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How many people died in the Tan War & Civil War.

  • 15-07-2014 11:35am
    #1
    pO1Neil
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 354 ✭✭


    Including sectarian killings in the north?

    Wiki give a number of 2014. -550 IRA, -715 all British forces & -750 civilians.

    For the Civil War it gives a number of between 2250 - 4250 (which is astonishing considering the population at the time & that it lasted only 10 months. It also notes that even higher figures of over 5000 were given) around 800 on on the Free State side. 1000 - 3000 on IRA side & 250 civilians.

    But Wiki's known not to be very reliable I was wondering if someone had a more safer source or knows the figures themselves.


Comments

  • #2
    Historybluff
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 106 ✭✭Historybluff


    You should read Eunan O'Halpin's essay in David Fitzpatrick (ed.), Terror in Ireland, 1916-1923 (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2012). His figures cover the period from the Easter Rising to the end of 1921; he doesn't include the Civil War. I don't have the book to hand and I can't remember the figures off the top of my head. O'Halpin has a reference book on the subject coming out soon under the title The Dead of the Irish Revolution.


  • #3
    Jesus.
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,794 ✭✭✭Jesus.


    Roughly 2,000 and 5,000 respectively


  • #4
    Dr.Nightdub
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 109 ✭✭Dr.Nightdub


    There were 498 killed in Belfast between July 1920 - Oct 1922. That figure relates only to intentional killings, there were a number of other deaths caused by accidental discharges of firearms in barracks or in people's homes. On top of that again, there were other deaths reported by one or other source (usually "G.B. Kenna" a.k.a. Fr John Hassan) but which cannot be cross-referenced against other sources, especially newspaper accounts.

    I know of only six in Co. Antrim - DI Swanzy, killed in Lisburn in Aug 1920, four catholics killed by military in Cushendall in July 1922 (one of whom was an IRA member) and an RAF officer shot by a jumpy sentry at Aldergrove, can't remember the date.

    There's a new book out about the revolutionary era in Tyrone from 1912-23, I'd imagine that explores the subject of killings in that county though I haven't yet read it.

    Don't know of any comprehensive / detailed accounts relating to elsewhere in the north. Robert Lynch, in The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, gives a total of 644 for the north, but his figures for Belfast are understated so I'm a bit dubious about the rest.


  • #5
    any1butdublin3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33 ✭any1butdublin3


    Dr.Nightdub wrote: »
    Don't know of any comprehensive / detailed accounts relating to elsewhere in the north. Robert Lynch, in The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, gives a total of 644 for the north, but his figures for Belfast are understated so I'm a bit dubious about the rest.

    2 May 1922:
    The IRA launched a series of attacks on RIC barracks in counties Derry and Tyrone. Six RIC and USC men were killed in the attacks. In reprisal for the attacks, Ulster Special Constabulary personnel killed nine Catholic civilians in the area, two on 6 May, three in Magherafelt on 11 May, and four more in Desertmartin on 19 May.


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