1921 AD - 1 / January.
1921
The population of
Ireland in the whole of
the
32 Counties, was now
3,000,000.
The Irish
Republicans, were in the third year of
their struggle with the
British Imperial Government
in England to obtain
Irish Independence
/ Self
Determination for
Ireland,
despite the fact that the Irish political
Sinn Fein Party had previously
won all of the elections
with landslide victories. The
British Coalition Government
under David Lloyd -
George Law the British XCoalition Prime Minister were even more
determined then ever to uphold their
Imperial Empire authority over the Irish population, regardless of the costs of
Irish
lives, although by now
they well and truly realised that the
Mere Irish / Bog
Irish themselves were not as easy to push around as they once thought.
Winston Churchill,
the British
Imperial Government's Secretary
of
State for the
Colonies,
was ready to launch, "The
most unlimited exercise of rough handed force on the Irish population."
Changes had been made to the British Imperial Government's regular policy of
"unofficial"
reprisals on the
Irish population, as they now
blatantly and "officially"
condoned the "bloody" reprisals in
Ireland
carried out by their British
Military forces, and
18
of the
32 Counties in
Ireland, were now placed under
British Martial Law. The Irish Volunteers /
I.R.A. / Irish Republican Army came out in response to the
increased raids carried out by the
British Imperial Government Military
forces, and their
other activities, by increasing their own attacks to obtain arms,
and it was now finally and abundantly clear to all looking on that an ongoing conclusion by the British Imperial Military
forces was now
totally impracticable. The
British Imperial Government, had also by now lost
any chance of retaining their previous
full
control over the people in
Ireland, but true to their
imperialistic traditions,
they were to continue to ferociously carry on the onslaught no matter what the costs
of human suffering in Ireland.
The population of
Ireland was to be denied any chance of their democratic
rights for another 2 years, while the British
Imperial Government Military forces continued to carry out their ferocious reprisals,
with much more Irish
blood
continuing to be
shed. The
British Imperial Government now had to either decide to conquer
Ireland outright, or offer up
terms to the
Irish people to reach a
final solution. Unfortunately for everyone involved, once again, due to the
previous Centuries of
their Imperialistic Military control over other "foreign" Countries, including
Ireland, which by now had suffered the longest and the most, their bruised egos could not,
allow
them to make a just democratic decision. To make it even harder for them to reach a final
just decision,
there were now 3
individual parties involved in the final solution, for by now their chickens had well
and truly came home to roost, after nearly 8 Centuries of continued
ethnic and
religious repression in
Ireland,
and
their confiscations and ongoing "Foreign"
sectarian plantations.
Because of their continued intransigence on
Irish
Civil
Rights they now had not only the
Irish Republicans,
but also the Ascendancy "Official
Unionists"
in the north - east of the
Ulster Province to contend with.
Within weeks, feelers were put out for an
Anglo - Irish
Truce
by the British Imperial Government,
but their conditions still included the
Irish Volunteers / I.R.A
/ Irish
Republican Army
laying down their guns first, but the Irish had gone through too many
broken promises from the authorities in England to fall for that
one.
Michael Collins,
had also previously set up the
A.S.U. /
Active Service Unit under
Patrick Flanagan from the
I.R.A's
Dublin Brigade's 3rd Battalion,
who
took in other members from his group, including
James Browne,
James Doyle, James Gibbons,
Richard Sweetman and others, and there was no way that he was
not going to allow their cover to be broken.
January 1st:
Eammon de Valera,
the President of the 1st Dail Eireann / Irish
Assembly, was now set up in a house at
Merrion in Dublin by the
Irish
Sea,
were many of the individual members of the
Dail Eireann
Cabinet
were now able to visit him to carry out
discussions on their individual problems, away from the searching eyes of the
many
British Imperial Government agents in
Ireland.
January 3rd: Eammon de Valera as the President of the 1st Dail Eireann / Irish Assembly had discussions with Father Flanagan, who was the Vice - President of the political Sinn Fein Party and Arthur Cope who was the British Government appointed Assistant Under - Secretary in Ireland. Because of these extra separate individual discussions, Arthur Cope then informed Archbishop Clune that the British Coalition Cabinet had now decided to carry out their own separate negotiations with "other" Irish parties, excluding Michael Collins. The inference was that these negotiations were now being carried out separately, on behalf of Eamonn de Valera only, through the offices of Father Flanagan, who also went to London to see David Lloyd - George the British Prime Minister, personally. Nothing further was to come from these "individual" negotiations, but it was generally recognized that these further unofficial discussions, had now only weakened Ireland's negotiating position in the eyes of David Lloyd - George, who considered that he now had another string to his bow.
Further pressure was increased
also on the
Irish Volunteer forces now, as the
British Government's
Military Auxiliaries were coming to realise that their
Imperial "carte blanche" position, to do as they liked in
Ireland, was
not as strong as they had first thought, and more
general incidents
were to occur, like the attack on
3 Irish men who were walking along
Clare Street, who were at first assaulted by
the British Auxiliaries with their
rifle butts, who then shot one of them in the back as he panicked and ran away. The
Dail Eireann
Finance Office were
Michael Collins
was
operating out of at this time was also raided by the
British Auxiliaries,
while he was still in there, but he just continued on slowly
down the stairs and passed them by and went on out into the street,
were although they stopped him and searched him they let him continue on, not
realising who they really had within their grasp.
January 7th:
Sean Mac Eoin,
while out walking on his own, was also surrounded by
11 members of the Dublin
Castle's
R.I.C. police
force, and during the ensuing
struggle to arrest him, Inspector
Mac Grath the
leader of the R.I.C. police
was killed,
while
Sean mac Eoin
managed to
escape.
January 9th:
Eammon de Valera,
met with his 1st
Dail Eireann Cabinet, were he appointed
Kevin O Higgins to the
Assistant Minister for Local Government
position, to assist
William. J. Cosgrave,
and
Joseph Mac Donagh
as the Minister for
Labour to replace
Countess
Constance Markievicz who was still
being held in a
prison in
England.
Eammon de Valera,
was now well aware of the personal stress between the defiant obstinate idealist,
Cathal Brugha
and the realist,
Michael Collins,
and that
Cathal Brugha
wanted control over all of the Irish
Volunteer forces as the
Minister for Defence. The officers
at the Irish
G.H.Q., who were members of the
I.R.B. / Irish
Republican Brotherhood,
gave their allegiance only to
Michael Collins, who was in charge
there, while
Cathal Brugha
felt that
Michael Collins
should be subordinate to him in his position
as the
Director of Military Intelligence,
but this could not be, as
Michael Collins
had much more responsibility and was also his
equal as the
Minister for Finance
in the
Irish Dail
Cabinet.
Cathal Brugha,
also was of the opinion that he should have been the
acting - President after
Arthur Griffith was arrested, due to his seniority, although he had
himself declined to take up the position.
Eammon de Valera, was also well aware of the personal role carried out by
Michael Collins,
and as a
consequence, wrote to him stating that,"
I would be sorry to think that your feeling discontented, dissatisfied and fed
up, was due to anything more than natural physical reaction after the
terrible
personal strain you have been subjected to. "
January 21st:
Eammon de Valera
and
Michael Collins,
decided to hold another meeting of the
1st Dail
Eireann / Irish Assembly
on this date, but
Cathal Brugha was worried
about them all being arrested, and
Eammon de Valera and the
other Dail
Eireann
Cabinet Ministers did not show, while
Michael Collins
was pulled up on the way there by a
British Military Force, who once
again not
realising who he was, allowed him to go on his way.
The
British Imperial Coalition Government
Military forces were
now constantly executing all of the
I.R.A. /
Irish Republican Army /
Irish Volunteers
members, whenever
they were able to capture them.
January 24th: In the 6 Counties, to be artificially partitioned from the 9 in the Ulster Province, which were still under the control of the British Imperial Government also and the Ascendancy Official Unionists up to this date, a further 264 Irishmen and Irishwomen were to meet with more violent deaths, with two thirds of these being Catholic Irish, and William Craig the Official Unionist leader had since appointed "A" and "B " Special Police there.
January 25th:
24 members
of the
Dail Eireann / Irish Assembly were able to
finally meet at
Walter Cole's house in
Mountjoy Square in Dublin, were
Eammon de Valera
put it to
them to cut back or lighten
off on the Anglo
- Irish War effort, as he was of the opinion,
"That
the
enemy had superior forces while all the
Irish people had,
was endurance and moral resistance," and to this end he put forward the
suggestion that
Michael Collins
should be sent away from
Ireland to the
United States of
America.
Naturally the rest
of the members refused to go along with this request, except for
Roger Sweetman and
Liam de Roistre, and it was
around this time that
Cathal Brugha and
Austin Stack really
joined forces.