Why was the War of Independence so limited geographically?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I've been reading about this and I'm curious as to why so much of the violence was confined to Munster and Dublin. In particular, I'm confused as to why Connacht (Where Sinn Fein membership was highest and where the Galway volunteers had rebelled in 1916) remained so quiet throughout much of the war, with the exception of West Mayo for a few months in 1921. What made Munster so violent in comparison?

donaghs

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

I've been reading about this and I'm curious as to why so much of the violence was confined to Munster and Dublin. In particular, I'm confused as to why Connacht (Where Sinn Fein membership was highest and where the Galway volunteers had rebelled in 1916) remained so quiet throughout much of the war, with the exception of West Mayo for a few months in 1921. What made Munster so violent in comparison?

I was reading recently about Galway and 1916. Probably deserves a thread of its own. The rising there can give a false impression of general support for radical republicanism. From my reading it mainly due to the organizing efforts of an outsider, Liam Mellows. That, and having a ready-made band of discontented young men led by blacksmith Tom Kenny (http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/reign-of-terror-at-craughwell-tom-kenny-and-the-mcgoldrick-murder-of-1909/) who felt they had been ignored by land reforms and so on which had benefited prosperous farmers. This group mixed agranian radicalism with IRB politics.
And I think it can apply to lots of the country, having a strong leader-figure who wanted action. e.g. without a driving force like Tom Barry, would West Cork have been as active? Or the presence of organisers like Liam Mellows or Ernie O'Malley. And local grievances to generate groups of young men willing to fight.

For Galway and 1916, consider the politics of the time. Land reforms had removed a lot of discontent from rural Ireland. Most people supported the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party. Its leader Redmond gave his support to the British war effort. When the Irish Volunteers split in 1914, 142,000 formed Redmond's "National Volunteers". 9,700 remained in the Irish Volunteers - just 5% of the original total? And not all the remaining Irish Volunteers realised the role of the IRB and IRB military council in guiding them towards a rebellion. Many Irish towns would also have had significant numbers of Protestant Unionist populations, and even some loyalist "Castle Catholics".

Its hard to find info on many of the incidents like this with digging deeper, but with all the 1916 celebrations you wont find much room for the complexity of history. There's a very illuminating article here (http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/the-most-shoneen-town-in-irelandgalway-in-1916/) about the antipathy in east Galway towards the Sinn Fein/Irish volunteer fringe of nationalist Ireland. e.g. "In Galway town, the Irish Volunteers were practically wiped out in one night in October 1914 following widespread rioting, with republicans and their supporters literally beaten along the streets by an angry crowd of nationalists". I've read accounts also from the Military History Bureau statement about Loughrea being loyalist.
What happened to the Irish Volunteers in Galway in 1914 is quite similar to the "Tullamore Incident" in early March 1916. After the Volunteer split, there were only about 17 Irish Volunteers left in Tullamore. In this incident the local people of Tullamore (apparently Redmondite nationalist, "seperation women", loyalists etc) attacked the Volunteers in the Hall, causing them to fire shots, RIC arrive and try to disarm them. One witness account (but he omits details of what preceeded the attack). http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0012.pdf#page=2

And during Easter Week in East Galway (from the-most-shoneen-town-in-irelandgalway-in-1916 article): "Support for the Crown forces by ordinary nationalists during Easter Week was not limited to the town of Galway, and at Craughwell, Turloughmore and Loughrea the National Volunteers came out in force to aid the local RIC".

BTW, my sympathies would be mainly with the Irish Volunteers and the 1916 leaders. But its nice to see things from different perspectives. And upset so many assumptions people have about the 1913-1924 period!

Ascendant

According to Peter Hart - forgot which book of his - over half the fatalities in the WoI were in Dublin, Cork and Belfast, the three main population centres in Ireland, so it might have been as simple a case as having the people around to fight.

Local attitudes didn't seem necessarily to correlate to a desire (or ability - weapons shortages hamstrung a lot of IRA brigades' capacities) for a guerilla war - Co. Westmeath saw the election of an ardently Nationalist/Republican country council in mid-1920 that instantly swore allegiance to the Republic and the Dail, had a previous resolution by the old council condemning the Easter Rising expunged and went out of its way to passively-aggressively and not-so-passively undermine the remaining Crown institutions like the courts, yet Co. Westmeath was a subdued place in general for the WoI, with most of its action centering around the Athlone Brigade (which would tie into the theory of population being the overriding factor for military activity).

The usual image we have of the WoI - the ambushes, the flying columns, dodging the Tans and so forth - was only a part of the Irish revolution, and arguably not even the most important element. Politics both local and national (not to mention international), the change in policing (the Volunteers rapidly replaced the RIC in that) and changing attitudes all played hugely significant roles in changing Ireland from a 'Little Britain' to an independent country.

4ensic15

The terrain in a lot of the middle of Ireland does not suit guerilla warfare. The country is mostly flat so hiding places and ambush points are few. The activity is more suited to urban and mountainous areas.

Ascendant

4ensic15 wrote: »

The terrain in a lot of the middle of Ireland does not suit guerilla warfare. The country is mostly flat so hiding places and ambush points are few. The activity is more suited to urban and mountainous areas.

Except in that case you'd expect the more hilly parts of Ireland to be the guerilla hotspots but that does not seem to have been the case.

There does not seem to be a single or simple answer as to why some areas were busy and others not - they either were or weren't.

donaghs

Ascendant wrote: »

Except in that case you'd expect the more hilly parts of Ireland to be the guerilla hotspots but that does not seem to have been the case.

There does seem to be a single or simple answer as to why some areas were busy and others not - they either were or weren't.

Yep, Seán Mac Eoin was the driving force in making Longford a midlands IRA hotspot.

Ascendant

donaghs wrote: »

Yep, Seán Mac Eoin was the driving force in making Longford a midlands IRA hotspot.

One theory is that it came down to whether they had a talented or driven leader who was willing and able to push the rest of the Volunteers onward.

It's debatable whether it was as simple as that but it sounds as good a theory as any.