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3. Politics is the goal—war is the means
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Notes
1 Andrew Mack, ‘Why big nations lose small wars: the politics of asymmetric conflict’,
World Politics (January 1975).
2 Colin S. Gray, ‘The Anglo-Irish War 1919–1921: lessons from an irregular conflict’,
Comparative Strategy, vol. 26, issue 5 (8 January 2008).
3 Florence O’Donoghue, ‘Guerilla warfare in Ireland’, An Cosantó ir, vol. 23 (1963).
4 Peadar Kearney, ‘Reminiscences of Easter Week’, TCD MS 3560.
5 Thomas M. Leonard (ed. ), Encyclopedia of the Developing World, 1989), p. 728.
6 Western Political Science Association, The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 15 (1962), p. 180: ‘We might note that the first guerrilla war had been carried on in 360 BC in China, when Emperor Huang was fighting the Miao race under TsiYa’.
7 Walter Laqueur, Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study (London, 1977), p. 7.
8 See I. W. F. Becket, Modern Insurgencies and Counter-insurgencies: Guerrillas and their Opponents since 1750 (London/NewYork, 2001).
9 See Christiaan Rudolf de Wet, Three Years’ War (New York, 1902), and Arthur Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War (NewYork, 1902).
10 C. E. Callwell, Small Wars: Their Principals and Practice (London, 1903), p. 1.
11 T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), p. 104.
12 T. E. Lawrence, The Evolution of a Revolt (1920), p. 20.
13 Che Guevara, Principles of Guerrilla Warfare (NewYork, 1961), p. 15.
14 Mao Zedong, On Guerrilla Warfare (Westport, CT, 1961), pp 56–8, 75.
15 Charles Townshend, ‘The Irish Republican Army and the development of guerrilla warfare, 1919–1921’, English Historical Review, vol. 94 (1979). See Võ Nguyê n Giá p, People’s War, People’s Army: The Military Art of People’s War (NewYork, 1971).
16 See Samuel Huntington, Modern Guerrilla Warfare ( [place of publication? ], 1962).
17 R. Johnson, M. Whitby and J. France (eds), How to Win on the Battlefield (London, 2010),
p. xxvii.
18 O’Donoghue, ‘Guerilla warfare in Ireland’.
19 There was also a feeling in the country that GHQ was out of touch with the local leaders and columns. Throughout the war few GHQ officers, except trainers, visited the local
commands. The country brigades felt that decisions were being made without any consultation or regard for their input. This feeling was especially prevalent in Munster.
20 Ronan McGreevy, ‘What really happened at Soloheadbeg? ’, The Irish Times, 17 January 2019. Robinson’s daughter, Dimphne Brennan, contends that ‘it was accidental and should never have happened. There was never any intention of killing them. ’ Robinson was from Glasgow and after the Rising he was sent to Tipperary ‘to organise a group of men who were enthusiastic but not experienced in the ways of warfare. They were misbehaving and not doing things properly. He was to go down and try to put some discipline on them so he was unpopular from the start. ’
21 T. Ryle Dwyer, ‘A momentous day as Dá il meets and first shots of War of Independence occur’, The Irish Examiner, 20 January 2019.
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22 The Irish Times, 22 January 1919.
23 Kevin Haddock Flynn, ‘Soloheadbeg: what really happened’, History Ireland, vol. 5, no. 2 (1997).
24 Richard Mulcahy, Bé aslaí Notes, vol. I, p. 89.
25 Dan Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom (Dublin, 1964), pp 7–35.
26 Peter Hart, Mick: The Real Michael Collins (London, 2006), p. 215. See Mark Coalter,
Rebel With a Cause: Dan Breen and the IRA (Cork, 2006).
27 Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom, p. 30.
28 Florence O’Donoghue, ‘Volunteer “actions” in 1918’, Capuchin Annual, vol. 35 (1968).
29 Some historians have argued that it is a mistake to view the Soloheadbeg ambush in January 1919 as the starting point of the conflict. The first IRAVolunteer whose death is attributed to the war was Daniel Joseph McGandy from Derry city, who was killed on 20 January 1919, a day before the Soloheadbeg ambush. He was found drowned in the River Foyle. His father claimed that he had been attacked by Crown forces, who had drugged him and thrown him into the river. Many historians, however, claim that later stages represent a more realistic beginning. See, for example, Joost Augusteijn, ‘Review of M. Hopkinson: War of Independence’, American Historical Review, vol. 108, no. 4 (2003). See also Peter Hart, The IRA atWar, 1916–1923 (Oxford, 2003), pp 201– 2; John Dorney, ‘Did the ambush at Soloheadbeg start the War of Independence? ’, http: //www. theirishstory. com/2019/01/21/opinion-did-the-ambush-at-soloheadbeg- begin-the-irish-war-of-independence/#. XEyCQFVKjcs.
30 Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom, p. 30.
31 Ibid., p. 31.
32 The Times, 22 January 1919; NewYork Times, 23 January 1919.
33 The Times, 28 January 1919.
34 An t-Ó glá ch, 31 January 1919.
35 Fintan O’Toole, ‘The first shots of the “Tan War” in 1919’, The Irish Times, 16 January 2019.
36 Richard Mulcahy, Bé aslaí Notes, vol. I, p. 89.
37 Fr Sé amus Murphy, ‘War of Independence seen as Catholic war on Protestants’, The Irish Times, 15 January 2019.
38 Hart, Mick, p. 218.
39 John T. Broom, ‘The Anglo-Irish War of 1919–1921, “Britain’s Troubles—Ireland’s Opportunities”’, final draft, published in That Fatal Knot: Compound Warfare (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: US Army Command and General Staff College Press, 2002).
40 É amon Broy, Witness Statement 1280.
41 Risteard Mulcahy, ‘The development of the IrishVolunteers, 1916–1922’, An Cosantó ir, vol. 40 (Part 2: March 1980).
42 Townshend, ‘The Irish Republican Army and the development of guerrilla warfare, 1916–1921’.
43 David Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish Life, 1913–1921: Provincial Experience of War and Revolution (Dublin, 1977), p. 93.
44 Ibid., pp 206, 208.
45 Mulcahy, ‘The development of the IrishVolunteers’ (Part 2).
46 Risteard Mulcahy, My Father the General: Richard Mulcahy and the Military History of the Revolution (Dublin, 2009), p. 61.
47 Townshend, ‘The Irish Republican Army and the development of guerrilla warfare’. Townshend comments that ‘O’Malley never seems to have fully integrated into his area’.
48 O’Malley to Capt. G. Plunkett, 5 December 1919. O’Malley papers, UCD Archive.
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49 See Richard English, Ernie O’Malley, IRA Intellectual (Oxford, 1998).
50 Florence O’Donoghue, No Other Law (Dublin, 1954; 1986), p. 70.
51 Mao Zedong, Guerrilla Warfare, p. 54.
52 Townshend, ‘The Irish Republican Army and the development of guerrilla warfare’.
53 Ibid.
54 An t-Ó glá ch, August 1920.
55 Mulcahy, ‘The development of the IrishVolunteers’ (Part 2).
56 Michael Brennan, The War in Clare, 1911–1921: Personal Memoirs of the Irish War of Independence (Dublin, 1980), pp 38, 41, 103.
57 Annie Ryan, Comrades: Inside the War of Independence (Dublin, 2006), p. 122.
58 Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish Life, p. 124.
59 Martin Walton, quoted in Kenneth Griffith and Timothy O’Grady, Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution: An Oral History (Boulder, CO, 2002), p. 187.
60 O’Donoghue, ‘Guerrilla warfare in Ireland’.
61 John Ainsworth, ‘The Black & Tans and Auxiliaries in Ireland, 1920–1921: their origins, roles and legacy’, paper presented to the Queensland History Teachers’ Association, Brisbane, Queensland, 12 May 2001.
62 O’Donoghue, ‘Guerilla warfare in Ireland’.
63 Paul O’Brien, ‘Masters of chaos: British Special Forces during the Irish War of Independence’, An Cosantó ir (March 2019).
64 D. Leeson, ‘Imperial stormtroopers: British paramilitaries in the Irish War of Independence, 1920–1921’, unpublished Ph. D thesis, McMaster University (2003).
65 Cabinet Weekly Survey of the State of Ireland Memorandum, 29 July 1921, PRO CAB 24/126/72.
66 Thomas R. Mockaitis, British Counterinsurgency, 1919–1960 (London, 1990), pp 9–11;
G. Dangerfield, The Damnable Question: A Study in Anglo-Irish Relations (Boston, 1976), p. 323.
67 M. R. Fierro, ‘British counterinsurgency operations in Ireland 1916–1921: a case study’, unpublished MA dissertation, US Naval War College (Newport, RI, 1997).
68 Martin Petter, ‘“Temporary gentlemen” in the aftermath of the Great War: rank, status and the ex-officer problem’, The Historical Journal, vol. 37, no. 1 (March, 1994).
69 Such operations are now classified by the world’s military as ‘Military Operations Other than War’ (MOOTW). See Fierro, ‘British counterinsurgency operations in Ireland
1916–1921’.
70 J. E. B. Hittle, Michael Collins and the Anglo-Irish War: Britain’s Counter-insurgency Failure
(Chicago, 2011), pp 115–16.
71 Griffith and O’Grady, Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution, p. 154.
72 Richard Bennett, The Black andTans (London, 1964; 2001), pp 95–6; Francis M. Carroll (ed. ), The American Commission on Irish Independence 1919. The Diary, Correspondence and Report (Dublin, 1985), pp 162–5.
73 Mark Sturgis (ed. Michael Hopkinson), The Last Days of Dublin Castle: The Mark Sturgis Diaries (Dublin, 1999), p. 176.
74 An t-Ó glá ch, 15 May 1920.
75 Donal O’Hannigan, ‘The origin of the IRA flying column’, An Cosantó ir, vol. 6, no. 12 (1946).
76 Ibid.; Major-General Donnocha Ó Hannigan, ‘The flying column originated in east Limerick’, in The Kerryman, Limerick’s Fighting Story, 1916–1921 (Tralee, 1948).
77 W. J. Lowe, ‘Who were the Black and Tans? ’, History Ireland, vol. 12, no. 3 (2004).
78 Michael Brennan claimed that the columns were ‘a purely spontaneous development which arose from prevailing conditions’. David Fitzpatrick (Politics and Irish Life, pp 329–32) argues that the paramount reason was for self-preservation.
79 Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom, p. 127.
80 Joe Good (ed. Maurice Good), Enchanted by Dreams: The Journal of a Revolutionary (Dingle 1946; 1996), p. 160; General Nevil Macready, Annals of an Active Life (2 vols), vol. 00 (London, 1925; 1942), p. 207.
81 Joost Augusteijn, From Public Defiance to Guerrilla Warfare (Dublin, 1996), pp 124–5.
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82 ‘Organisation of Flying Columns’: Organisation Memo No. 1, Ó glaigh na hÉ ireann (4 October 1920); reproduced in John M. MacCarthy, Witness Statement 883.
83 Florence O’Donoghue, ‘The reorganisation of theVolunteers’, Capuchin Annual, vol. 34 (1967).
84 Thomas Ryan, ‘One man’s flying column’, Tipperary Historical Journal, vol. 4 (1991); ‘One man’s flying column, part 2’, Tipperary Historical Journal, vol. 5 (1992); ‘One man’s flying column, part 3’, Tipperary Historical Journal, vol. 6 (1993).
85 Brennan, The War in Clare, pp 70–1.
86 O’Malley papers, P 17 b 127.
87 S. Fitzpatrick, Recollections of the Fight for Irish Freedom and of the Part Played by the 3rd (South) Tipperary Brigade Irish Volunteers, More Colloquially ‘IRA’, as from Spring/Summer of 1920 (privately published, n. d. ).
88 O’Hannigan, ‘Origin of the flying column’.
89 Good, Enchanted by Dreams.
90 See Maryann G. Valiulis, Portrait of a Revolutionary: General Richard Mulcahy and the Founding of the Irish Free State (Blackrock, 1992). See also Richard Mulcahy, Bé aslaí Notes, vol. 1, p. 20.
91 Mulcahy, My Father the General, p. 47.
92 Tadgh Crowe, ‘Life with a flying column, 1919–1921’, Tipperary Historical Journal, vol. 17 (2004).
93 Bernard Fall, ‘The theory and practice of counterinsurgency’, Naval War College Review
(April 1965).
94 Ignacio Cuenca-Sanchez, ‘The dynamics of nationalist terrorism: ETA and the IRA’,
Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 19 (2007).
95 Henry Kissinger, ‘The Viet Nam negotiations’, Foreign Affairs (January 1969). Cited in Mack, ‘Why big nations lose small wars’.
96 Tom Barry, Guerilla Days in Ireland: A Personal Account of the Anglo-IrishWar (Dublin, 1981), p. 23.
97 J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: The IRA (Dublin, 1997), p. 41.
98 Michael Leahy, ‘East Cork activities—1920’, Capuchin Annual (1970).
99 Richard Mulcahy, ‘Chief of Staff, 1919’, Capuchin Annual (1970).
100 O’Donoghue, ‘Guerrilla warfare in Ireland’.
101 Leahy, ‘East Cork activities—1920’.
102 Mulcahy, ‘Chief of Staff, 1919’.
103 W. H. Kautt, Ambushes and Armour: The Irish Rebellion 1919–1921 (Dublin, 2014), p. 186.
104 Mulcahy, ‘Chief of Staff, 1919’.
105 Ibid.
106 Valiulis, Portrait of a Revolutionary, p. 53.
107 O’Donoghue, ‘Guerrilla warfare in Ireland’.
108 An t-Ó glá ch, 15 December 1919.
109 Augusteijn, From Public Defiance to Guerrilla Warfare, p. 121.
110 See Ewan Butler, Barry’s Flying Column: The Story of the IRA’s Cork No. 3 Brigade, 1919– 1921 (London, 1971); Tom Barry, The Reality of the Anglo-Irish War, 1920–21, in West Cork: Refutations, Corrections and Comments on Liam Deasy’s ‘Towards Ireland Free’ (Dublin, 1974).
111 Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence (Dublin, 2004), p. 75; Barry, Guerilla Days in Ireland, p. 25.
112 O’Donoghue, ‘Guerrilla warfare in Ireland’.
113 Che Guevara, Principles of Guerrilla Warfare (http: //www3. uakron. edu/worldciv/ pascher/che. html).
114 Lawrence, The Evolution of a Revolt, p. 15.
115 ‘Record of the rebellion in Ireland in 1920–1921 and the part played by the Army in dealing with it, ’ Imperial War Museum, Box 78/82/2. The authors of this report knew that they had learned a great deal about fighting a guerrilla war during this conflict, and this knowledge would have come in handy in Palestine and other post-World War II insurgencies. Inexplicably, however, there were few references to ‘lessons learnt’ throughout the report.
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116 Ibid.
117 Andrew Silke, ‘Ferocious times: the IRA, the RIC, and Britain’s failure in 1919–1921’,
Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 27, issue 3 (19 April 2016).
118 An t-Ó glá ch, 15 June 1920.
119 W. Alison Phillips, The Revolution in Ireland: 1906–1923 (London, 1923), p. 185.
120 O’Donoghue, ‘Guerrilla warfare in Ireland’.
121 Ibid.
122 William Sheehan, Hearts and Mines: The British 5th Division, Ireland, 1920–1922 (Cork, 2009), pp 280–4.
123 Patrick G. Daly, Witness Statement 814.
124 J. Bowyer Bell, The Gun in Politics: An Analysis of Irish Political Conflict, 1916–1986 (New Brunswick, 1991), pp 35–44.
125 Oscar Traynor, Witness Statement 340.
126 Barry, Guerilla Days in Ireland, pp 189–90.
127 J. Bowyer Bell, ‘The Thompson submachine gun in Ireland’, The Irish Sword, vol. 8, no.
31 (1967).
128 An t-Ó glá ch, 21 June 1921.
129 P. Jung, ‘The Thompson machine gun during and after the Anglo-Irish War: the new evidence’, The Irish Sword, vol. 21, no. 84 (1998); P. Ó Snodaigh, ‘The Thompson machine gun: a few notes’, The Irish Sword, vol. 22, no. 89 (2001).
130 Seá n O’Shea, Witness Statement 760.
131 Donal Hales, Witness Statement 292.
132 Andreas Roth, ‘Gun running from Germany to Ireland in the early 1920’s’, The Irish Sword, vol. 22, no. 88 (2000).
133 Charles John McGuinness, Sailor of Fortune: Adventures of an Irish Sailor, Soldier, Pirate, Pearl-fisher, Gun-runner, Rebel and Antarctic Explorer (Philadelphia, 1935), p. 172; R. Briscoe, For the Life of Me (London, 1958), pp 95–6.
134 ‘Supply of Motor Transport’, NAUK, WO 32/9539; ‘Increase in Mechanical Transport in Ireland’, WO 32/9540; ‘Mechanical Transport, Armoured Cars and other forms of Protection for Troops in Ireland’, WO 32/9541.
135 Kautt, Ambushes and Armour, pp 152–80. For a full discussion of land-mines used in a specific ambush see ‘Landmines used against lorry-borne Auxiliaries at Rathcoole’, in Gabriel Doherty (ed. ), With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom, 1919 to the Truce: The Red Path of Glory (Mercier edition, Cork, 2010), pp 421–37.
136 G. J. Rains, ‘Torpedoes’, Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. 3 (May–June 1877); NormanYoungblood, The Development of MineWarfare: A Most Murderous and Barbarous Conduct (Westport, 2006), pp 25–7.
137 K. R. M. Short, The Dynamite War: Irish-American Bombers in Victorian Britain (Dublin, 1979), p. 55; Michael Burleigh, Blood and Rage: A Cultural History ofTerrorism (NewYork, 2009), pp 1–26.
138 Joe Good, Witness Statement 388.
139 James Lalor, Witness Statement 1032.
140 James O’Donovan, Witness Statement 1713.
141 Kautt, Ambushes and Armour, p. 152.
142 Ibid., pp 165–9.
143 James O’Donovan, Witness Statement 1713.
144 Guevara, Principles of Guerrilla Warfare (http: //www3. uakron. edu/worldciv/pascher/ che. html).
145 David Kilcullen, ‘Counterinsurgency Redux’ (undated opinion paper of the Chief Strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, US State Department, Washington DC).
146 William Sheehan (ed. ), British Voices from the Irish War of Independence 1918–1921: The Words of British Servicemen Who Were There (Cork, 2007), p. 100.
147 An t-Ó glá ch, 6 May 1921.
148 Dan McDonnell, Witness Statement 486.
149 Townshend, ‘The Irish Republican Army and the development of guerrilla warfare, 1919–1921’.
150 An t-Ó glá ch, 6 May 1921.
151 Townshend, ‘The Irish Republican Army and the development of guerrilla warfare, 1919–1921’.
3. Politics is the goal—war is the means
Without a political goal, guerrilla warfare must fail—as it must if its political objectives do not coincide with the aspirations of the people—and their sympathy, cooperation, and assistance cannot be gained.
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