Derry 1920 Sectarian strife began in Derry in April 1920 when an hour-long violent confrontation between Protestants and Catholics erupted on Long Tower Street, as republican prisoners were being transported to
Bishop Street gaol. On the 18th of April, shots were fired into the
Bogside as Catholics rioted in the city center, the RIC carried out a bayonet charge. On 14 May more trouble ensued as the RIC and IRA engaged in a four-hour gun battle, which resulted in the shooting death of the local chief of the RIC
Special Branch. In response, loyalists reformed the UVF in the city and mounted roadblocks, Catholics crossing Carlisle Bridge were mistreated, resulting in one who had returned injured from the war being killed. On 13 June, the UVF attacked Catholics at
Prehen Wood, which sparked intense rioting in the city, where Long Tower Street and Bishop Street met. At least nineteen people were killed or fatally wounded during this time: 14 Catholics and five Protestants. On 18 June, rioting had spread into the mainly-Protestant
Waterside area of the city, where Catholic homes were burnt. The UVF, with the aid of ex-servicemen, seized control of the
Guildhall and Diamond, whilst also repulsing an IRA counter-attack. Protestants living in the mainly-Catholic Bogside would be burnt out of their houses by the IRA, with two shot dead. The IRA, armed with rifles and machine-guns, occupied
St Columb's College, which became the scene of intense gunfire. In response to the serious situation in Derry the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the IRA sent two of its leading Officers in support:
Peadar Clancy and
Dick McKee. Eventually, on 23 June 1920, 1,500 British troops arrived in Derry to restore order,
martial law was declared in the city, and a
destroyer was anchored on the Foyle overlooking the Guildhall. The 1912 clearances resulted in many assaults with thousands of Catholics and Protestant being forcibly removed from their jobs. The events that triggered the 1912 workplace expulsions were the introduction of the Home Rule for Ireland Act in April 1912 and another incident which took place in
Castledawson, County Londonderry when a member of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians snatched a British flag from the hands of a young boy – resulting in rioting. When the news spread to Belfast 2,400 Catholics and some 600 Protestant trade unionists were driven (often violently) from their places of work. In the 1912 violence, the directors of
Harland and Wolff shipyards decided to suspend operations "in view of the brutal assaults on individual workmen and the intimidation of others.".
Belfast Pogrom On
The Twelfth (12 July) 1920 (an annual Ulster Protestant celebration), Ulster Unionist Party leader
Edward Carson made a speech to thousands of
Orangemen in
Finaghy, near Belfast. He said "I am sick of words without actions" and he warned the British government that if it refused to adequately protect Unionists from the IRA, they would take matters into their own hands. He also linked Irish republicanism with socialism and the
Catholic Church. Many Catholics asserted that Carson's rhetoric was partly responsible for the start of what they believed was a
pogrom being carried out against Belfast's Catholic minority, referring to it as the
Belfast Pogrom. On 21 July 1920, when shipyard workers returned after the Twelfth holidays, a meeting of "all Unionist and Protestant workers" was called during lunch hour that day by the
Belfast Protestant Association at the Workman and Clarke yard. With over 5,000 workers present, speeches were made, demanding the expulsion of all "non-loyal" workers. Hours of intimidation and violence followed, in which Loyalists drove 8,000 co-workers from Harland and Wolff other shipyards, industrial sites and several linen mills. All of the removed workers were either Catholics or Protestant
labour activists. Some of them were beaten, or thrown into the water and pelted with rivets as they swam for their lives. Three days of rioting followed, in which eleven Catholics and eight Protestants were killed and hundreds of people were wounded. Several of those killed were
ex-servicemen and one was a
Redemptorist friar who was shot by a bullet fired from a passing military patrol through a window of
Clonard Monastery. A Loyalist mob attempted to burn down a Catholic
convent on Newtownards Road; soldiers guarding the building responded opened fire, wounding 15 Protestants, three of them fatally. According to the Catholic Protection Committee, 11,000 Catholic shipyard, factory and mill workers had been expelled from their jobs, a tenth of Belfast's Catholic population. The leader of the
Ulster Unionist Party and the soon to be
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland,
Sir James Craig, made his feelings on the expulsions clear when he visited the shipyards: "Do I approve of the actions you boys have taken in the past? I say yes". By August 1920 Catholics were no longer employed in the shipyards and material damage valued at one half million pounds had been done. The expulsion of thousands of Catholic workers from the shipyards and other Belfast workplaces were followed by retaliatory attacks against Protestant workers as they were returning home from work, starting a cycle of communal violence which continued for over two years. One of the more brutal attacks on returning workers occurred on 22 November 1921 when bombs were thrown into a tram carrying workers from the Workman, Clark and Co. shipyard – three workers were killed and 16 wounded. The now unemployed Catholic shipyard workers continued their attacks on Protestants as they returned home after work. In late November 1921 multiple trams carrying shipyard workers were attacked, killing eight Protestant workers. Loyalist retaliation resulted in fifteen Nationalists killed in one day alone (22 November 1921). St. Matthew's church in the Catholic enclave of
Ballymacarrett came under sustained attack and in March 1922, nearby St Matthew's Primary School was also subjected to a bombing attack.
Peace lines In the 1920s, temporary
Peace lines (walls) were built in the area adjacent to the
Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast and made permanent in 1969, following the outbreak of the
1969 Northern Ireland riots. Today, the
Ballymacarrett/
Short Strand areas of Belfast remain basically segregated and violence still occurs. The
Battle of St Matthew's or Battle of Short Strand was a gun battle that took place on the night of 27–28 June 1970 resulting in three deaths and at least 26 wounded. Major sectarian clashes were common in the shipyard area into the 21st century –
2002 Short Strand clashes and
2011 Northern Ireland riots.
Belfast boycott In response to the expulsions of Catholic workers in Belfast and requirements for employment (political loyalty tests and the requirement to sign loyalty declarations to the British Government), northern Sinn Féin members called for the
boycott of Unionist-owned businesses and banks in the city. Despite some opposition, the
Dáil and its cabinet approved the boycott in August 1920, imposing a boycott of goods from Belfast and a withdrawal of funds from Belfast-based banks. The County Council of Tyrone immediately supported the boycott declaring that all businesses should stop trading with Belfast. In January 1921, the Dáil agreed to support the boycott more fully, providing 35,000 pounds to the campaign.
Joseph MacDonagh (brother of executed 1916 Easter Rising leader
Thomas MacDonagh) oversaw the implementation of the boycott, by May 1921 there were 360 Belfast Boycott committees throughout Ireland, but it was enforced intermittently. The boycott was enforced by the IRA, who halted trains and lorries and destroyed goods from Belfast businesses. The female members of
Cumann na mBan played major roles in holding up trains and the seizure/destruction of northern produced goods/Unionist leaning newspapers.
Eithne Coyle held up several trains bound from County Tyrone to County Donegal. However, the boycott was effectively enforced only in
County Monaghan, primarily due to its location near the newly-proclaimed border and Belfast. The following declaration was signed by all of Monaghan's Catholic commercial traders: "We the undersigned traders of Monaghan town, hereby pledge ourselves not to deal directly or indirectly with Belfast Unionist firms or traders until such time as adequate reparation has been made to the Catholic victims of the recent Belfast pogrom". The boycott had little impact on the north's three main industriesagriculture, shipbuilding and linenas they were mainly shipped to markets outside Ireland. The Belfast Boycott eventually ended following the signing of the
Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 and the onset of the
Irish Civil War (June 1922 – May 1923).
Banbridge and Dromore burnings On 17 July 1920, the IRA assassinated British Army
Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Smyth in
Cork. He had told police officers to shoot civilians who did not immediately obey orders. Smyth reassured the police that they: "...may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot...that cannot be helped, and you are bound to get the right participants sometimes... The more you shoot the better I will like you, and I assure you, no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man." Smyth was from a wealthy Protestant family in the northern town of
Banbridge, County Down and his large funeral was held there on 21 July, the same day as the Belfast shipyard expulsions. After Smyth's funeral, about 3,000 Loyalists took to the streets. Many Catholic homes and businesses were attacked, burned and looted, despite police being present. At the end of these two days of violence, virtually the entire Catholic population of both Banbridge and Dromore were forced to flee their homes. Sectarian intimidation and violence continued in Banbridge and areas north of the town (the Bann Valley) throughout August and September 1920 with approximately 1,000 more Catholics being expelled from their jobs.
Lisburn burnings and Belfast violence Sectarian attacks also occurred in
Lisburn, County Antrim (a town near Belfast) in response to the murder of Colonel Smyth. On 24 July 1920 rioters attacked Catholic owned businesses, homes and the Catholic convent of the Sacred Heart. On 22 August 1920, the IRA assassinated RIC Inspector Oswald Swanzy in the Market Square of Lisburn, as worshippers left Sunday service. A coroner's inquest in Cork had held Swanzy (among others) responsible for the murder of
Tomás Mac Curtain, Cork's Irish republican
Lord Mayor. The commander of Belfast IRA 1st Battalion
Joe McKelvey helped to organize the attack on Swanzy (the killers were IRA men from Cork). Over the next three days and nights (in attacks likened to
ethnic cleansing), Loyalist crowds looted and burned almost every Catholic business in the town, and attacked Catholic homes. There is evidence the UVF helped organise the burnings. and attacked the lorries of British soldiers sent to help the police. Lisburn was likened to "a bombarded town in France" during the First World War. A third of the town's Catholics (about 1,000 people) fled Lisburn. Damage in Lisburn was estimated at 810,000 pounds (in 1920 currency). Seven men were arrested and charged with rioting – five were convicted but appealed their convictions and were released.
Daily News correspondent Hugh Martin was quoted on the attacks in Lisburn and Banbridge: "This was no mere faction fight. There can be no doubt that it was a deliberate and organised attempt to, not by any means the first in history, to drive the Catholic Irish out of North-East Ulster." During the last weekend of August 1920 sectarian violence was also widespread in nearby Belfast. The
Belfast Telegraph newspaper reported 17 people dead and over 169 seriously wounded. Within four days of the killing of District Inspector Swanzy in Lisburn at least 100 homes of Nationalists were burned in Belfast. Between August 1920 and April 1922 at least four large scale clashes occurred in the small Belfast Nationalist enclave known as Marrowbone (adjacent to
Ardoyne). Initially crowds of armed Unionists attempted to burn the local Catholic church. During this time approximately 20 residents of the Marrowbone and rioters were killed (six Nationalists were killed in Marrowbone on 28 August 1920), dozens of people were wounded, and multiple homes burned.
Forming the Ulster Special Constabulary In September 1920, Unionist leader
James Craig wrote to the British government demanding that a
special constabulary be recruited from the ranks of the loyalist, paramilitary organization the UVF. He warned: "Loyalist leaders now feel the situation is so desperate that unless the Government will take immediate action, it may be advisable for them to see what steps can be taken towards a system of organized reprisals against the rebels". By 1922 senior members of the RIC (two head Constables and District Inspector
John William Nixon) were members of the Belfast police reprisal squad. The
Ulster Special Constabulary (USC), commonly called the "B-Specials" or "B Men" was formed in October 1920 and, in the words of historian Michael Hopkinson, "amounted to an officially approved UVF". In late October 1920,
Joe Devlin, the MP for West Belfast voiced his opinion on the impartiality of the newly formed USC: The USC consisted of 32,000 men divided into four sections: A Specials were fulltime and paid. B Specials were part time and unpaid and the C Specials were unpaid and nonuniform reservists. Under the terms of the Truce between the IRA and the British (11 July 1921), the USC was demobilized, and the IRA was given official recognition while peace talks were ongoing. Although the Truce forbade both sides from forming any new military units, by November 1921 a new Unionist organization was formed - the Imperial Guards. With a claim of 21,000 members, their goal was to have 150,000 members within a few months. The Imperial Guards were closely associated with the
Ulster Unionist Labour Association and the Ulster Ex-servicemen's Association with many of their membership coming from Belfast shipyard workers. By the fall of 1922 most members of the Imperial Guards had been integrated into the C Specials. After policing became the responsibility of the newly formed Northern government, the B Specials of the USC were again mobilized. Maintaining the USC was costly, in fiscal year 1922-1923 the British Treasury allocated £850,000 to cover the cost of the USC but the costs of additional vehicles and armaments brought the final figure to £1,829,000. The USC or "Specials" were used in every decade of the 20th century up to its disbandment in May 1970.
Spring and summer 1921 After a lull, the conflict in the north intensified again in the spring of 1921. On 1 April, the IRA attacked an RIC barracks and a British Army post in Derry city with gunfire and grenades, killing two RIC officers. On 10 April, the IRA ambushed a group of Special Constables outside a church in
Creggan, County Armagh, killing one and wounding others. In reprisal, the USC attacked nationalists and burned their houses in
Killylea (where the dead Special Constables came from). These attacks sparked violence by Loyalists. Belfast suffered three days of sectarian rioting and shooting incidents, during which at least 14 people were killed; including three Catholics taken from their homes and killed by uniformed police. Violence continued throughout the summer of 1921 with August being particularly bad in Belfast: 23 people were killed (12 Protestants and 11 Catholics). inspecting troops in Belfast at the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament, June 1921
Partition of Ireland The
Government of Ireland Act came into force on 3 May 1921, thus
partitioning Ireland under British law.
Elections for the Northern and Southern parliaments were held on 24 May. Unionists won most of the seats in Northern Ireland, while republicans treated it as an election for the Dáil. The
Northern Ireland parliament first met on 7 June and formed
a devolved government, headed by Unionist Party leader
James Craig. Irish nationalist and republican members refused to attend.
Opening of the Northern Parliament King George V addressed the ceremonial opening of the Northern Parliament on 22 June 1921. He called for "all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation". Patrick McAteer, a local farm worker, was fatally wounded on the same day roughly half a mile from the ambush site by soldiers when he failed to halt when challenged. On 6 July, disguised Special Constables raided homes at Altnaveigh, County Armagh, and summarily killed four Catholic civilian men.
Belfast's Bloody Sunday On 9 July 1921, a ceasefire (or truce) was agreed between representatives of the Irish Republic and the British government, to begin at noon on 11 July. Many Loyalists condemned the truce as a 'sell-out' to Republicans. While violence may have ceased in the south of Ireland, the birth of Northern Ireland in 1921 saw another wave of intense sectarian violence in Belfast. This period of time saw the highest number of casualties since the Shipyard Clearances of the previous summer. Hours before the ceasefire was to begin, police launched a raid against Republicans in west Belfast. The IRA ambushed them on Raglan Street, killing an officer (Constable Thomas Conlon) and wounding others. This sparked a day of violence known as
Belfast's Bloody Sunday. Protestant loyalists attacked Catholic neighbourhoods in west Belfast, burning over 150 Catholic homes and businesses. This led to sectarian clashes and gun battles between police and Catholic nationalists. While the IRA was involved in some of the fighting, another Irish nationalist group, the
Hibernians were involved on the Catholic side. The USC were alleged to have driven through Catholic enclaves firing indiscriminately. Twenty eight people were killed or fatally wounded (including twelve Catholics and six Protestants) from the beginning of the truce (which began at noon on 11 July 1921) and into the following week. Almost 200 houses were badly damaged or destroyed, With the ceasefire a strict curfew was enforced in Belfast and the Commandant of the IRA's 2nd Northern Division,
Eoin O'Duffy, was sent to Belfast to liaise with the authorities and to try to maintain the truce. With the tacit consent of the RIC, in order to restore order, O'Duffy organized IRA patrols in Catholic neighborhoods and announced that IRA offensive actions would end. Both Protestants and Catholics saw the truce as a victory for Republicans. Loyalists "were particularly appalled by the sight of policemen and soldiers meeting IRA officers on a semi-official basis". Another large scale battle took place on 1 June 1920 when at least 200 IRA volunteers led by
Roger McCorley attacked the RIC barracks in Crossgar, County Down. They opened fire on the building, wounding two officers, and attempted to breach the walls with explosives before withdrawing. In early 1921, western Donegal had seasoned Volunteers under the command of
Peadar O'Donnell. During this time the west Donegal
Flying Column was responsible for numerous successful attacks on RIC barracks and troop train ambushes. On 12 January 1921, the column attacked a train carrying troops with multiple military deaths reported. Attacks and reprisals were common. On 25 October 1920 (after a successful raid for arms/ammunition took place at the RIC barracks in
Tempo, County Fermanagh), a RIC officer was seriously wounded. Several hours later members of the UVF fired into a group of civilians in Tempo, killing one and wounding another. On 22 February 1921 in the small town of
Mountcharles, County Donegal, the IRA attacked a mixed patrol of military and police, one RIC officer was killed and a soldier was wounded during a 30 minute exchange of gunfire. Later that day, police and Black and Tans in Donegal town fired shots into buildings, destroyed shops and licensed premises. After midnight a mixed force of RIC, Black and Tans, USC and military returned to Mountcharles destroying businesses and setting fire to homes. That night one woman was shot and killed in Mountcharles. On 22 March 1921, in retaliation for the burning of Catholic owned homes in
Rosslea, County Fermanagh (21 February 1921) two members of the USC were shot dead. The IRA also conducted widespread attacks on Protestant owned homes in Rosslea, burning at least two to the ground and damaging many others. The following month, the IRA attacked the homes of up to sixteen Special Constables in the Rosslea district, killing three and wounding several others. In Ulster during the spring of 1921, numerically superior British/Unionist forces faced a poorly armed IRA. The situation in County Tyrone at that time highlights the problems faced by the IRA when confronted with large numbers of military, police and
Special Constabulary: "By the early spring of 1921 there were 3,515 A and 11,000 B Specials in the six county area. At the time of the truce there were about 14 reasonably active IRA companies in Tyrone, each with around 50 men, but only half a dozen in each company were armed. Therefore, just over 100 poorly armed Volunteers faced a combined force of almost 3,000 heavily armed, paramilitary police comprising RIC, A and B Specials". The British Army was also represented in Tyrone with a 650 man Rifle Brigade based in the border town of
Strabane, County Tyrone. Some areas of Ulster saw little violence – only three IRA volunteers were killed in
County Cavan during the war. For a more complete listing of the troubles in Ulster during this time period see
Timeline of the Irish War of Independence.
Anglo-Irish Treaty The post-ceasefire talks led to the
Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed on 6 December 1921 by representatives of the British government and the Irish Republic. Under the Treaty, 'Southern Ireland' would leave the UK and become a self-governing
dominion: the
Irish Free State. Northern Ireland's parliament could vote it in or out of the Free State, and a
Boundary Commission could then redraw or confirm the provisional
border. The Dáil narrowly approved the Treaty on 7 January 1922 (by a vote of 64 to 57), but it caused a serious split in the Irish nationalist movement (eventually leading the Irish Civil War). The anti-Treaty side argued that the Treaty copper-fastened partition; the pro-Treaty side argued that the proposed Boundary Commission would transfer large swathes of Northern Ireland to the Free State, leaving the remaining territory too small to be viable. The pro-Treatyites formed a
Provisional Government, headed by
Michael Collins, to administer
Southern Ireland until the Free State was established (6 December 1922). While speaking to northern IRA officers shortly before his death in August 1922, Collins made clear his feelings on cooperating with the Northern Ireland government and the Anglo-Irish Treaty: “I will use the political arm against Craig so long as it is of use. If that fails, the treaty can go to hell and we will all start again.”
Early 1922 The first half of 1922 saw clashes between the IRA and USC along the new border, an IRA offensive inside Northern Ireland, sectarian violence and killings in Belfast and tensions between the two new governments. On 14 January, Northern Ireland police arrested a number of the IRAs 5th Northern division in County Tyrone. They were traveling with members of the
Monaghan Gaelic football team on their way to a match in Derry and had plans to free IRA prisoners from
Derry Gaol. In response, on the night of 7–8 February, IRA units crossed into Northern Ireland and captured 40 Special Constables and prominent Loyalists in Fermanagh and Tyrone. They were to be held as hostages for the Monaghan IRA prisoners, several IRA volunteers were also captured during these raids. On 11 February, the IRA stopped a group of armed Special Constables at
Clones railway station, County Monaghan. The USC unit was travelling by train from Belfast to
Enniskillen (both in Northern Ireland), but the Irish Provisional Government was unaware British forces would be crossing through its territory. The IRA called on the Special Constables to surrender for questioning, but one of them shot dead IRA commandant Matt Fitzpatrick. This sparked a firefight in which four Special Constables were killed and several wounded. Five others were captured. The incident threatened to set off a major confrontation between North and South, and the British government temporarily suspended the withdrawal of British troops from the South. Northern Irelands Prime Minister Craig mobilized the USC to the border and planned to send 5,000 men across the border to rescue the Special Constable hostages. PM Churchill arranged for the release of the recently captured IRA men being held in Derry in return for the release of the Special Constables. A Border Commission was set up to mediate in any future cross-border disputes but achieved very little. These incidents provoked retaliatory attacks by Loyalists against Catholics in Belfast, sparking further sectarian clashes. In the three days after the Clones incident, more than 30 people were killed in Belfast. During February 1922 there were three weeks of daily attacks and burning of homes in the nationalist communities of Belfast resulting in a death toll of 44 with 30 killed in one night. The death toll for March was worse with 60 people killed in Belfast alone. Thousands of refugees fled to Dublin and approximately 1,000 fled to Liverpool. What many nationalists referred to as pogroms reached its climax in May and June 1922 with heavy firing into nationalists communities leaving a total of 23,000 nationalists homeless. On 18 March 1922, the military raided IRA headquarters in Belfast, seizing weapons and "the names of practically every Officer in the Division". The Irish Provisional Government condemned this as a breach of the truce. Over the next week, the IRA attacked several police barracks in the North including the one in Pomeroy, County Tyrone where approximately 18 service rifles, 20 service revolvers, bombs and ammunition were seized with no casualties on either side. On 28 March, a column of fifty IRA volunteers crossed into the North and seized the RIC barracks in
Belcoo, County Fermanagh, after a three-hour battle. Fifteen RIC officers were captured, marched across the border into the South and held captive until 18 July. The reason for the attack remains disputed with one theory stating that Owen McMahons name was found on a list of donors to Sinn Féin that was seized by the RIC when they raided Sinn Féin headquarters six days prior to the attack. Another theory was that the gunmen were allegedly Special Constables, and it was apparently revenge for the IRA's killing of two policemen hours earlier. No one was ever charged and the case remains unsolved. A week later, six more Catholics were killed by Special Constables who went on a rampage in the
Arnon Street killings (1 April 1922). This was also believed to have been revenge for the IRA's killing of a policeman.
IRA Northern Offensive and sectarian violence In spring 1922,
Michael Collins, head of the Irish
Provisional Government, was behind secret plans for an IRA offensive in Northern Ireland. He formed an "Ulster Council" within the IRA (Frank Aiken was named as Chairman of the Council), which included the commanders of its five northern divisions, to co-ordinate IRA activity in the north. The offensive was to begin on 2 May 1922, but most of the IRA divisions had to postpone until later in the month. The following day, three Specials were shot dead in
Ballyronan, and another was killed in an ambush of a mobile patrol at Corvanaghan. These were followed by reprisal killings: on 6 May two Catholic men were shot dead at a house near
Dungiven, and on 10 May, Specials shot three Catholic brothers in their home in Ballyronan, killing one. The 3rd Northern Division was under the command of Seamus Woods. Woods and
Roger McCorley were long time Officers in the IRAs Belfast Brigade and the 3rd Northern Division. On 5 April 1920 Woods led the IRA units that burned the Customs House and two tax offices in Belfast The northern offensive began operations on 18 May 1922 with the raiding of Musgrave Street RIC barracks in the centre of Belfast. The objective of the raid was to capture armoured cars and weaponry. A unit infiltrated the barracks but had to fight their way out when guards were alerted. Woods was quoted on this attack: "The whole Loyalist population is at a loss to know how such a raid could be attempted during curfew hours on the headquarters in Belfast and the largest barrack in Ireland. They are in a state of panic." The IRA also carried out numerous firebomb attacks and dozens of fires blazed across Belfast. No attempt was made to hide reprisal killings. On 19 May 1922 warnings were posted in Cookstown, County Tyrone: "Take notice that, if any more attacks are made on members of the RIC or Loyalists, reprisals at the rate of 10 to one will be made on prominent and known Sinn Feiners. God save the King." The IRA also attacked
Martinstown RIC barracks in County Antrim with gunfire and grenades and ambushed a group of USC reinforcements, killing one. The campaign saw further reprisals and sectarian violence in newly formed Northern Ireland. On 19 May 1922, 71 Catholic families were driven out of their homes in Belfast and on 31 May, another 78 Catholic families were driven out. Sectarian attacks were not limited to one side: on 19 May workmen at a cooperage in Little Patrick Street, Belfast were lined up and asked their religion. Four Protestant workers were separated from their Catholic workmates and shot dead. On 22 May 1922, the IRA assassinated
William J. Twaddell, a Unionist Member of Parliament in Belfast. This spurred the Northern Ireland government to introduce
internment (imprisonment without trial). Over 500 men from Tyrone, Derry, Fermanagh, Armagh and Belfast were arrested (all of the internees were republicans). In a major blow to the IRA, a raid on a house in Belfast uncovered a list of IRA officers in the city, and documents proving the involvement of Southern IRA leaders. The Special Powers Act has been described as " the most draconian pieces of legislation ever passed in a liberal democracy." Joe Devlin, MP, stated the predicament the nationalist community was facing: "If Catholics have no revolvers they are murdered. If they have revolvers they are flogged and sentenced to death." (The act allowed for flogging in some cases.) The act was renewed several times before being made permanent in 1933 and stayed in effect until 1973 when it was replaced with the
Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973. The staggered start to the northern offensive also made it easier for the Northern authorities to tackle. On 17 June, IRA volunteers under
Frank Aiken retaliated for the killings and for the sexual assault of a Catholic woman. A unit of fifty IRA volunteers ambushed a USC patrol at
Drumintee, County Armagh killing two. Aiken later claimed that at least 60 Specials were killed by his 4th Northern Division in the period from Christmas to June 1922. Meanwhile, in one of the most notorious incidents of the period, on 17 June 1922 one of Aikens units carried out a retaliatory attack on nine Protestant homes at Altnaveigh, County Armagh shooting dead six Protestant civilians. One of the best documented killings of this period occurred in the predominantly Catholic village of
Cushendall, Country Antrim. On the night of 23 June 1922 (the day after the assassination of
Sir Henry Wilson in London), a party of A-Specials, accompanied by British soldiers, arrived in the village to enforce the nightly
curfew. The A-Specials opened fire on a crowd of onlookers and dragged three Catholic men: James McAllister, John Gore and John Hill into an alley and executed them. After the killings, the A-Specials claimed they were attacked by the IRA and returned fire, but a
British government inquiry, which was declassified almost a century later, concluded that the constabulary's version of events was false.
Battle of Pettigo and Belleek During the Northern Offensive, there were clashes between the IRA and British forces in an area known as the 'Belleek-Pettigo
salient'. This was a triangular area of land in
County Fermanagh, part of Northern Ireland but mostly cut-off from it by
Lough Erne and the border. The villages of
Belleek, County Fermanagh and
Pettigo, County Donegal both straddle the border. The IRA garrisoned these villages and also occupied the triangular strip of Northern territory. James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, telegrammed
Winston Churchill,
Secretary of State for the Colonies, to request that British troops be sent to drive out the IRA. Belleek was captured by British troops on 8 June after a brief battle. They bombarded the old Belleek Fort, forcing its IRA garrison to retreat. Newspaper reports put the IRA casualties at seven killed and the total death toll as high as 30. Although in Southern territory, British troops continued to occupy Pettigo until January 1923, and Belleek Fort until August 1924. The fighting heightened tensions between the Irish and British governments. It was the first clash between the IRA and British troops since the truce, and was the nearest the Northern IRA came to a pitched battle with the British Army. It was also the last major conflict between the IRA and British forces during this period. ==Aftermath==