1920 AD - 2 / April to June

April 4th:  With the anniversary of the Irish 1916 Easter Uprising coming up on the horizon the British Imperial Government in England was preparing for another of the same in Ireland, but the Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. instead carried out a raid on their Income Tax Offices all over Ireland, destroying all of their records, which ensured that no more Irish tax was to be collected in Ireland by them. The Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. altogether were to burn down 315 of the empty British Government's  R.I.C police barracks throughout Ireland, to ensure that they would never again be used against the Irish population. 

      75 of the Irish political prisoners still being held by the British Imperial Government in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin went on a hunger strike, to be treated as political prisoners, and an appeal was made to Lord French, who was still the British Government's appointed Military Viceroy to finally show some humanity, but his only reply was that, "They must suffer the consequences." The Irish Union Congress and the Irish Labour Party ordered a General Stoppage in Ireland against the horrendous treatment that was being handed out to these prisoners, by the British Imperial Government, in which they were supported by the Catholic Irish Bishops. )The hunger strike was to continue on for another 10 days, until General Neville Mac Ready arrived in Ireland to replace him, when they were all to be finally released). In England, Joseph Mac Donagh with 150 other Irish political prisoners there, who had only been imprisoned on "suspicion" in their Wormwood Scrubs Prison, also organized a similar strike for 18 days and it too was also successful. In Milltown - Malbay in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province  3 Irish people in the town were killed and 5 others were wounded, when the British Government's Dublin Castle R.I.C police and their British Military forces fired into a crowd there, who were celebrating the release of Irish prisoners there.

     30 extra British Imperial Government Tax offices, and 95 empty R.I.C police barracks were burnt down in Ireland by the Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. and Michael Collins by this time was beginning to personally feel the increasing strain of all the individual responsibility he was constantly being asked to endure for the sake of Irish Independence against the British Government's Imperialism. Although the Irish railway employees were now also refusing to carry the British Imperial Army soldiers and their armaments, the British Coalition Government still continued to bring in more of their forces to re - enforce their overall authority in Ireland. One of these was in the form of a Bank officer, who tried to force the Irish Banks to produce their books, with the intention of getting his hands on the Irish National Loan money for the British Coalition Government, but he too was to be shot dead, and at least no further attempts were then made by the British Government in this regard. After 2 of the Detectives from the British Government's Dublin Castle's Metropolitan Police were also shot in Dublin, they too also basically ceased to function on behalf of the British Imperial Government there. 

April 28th:  The Cork Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. in Southern Munster, replaced the Dublin Castle's R.I.C police officers there, by catching the bank robbers themselves and returning the money, and all of the Irish Volunteers began to take over similar tasks by fulfilling the roles previously carried out by the R.I.C. police. Further efforts were begun to encourage the R.I.C police to resign from their despicable positions, which from now on they continued to do in great numbers, as did many of the British Coalition Government's appointed Magistrates.

     At the Local Government elections in Ireland the political Sinn Fein Party received a majority in every Council election, outside of the north - east of the Ulster Province, where there were always Ascendancy "Official Unionist" majorities, and the Dublin Corporation and the Irish Councils from now on proceeded to pledge their allegiance to the 1st Dail Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly and refused to give up their minutes to the British Government's Local Government's Board.  

May 3rd: David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister and the Parliament at Westminster in England without any real Irish representatives involved, proceeded to pass their Government of Ireland Act 1920. It had been previously assessed by the Ascendancy "Official Unionists" that if the whole 9 Counties in the Ulster Province were artificially partitioned from Ireland on their behalf, there would only be a 53% Ascendancy majority and this would make the continuation of the Ascendancy very problematical. On the other hand, If 4 of the Counties were artificially partitioned namely, Co. Antrim, Co. Down, Co. Armagh and Co. Derry there would be a 70% Ascendancy majority, while due to the previous non - Catholic Plantations another 2,  Co. Fermanagh and Co. Tyrone, only had a small Irish Catholic majority that could be easily manipulated, and gerrymandered, while the other 3, Co. Monaghan, Co. Donegal and Co. Cavan still had large Irish Catholic majorities, which would tip the balance against the Ascendancy gaining total control there.

      David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister went ahead and artificially partitioned Ireland in to 2 parts, to suite the continuation of the Ascendancy with 2 divided Parliaments, (1) in Belfast in Co. Antrim comprising the 6 Counties Artificially Partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province they had decided to Partition on purely sectarian grounds to suite the Ascendancy as the "Official Unionists" had only wanted the 6 Counties that would give them an absolute majority there. Already in these 6 Counties due to the massive previous confiscations there and non - Catholic Plantations they had previously made it too hard for the Irish Catholics to survive there anyway. From now on they were going to be allowed by the successive British Imperial Governments to also do away with Proportional Representation and gerrymander the lives of those who remained within these particular 6 Counties, to strengthen their Ascendancy position further, as this gave them only a 1 / 3 minority Irish Catholic population to work on, out of the 1.4 million people, who were still living there. Although 2 of the other Ulster Counties, Co. Fermanagh and Co. Tyrone, also actually had Irish Catholic majorities they could be easily organized by gerrymandering the boundaries, and also in the south of Co. Armagh, and the south of Co. Down, and also a large area of Co. Derry and Derry City itself, where there were Irish Catholic majorities also. Under the British Imperial Government's sectarian legislation, the 6 Counties of the Ulster Province Artificially Partitioned from the whole of the 32 Counties of Ireland, which was to be known as Northern Ireland, (although Co. Donegal was not in it and was actually in the north,) there was to be 52 members elected by Proportional Representation. There was to be a Senate of 26 members with 24 of these elected by the House of Commons, while the other 2 were to be the Mayor of Belfast and the Mayor of Derry. (George V, the German Hanoverian King of Britain, was to open this artificial fractured Ascendancy Parliament at Stormont near Belfast.  

     (2) in Dublin. Under the British Imperial Government's legislation the other artificially divided Parliament, was to be comprised of the remaining 26 Counties of Ireland, including the 23 Counties in the Connacht Province, the Leinster Province and the Munster Province, plus the 3 unwanted Irish Catholic majority Counties in the Ulster Province, which was to be known as Southern Ireland. It was to still contain 95 % of the Catholic Irish together with those 3 Counties artificially kicked out of the Ulster Province to suite the continuation of the Ascendancy in Ireland. These 3 Ulster Counties were namely, Co. Cavan, Co. Monaghan, and Co. Donegal that was in reality the most Northern County in the whole of Ireland. In the British Imperial Government's designated artificial administration of Southern Ireland there was to be  33 members to go to the British Westminster Parliament, with 128 members in the Dublin Parliament, but to ensure total overall control still in Ireland the British Imperial Government in England still claimed the rights to nominate some members to the Senate there.  

    The main factor still existing in all of this continued mayhem, was that in the 32 Counties, which made up the whole of Ireland, even after all of the previous confiscations, the murders, the ethnic cleansing and the Ascendancy sectarian plantations carried out during the preceding 750 years, by the consecutives English - British Government authorities, there was still an overall 75 % of the population of Ireland who were still Irish Catholics.     

     What was to really happen during the General Elections, was that there were to be 124 elected political Irish Sinn Fein Party members successfully returned, unopposed, with the other 4 being from the Ascendancy stronghold of Trinity College who were also unopposed.

May 5th: Sir Hamar Greenwood the newly appointed British Government's Chief Secretary in Ireland, who was to be a real nasty, arrived bringing Sir Arthur Cope as his British Under - Secretary who succeeded Sir John Taylor. He had been chosen for his particular outlook and attitude towards the Irish, and he was to constantly explain away the terror campaigns conducted under his control, which were begun in Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province, and carried out on the Irish population in general there, by the British Imperial Government forces, that it was the Irish themselves carrying out reprisals against their own people. He gave the 4 British Government Imperial forces, the R.I.C. police, the Black & Tans, the Auxiliaries and the British Military, a free hand to do whatever they liked, when ever they liked, to the Irish population, and always defended all of the ongoing criticism against their continuing violent actions carried out on the general population in Ireland. 

     David Lloyd - George the British Coalition Prime Minister had shown all along that he had been unwilling to face up to the actual reality, and the democratic will of the Irish people, and was now going to go all out to show the Irish the real might of the British Imperial Empire, as he had by now recruited 7,000 ex - British Army soldiers, which included many inmates from the British prison system, to try and maintain control over the Irish, and these became known as the Black & Tans from the particular gear they wore, and also after a local pack of foxhounds. They were set on Ireland to wrought their terrible terror at first outside of the Dublin City area, to intimidate the Irish population where the Irish resistance was the strongest, and 5/6 of them were billeted in with the British Imperial Government's Dublin Castle's R.I.C. police in their barracks. Later on to support them he was also to recruit another 1,500 ex - British Army officers, from the rank of captain up, to be known as the Auxiliaries, who he was to give twice the pay, that he gave to the Black & Tans to carry out their dreadful work in Ireland. They were allowed to operate with a free hand to carry out any operation they liked in Ireland, and also had among their ranks many criminals, and were a really nasty lot, who used ex - British Army Crossley Tenders to carry out their raids in the Dublin area, and their policy was to, "Shoot first and ask questions later." They were to leave behind the everlasting legacy of the memory of the British Imperial Empire's continuing cruelty and atrocities, such as the terrible raid they carried out on the town of Balbriggan were they burnt 25 houses down and the Irish Co - operative Creamery there. These British Government men of terror, who had been left over and out of touch with reality from the 1st World War, were then added to the 40,000 British Military forces stationed in Ireland already, but the Irish population with their determination, a free mind, limited forces and resources were to continue to stand up to them and take all they could give, which was plenty.

June 1st: Michael Collins at this time was  assisted by Richard Mac Kee, the overall commander of the Irish Volunteers Dublin Brigade, Liam Tobin was his Deputy Director of Intelligence, along with Tom Cullen and Frank Thornton. On this date he was to be in receipt of correspondence that had been sent by one of the British Imperial Government's Commissioners, in which it stated that they intended to stamp out the Irish resistance completely by "secret murder." Despite this extra imminent warning he had been already aware of this fact, as he had been previously advised by Lieutenant "G," (who was a member of the British Military Intelligence who were situated in the Dublin Castle (The Devil's 1/2 acre). Also among his informants in the British Government's stronghold in the Dublin Castle were Ned Broy, Kavanagh, Neligan and Mac Namara, who all kept him up to date on any of the Dublin Castle authorities intentions against the Irish in general.

     As Sir Hamar Greenwood the British Imperial Government appointed Under - Secretary of State in Ireland had now been given complete control by the British Coalition Government over the R.I.C, Black & Tans, their Auxiliaries, their Spies and their Secret Agents, to carry out any mayhem he saw fit on the population in Ireland, he combined the Black & Tans with the existing R.I.C. police. (They were to also gain this title from their khaki uniforms together with their black - green belts and caps previously worn by R.I.C. police.) He immediately sent them on the attack against the general population in Ireland, and issued a weekly summary sheet from his fortress in the Dublin Castle (the Devil's 1/2 acre) from where he spurred them on to keep it up, and even to kill the Irish in their beds, and because of these instructions their "Murder Gangs" now just ran completely amok in Ireland. They wantonly killed Irish children, civilians, cripples, old men and pregnant women, both in the day and in the night, such as the murder of Jack O Hanlon, who was shot at Turlough More in Co. Galway in the Connacht Province, who was murdered in front of his parents, his wife, and his children, and they also fired on his funeral procession, where they also wounded several of the mourners who were present.

June 3rd:  More rantings of British Imperialism were heard when Walter Long who was an M.P. in the British Westminster House of Commons, stated that, "The police in Ireland had shot the Irish people with good effect and he hoped they would do it again."

     Meanwhile those among the R.I.C. police who were loyal to the Irish cause, and therefore also to Michael Collins, had stayed on in the R.I.C. police force ranks, while the ordinary members of the R.I.C. police who were also of Irish descent resigned, and the British Law Courts held under the previous British Law were now unable to operate in Ireland.

    More ethnic British Imperialism occurred, when Lt. Colonel Ferguson - Smyth the British Divisional Commissioner of the Royal Irish Constabulary / R.I.C. for 6 of the Irish Counties, addressed a squad of 18 R.I.C Irish men at Listowel in Co. Kerry in the south - west of the Munster Province, telling them that, "The more you shoot the better we will like you." Such a suggestion would naturally upset any decent Irishman, and the R.I.C men there were revolted by his direction, with Jeremiah Mee / Ua Miadhaigh resigning instantly. The R.I.C. District Inspector then ordered the other R.I.C. present to arrest him, but no one would carry it out, and Lt. Colonel Ferguson - Smyth then left the area, but the disaffection that he further created, against the continuing British Imperialism spread throughout the rest of the R.I.C police barracks. He was to be eventually shot dead by members of the Cork Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. a few days later, while the inquest on his death had to be abandoned as the Irish jurors refused to attend the hearing.

       The matter of protecting his intelligence sources was by now of great difficulty to Michael Collins, who decided to have the R.I.C. Sgt, who was acting as one of his agents, kidnapped, as he was sure that the British Government Dublin Castle authorities had found out about him, but unfortunately those who were sent were not aware of his true status, and instead he was killed during the attempt. Despite these types of setbacks the actual Irish R.I.C. police were now no longer operating as an Intelligence Service against their own Irish people throughout Ireland on behalf of the British Imperial Government.

      The brother of the recently deceased Lt. Colonel Ferguson - Smyth, who was himself an English officer in the British Imperial Military transferred to Dublin in an attempt to carry out a revenge attack for his brother's death, so Sir Ormonde Winter made use of him and put him into the British Intelligence Service. An informer known to one and all as "Bow Tie," who was out for blood money, told the British authorities that there were 2 Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. staying at Professor Carolan's house, and Sir Ormonde Winter and Ferguson - Smyth surrounded the house and a gun battle ensued in which Dan Breen was shot twice. Despite these injuries Dan Breen and Sean Treacy were still able to escape, but Ferguson - Smyth was also killed. Professor Carolan was then stood up against the wall and shot in cold blood in the back of the head, but despite this terrible injury he was still was able to live long enough to tell what had occurred there. The Fleming brothers, who lived next door to Professor Carolan, were then also arrested without any justification, with Michael Fleming being offered 10,000 pounds and a safe passage to Britain to tell them anything he could about Dan Breen. He refused, so he was put before a British Court Martial and sentenced to prison for 3 years in prison, which they eventually had to reduce to 9 months, while his brother, James was put in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin were he also was interrogated, but they finally had to let  him go.    

      Meanwhile, in America, Eamonn de Valera the President of the 1st Dail Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly had proceeded on his own to the Conservative Republican Convention in Chicago, and organized demonstrations to try and influence the Republican delegates there to put the recognition of the Republic of Ireland up as a plank in their platform.       

June 5th:  Meanwhile the Friends of Irish Freedom in America, had agreed also to put forward the same motion to the same Republican Convention, which was to be held in Chicago, for the recognition of the Irish Republic, as a plank in their platform, and Judge Cohalan had been personally organized to carry this out on their behalf, but he was under obligation to Hiram Johnson the Conservative Republican candidate who was running for the nomination as President of America. By association, Hiram Johnson was looking too close to the Irish cause, so he had asked Judge Cohalan to back off, and he would ensure the political situation in Ireland would be looked into if he gained office, so Judge Cohalan changed his motion to "Sympathy with Ireland's cause" instead, and both the resolutions were put forward, but were still not supported in the American Republican Conservative Party camp.

June 17th -18th - 19th:  The 1st Dail Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly met secretly in Ireland at Fleming's Hotel were Michael Collins put forward an idea to the group, that no income tax be paid to the British Imperial Government, but to the 1st Dail Eireann instead, who would protect those who followed their direction, and from now on the majority of the people in Ireland were to do this right up to the beginnings of the future Irish Free State.    

     The British Imperial Government forces continued on in Ireland with their campaign of burning and looting, and to send a further message to the general Irish population they also killed one of the jurors who had participated in a trial after one of their soldiers was killed by the Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. The British Colonels Danford and Tyrell, together with General Lucas who was the British Imperial Military Officer in charge at Fermoy were taken as prisoners of War, by Liam Lynch, George Power and Patrick Clancy with the aid of the Cork No. 2 Irish Volunteer Brigade / I.R.A. and this successful capture of 3 British Military officers brought to the Irish Republicans not only a great amount of publicity, but also prestige for the cause of Irish Independence both overseas and in Ireland itself. At Temple More in Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province, the British Government's Northhamptonshire Military Regiment besieged the town there, and the following night  400 British Military soldiers also attacked the town of Fermoy in Co. Cork in Southern Munster again, and once again ran berserk through out the area, where the Irish Volunteers / I.R.A. were able to drive them off, but they then carried out an attack nearby on the town of Lismore in Co. Waterford in the south - east of Munster on the same night. (The British Imperial General Lucas who had been in charge of Fermoy was eventually able to escape from captivity a month later)         

June 18th: David Lloyd - George the British Coalition Prime Minister, once again, responding to the reports of the ongoing  terror campaign carried out by the British Imperial Government Military forces under his watch, in Ireland stated that their Black & Tans and their Auxiliaries had been sent to Ireland for the protection of the Irish people. Meanwhile, although the British Government Auxiliaries had also since bought in bloodhounds to track down the Irish Volunteers / I.R.A they were able to continue to use pepper to confuse their senses.

      In the town of Bruff in Co. Limerick in the mid - south - west of the Munster Province the British Imperial Military forces fired on the crowd there, and succeeded in killing a 10 year old boy and an epileptic youth, and they also sacked the towns of Tuam in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, Lahinch in Co. Clare in the north - west of Munster, and Balbriggan again in Co. Dublin in Southern Leinster.

      Diarmuid Lynch resigned from the 1st Dail Eireann / 1st Irish Assembly in protest at the continual interference by Eamonn de Valera and John Devoy, in America, of the affairs actually occurring in Ireland, and continued his attacks on Eamonn de Valera in relation to Michael Collins, who he considered was the one who was always actually risking his life daily back in Ireland. In his articles he named, Michael Collins, as the Commander - In - Chief, which only further upset the staid Cathal Brugha / Charles Burgess the 1st Dail Eireann Minister of Defence who was already out of sorts to begin with. Eamonn de Valera decided to send Harry Boland back to Ireland to give his point of view to the 1st Dail Eireann, about the opposition he was receiving from the Clann na Gael in America, and after further discussions with Harry Boland in Ireland they had him return to America to advise the Clann na Gael that they were not too happy with the situation that had developed there with Eamonn de Valera. To the dismay of Michael Collins, and what seemed to be his own decision, Harry Boland then announced to all and sundry, that he was authorised to severe relations with the Clann na Gael in America, and the I.R.B. / Irish Republican Brotherhood and even went as far as to start up a rival Irish Clann there, while Eamonn de Valera also started a rival organization to the Friends of Irish Freedom. It was known as the American Association for Recognition of the Irish Republic, which grew rapidly, and the 1st Dail Eireann then also further condemned the opposition to Eamonn de Valera in America. Diarmuid O Hegarty then informed Eamonn de Valera that the 1st Dail Eireann Cabinet wanted him to stay on in America to complete his personal objectives.     

June 28th: The British Imperial Government's other proposed artificially divided "Southern Ireland Parliament"  was opened for the remaining 26 Counties from the whole of Ireland in Dublin, but it only lasted for 15 minutes, as there was only the 4 unopposed Ascendancy Trinity College members in attendance, along with those nominees of the British Imperial Government for the Senate.

     Further, British Imperial Government "secret agents" now began to arrive into Dublin, with their very English accents, which stood out for all of the Irish to hear, and they began recruiting their "Touts" who were the lowest of the low, who were to be known as Tick - Tack men, who actually really knew nothing at all of what was going on in Ireland. These British Imperial Government independent Intelligence Agents together with their other British Government independent forces, were added to by the 11,000 R.I.C - Black & Tans, the 1500 Auxiliaries to come and 40,000 British Imperial Army soldiers to ensure the Irish people were to continue to toe the British Imperial Government's line of authority. 

June: Rioting was now occurring this month in Derry City in Co. Derry in the north - east of the 6 Counties artificially separated from the Ulster Province and it soon spread further there into nearby Belfast in Co. Antrim in Ulster.

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