Taking the War to England: The IRA in Britain
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Why did the IRA decide to bring the Irish War of Independence to Britain?
During the Irish War of Independence, Britain and particularly England became a major battlefield. Although largely forgotten today, at the time British cities were not only geographically close to Ireland, but also home to large Irish communities, and over the course of the war they witnessed hundreds of IRA attacks. Now, this theatre of the war is largely forgotten today, but between 1919 and 1922, IRA made sustained efforts to bring the conflict across the Irish Sea. This resulted in major attacks on the Liverpool docks, the targeting of black and tans in England, and most notably the killing of the British Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson. Indeed, British society would find itself deeply divided by the Irish War.
It brought decades-old tensions to the fore in a way that few other issues have. until Brexit nearly a century later. Political parties, trade unions and communities were split over what should happen in Ireland, while massive and sometimes violent demonstrations swept across Britain in support of Irish independence. This episode of Brothers in Pain, a series that explores the global history of the Irish Revolution, looks at the war in Britain and how the wider question of Irish independence dominated British politics at the time.
Hello and welcome to the Irish History Podcast. My name is Finn Dewar, and this is the eighth part of Brothers in Pain. Now, this episode looks at what is a pretty overlooked aspect of the conflict and many forgotten figures. It reveals the scale of IRA activity in Britain and the wider support for Irish independence. That really took me aback. As you're about to hear, it was huge. The series is researched, written, and presented by Dr. Brian Hanley, who will be familiar to most of you at this stage in the series. But if it is your first time tuning in, Brian is a historian at Trinity College Dublin and one of the leading scholars in modern Irish history. I've included a full list of his works below, but if you want to find out more about this period and Irish Revolutionary history in general, Brian has published extensively on the Irish Revolution.
English republicanism and radical politics in the twentieth century. Sound on this episode is by Kate Dunley. Now Brian begins the episode with a quote from a man who dominated British politics in the first half of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill. Among many other things, he had a lot to say about Ireland.
Addressing the House of Commons in December nineteen twenty one. Winston Churchill wondered where what he called the mysterious power of Ireland came from. After all, he said, It was a small, poor, sparsely populated island. Lapped about by British sea power. How then was it that she sways our counsels, shakes our parties, and infects us with great bitterness? How is it that she has forced generation after generation to stop the whole traffic of the British Empire in order to debate her domestic affairs? The Irish question had been at the centre of British politics for almost thirty years. The question of home rule for Ireland had shaken British politics to its foundations. The Irish question was in many ways the Brexit of its day.
Hence the Irish Revolution had a profound effect on Britain itself. Because it also involved a substantial section of the British population, that is, the Irish in Britain. In nineteen twenty one there were over five hundred thousand Irish born people living in England, Scotland and Wales. Another two million people were of Irish descent. The Irish had settled from the early eighteen hundreds in almost every urban area of England, Scotland and Wales. There have been successive waves of emigration from the island of Ireland to Britain. As a result, Irish political organisations had always organised in Britain. In the eighteen eighties they were up to forty thousand members of the Irish National League of Great Britain.
Home rule organization. Indeed, from 1885 to 1929. Liverpool's Scotland Road constituency, a heavenly Irish area, was represented by a home rule MP.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why did the IRA decide to bring the Irish War of Independence to Britain?
0:04–4:24
2
How did Irish communities and political organisations shape the IRA’s campaign in England?
4:24–9:08
3
What were the major IRA attacks on British infrastructure and personnel?
9:08–15:30
4
How did the Irish Self‑Determination League mobilise mass demonstrations and fundraising?
15:30–21:21
5
What role did British trade unions and Labour politicians play in supporting Irish independence?
21:21–27:30
6
Why was the assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson such a turning point in British politics?
27:30–33:09
7
How did the 1921 truce and the Anglo‑Irish Treaty affect IRA activity in Britain?
33:09–33:44