1, 1920, William Charles Forbes Redmond was transferred to the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) from the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in Belfast, to rejuvenate the Criminal Investigation Department. The IRA learned that Redmond was staying in the Standard Hotel on Harcourt Street because secure quarters in Dublin Castle were not ready. Redmond was shot on January 21, 1920. Meanwhile, Constable Luke Finnegan of the RIC was believed to be drawing up a list of IRA suspects. Finnegan, unarmed, was shot near his home on January 22, 1920. In reprisal, police wrecked fourteen houses belonging to prominent Sinn Féiners.

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The Moral Parameters of Violence: The Case of the Provisional IRA

Journal of British Studies ◽

10.1017/jbr.2021.122 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-24

Author(s):

Martyn Frampton

Keyword(s):

Community Violence ◽

Northern Irish ◽

Irish Republican Army ◽

Irish History ◽

Moral Framework ◽

The People ◽

Multiple Audiences ◽

New Perspective ◽

The One ◽

Political Principles

Abstract Over three decades, the Provisional Irish Republican Army waged a campaign of violence that claimed the lives of some two thousand people. This article explores the moral framework by which the IRA sought to legitimate its campaign—how it was derived and how it functioned. On the one hand, the IRA relied on a legalist set of political principles, grounded in a particular reading of Irish history. An interlinked, yet discrete strand of legitimation stressed the iniquities of the Northern Irish state as experienced by Catholic nationalists, especially in the period 1968–1972. These parallel threads were interwoven to build a powerful argument that justified a resort to what the IRA termed its “armed struggle.” Yet the IRA recognized that the parameters for war were set not simply by reference to ideology but also by a reading of what might be acceptable to those identified as “the people” or “the community.” Violence was subject to an undeclared process of negotiation with multiple audiences, which served to constitute the boundaries of the permissible. Often, these red lines were revealed only at the point of transgression, but they were no less important for being intangible. An examination of the moral parameters for IRA violence provides a new perspective on the group, helping to explain IRA resilience but also its ultimate weakness and decline.

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