June 1920 also witnessed the widespread establishment of republican or Dail courts, which replaced the holding of petty sessions in many towns and villages across the country. This transfer of administrative law and order was another decisive victory for the IRA. While often dealing with trivial matters they were nonetheless effective and soon people refused to bring claims before the petty sessions. The Young Ir...

  Irish Radical newspapers continued to comment and report on the vast array of IRA activities which were being carried out across the country during the month of June.   While the national daily newspapers and the weekly provincial press reported on large scale engagements by both the military and the IRA, the radical newspapers reported on the minutiae of the war. The Irish Bulletin, for example, reported ...

    One of the features of the War of Independence in June 1920 was the escalation of labour strikes and disputes throughout the country as people began to air their grievances.   The radical newspaper, The Watchword of Labour was to the forefront of informing the public of the nature and progress of these disputes. In county Kilkenny both county council workers and farmers unions were agitating for better pay...

  The IRA’s military campaign continued unabated in June 1920 and by the end of the month moral amongst the RIC was low.   The courts system had virtually collapsed and there was growing uncertainty about the long term governance of the country. It was also the month of the County Council Elections where Sinn Fein swept the board nationwide, winning control in all but four county councils. The support for Si...

    May 1920 ended with a number of crimes and outrages committed as part of ongoing land disputes throughout the country.   In Ballinrobe county Mayo the first Dail Eireann Land Court had met in May presided over by Arthur O’Connor and Kevin O’Sheil. One of the first cases before them involved nine people from Kilmaine who sought the division of land owned by the Magdalene Asylum in Galway. Every hope was...

  While counties such as Cork, Clare and Tipperary were notorious by this stage in the War of Independence, there were other areas which there was intense IRA activity.   In May 1920 the work of ‘Sinn Fein in Ulster’ was reported in daily newspapers including the attack on the RIC between Crossdoney and Ballinagh in county Cavan. On their way to the fair of Crossdoney Sergeant WG Johnston and Constable S...

After a month of outrages perpetrated against individuals and families, the five hour siege to attack RIC barracks throughout the county. When it was over three people were dead;   Sergeant Thomas Kane and Constable Joseph Morton and of the IRA attacking party, Liam Scully. Over 100 IRA men took part in the attack, one of the largest operations of the conflict and were ably supported in the process by the women of...

  In May 1920 agrarian trouble in county Mayo resulted in the brutal murder of herd. The victim, Michael Toole was in the employment of J. Fitzgerald Kenny a justice of the peace and owner of Ballyglass House.   Prior to this Toole had been warned not to work outside the Kenny demesne but when he failed to heed the notice and began sowing seeds in a field across the road from the demesne he fate was sealed. Re...

Throughout May 1920 the outrages and crimes continued. On 22 May Dublin Castle authorities reported that 100 outrages had been committed in Ireland in the previous three days. This quantity of crimes highlights the intensity of the IRA campaign, not to mention others who were taking advantage of the times. Two outrages in particular were particularly notable. In county Cork the members of the coroner’s jury who had found ...

  Towards the end of May 1920 the burning of Moorock House, near Ballycumber in county Offaly signalled the beginning of a phase of the destruction  arson of country houses in Offaly. Described as a ‘magnificent three storied mansion’ it belong to a Mr Moylett of Tuam county Galway. Rumours prevailed that the house was to be occupied by the military and so in the intervening period the IRA torched the mansion. All acro...