| January 21 | The Sinn Fein candidates elected to the British House of Commons in the general election of December 1918 convene as the first Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) at Mansion House, Dublin. Cathal Brugha, chairman of the first session, calls the roll. Thirty six members of the Dail Eireann are pronounced, “Fe ghlas ag Gallaibh” (Imprisoned by the foreign enemy). The Dail Eireann declares, “...for seven hundred years the Irish people has never ceased to repudiate and has repeatedly protested in arms against foreign usurpation...English rule in this country is, and always has been, based upon force and fraud and maintained by military occupation against the declared will of the people...And Whereas...the Irish electorate has in the General Election of December, 1918, seized the first occasion to declare by an overwhelming majority its firm allegiance to the Irish Republic: Now, therefore, we, the elected Representatives of the ancient Irish people in National Parliament assembled, do, in the name of the Irish nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration effective by every means at our command...” |
| | Four Republican prisoners McGrath, Shouldice, Mellows and Geraghty escape from a prison in Usk, Wales. The escape plan had originally included 20 men but the influenza epidemic had laid struck most of them. |
| January 29 | Irish War of Independence (Anglo-Irish War) begins with the killing of two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The constables are escorting a cartload of dynamite when attacked by the Third Tipperary Brigade of Irish Volunteers at Soloheadbeg. Dan Breen, leader of the ambush, says afterwards, “If there had to be dead peelers at all six would have created a better impression than two...” |
| January 22 | Cathal Brugha is elected President and Count Plunkett, Chairman, of the Dail Eireann. |
| February 3 | Eamon de Valera, Sean McGarry and Sean Milroy escape from Lincoln jail. Micheal Collins and Harry Boland went to England to personally organize the complex escape plan involving three cakes, three keys, key blanks, files, key-cutting tools, a rope-ladder and a fleet of cars. The prisoners walk through a door in the jail wall, using a skeleton key, and are smuggled away to hideouts in Manchester and Liverpool. |
| February 20 | Eamon de Valera returns to Dublin from Liverpool disguised as a priest. |
| February | The widow of executed revolutionary Thomas Clarke is released from internment because of ill health. |
| March 6 | Pierce McCann, a member of the Dail Eireann for Tipperary, dies of influenza while interned at Gloucester. |
| March 8 | The British Government announces that the remaining Irish prisoners interned as “German plotters” will be released. March 9 |
| | The first group of released “German plotters” led by Arthur Griffith and carrying the remains of Pierce McCann arrives back in Dublin. |
| March 10 | Constance Markievicz is released from internment. |
| March | The Irish Volunteers capture of 75 rifles and 4000 rounds of ammunition in a raid on the Collinstown aerodome. |
| April 1 | Eamon de Valera is elected President of the Dail Eireann. |
| April 10 | The Dail Eireann passes a resolution calling on Irish people to ostracize members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. |
| | April 14 – 25 The Limerick Soviet, a 12-day general strike in Limerick City, is held in protest against British security measures. |
| April 20 | The Fermoy Battalion of Irish Volunteers attacks the Araglin barracks of the Royal Irish Constabulary and captures six carbines and a revolver. |
| April | Martial law is declared in Limerick, Cork and Tipperary. |
| May 13 | Dan Breen and Sean Treacy rescue their comrade Sean Hogan from a train at Knocklong, County Limerick. Two police constables are killed during the escape. |
| | June 1 – December 23 |
| | Eamon de Valera spends seven months in the United States. Arthur Griffith acts as President of the Dail Eireann in his absence. |
| June 15 | John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown crash land their Vickers Vimy in a bog near Clifden,County Galway 16 hours and 57 minutes after departing Lester’s Field near Saint John’s, Newfoundland completing the first nonstop transatlantic airplane flight. |
| June 18 | The Dail Eireann establishes Republican courts to replace those of the British administration. |
| June | Sean T. O’Kelly and George Gavan Duffy present the Dail Eireann’s memorandum outlining Ireland’s Case For Independence to the members of the Paris Peace Conference. August 20 |
| | The Irish Volunteers are renamed the Irish Republican Army and required swear allegiance to the Dail Eireann. |
| September 7 | The Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army under Liam Lynch fires on soldiers of the East Kent Light Infantry at Fermoy. A British soldier is killed and three are wounded. Fifteen rifles are captured. |
| September 8 | Soldiers of the East Kent and Shropshire Light Infantry regiments ransack Fermoy burning houses and smashing windows. Damages exceed £3,000. |
| September 10 | Dublin Castle bans Sinn Fein, the Irish Volunteers and the Gaelic League. |
| September 12 | The Dail Eireann is declared an illegal assembly. |
| September 22 | The Royal Irish Constabulary issues hand grenades to the ranks. |
| November 10 | The Shropshire Light Infantry destroys over £2,000,000 of property in the center of Cork. Almost every shop on Patrick Street is sacked and looted. |
| December 19 | The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, General French, survives an attempted assassination by the Irish Republican Army in Phoenix Park, Dublin. |
| 1920 | January 15 | Municipal elections leave Sinn Fein in control of 172 of 206 Irish borough and city councils. |
| January 30 | Sinn Fein candidate Tomas MacCurtain is elected Lord Mayor of Cork. |
| March 19 | Constable McMurtagh of the Royal Irish Constabulary is murdered in Cork. |
| March 20 | Two hours after the murder of Constable McMurtagh, a group of thinly disguised policemen led by District Inspector Oswald Swanzy arrive at the home of Tomas MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork and Operational Commander of the North Cork Brigade of the IRA. Two of the men push past Mrs. MacCurtain and fatally shoot the mayor. |
| February 24 | The Dublin Metropolitan Police District is placed under a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew. |
| March 25 | The first auxiliaries arrive in Ireland to reinforce the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary whose members are rapidly resigning. The force is recruited from the ranks of unemployed ex-servicemen with at least a “good” service record enticed by wages of £3.10s per week. Khaki army tunics and black trousers are issued owing to a shortage of regular uniforms giving the auxiliaries their nickname, “Black and Tans.” Demobilized military officers are recruited into the Auxiliary Cadets. They were intended to officer the Black and Tans but became a separate force and paid £1 per day. |
| March 26 | Michael Collins orders the assassination of Magistrate Alan Bell who is investigating the source of Sinn Fein funds. |
| April 2 | Sir Hamar Greenwood is appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland. |
| April 3-4 | Irish Republican Army raids on Inland Revenue offices end tax collection in southern Ireland until the establishment of the Free State. |
| | The Irish Republican Army burns more than 300 evacuated Royal Irish Constabulary barracks. |
| April 4 | Republican prisoners in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison begin a hunger strike to draw attention to the general state of affairs in Ireland and to the refusal of the British Government to recognize the Irish Republican Army as a belligerent entitled to have its members treated as prisoners of war. |
| April 12 | The Irish Trades Union Congress calls for a general strike to protest treatment of Republican prisoners. |
| April 14 | General Sir Nevil Macready takes commander of British forces in Ireland. |
| April 15 | The Republican hunger strikers are released from Mountjoy Prison. The Trades Union Congress calls off the general strike. |
| April 17 | A coroner’s jury returns a verdict of willful murder in the death of Tomas MacCurtain, the Lord Mayor of Cork, against District Inspector Oswald Swanzy, Prime Minister David Lloyd-George, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Inspector Swanzy is transferred to Lisburn, where he is gunned down a few months later. |
| April 27 | Georgina Frost wins a long legal battle to succeed her father as clerk of the petty sessions for Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare. She becomes the first woman to hold public office under the central government in the United Kingdom. |
| May 12 – 13 | The Irish Republican Army attacks 50 police barracks. British reinforcements arrive in Ireland. Railway workers refuse to move munitions. |
| May 15 | Major General Henry H. Tudor is appointed Police Adviser to the Irish government. |
| May 16-19 | Soviets are proclaimed in 13 County Limerick creameries. |
| May 22 | W.J. Twaddell, Unionist MP for West Belfast is shot down in Lower Garfield Street. |
| May 23 | The Government of Northern Ireland bans the Irish Republican Army, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan and Fianna na hEireann and interns 500 men on the prison ship Argenta moored off Carrickfergus. |
| May 24 | Railway workers extend the munitions strike to troop movement. Dublin power station operators walk off the job to force a halt in the unloading of munitions ships. |
| May 28 | The Irish Republican Army attacks the Kilmallock Barracks of the Royal Irish Constabulary with incendiaries. A sergeant and a constable are killed in the ensuing fire before Sergeant O’Sullivan leads the four surviving constables in a bayonet charge that disperses the rebels. |
| June 12 | County council elections - Sinn Fein wins control of all councils in southern Ireland and two of six councils in Northern Ireland. |
| | Fermanagh County Council |
| | SINN FEIN 9 - NATIONALISTS 7 - UNIONISTS 11 |
| | Tyrone County Council |
| | SINN FEIN 14 - NATIONALISTS 3 - UNIONISTS 11 |
| June 13 | The Dail Eireann declares a boycott against the Royal Irish Constabulary. |
| June 15 | The British Government declares that if the parliament of southern Ireland cannot be organized after the Government of Ireland Bill is enacted the Lord Lieutenant and a committee of the Privy Council will assume its powers. |
| June 17 | Colonel G. B. Smyth, Divisional Commissioner of the Royal Irish Constabulary for Munster, in speech in the presence of commanding General H. H. Tudor tells the ranks, “You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent people may he shot but that can not be helped and you're bound to get the right parties sometimes. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you no policeman will get in trouble for shooting any man.” |
| June 28 – July 2 | Soldiers of the Connaught Rangers serving in India mutiny in protest at events in Ireland. Three of them are shot dead and a fourth is court-martialed. |
| June 28 | British forces loot and burn Fermoy for a second time in retaliation for capture of Brigadier General Cuthbert Lucas by the Irish Republican Army. |
| July 19 – 22 | Four days of sectarian violence leaves 19 people dead in Derry. |
| July 19 | Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork and Operational Commander of the Irish Republican Army Cork Brigade, is arrested under the Defence of the Realm Act. |
| July 21 | A Unionist mob forces Catholics out of Dromore, County Down following the funeral of a murdered Royal Irish Constabulary member. |
| July 21 - 24 | Sectarian rioting leaves 12 people killed in Belfast. |
| July 30 | Brigadier General Lucas escapes from his captors at Oola, County Limerick. |
| August 6 | The Dail Eireann orders a boycott of Belfast businesses operated by Unionists. |
| August 9 | The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act authorizes the military authorities to jail any Irish man or woman without charge or trial under and to conduct secret courts martial without legal representation for the defendant unless the penalty for the offense is death in which case the defendant will be represented by a lawyer appointed by the Crown. Coroners’ inquests are banned and allegiance to the Dail Eireann is made an offence under the Act. |
| August 22 | The creamery at Knocklong, County Limerick, one of the biggest in Ireland, is destroyed when members of the Royal Irish Constabulary throw hand grenades into the building’s boiler room. |
| August 23-31 | Belfast riots leave 30 people dead. Catholic workers are expelled from the shipyards and engineering works. |
| September 20 | The Black and Tans sack Balbriggan, County Dublin in retaliation for the killing of Detective Inspector Peter Burke of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Two men, Seamus Lawless and Sean Gibbons are bayoneted to death, 25 houses, the Deedes Templars Mill, and a small factory are burnt. |
| September 21 | The Royal Irish Constabulary sacks Ennistymon, Lahinch, Miltown and Malbay. Four people are killed and 26 buildings including the Lahinch town hall are burnt. |
| September 28 | The Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army captures the military barracks at Mallow, County Cork. British troops sack the town, burning both the creamery and Town Hall after the rebels withdraw. |
| October 14 | Sean Treacy, leader of the Irish Republican Army in Tipperary, is killed in a gun battle in Talbot Street, Dublin. |
| October 22 | British Authorities announce the creation of a Special Constabulary (theoretically composed of loyalists from all over Ireland but they appeared only in Ulster). |
| October 25 | Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork and Operational Commander of the Irish Republican Army Cork Brigade, dies in Brixton prison after 74 days on hunger strike. MacSwiney predicted that in the end, “It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most" who would prevail. |
| November 1 | Private James Daly of the Connaught Rangers is executed by firing squad for mutiny while serving in India. Daly is the last member of the British army to be executed for mutiny. |
| | Enrolment of the Ulster Special Constabulary including the “B Specials” begins. |
| | Kevin Barry, an 18-year-old medical student, is hanged in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin for his part in a raid for arms on a military truck in which six soldiers were killed. |
| November 21 | Bloody Sunday in Dublin. An Irish Republican Army flying squad acting on orders from Michael Collins kills 14 members of a British spy network known as the Cairo Gang. Later that day police invade Croke Park during a football match between Dublin and Tipperary to search for illegal arms. The Auxiliaries open fire killing 12 and wounding 65 among the 3,000 spectators. One player is killed. Still later in the day, three Republican prisoners are, “shot while trying to escape from Dublin Castle.” |
| November 28 | The Irish Republican Army’s West Cork Flying Column under Tom Barry wipes out a company of Auxiliaries, killing 17, in an ambush at Kilmichael, County Cork. November |
| | General Henry Tudor becomes Chief of Police upon the retirement of Inspector General Smith. |
| December 1 | The British Cabinet authorizes the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir Hamar Greenwood to apply martial law in such areas as he might consider it necessary. |
| December 9 | The Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army ambushes two trucks carrying Auxiliaries, killing all but one of the occupants. |
| December 11 – 12 | The Black and Tans and Auxiliary Cadets burn the city center of Cork in retaliation for the Irish Republican Army ambush of the Auxiliary patrol. |
| December 29 | General Macready’s policy of “official reprisals” is carried out for the first time when General Strickland orders the burning of six houses in Middleton, County Cork after the killing of three policemen. According to an official government statement, the inhabitants of the town were punished because they had: “neglected to give information to the military and police.” |
| December 11 | Martial law is imposed in the counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary. |
| December 23 | The British Parliament approves the Government of Ireland Act repealing the 1914 Home Rule Bill. The Act partitions Ireland and provides separate home rule parliaments for 26 southern counties and 6 northern counties. James Craig successfully lobbies for the exclusion of the Ulster counties of Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal from “Northern Ireland” and the retention of the heavily nationalist and Catholic counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone. The Act is never implemented in the south. |
| 1921 | January 4 | Martial law is extended to the counties of Clare, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford. |
| January 13 | A curfew is imposed in city of Cork. |
| January 26 | The British begin carrying Irish Republican Army prisoners in their trucks after several attacks on British Army vehicles in Dublin. |
| | Loitering on Dublin streets is made an offence under Restoration of Order in Ireland Act. |
| February 1 | The first official execution under martial law is carried out. Cornelius Murphy a member of the IRA Cork Brigade is shot for being found in possession of a loaded revolver. |
| February 2 | Sean MacEoin’s North Longford Flying Column ambushes a party of 18 Auxilliaries who surrender who after a prolonged engagement at Clonfin. |
| February 4 | James Craig succeeds Edward Carson as leader of the Ulster Unionists. |
| | The British Army discontinues the practice of carrying IRA prisoners in its vehicles while on patrol. |
| February 11 | The IRA Cork Brigade attacks a train carrying British Soldiers at Drishaneberg. One soldier is killed and the raiders make off with 15 rifles and 700 rounds of ammunition. |
| February 12 | Pope Benedict XV condemns the warring parties in Ireland and express sympathy with the people. |
| February 19 | General Crozier resigns as commander of the Auxiliary Cadets in protest of reprisal policies and General Tudor’s instruction that members are not to be dismissed for indiscipline. |
| February 28 | Six Irish Republican Army soldiers are executed in Cork. |
| March 1 | Sean O'Brien, the chairman of the local district council, is killed by the Black and Tans in reprisal for an attack on a Royal Irish Constabulary patrol near Charleville, County Cork. |
| March 5 | Thirteen British soldiers are killed in an ambush at Clonbanin, County Cork. |
| March 6 | The Lord Mayor of Limerick , George Clancy, his predecessor, Michael O'Callaghan, and another prominent nationalist, Joseph O'Donoghue, are killed by policemen in Limerick during curfew hours |
| | The Irish Republican Army burns Vickery’s Hotel in Bantry Bay to prevent the Auxiliaries from using it. The following day, the Carnegie Hall in Listowel was also burned down. According to the Freeman’s Journal, notices were posted in the area that said: “No more meetings would be held there by the Army of Occupation.” They were signed the IRA. |
| March 7 | The local commander of British forces in Kilmallock, Colonel Hope, assembles the townspeople to announce that since a constable had been murdered in the locality and the residents could have known beforehand and had not informed the authorities official reprisals would be made. The contents of the town’s grocery were then burnt in the streets and the building was blown up. The Carnegie Hall in Listowel is burned down. The IRA posts notices in the area declaring that: “No more meetings would be held there by the Army of Occupation.” |
| March 11 | The President of the Dail Eireann, Eamon de Valera, secures the chamber’s support for a formal declaration of war with Great Britain. |
| March 14 | Six Republicans are executed in Mountjoy Prison. |
| March 16 | Sixteen houses are burned down in Clifden, County Galway in retaliation for the killing of two police constables. |
| March 19 | The Irish Republican Army’s West Cork Flying Column under Tom Barry routs a superior force from the Essex Regiment at Crossbarry. |
| March 20 | Two members of an eight man Royal Irish Constabulary patrol are injured in an ambush near Rochestown, County Cork. Two houses nearby are burned down. |
| March 22 | A constable is killed and two others are wounded in an ambush |
| | near Carrowkennedy,County Mayo. A nearby drapery shop and public house are burned down in reprisal. The reprisals continue a few days later when members of the Royal Irish Constabulary burn houses in Westport during a four hour rampage. |
| March 24 | Two Auxiliaries are shot dead in an ambush at Dungarven, County Waterford. A levy of £100 is placed on five nearby houses as a reprisal. One man pays the fine, but the others refuse. British forces subsequently wreck the homes and destroy the furniture of the recalcitrant. |
| March 25 | The Dail Eireann declares a boycott of British goods effective March 31st. |
| April 6 | Thirty armed men entered the home of Colonel W. F. Spaight in Skibbereen. The colonel and his wife are forcibly evicted and house burned down. Mrs. Spaight had suggested that the Black and Tans should be posted to the area. |
| April 28 | Four men are executed at the Cork Barracks for attacking British forces. |
| May 2 | Edmund Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Viscount Derwent is the first Catholic to hold the position since the 17th century. |
| May 13 | A general election is conducted under the Government of Ireland Act to select a House of Commons for the Parliament of Southern Ireland. Sinn Fein’s 124 candidates and 4 Unionists representing Trinity College are elected without opposition. |
| May 4 | A combined force of IRA brigades from Cork and Kerry attack a Royal Irish Constabulary patrol at Rathmore, County Kerry killing 8 constables. Five nearby houses and the Rathmore creamery are burnt in retaliation. |
| May 15 | A Royal Irish Constabulary District Inspector, his wife, and two British officers are shot dead in near Gort, County Galway. Several nearby houses are burnt down in retaliation. |
| May 21 | A general election is conducted under the Government of Ireland Act to select a House of Commons for the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Unionists win 40 seats, Nationalists and Sinn Fein candidates each carry six. |
| May 25 | The Irish Republican Army burns the Custom House in Dublin. The attack ends with 18 dead, 110 wounded and 70 IRA men captured. Damages to the 18th century landmark exceed £2,000,000. |
| May 26 | The British announce the seizure of a large quantity of ammunition said to have been shipped to Dublin by American supporters of the Irish Republican Army. |
| June 1 | Six members of the Royal Irish Constabulary including a sergeant and a district inspector are killed in an ambush by the Kerry Brigade of the Irish Republican Army between Castlemaine and Milltown. |
| June 3 | Two creameries in County Tipperary are closed down in retaliation for IRA sabotage of local roads and bridges. |
| June 7 | James Craig is selected as the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. |
| June 15 | American authorities in New York seize a shipment of machine guns said to be destined for delivery to the Irish Republican Army. |
| June 16 | The Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir Hamar Greenwood, blames the Irish Republican Army for 586 murders. |
| June 22 | King George V opens the first session of the Northern Ireland parliament at Belfast City Hall. His Majesty reads a speech, prepared by Lloyd-George, calling for an end to the war. |
| | The British land an additional force of 15,000 troops in Ireland. |
| June 24 | Eamon de Valera is arrested near Dublin and quickly released. |
| | The creameries at Mitchelstown, County Cork, are closed for two weeks in retaliation for the destruction of loyalist homes and raids on the postal service by the Irish Republican Army. |
| June 25 | British authorities threaten to extend martial law to all of Ireland unless attacks cease by July 12th. |
| June 28 | The Parliament of Southern Ireland elected under the Government of Ireland Act formally opens in Dublin . The only members in attendance are 4 Unionists representing Trinity College in the Commons and 15 senators nominated by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The Parliament adjourns sine die for want of a quorum. |
| June 30 | The British release Arthur Griffith and 3 other Sinn Fein leaders from Mountjoy Prison. |
| July 9 - 15 | Belfast rioting leaves 20 people dead and 161 houses destroyed. |
| July 11 | A truce between the Irish Republican Army and British forces under General Sir Neville Macready ends fighting in the Anglo-Irish War. The 18 month conflict ends with 418 members of the RoyaI Irish Constabulary dead or injured, 146 members of the British Army 146 killed and an estimated 750 members of the Irish Republican Army and Irish civilians killed. Arthur Griffith estimates that British forces staged 38,720 raids on private homes, arrested 4,982 suspects, committed 1,604 armed assaults, 102 sackings and shootups in towns and 77 murders. |
| July 27 | The Dail Eireann meets openly in Dublin’s Mansion House. |
| August 13 | British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George declares that loyalty to the Crown cannot be compromised in any negotiated settlement of the Irish Question. |
| August 16 | The Sinn Fein candidates elected to the Parliament of Southern Ireland constituted under the Government of Ireland Act meet in Dublin as the second Dail Eireann and declare their loyalty to principles of the American Declaration of Independence. |
| August | Sean MacEoin, the last member of the Dail Eireann held prisoner by the British, is released from Mountjoy Prison where he was awaiting execution after the Irish threaten to break off peace negotiations. |
| | Belfast experiences 180 major fires during the last week of the month. |
| September 29 | Prime Minister David Lloyd-George invites Sinn Fein to meet with British representatives in London on October 11 to discuss matters, “with a view to ascertaining how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations.” |
| September 30 | Eamon de Valera agrees to send representatives to meet with the British. |
| October 11 | Anglo-Irish treaty negotiations begin in London. Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith head the Irish delegation. President de Valera declines to join them citing the need for someone to remain behind in case things turn sour. |
| November 20 – 26 | Belfast riots leave 27 dead and 90 injured. |
| November 23 | Forty three prisoners escape from an internment camp in Kilkenny by tunneling their way out. |
| December 5 | Anglo-Irish treaty negotiations end. Prime Minister Lloyd-George tells the Irish that rejection of the terms offered will mean, “immediate and terrible war.” |
| December 6 | The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London at 2:30 a.m. The 26 counties of southern Ireland are granted dominion status within the commonwealth as the Irish Free State (Saorstat Eireann). The Free State is required to maintain the British monarch as head of state and members of its parliament are required to swear an oath of allegiance to the crown. The partition between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State is reaffirmed and the Royal Navy is allowed to maintain bases at the ports of Cobh, Brerehaven and Lough Swilly. Lord Birkenhead turns to Michael Collins and says, “I may have signed my political death-warrant.” Collins replies, “I may have signed my actual death-warrant.” Collins writes to John O’Kane, “When you have sweated, toiled, had mad dreams, hopeless nightmares, you find yourself in London's streets, cold and dank in the night air. Think, what have I got for Ireland? Something she has wanted these past seven hundred years. Will anyone be satisfied at the bargain, will anyone? I tell you this, early this morning I signed my death warrant, I thought at the time, how incredible, how fantastic, a bullet may well have done the job six years ago. These signatures are the first real step for Ireland. If people would only remember that, the first real step.” |
| December 8 | The Dail Eireann cabinet recommends approval of the Treaty by a vote of 4 to 3. Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, Robert Barton and William Cosgrave are in favor. Eamon de Valera, Cathal Brugha and Austin Stack are opposed. De Valera declares that he, “Could not recommend the acceptance of this Treaty either to Dail Eireann or the country.” December 14 |
| | The British Parliament ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a vote of 401 to 58 in the House of Commons and 166 to 47 in the House of Lords. |
| December 27 | The Fermanagh County Council is the first of 12 local councils dissolved for refusing to cooperate with the Government of Northern Ireland. |
| 1922 | January 5 | Sir Ernest Shackleton dies at age 48 on South Georgia while preparing for his fourth Antarctic expediton. |
| January 7 | The Dail Eireann approves the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a vote of 64 to 57. Sinn Fein splits into Anti-Treaty (Republican) and Pro-Treaty (Free State) factions. |
| January 9 | Eamon de Valera resigns as President of the Dail Eireann and then offers himself for reelection. De Valera is defeated by a vote of 60 to 58 and he and his followers withdraw from the Dail. |
| January 10 | Arthur Griffith elected President of the Dail Eireann by a unanimous vote of the 64 remaining deputies. |
| January 15 | Micheal Collins is elected chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State. |
| January 16 | The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount Fitzalan, formally transfers power to the Rialtas Sealadac na héireann (Provisional Government of the Irish Free State). |
| January 17 | The British Army begins withdrawal of its 60,000 troops from the Irish Free State. |
| January 21 | James Craig and Michael Collins agree to a North-South pact allowing the return of Catholic workers to jobs in the Belfast shipyards in return for an end to the boycott of Northern Ireland businesses by the Free State. |
| January | Eamon de Valera is elected president of the Irish Race Congress which holds its sessions in Paris and demand international recognition of the “Irish Republic”. |
| February 12 - 15 | Belfast gun battles leave 27 people dead and 68 wounded. |
| February 21 | The Garda Siochana (Civic Guard) is established by the Free State as an armed police force. |
| March 5 | Republicans seize power in Limerick. |
| March 29 | Republican raiders wreck the offices of the pro-Treaty Freeman’s Journal in Dublin. |
| March 29 | The British House of Commons passes the Irish Free State Act ratifying the Treaty. |
| March 30 | The North-South pact is reaffirmed during London conference between Michael Collins of the Irish Free State, Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Craig and Winston Churchill representing the British Government. |
| April | A convention of Irish Republican Army dissidents declares itself opposed to the Treaty and elects a 16 member executive charged with defending the Republic’s independence. Liam Lynch is appointed chief of staff of the IRA. |
| April 4 | The Royal Irish Constabulary holds a final parade was held at Phoenix Park, Dublin. |
| April 7 | The Special Powers Act for Northern Ireland is given Royal assent. The Act grants the Minister for Home Affairs powers to “take all such steps and issue all such orders as may be necessary to preserve the peace.” The Minister is empowered to arrest without warrant and intern without trial, prohibit coroners’ inquests, flog, execute, requisition land or property, ban any organization and prohibit meetings and publications. |
| April 14 | Dublin’s Four Courts is occupied by Republicans under Rory O’Connor. |
| April | An estimated 60 to 70 former members of the Royal Irish Constabulary are arriving in England every day. The British Government adds 12 years to each constable’s service time for pension purposes. A constable with 17 1/2 years service receives £3 3s.4d per week; a district inspector of 20 years service £433 6s 4d per annum; and a county inspector with 17 years service £570 per annum. |
| May 20 | Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins agree to present a coalition slate of candidates representing the pro- and anti-Treaty wings of Sinn Fein in the forthcoming general election. |
| May 23 | The Irish Republican Army is declared an illegal organization by the Government of Northern Ireland. |
| June 1 | The Royal Ulster Constabulary is established to replace the Royal Irish Constabulary as the police force in Northern Ireland. |
| June 15 | Arthur Griffith releases a draft of the Irish Free State Constitution. The Constitution requires all laws to conform to the provisions of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and places Irish relations with the British Empire on the same basis as those of Canada and the other dominions. |
| June 16 - 19 | General elections for the Dail Eireann |
| | PARTY - % OF VOTE CAST - SEATS WON |
| | PRO-TREATY SINN FEIN - 38.5 - 58 |
| | ANTI-TREATY SINN FEIN - 21.3 - 35 |
| LABOUR - 21.4 - 17 | |
| FARMERS - 7.9 - 7 | |
| INDEPENDENTS - - 11 | |
| June 22 | Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, former Imperial Chief of Staff and organizer of the Ulster Defence Force, is assassinated by the Irish Republican Army at his home in Belgravia, London. |
| June 26 | The House of Commons approves a Government resolution demanding that the Government of the Irish Free State suppress the opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and establish effective rule. The measure passes by a vote of 342 to 75. |
| June 27 | The Free State Government yields to British demands for an end to the Republican occupation of the Four Courts. Republicans ignore Michael Collins’ order to vacate the premises. |
| June 28 | Free State forces under General Eoin O’Duffy begin bombarding Republican holdouts in the Four Courts using cannon borrowed from the departing British garrison in the opening engagement of the Irish Civil War. |
| June 30 | Republican commander Oscar Traynor orders the surrender of the Four Courts garrison. Republican mines planted in the building which housed Ireland’s Public Records Office destroy a priceless collection of historical documents. July 5 |
| | The Free State Army takes control of Dublin. Cathal Brugha is wounded and captured in a shoot out with Free State troops on O’Connell Street. Burgha dies two days later. July |
| | Supreme Court Justice Crowley orders the release of George Oliver Plunkett from Mountjoy Prison, holding that his arrest, after the storming of the Four Courts, was illegal. Crowley also orders the arrest of Colin O'Murchadha, the prison governor, and Defense Minister General Richard Mulcahy. The Government then abolishes the Court. |
| July 18 | Joseph O’Sullivan and Reginald Dunn are sentenced to death for the murder of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson. Free State forces begin the siege of Republican troops holding the city of Waterford. |
| July 20 | Free State forces capture Limerick. |
| July 21 | Free State forces capture Ballybricken Jail, the last Republican outpost in Waterford. |
| July 30 | The Royal Irish Constabulary is disbanded at its own request. |
| July 31 | Harry Boland is shot by a Free State soldier in Skerries, County Dublin and dies three days later. |
| August 9 | Clery’s, Ireland's first department store, opens in Dublin. August 10 |
| | Free State forces land at Cobh. Republican forces destroy the Admiralty House and Royal Naval Hospital before scattering into the countryside in small bands. |
| | Free State forces enter Cork where retreating Republicans have destroyed the police barracks, railways, telegraph instruments in the post office and linotype machines in the local newspaper offices. |
| | Free State forces drive off Republican counterattacks on Drogheda and positions in County Louth. |
| August 12 | Arthur Griffith dies of a cerebral hemorrhage William Cosgrave assumes the acting presidency of the Dail Eireann. |
| August 18 | Free State forces capture Mallow, the last major town in Republican hands. |
| August 22 | Michael Collins, commander in chief of Free State forces, is killed in an ambush at Beal na mBlath, County Cork. |
| August 25 | William T. Cosgrave succeeds Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State. |
| August | The Garda Siochana is reorganized as an unarmed police force with about 2,000 members after a mutiny among recruits. |
| | Former Supreme Court justice Crowley is arrested and jailed. Home Affairs Minister George Gavan Duffy resigns in protest. |
| September 11 | Northern Ireland abolishes proportional representation in local elections. |
| September | William Cosgrave tells George Gavan Duffy that, “belligerent rights will not be accorded to the anti-Treaty IRA. We are not going to treat rebels as POW's.” |
| September 27 | Defence Minister Richard Mulcahy asks the Dail to grant emergency powers to the Army. Legislation introduced by Minister for Home Affairs Kevin O’Higgins establishes military courts and makes unauthorized possession of arms a capital offence. |
| October | The Irish Free State’s £37,000,000 budget for the forthcoming fiscal year includes £10,000,000 to cover claims for property damage resulting from the Civil War and £1,800,000 for pension payments to British judges and officials replaced by Irishmen. |
| October 3 | The Free State offers an amnesty to surrendering Republicans and declares that after October 15th the military courts will be authorized to punish dissidents with death, deportation or other penalties. |
| | The Irish Republican Army command announces that anyone giving information leading to the punishment of Republican soldiers will be treated as a spy. |
| October 10 | The Roman Catholic Primate and bishops of Ireland issue a joint pastoral letter declaring the Republicans guilty of instituting, “a system of murder and assassination of the National Forces [Free State].” The Government discovers a large cache of bomb making materials collected by prisoners planning an uprising at Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. |
| October 25 | The third Dail Eireann approves the Constitution of the Irish Free State. |
| | Republicans elected to the second Dail Eireann meet in Dublin and call on Eamon de Valera to resume his presidency. |
| October 26 | The Republican rump of the second Dail forms a government. This “Government of the Republic” is unable to assert its authority. |
| November 24 | Executions of anti-Treaty IRA prisoners commence: Erskine Childers is shot for possessing a small pistol given him by Michael Collins. |
| December 6 | The Constitution of the Irish Free State goes into effect. William T. Cosgrave becomes President of the Free State Executive Council (Prime Minister). Timothy M. Healy is appointed Governor General replacing the last Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent, as His Majesty’s representative. |
