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IRA attacks on British targets during Civil War?

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  • 18-06-2018 4:51pm
    #1
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭


    I read that in 1924 around the time of the Army Mutiny the IRA launched an attack with an armored car on one of the treaty ports at Cobh killing 1 British soldier and injuring two dozen. The Free State paid compensation to the families of those killed and injured in the attack. So this was actually a while after the Civil War.

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/cobh-attack-on-unarmed-british-soldiers-in-1924-recalled-in-new-book-1.3179534

    Does anyone if the IRA launched any other attacks on British targets during the Civil War or around the same time. From what I've read the occupation of the Four Courts by the IRA was to try and provoke a reaction from the British to restart the war of independence. I know Henry Wilson was killed by the IRA before the battle of Dublin but that was on the orders of Collins.


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    #2
    tabbey
    Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    BalcombeSt4 wrote: »
    I know Henry Wilson was killed by the IRA before the battle of Dublin but that was on the orders of Collins.

    Are you sure that Collins ordered it?

    It has been suggested that the two assassins were freelancing, and it certainly would not have been in the interest of the provisional government.


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    #3
    Ascendant
    Registered Users Posts: 196 ✭✭Ascendant


    It was a few weeks before the start of the Civil War, but the Battle of Pettigo and Belleek was a noteworthy, if largely forgotten, engagement.

    The Battle Of Pettigo And Belleek, May To June 1922
    The Battle of Pettigo and Belleek in the summer of 1922 was the largest military engagement between the Irish Republican Army and the British Occupation Forces in Ireland since the Easter Rising of 1916, and arguably the last significant action in the island nation’s War of Independence. Taking place from the 27th of May to the 8th of June the confrontation symbolised a final effort by revolutionary period republicans – already divided over opposition to a compromise peace deal with Britain – to contest the United Kingdom’s continued suzerainty over the north-east of the country. Within weeks of the encounter many Irish participants in the battle would find themselves on rival sides in the intra-nationalist Civil War of 1922-23.


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    #4
    Dr.Nightdub
    Registered Users Posts: 108 ✭✭Dr.Nightdub


    In his application for a Military Service Pension, Joseph Billings, who had been O/C of the unit that mounted the Raglan St ambush in Belfast in July 1921, described being Barracks Adjutant of the anti-Treaty IRA in Barry's Hotel off Parnell Square in Dublin. He said that shortly after the start of the Civil War, he directed an attack from the building on a passing British armoured car, in which he claimed the machine gunner, a Sgt Hunter, was killed.


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    #5
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Ascendant wrote: »
    It was a few weeks before the start of the Civil War, but the Battle of Pettigo and Belleek was a noteworthy, if largely forgotten, engagement.

    The Battle Of Pettigo And Belleek, May To June 1922

    That's fascinating.

    I remember a few weeks I was looking up on the Loyalist car bomb that exploded in Pettigo in December 1972 which injured 2 people & exploded at the same time as a bomb in Belturnbet, Cavan killing 2 young people.

    It mentioned a small bit about a fight in Pettigo during (or just before) the civil war but said it was just a small skirmish.


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    #6
    knucklehead6
    Registered Users Posts: 6,738 ✭✭✭knucklehead6


    BalcombeSt4 wrote: »
    That's fascinating.

    I remember a few weeks I was looking up on the Loyalist car bomb that exploded in Pettigo in December 1972 which injured 2 people & exploded at the same time as a bomb in Belturnbet, Cavan killing 2 young people.

    It mentioned a small bit about a fight in Pettigo during (or just before) the civil war but said it was just a small skirmish.

    i clicked on the link and instantly regretted it.. Any site that describes Northern Ireland as British Occupied North of Ireland isn't worth the bandwidth


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    #7
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Why just because it's a pro-Republican site it can't be historically accurate? That's just childish.

    I'm a Republican (not of a SF or Dissident persuasion) and I find this extremely pro-Loyalist site very helpful when I was researching Loyalists bombings in Ireland.

    https://balaclavastreet.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/orange-bombs-part-1-loyalists-and-explosives-the-early-years/


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    #8
    tabbey
    Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    BalcombeSt4 wrote: »
    I'm a Republican (not of a SF or Dissident persuasion) and I find this extremely pro-Loyalist site very helpful when I was researching Loyalists bombings in Ireland.
    https://balaclavastreet.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/orange-bombs-part-1-loyalists-and-explosives-the-early-years/

    An interesting website, it does not seem in any way "extremely pro-loyalist".
    It even uses quotation marks around "Dr" Ian Paisley and describes someone as virulently anti- catholic.


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    #9
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Well the Loyalist paramilitary parties the PUP & UDP fell out with "DR" Paisley over the GFA and some other stuff.
    It's a site with alot of good information but the way its typed they sound almost angry that people are not giving the UVF "credit" for being able to plant bombs & kill random Catholics at will.
    And I disagree with their analysis of the Dublin & Monaghan bombings that the UVF did it all on their own. All of the suspects had some sort of link to RUC or Army. Like Billy Hanna, one of the leaders of the Glennane Gang who was in the UDR, & also been in Korea. Robin Jackson & John Wier were others from the security force Jackson was in the UDR & others have stated he was apart of RUC SB, Wier was apart of the RUC's Special Patrol Group.
    So a good site to start out on but, they have specific details muddled up. The UVF in the mid 70's were able to make pretty large bombs and were able to plant them or throw them into pubs & then speed away back to base, but they were not able to carry out a sophisticated, three car bomb synchronized attack in a place they had no clue about logistics & carry it out successful (in their eyes) and then make over the border all by themselves, they had to have professional help & this was one of the early operations of the Glennane Gang that consisted of UVF, UDR, RUC SPG & SB and at least one UDA member David Payne who invented the "romper rooms".


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    #10
    LennoxR
    Registered Users Posts: 414 ✭✭LennoxR


    In Dublin the IRA attacked the remaining British garrison whenever they could during the Civil War. The British troops, about 6,000, were in Dublin until December 1922.

    http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/11/25/british-military-involvement-in-the-irish-civil-war/#.W0TM_MInbIU


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