Ambush at Clonmult - County Cork 1921

[V]

The Reverisco stuff is true 1/72 and the figures in the pics are 20mm Liberation figures. Their vehicles wont work with 28mm sadly.

I can get you a pic next week with my Great War Miniatures but I can guarantee they will be way too small. 

[RJ]

Great looking game and sounds like you had great fun.

good work!

[Poliorketes]

The Reverisco stuff is true 1/72 and the figures in the pics are 20mm Liberation figures. Their vehicles wont work with 28mm sadly.

I can get you a pic next week with my Great War Miniatures but I can guarantee they will be way too small. 

I guess in this case I don't need a pic. Really sad, as the vehicels (and minis) really look fine!

[V]

The Reverisco stuff is true 1/72 and the figures in the pics are 20mm Liberation figures. Their vehicles wont work with 28mm sadly.

I can get you a pic next week with my Great War Miniatures but I can guarantee they will be way too small. 

I guess in this case I don't need a pic. Really sad, as the vehicels (and minis) really look fine!

Well not sad for us... We play most styuff in 20mm! 

[Svennn]

It is a shame that the armoured car is 1/72nd. A few of the Eastern European kit manufacturers make some interesting stuff like this too but I cannot contemplate changing my figure scale.

[V]

What a cool setup! For some reason I would be a bit iffy about playing out an IRA/British conflict but I have no good rationale for it. The era shoudl not be any worse than the SCW, I guess.

I know how you feel and there is no rationale explanation for it. But lots of ideas come to my mind (we don't expect these attrocities in two countries with a liberal deomcratic system, the IRA has been active way into our lifetime etc.).

I love the table! It has a very Irish feeling to it (execpt all those trees - then again Southern Ireland does have more trees than the Westcoast).

"Except Trees"... er... we have a few... Our clubs in Ireland so a quick look outta my window confirms a multitude of trees. 

As for gaming the conflict, I see it no different than any other. I always wonder ig those who say 'oh I wouldnt play that' have any contentions over using Waffen-SS in a WW2 Game?

Just for the record, Im also English and live in Ireland. The rest of my waragmes group are all Irish apart from one mad Frenchman. No-one seems to have an issue with it. Personally I think its a 'British' trait to have a problem gaming this period because we lost and it wasnt exactly our finest hour. I find it very interesting, and playing the period in Ireland gives it an air of authenticity. Its also nice to see the Irish players lining up to play the British!

We should also try and remeber that the IRA on 1920 was not the same beast that waged war on innocent women and children during the 1970's and 1980's.

[Captain Blood]

Ooooh - bit of politics... Bit of politics on LAF.   

I don't have an issue with gaming this conflict any more than any other - but I do find this new label 'The Irish War of Independence' slightly unhelpful. It basically endorses the long-held 'Nationalist' line that this conflict involved an Irish population united in rising up and throwing off the yoke of the hated English oppressor...

I'm sure some people would characterise it like that, but having just read the Osprey 'Essential Histories' book on 'The Anglo-Irish Wars of 1913 - 1922', the author makes a number of interesting points...

Like the fact that most of casualties on the 'British' side were actually fellow Irishmen - soldiers, policemen, and administrators - who felt their loyalties lay with the lawful Government of Britain (Ireland having at that point having been an integrated part of Great Britain for 200+ years) and who didn't side with 'the rebels'. Indeed, this probably applied to the majority of the general population in the early years of the conflict at least. Even the 'Black and Tans' - now figures of myth more than accurate history - included plenty of native Irishmen in their ranks.

Or the fact that the much more vicious second phase of the conflict was a purely Irish Civil War between the Free State Government and the 'anti-treaty' IRA.

For me, the 'Irish War of Independence' tag is an oversimplification which swallows a political point of view which I don't think the historical facts really bear out. Yes, independence from the rest of Britain was indeed one of the main outcomes, but it seems that the conflict was much more of a civil war than that title would suggest...
 
Anyway - enough. Osprey Essential Histories no. 65 - good read. Highly recommended.

Lovely looking game by the way. 

[V]

Well Im not sure several of my Irish friends would agree with you.

But thats your opinion and your entitled to it.


I just play toy soldiers and leave the politics for afterwards with brandy and cigars.

[Gallowglass]

The "War of Independence" is not a "new label" - not in the Republic of Ireland, anyway. It's also called the "Tan War" and the "Anglo-Irish War". I myself think that you're correct, Captain Blood - "Anglo-Irish" is a more correct term, because it correctly identifies the fact that Ireland was in fact, if not in spirit, a part of the United Kingdom. In other words, we have never considered ourselves to be British - we have always had our own distinct, identity.

The December 1918 election was the first General Election since December 1910, the 1916 one being postponed because of the war. A new generation of voters had emerged, influenced by the Rising and its aftermath, the conscription crisis, and the War itself. Campaigning on a policy of abstention from the British Parliament at Westminster, Sinn Fein won a landslide victory and proclaimed the establishment of Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic. The Dáil declared that the Republic would be achieved and maintained by

 

(1) Withdrawing Irish representation from the British Parliament and by denying the right and opposing the will of the British Government or any other foreign Government to legislate for Ireland;

(2) Making use of any and every means available to render impotent the power of England to hold Ireland in subjection by military force or otherwise.

 

On the same day, the I.R.A. killed two members of the RIC who were escorting a cartload of industrial gelignite to a stone quarry at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary. These are traditionally accepted as the opening shots of the Anglo-Irish War.

 

The Anglo-Irish War can be divided into three consecutive phases: From early 1919 to the beginning of 1920 the Volunteers raided for arms and campaigned intensely against the R.I.C and government installations and personnel; from mid-1920 to the end of 1920, when the war escalated with the arrival of the RIC Special Reserves and the Auxiliary Division; and from January to July 1921, when the conflict reached its peak, before a truce was agreed.

 

I.R.A. military operations remained extremely limited during 1919, although raids for arms began to occur regularly. In the country, ownership of a rifle was often a condition prerequisite to joining a serious operation, and ownership of a revolver was revered in Dublin.

 

Obtaining arms was an ongoing obsession. Volunteers who had weapons were most likely to be able to join attacks on British forces, but even when armed, operations had to be carefully planned. Weapons were needed and needed urgently by the Volunteers. Eventually I.R.A. GHQ directed the Volunteers to raid for arms and equipment as and where possible. Raids on RIC barracks or small military patrols intensified.

 

In the wake of Volunteer GHQ’s endorsement of open attacks on the Crown Forces, the I.RA began an intense campaign of attacks on RIC barracks, mainly in the south of the island, starting in January 1920. This forced the closure and evacuation of many smaller, remote stations and the concentration of police forces in fewer, more defensible locations. In the first six months of this campaign, the IRA captured and destroyed 16 defended RIC barracks, damaged another 29, and burnt 424 abandoned buildings to the ground. This enabled Sinn Fein and the IRA, often one and the same outside Dublin, to assume civil control in these areas by setting up an alternative system of police and Republican courts. A co-ordinated mass burning of courthouses, evacuated RIC barracks and tax offices was ordered by IRA GHQ for Easter 1920.

 

By mid-1920, the position of the RIC had changed from a normally functioning constabulary to a semi-military fighting force largely restricted to their barracks in the larger towns and villages. As indefensible RIC posts were abandoned, the police moved into larger, more strategically located barracks whose protection was reinforced with loop-holed steel shutters, sandbags and barbed wire. Police stations were becoming fortified outposts in an increasingly dangerous and hostile countryside. In response, the IRA switched their focus to attacking police and military patrols as well as off-duty police and soldiers at every opportunity. The I.R.A. also launched a systematic campaign of shootings, intimidation and a boycott against members of the RIC and their families. Recruitment to the force dropped, and resignations mounted.

 

In response to this worsening situation, the British government had begun raising a force of men on mainland Britain, mainly ex-soldiers, to act as police reinforcements in January 1920. The men of this force, the RIC Special Reserve, were employed as Temporary Constables, but would soon receive a nickname by which they became, and still are, much more commonly known.

 

The first RIC SR recruits began arriving in Ireland from late March 1920 at staging area at the RIC’s Phoenix Park depot in Dublin. From here, they were distributed in small detachments amongst the RIC barracks to bolster their defences. The RIC SR had an intake of 646 recruits in the first six months of 1920. This increased substantially thereafter, with a total intake of about 7,000 by the time hostilities ceased in July 1921.

 

As there was no immediately available supply of police uniforms, the RIC SR wore a mixture of dark green police and khaki Army uniform with RIC caps and belts. A local wit quickly nicknamed them the “Black-and-Tans” after a well-known pack of hounds owned by the Scarteen Hunt in County Limerick. The name stuck.

 

In July 1920 the government also raised another force, the Auxiliary Division of the RIC (A.D.RIC). It was comprised almost exclusively of young ex-officers of the British Armed Services, who were employed as Temporary Cadets on six-month contracts with the option of another six. They were graded as RIC Sergeants and were meant to be a corps d'elite in the fight against the IRA. Their wages of £1 per day were the highest of any police force in the world at the time. 2214 were recruited, 95% of whom listed their occupation as "former military officer", including 3 Victoria Cross holders and 281 other awards for gallantry. The Auxiliary Division received its own nickname – the “Auxies”.

 

It was subsequently the Black-and-Tans and the Auxiliaries who formed the spearhead of the government's attempts to break the I.R.A.

 

From the arrival of the RIC SR and A.D.RIC, both the size and number of armed engagements and the overall savagery of the conflict intensified. In response to the rising violence, the British government introduced the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act. This Act, passed 9th August 1920, allowed for internment and court-martial of civilians on suspicion of subversive activity and led to the arrest of a large number of Volunteer-officers. G.H.Q. ordered all officers everywhere to sleep away from home and to appoint deputies to replace them in case of their arrest. As a result most officers and active Volunteers who were not yet “on the run”, joined the small number of Volunteers that had already left home. Almost by accident, the “flying columns”, the characteristically Irish element of the war, were born. Brigade commanders found themselves with increasing numbers of armed, motivated and trained young men at their disposal and used them in larger engagements.

 

In response, the RICS.R. and A.D.RIC (neither of whom was subject to the same strict disciplinary procedures or rules of engagement as the regular RIC) began to engage in unofficial “reprisals” for these “outrages”, as they were termed by the Government. The closing months of 1920 bear chilling testimony to the increasingly savage nature of the War.

 

In September 1920 the Mid Clare Brigade ambushed the RIC at Rineen, killing six policemen and capturing arms and equipment. Many buildings and businesses in the nearby towns of Miltown Malbay, Lahinch and Ennistymon were burned on September 21st in reprisal.

 

On September 28th, Mallow military barracks in Mallow Co. Cork was captured and burned by 2 Cork Brigade. This was the only British Army post to be taken by the I.R.A. during the War. Several buildings in the town were burnt in response.

 

On October 22nd a West Cork I.R.A. column killed five British soldiers in an ambush at Toureen and wounded or captured several others. The survivors were informed that their harshness towards the civilian population was well noted. It was pointed out to them that on that day (at Toureen) they had been treated as soldiers, but if they continued to torture and murder they could expect to be treated only as murderers. A British sergeant, who was now in charge, thanked the I.R.A. for their fair treatment and protested his innocence of murder and torture, stating he would carry the message to his officers and comrades. Crown forces, including men released at Toureen subsequently shot up the nearby town of Bandon.

 

The last two weeks of November saw two of the most significant and notorious events of the entire War. They represented a microcosm of the whole conflict in respect of the role of Intelligence, the appalling violence, the thirst for revenge and the inextricable link with propaganda. On the morning of 21 November, (Bloody Sunday) Michael Collins’ Squad gunned down over a dozen British intelligence officers in Dublin. In reprisal, Crown forces entered the national Gaelic Games stadium, Croke Park, during a football match and opened fire on the players and crowd, killing 11 and wounding scores of others.

 

A week later, on 28 November, 36 well-armed riflemen under Commandant Tom Barry from 3 Cork Brigade IRA wiped out a motorised patrol of 17 Auxiliaries at Kilmichael, Co. Cork. Shops and homes were shot up and destroyed at Kilmichael, Johnstown and Inchigeela in reprisal.

 

On 11 December, a party of A.D.RIC were attacked at Dillon’s Cross in Cork City. One Cadet was killed and several others wounded. In response, local RICS.R. and A.D.RIC burnt down Cork city centre, killing and injuring several people. Some A.D.RIC took to wearing piece of half-burnt cork in their hats afterwards.

 

By the end of 1920, 182 policemen and 50 soldiers had been shot by the I.R.A. Five counties () were under martial law. On the 14th December British military issue a proclamation that after 27th December anyone found guilty by a military court of carrying arms or “adding and abetting” rebels would be liable to be shot.

 

A tit-for-tat cycle of “outrage” and “reprisal” was now firmly established. An ambush or raid by the I.R.A. brought reprisals in the nearest centre of population. Civilian houses and local business centres and creameries (dairies) were frequently destroyed by the Crown forces. The I.R.A. would in turn attack Crown forces to maintain their support in the locality and the cycle continued. While civilians were killed by the A.D.RIC and the RIC SR during reprisals for I.R.A. ambushes, the British army did not specifically target civilians. Police and military patrols began to carry civilian hostages in convoys liable to ambush.

 

The atrocities, however, did not rest exclusively with the Tans and Auxies. The I.R.A. was perfectly capable of providing many examples of terror and brutality.

 

With intelligence playing such a central role in the War, anybody suspected of providing information to the police or military faced death at the hands of the I.R.A. Many “informers” felt they were doing no more than their civic duty in the face of a breakdown of law and order. Other “undesirables”, or those who had land or property that members of the I.R.A. wanted, were ruthlessly targeted. In some cases, wealthy landowners were blatantly murdered and their lands “appropriated by the I.R.A.” for “division” among landless farmers. That these landowners were frequently members of Protestant faiths sparked a not unreasonable fear among Ulster Unionists that this was not merely a rebellion, but a war of extermination by the almost exclusively Catholic I.R.A. against their southern co-religionists. It also convinced many in the British administration that the spectre of Bolshevism had spread to Ireland.

 

By January 1921, although 1,463 civilians were interned in the country, IRA activity intensified, particularly in Cork. Large ambushes were carried out on mobile patrols accompanied by armoured cars at Clonbanin on 25 February and Coolavokig on 5 March in Co. Cork. These involved I.R.A. columns of over 100 men who used road trenching, landmines and captured Lewis and Hotchkiss machine guns. At Crossbarry, Co. Cork, the 104 men of the West Cork Brigade Column fought their way out of a massive encirclement in a brutal firefight, inflicting considerable casualties on troops and police. Having already demonstrated an ability to carry out large-scale ambushes, the I.R.A. was now beginning to display a disturbing professionalism in conventional infantry tactics.

 

However, with the intensification of the conflict, poor soldiering by the I.R.A. and more effective intelligence work by the Crown forces lead to numerous engagements in which ambush parties were themselves ambushed, or in some cases completely destroyed. At Clonmult, Co. Cork, a twenty-man Column was pinned in a house by a force half its size and destroyed. Twelve Volunteers were killed, and a number executed afterwards. Heavy I.R.A. casualties were also sustained at Selton Hill in Co. Leitrim, Garryricken in Co. Kilkenny and at Clogheen, Co. Cork.

 

Day by day, the number of internees, casualties, ambushes and reprisals mounted steadily. International opinion, and indeed domestic press editorials, began to mount against the British administration in Ireland. Britain was beginning to lose the propaganda war, with growing pressure from America and elsewhere to reach some sort of agreement with Sinn Fein. The Vatican also became involved. Pope Benedict called on both the Irish and British to “calmly consider… some means of mutual agreement” in May 1921. The violence was also spreading to the mainland of the United Kingdom. On May 14th the I.R.A. raided the English homes of men who had joined the RICS.R. and A.D.RIC

 

On May 25th, the IRA attacked and burned down the Customs House in Dublin, seen as one of the centres of British administrative rule in Ireland. Militarily, the operation was a disaster for the I.R.A., with over a hundred of its best men being captured. However, as a propaganda feat it was a huge success, demonstrating to the wider world that not just Dublin, but the entire country was in flames. Ireland was accounting for half of the British government’s expenditure on policing and pacifying its colonies. Between May and July 1921, the I.R.A. would kill over 160 soldiers and policemen - well over a quarter of all British casualties since the start of the war over two years before. The situation was fast becoming untenable, both for Britain and for Ireland.

 

Elections were looming and Britain’s Liberal government under Prime Minister Lloyd George was coming under severe domestic press pressure to negotiate. The I.R.A. at the same time was increasingly feeling the strain of the War. Stocks of ammunition were virtually exhausted, with G.H.Q. quite pessimistic as to how long they could reasonably expect to keep fighting.

 

Militarily, a stalemate had been reached. It was clear that the I.R.A. would never be able to defeat the British forces in battle, and in turn, the Crown forces could not destroy the I.R.A. unless they waged an all out war against civilians and I.R.A. alike. Peace feelers were sent out, and both sides slowly turned to the negotiating table. A truce was agreed, which began at noon on July 11th 1921.

©Copyright remains with the author

The Civil War that you refer to (anti-Treay v pro-Treaty) did not start until 1922. It ended in 1923.

As for the Black and Tans, they weren't a myth. They are, however, frequently confused with the Auxiliary Division of the RIC. Approximately 10% of the Tans (or RIC Special Reserve, to be precise) were Irish. Were they the mosnsters of legend, the alleged dregs of the British jails? No. Did they commit murder and property destruction? Sure. Were many of them decent ment who were simply trying to earn a living for their families back in England and Scotland? Certainly were. Did the IRA shoot informers? Yep. Kill Loyalists? Yep. Are there "bad guys and good guys"? Not really, no.

Sure there are Nationalist myths. Those same myths obliterated the fact that 200,000 Irishmen fought in the Great War. But I think you'll find that by 1919, the majority of the Irish people wanted independence, and to be masters of their own destiny.

I have a book recommendation for you. "British Voices from the Irish War of Independence", by William Sheehan. It'll give you a great insight into the British mindset during the period.

[V]

Can ya guess who got me interested in the period?

Nice potted history matey... How is the 'Project' coming along?


I always think this quote sums up the wars brutal nature rather well...

Should the order ("Hands Up") not be immediately obeyed, shoot and shoot with effect. If the persons approaching (a patrol) carry their hands in their pockets, or are in any way suspicious-looking, shoot them down. You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped, and you are bound to get the right parties some time. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man.

—Lt. Col. Smyth, June 1920

[Gallowglass]

Nice potted history matey... How is the 'Project' coming along?

Nearly there.

[Doomhippie]

No offense intended on my side. History is a rather murky affair with no all gooddies and all baddies. For some reasons Ireland and Irish history seem to touch a soft spot with us Germans. That's why there are so many tourists flooding the land. I guess basically we have a rather (over-)romantic perception of Ireland and I admit to be no exception there.

Anyway, the most important point is that you have created a wonderful table, have written a very exciting scenario and gave a smashing report here. And most of all you have had lots of fun. What more could we ask for?

[Helen]

Great scenery and miniatures. 

Thankyou for sharing this interesting period with us.

[twrchtrwyth]

Very cool looking game, looked like fun.
What's the Warhammer Moderns Lite you mention?

[odd duck]

Great write up and a Great looking game! and thank you gallowglass for the quick overview of the conflict