"Bloody Sunday" 1920

In the general elections of 1918, IRA leaders led by De Valera won a sweeping majority of Irish Parliament seats. It was decided to have the body stay in Ireland rather than go to England. Collins also took several key roles in the newly reorganized IRA including gathering intelligence, and formed a hit team called “the squad.”. Isolated acts of violence continued against British police, solders and establishments. Then in 1920 Collins presented a plan to permanently cripple British intelligence in Ireland. Through several moles, he believed that he could locate and kill nearly all key members of British intelligence. His plan called for 50 assassinations of informers and intelligence officials. However, this was reduced to 35 targets. On the morning of Sunday, November 21, 1920, teams of two to three men were dispatched to locations all across Dublin. Several teams headed toward a single city block, where they burst into apartments and shot British agents on sight. The shootings went on throughout the morning; in all, 13 people were killed and six more were wounded. Several managed to escape. One IRA man was wounded and captured. Other targets either could not be found or the hit teams failed to carry them out.

At the same time, British military officials had been getting reports of the killing. Then came information that several armed men had run into the nearby Croke Park soccer stadium where a game was in progress. A company of British troops soon surrounded the structure and went in backed by armored vehicles. It is unclear exactly what happened next. British sources say that they were fired on, and shot over the heads of the crowd to scare them. However, Irish sources say they simply began shooting into the assembled crowd. Within a minute fourteen people were dead and nearly a hundred others were wounded. Several hours later the one IRA man captured earlier managed to escape. In response the British guards shot three other IRA men they were holding.

The shootings, on what came to be called “Bloody Sunday”, sent shock-waves across Ireland and England and crippled Brittan’s intelligence network for several months. King George V was horrified by the killings and believed his forces had gone too far. However this was also mixed with anger for the IRA killings. One week later IRA forces attacked a large British patrol in Kilmichael, killing 17 British soldiers. Attacks and targeted killing continued. British forces carried out reprisals, making arrests and destroying any property that belonged to the IRA. By June 1921 2,000 people had died in the fighting since 1916 and 67 British troops were being killed or wounded a week. Ironically, nearly all the violence took place in and around Dublin, leaving the vast majority of Irish people unaffected. To end the conflict, in London Parliament had passed the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 which would establish Irish home rule in Dublin and a British backed Protestant government in Belfast. British commanders in the region secretly met with Irish leaders to negotiate a truce, which was announced on July 11, 1921. Later that year Collins, Childers and another IRA leader, Arthur Griffith, met with British Prime Minster David Lloyd George in London. Collins believed the IRA was spent and that he needed to try to get the best settlement possible. George pressured the Irish leaders hard and said if they did not come to a deal he would renew British operations. Finally they signed the proposal without sending it to Dublin. The agreement recognized Irish home rule in the 26 southern counties and pulled all British forces out, while the six northern counties which were overwhelming Protestant would remain under direct British control. IRA leaders did manage to hold vote in Northern Ireland on whether they should join in home rule, but it was roundly rejected. Collins and De Valera had finally achieved their goal. But soon a new war would start that would pit Irish against Irish.