The Irish War of Independence

The Irish War of Independence was a sporadic guerrilla campaign which lasted from January 1919 until July 1921. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacked the forces of the British crown with the intention of breaking Britain's will to rule Ireland. This campaign paralleled the political efforts of Sinn Fein to create an independent Irish republic. The war was prosecuted ruthlessly by the IRA. The British retaliated in kind, introducing two new irregular forces into Ireland, the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries. In general, the fighting was conducted on a low-level, sporadic but none the less vicious basis. Fewer than 2,000 IRA volunteers were faced by over 50,000 crown forces. It was not a nationwide contest: the IRA depended upon energetic local leaders. Where there were none, there was little fighting. The principal areas of conflict were counties Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Clare, Kerry and Longford. Michael Hopkinson brings the same methods to this new book that distinguished his Green Against Green. It is a meticulous piecing together of many disparate local actions into a coherent narrative.
The book has separate sections on developments in Britain and the United States. It stresses local and contingent issues, rather than proposing a central master plan operated by the Dublin-based republican leadership. Other books by Michael Hopkinson Green Against Green.