Originally posted by IAF101
The British army commited numerous attrocities in Ireland, dont preach like the British army fought the good fight there! They tortured and brutally
cordoned off much of Dublin in their efforts to check the IRA.
Your condecending attitude is not based in facts. Ask anybody in Ireland !
When are you talking of here? 1922?
I think you'll find it was pro-treaty Free State troops versus the anti-treaty IRA. Barely any British Troops were involved. Hence why it was called
the Irish Civil War.
Battle of Dublin
In April 1922, 200 anti-treaty IRA militants led by Rory O'Connor, occupied the Four Courts in Dublin, resulting in a tense stand-off. These
Anti-Treaty Republicans wanted to spark a new armed confrontation with the British, which they hoped would unite the two factions of the IRA against
their common enemy. However, for those who were determined to make the Free State into a viable, self-governing Irish state, this was an act of
rebellion that would have to be put down by them rather than the British. Arthur Griffith was in favour of using force against these men immediately,
but Michael Collins wanted at all costs to avoid civil war and left the Four Courts garrison alone until late June 1922, when his hand was forced by
British pressure.
Ironically, the British lost patience as result of an action ordered by Collins. He had Henry Hughes Wilson, a retired British General, assassinated
in London on the 22nd of June because of his role in attacks on Catholics in Northern Ireland [2]
Winston Churchill assumed that the anti-treaty IRA were responsible for the killing and warned Collins that he would use British troops to attack the
Four Courts unless the Free State took action. The final straw for the Free State government came on the 27th of June, when the Four Courts republican
garrison kidnapped JJ "Ginger" O'Connell, a general in the new National Army. Collins, after giving the Four Courts garrison a final ultimatum to
leave the building, decided to end the stand-off by bombarding the Four Courts garrison into surrender. The government then appointed Collins as
Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. This attack was not the opening shots of the war as skirmishes had taken place between pro and anti treaty
IRA factions throughout the country when the British were handing over barracks. However this represented the 'point of no return' when all out war
was ipso facto declared and the Civil War officially began.
Michael Collins had accepted a British offer of artillery for use by the new army of the Free State (though General Nevil Macready gave just 200
shells of the 10,000 he had in store at Kilmainham barracks). The anti-treaty forces in the Four Courts, who possessed only small arms, surrendered
after two days of bombardment and the storming of the building by Free State troops (28th-30th of June 1922). Pitched battles continued in Dublin
until July 5, as anti-Treaty IRA units from the Dublin Brigade led by Oscar Traynor occupied O'Connell Street - provoking a week's more street
fighting. The fighting cost both sides sixty-five killed and twenty-eight wounded. Among the dead was Republican leader Cathal Brugha. In addition,
the Free State took over 500 Republican prisoners. The civilian casualties are thought to have numbered well over 250.
When the fighting in Dublin died down, the Free State Government was left firmly in control of the Irish capital and the anti-treaty forces dispersed
around the country, mainly to the south and west.
As for you comment, oppression is oppression, so you agree that the Israeli's are oppressing the Palestinians?
I am not going to cloud over the British involvement in Ireland. But that was during a different time in the world.
What we're talking about when we ask "what if we shelled Dublin" is during the
Troubles, not the Irsish Civil War in the 20's. Big
difference.
