Conclusion

Examining the grass-roots dynamics of the Irish Revolution emphasises the difficulty of defining revolutionary activity in neat or binary terms. Only a small minority operated at either end of a scale of allegiance or compliance while the majority are to be found in a massive and fluid middle-ground. The IRA surely relied on the support of the general population in conducting its guerrilla campaign (whether that support came actively or passively, willingly or unwillingly) but if taken too generally the idea of widespread civilian assistance becomes an oversimplification, missing many of the complexities and nuances inherent in individual and communal behaviour. Civilian behaviour was regularly motivated by concerns over personal safety or economic survival and could also be influenced by greed, jealousy, or rivalry. Minority groups were not necessarily targeted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) specifically as a result of identity markers like religion, politics, or social standing but these remained important identifiers, variously competing with or complementing other local and national factors.

Civilians and Communities II: Coercion and Punishment

Having examined the often incomplete cooperation offered to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) by local civilian populations in the previous chapter, this chapter deals with the ways in which the IRA discouraged and punished acts of defiance. Punishment is divided into two main categories: non-lethal and lethal. As the vast majority of deviant acts were ‘minor’, or ‘everyday’, so was the bulk of the punishment meted out. Lethal violence was usually reserved for the more serious offence of passing information to Crown forces, except in the case of women who were almost never the victims of executions or shooting. Women were also less likely to suffer physical violence but could become the victims of ‘gender violence’, acts carried out on the basis of gender but avoiding sexual contact. Overall, punishment was usually selective, discriminate, and designed to match the perceived offence. Often, though, defiance was treated leniently or went unpunished, even in the case of alleged ‘spies and informers’. There are also notable regional variations in both lethal and non-lethal violence, as both often operated in tandem. Just as they influenced defiance, intrinsically local circumstances and dynamics were a key determinant of the nature of punishment.

Defying the IRA in Belfast

This chapter is a study of the interaction between Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrillas in the city of Belfast between 1920 and 1922. In many ways, Belfast was unique in the context of revolutionary Ireland, but violence there also followed its own individual patterns and logic. Between July 1920 and July 1922, violence in Belfast was organised along distinctly sectarian lines and consisted of rioting, sniping, bombing, burning, reprisal killing, and forced expulsion. The IRA in Belfast never enjoyed widespread support among the Catholic population it claimed to defend. There was significant opposition to republicans within the Catholic community – usually associated with Hibernianism – but when the IRA could successfully prove itself an effective defence against Protestant and loyalist aggression support was frequently forthcoming. A peak of support following the July 1921 Truce was only short-lived as brutal reprisals in retaliation for limited IRA activity in the city saw the Catholic population eventually withdraw its support completely. Operating in majority Protestant areas was difficult and dangerous but the IRA did cause significant damage even given its small size. Even in the unique circumstances of revolutionary Belfast, it will be seen, pragmatism and personal interest could still motivate behaviour.

Collecting the Rates: Dáil Éireann Local Government and the IRA

The Dáil Éireann Local Government Department was one of the most successful established by the underground, revolutionary Dáil administration. One of the most difficult challenges it faced as it attempted to overthrown the British Local Government Board was maintaining the collection of the local poor rate, a traditionally unpopular tax that was an essential stream of revenue for local councils. At a local level, it often became necessary for the guerrillas of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to carry out or facilitate the collection. The dynamics at play here between the Dáil, the IRA, and local ratepayers – who paid or refused to pay for a myriad of reasons and with a diverse set of motivations – serve as a microcosm for the wider themes of this study. It will show both the range of civilian behaviour encountered by the guerrillas and demonstrate how difficult it is to easily label or categorise this behaviour.

Introduction

This chapter outlines the key themes and concepts that will be at stake in the book. The Irish Revolution (c. 1913–23) has been the subject of a vast and growing historiography. Ambushes and assassinations by IRA guerrillas and reprisals and counter-reprisals by Crown forces have dominated much of the discourse. More recently, the ‘everyday’ acts of violence that characterised so much revolutionary activity in Ireland have found a place in the literature. This book adds to that understanding of experiences at the grass-roots level. In this chapter, some key parameters for the study are outlined and an ‘anatomy of violence’ is developed, ranging from the impersonal threat to the physical attack on the person, to frame and contextualize the nature of the activity under observation. This chapter also explores some precedents for violence and civilian behaviour in revolutionary Ireland found during nineteenth and early twentieth century agrarian agitation.

Civilians and Communities I: Non-cooperation and Defiance

This chapter focuses on civilians who refused to cooperate with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It begins by exploring two illustrative examples of Dáil Éireann edits enforced by local IRA units: the Dáil Courts and the Belfast Boycott. It then examines the local arms fund levy. As an exclusively ‘army’, rather than ‘civil’, collection, the arms fund offers a useful comparison with the poor rate collection explored in Chapter 2. The final two sections of the chapter explore the influence of community politics and personal relationships on loyalism and allegiance to the British administration. The chapter argues that well-established community behaviour and personal interest significantly influenced the guerrilla campaign, the conduct of guerrillas, and the behaviour of the civilian population. General conclusions about loyalty and allegiance will be offered before those conclusions are tested with a micro-study of loyalism in one ‘southern’ Irish community (Arva, County Cavan) based on a detailed reading of compensation claims submitted to the Irish Grants Committee.

Old Enemies? July 1921–June 1922

This chapter explores the year between the Truce and ceasefire between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British forces in July 1921 and the outbreak of civil war in June 1922. First, it will examine non-lethal breaches of the terms of the Truce by the IRA and the reaction of Crown forces, highlighting a conflict between the political necessities of the Truce and the behaviour of local IRA units and civilians on the ground. Secondly, it will interrogate the nature of suspicion and the labelling of civilians at this time through a study of extant intelligence reports compiled by the IRA in early 1922. It will be seen that production of these files, and the IRA’s intelligence war more generally, was a product of the communities in which it was conducted and personal traits or labels that would have been well known in an everyday context were produced as evidence of suspicion. This idea will be expanded upon in the final section of the chapter as it takes a broader approach to civilian defiance and IRA punishment by dealing with the experiences of and perceptions towards specific minority groups, including Protestants, loyalists, and disbanded policemen.

Intimidating the Crown

This chapter explores IRA activity against servants of the Crown in Ireland between 1917 and 1922. As the most obvious manifestation of the Crown on the ground in Ireland, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were the victims of boycotting, social ostracism, damage to property, and violence. Their families, and those who supplied them with ordinary goods and services, were similarly targeted. The first chapter explores this dynamic and suggests that while there was a widespread campaign against the RIC and its supporters, its nature and intensity varied considerably in individual communities. Less well covered in the historiography are civil servants and those involved in the judicial system and their experiences are also treated in this chapter. Theirs was an experience very different to the RIC and while a minority were victims of violence and persecution, most suffered very little and continued in their roles as before.