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AE-HN512 - The War for the North, 1920-1922
The six months after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921 were among the most violent in 20th century Irish history. In the six counties of what was now Northern Ireland a hellish cycle of sectarian atrocity had taken hold. Uncertain about the British commitment to Northern Ireland, Ulster loyalists saw the creation of a new Irish National Army – led by former IRA insurgents – as an existential threat and lashed out at what they perceived to be a ‘disloyal’ population. Meanwhile, republicans – covertly supported by the provisional government in Dublin – sought to make Northern Ireland ungovernable through burnings and assassinations while also waiting for a decisive “northern offensive” supported by the National Army. This course will explore unionist, loyalist and nationalist / republican movements in Ulster from 1920 and 1922. The course will begin with the Government of Ireland Act that effectively partitioned Ireland and jettisoned three counties from the Ulster unionist movement. It will then trace the first riots and burnings – including the shipyard expulsions of the summer of 1920 – that sparked two years of sustained violence. The course will analyse the leaders, networks and strategies of various armed paramilitary or insurgent groups including the Ulster Imperial Guards, the Ulster Special Constabulary, the Irish Republican Army and Hibernian Knights. Finally, students will examine the roles of the provisional / Free State government, the National Army and those of the British government and British Army in responding to (and directing) violence in the north of Ireland.
| Dates | Schedule | Time | Venue/Location | Fee € | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02 Oct 2024 to 23 Oct 2024 | Sessions: 4 2, 9, 16, 23 Oct |
18:00 | Belfield | 100.00 |
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Duration: 4 Wednesdays
Time: 18:00- 20:00
Dates: 2, 9, 16, 23 Oct
• Irish Republicanism
• Irish Nationalism and Hibernianism
• Loyalist Paramilitarism
• Ulster Unionism
• The British Army in Ireland
• Policing during the Revolutionary Period
• Gender and Violence
• Civil War
• Memory and Intergenerational Violence
Paul Bew, Peter Gribbon and Henry Patterson, Northern Ireland 1921–1996: Political Forces and Social Classes (London: Serif, 1996).
Paul Bew, Churchill and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Timothy Bowman, Carson’s Army: The Ulster Volunteer Forces (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012).
Diarmaid Ferriter, The Border: A Century of Anglo-Irish Politics (London: Profile, 2019). Kieran Glennon, From Pogrom to Civil War; Tom Glennon and the Belfast IRA (Cork: Mercier Press, 2013).
Jim McDermott, Northern Division: The Old IRA and the Belfast Pogroms, 1920-1922 (Belfast: Beyond the Pale Publications: 2009).
Cormac Moore, Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland (Dublin: Merrion Press, 2019. Alan Parkinson, Belfast’s Unholy War (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004).
At the end of the course, students will have a firm understanding of the ideologies, networks and logics that fuelled political violence in Ulster. Students will also have a in-depth knowledge of key debates and literatures on issues such as the Belfast “pogrom”, the northern offensive of May 1922 and British and Irish government policies towards the north of Ireland. The emphasis on accessing and analysing primary source materials will also equip students with the skills to develop their own research outputs on this topic in the future.
Each class will be divided between a lecture a group discussion. The lecture will offer an overview of themes and key events relevant to the topic. An emphasis will be placed on access to, and analysis of, primary sources.
Dr Edward Burke is Assistant Professor in the History of War at UCD. In 2020 Edward was awarded a fellowship by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to conduct research on paramilitarism in Ulster. His recent publications include Ulster’s Lost Counties: Loyalism and Paramilitarism since 1920 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024) and An Army of Tribes: British Army Cohesion, Deviancy and Murder in Northern Ireland (Liverpool University Press, 2018).