Timeline 1918-22
1918
February
 Representation of the People Act gives the vote to all men over 21 and most
women over 30
 Formation of the Southern Unionist Committee
 Censorship and military control in County Clare
March
 Death of Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond – succeeded by
John Dillon
 Proposals for exclusion of Ulster from Home Rule discussed in Parliament
April
 Prime Minister David Lloyd George puts forward proposal to extend
conscription to Ireland.
 Nationalists from all parties sign anti conscription pledge
May
 Viscount French becomes Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
June
 French calls for 50 000 Irish recruits
 French imposes martial law throughout most of the south and west of Ireland
 Government drops plans for conscription and the introduction of Home Rule
to Ireland
July
 Irish Volunteers and Sinn Fein officially banned
 Ban on public meetings in all of Ireland
November
 Prime Minister Lloyd George introduces the possibility of partitioning Ireland
 Countess Markiewicz becomes first woman MP (Sinn Fein)
December
 General Election: Sinn Fein win 75 of Ireland’s 105 seats; Unionists win 25;
Home Rule Part 6; Independent Unionist 1
1919
January
 Sinn Fein members refuse to sit in Westminster Parliament and form their
own government Dail Eireann
 IRA unit ambushes and kills two RIC officers in County Tipperary. This event
begins the War of Independence
 Shipyard, gas, electricity and transport workers in Belfast go on strike for
shorter working week. Troops take over gasworks and electricity stations
March
 Last of the Sinn Fein prisoners of 1916 released
April
 Eamon de Valera elected President of Sinn Fein
June
 Dail Eireann sets up its own courts and encourages population to ignore
British courts and officials. Dail courts widely used in the West and South but
largely ignored in Ulster
August
 Widespread IRA activity in County Clare and the West generally
September
 First case of official retaliation as soldiers burn shops in Fermoy, County
Cork, after IRA kill one soldier and wound four
 All Republican newspapers suppressed
 Over 5000 police raids on houses by police looking for rebels
December
 Around 43000 British troops in Ireland
 IRA attack offices of Irish Independent newspaper after articles criticising the
IRA
1920
January
 Former British Army troops known as Black and Tans recruited to support
RIC against IRA attacks
 Local government elections using proportional representation give 172 of 206
boroughs in Ireland to Nationalists
February
 First IRA attack on police barracks in Ulster (Ballytrain, County Monaghan)
 Government of Ireland Bill introduced to Parliament. Proposes separate
Parliaments for Ulster and the rest of Ireland
March
 Death of Tomas McCurtain, Sinn Fein Mayor of Cork
 Magistrate Alan Bell killed by IRA as he investigated funding of republican
movement
April – May
 Frequent IRA attacks on police barracks
June
 Further IRA attacks on police, military and Protestant estates by IRA
 Sinn Fein win huge victory in local elections to county councils
 UVF revived
July
 Serious sectarian violence in Londonderry – mainly Unionist attacks on
Catholic areas
 Attacks by Unionist workers on Catholics in Belfast
 August
 Further violence in Belfast leaves around £1 million in damage, 400 (mostly
Catholic) families homeless and 22 civilians dead
September
 IRA attack and destroy barracks in Mallow and Trim
 23 killed in violence in Belfast
November
 British government creates new Ulster Special Constabulary consisting of A,
B and C Specials – reservists to help regular police
 Bloody Sunday – IRA kill 14 British agents in Dublin
December
 Martial Law in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary
 Act for the Better Government of Ireland creates Northern Ireland (Six
Counties) and Southern Ireland) – rejected by Sinn Fein
1921
February
 Sir James Craig becomes leader of Unionists
March
 The Unionist Anti Partition League tries to arrange talks between British
government and Sinn Fein
April
 Government announces that campaign in Ireland is costing £20 million per
year
May – June
 Elections to Northern Ireland: Unionists win 40 seats, Sinn Fein 6,
Nationalists 6. Nationalists boycott Parliament
 Parliament of Southern Ireland meets but is virtually irrelevant because it is
boycotted by Sinn Fein
July
 Truce between Sinn Fein and British forces
August – December
 Intense behind the scenes discussions resulting in eventual meetings which
begin in October and end in Anglo Irish Treaty of December
1922
January
 Dail approves Treaty
 Sinn Fein leader De Valera resigns in protest over the Treaty
February
 Serious violence in Belfast – 27 killed and 68 wounded
March
 Ulster leader Craig and Irish leader Michael Collins try to agree terms to stop
IRA attacks on Northern Ireland and stop attacks on Catholics in Northern
Ireland. Neither sticks to the agreement
April
 Anti Treaty forces occupy Four Courts in Dublin. This effectively starts the
Irish Civil War between pro and anti Treaty forces
 36 die in violence in Northern Ireland
May-August
 Civil war continues in Free state
 Serious violence in Northern Ireland: around 250 Catholics and 150
Protestants killed; thousands of Catholics forced from jobs and around 20
000 forced from their homes; IRA conduct campaign against Protestants in
border regions of Northern Ireland
December
 Irish Free state (26 counties) officially comes into existence