February 1920
|
Feb-04 |
Patrick Thornton,
an ex-British serviceman, is killed by a group of men at Loughaunbeg near
Spiddal, Co. Galway. This may have
been a drunken brawl or may have been a republican killing of an alleged
informer. |
McNamara (2018), pgs
153-154 |
|
Feb-06 |
De Valera gives an interview to the New York correspondent of the Westminster Gazette in which he says that Ireland was ready to offer international guarantees to England that Ireland would not be used as a base to attack England – he compared such a guarantee with the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Settlement. This is seized on by de Valera’s enemies in the States (in particular, John Devoy and Judge Coholan) who say that de Valera was preparing to compromise. |
Macardle (1999), pg 368 |
|
Feb-06 |
As part of an
on-going land agitation dispute, James Ward, who was a herd on the Blake
estate at Menlo, Co. Galway is shot dead at the gate lodge. |
McNamara (2018), pg
172 |
|
Feb-07 |
RIC Constable
Edward Mulholland is accidentally shot dead by a colleague in Moyne, Co.
Tipperary. |
Abbott (2019), pg 410 |
|
Feb-12 |
In an IRA attack on Allihies RIC barracks, one RIC man (Constable Michael Neenan) is killed. The IRA is led by Sean Hales and about 20 men from the Cork No. 3 Brigade of the IRA took part. They blew a hole in the wall of the barracks with a mine constructed by Cornes O'Sullivan (from the Cork No. 1 Brigade). The RIC refused to surrender but, after this attack, the RIC withdrew from a number of small barracks in the area. According to Deasy “a large part of the Beara Peninsula was cleared of enemy forces and made available as a safe place to tend wounded Volunteers” |
Abbott (2000), pg 60; Deasy (1973), pgs 93-94; O’Farrell (1997), pg 41 |
|
Feb-12 |
During an attack on an RIC patrol at Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, Seamus O’Brien (O/C Wicklow Brigade, IRA) is killed. |
O’Farrell (1997), pg 75 |
|
Feb-13 |
Writing to the RC Bishop O’Donnell of Raphoe, Joe Devlin saying “Once they [Unionists] have their own parliament with all the machinery of government and administration, I am afraid that anything like subsequent union will be impossible. I propose … to attack the Bill … giving reasons why we Catholics and Nationalists could not, under any circumstances, consent to be placed under the domination of a parliament so skilfully established as to make it impossible for us to be ever other than a permanent minority, with all the sufferings and tyranny of the present day continued, only in a worse form.” Comment |
Phoenix (1994), pgs 76-77; McCluskey (2014), pg 88 |
|
Feb-14 |
IRA, under Eoin O'Duffy, captures its first RIC barracks in Ulster at Ballytrain, Co Monaghan. More Detail |
O'Farrell P(1997), pg xvi; O'Daly in The Kerryman (1955), pgs 46-51; O’Malley (1990), pgs 110-111; O’Drisceoil (2001), pg 15; Dooley (2017a), pg 82; Lawlor (2011), pgs 19-21; Townshend (2014), pgs 114-115 |
|
Feb-14 |
The RIC Barracks at Castlemartyr, Co. Cork is captured by the IRA under Diarmuid Hurley, commandant (captain?) of the Middleton company. |
Breen (1989), pg 106; Cashman in The Kerryman (1955), pg 60
|
|
Feb-14 |
Michael Ensko is killed
by being struck by a British Army lorry in Co. Clare. |
Ó Ruairc (2009), pg
328 |
|
Feb-15 |
The Castleshane
mansion in Co. Monaghan, home of the Lucas Scudamore family, is burnt down as
the result of an accident. |
Dooley (2017), pg
116 |
|
Feb-16 |
Aghern RIC barracks (near Fermoy) attacked but not captured. One IRA man seriously wounded. |
O’Donoghue (1986), pg 68 |
|
Feb-18 |
The Irish Times says that Lloyd George’s Better Government of Ireland Bill “has not a single friend in either hemisphere, outside Downing Street”. |
Macardle (1999), pg 337 |
|
Feb-19 |
H J Quinlisk shot as a spy in Cork by the IRA. He had earlier made contact with Michael Collins in Dublin and told him that he could procure arms. However, Collins had broken of contact and, after Quinlisk had been told that Collins had gone to Cork, he had followed him there where he was rumbled. |
O'Callaghan (1974), pgs 52-53; Hopkinson (2002), pg 56; O’Farrell (1997), pg 89; Gallagher (1953), pg 241; Brennan (1950), pgs 258-260 |
|
Feb-19 |
The IRA attack the RIC
barracks at Camp on the Dingle peninsula, Co. Kerry. They fail to capture the barracks but it is
abandoned by the RIC within days. |
Horgan (2018), pg 76 |
|
Feb-20 |
Counties Dublin, Louth, Longford, Sligo, Waterford, Westmeath, and Wicklow proclaimed as being in a state of disturbance. |
Abbott (2000), pg 67 |
|
Feb-20 |
D. Dennehy from Midleton, Co. Cork dies. |
O’Farrell (1997), pg 106 |
|
Feb-20 |
DMP Constable John Walsh is shot dead at the corner of Suffolk St and Grafton in Dublin. DMP Sgt Dunleavy is also wounded. |
Abbott (2000), pg 62 |
|
Feb-22 |
Mid-Clare Brigade
IRA ambush a four-man RIC bicycle patrol at Crowe’s Bridge near Inagh. One of the IRA ambush party, Martin Devitt,
is killed and another, Ignatius O’Neill, is injured. |
O’Farrell (1997),
pg 106; Ó Ruairc (2009), pg 108-110 |
|
Feb-23 |
Writing to the Belfast Nationalist leader, Joe Devlin MP, the RC Bishop of Raphoe (O’Donnell) says that “No matter how much an Irish leader … in the House of Commons may disagree with the extreme men at home, he can never throw them over before a foreign assembly.” |
Phoenix (1994), pg 77 |
|
Feb-23 |
A curfew, between
the hours of midnight and 5.00am, is imposed on Dublin. |
Abbott (2019), pg
349; Townshend (2014), pg 137 |
|
Feb-25 |
Government of Ireland Act introduced at Westminster (comes into law Dec 23rd) - Provisions Include: (1) Partition of Ireland with a parliament in Dublin and another in Belfast. (2) Westminster to hold responsibility for revenue, foreign, defence, external trade (+ police for 3 years). (3) Council of Ireland (to hold responsibility for fisheries, railways and open to more responsibility being devolved to it depending on North-South agreement) and (4) Senate to protect minorities. Comment |
Curran J M (1980), pg30; Phoenix (1994), pgs 77-78 |
|
Feb-27 |
Simultaneous attacks on Timoleague and Mount Pleasant RIC Barracks by West (3rd) Cork Brigade IRA. The attack on Mount Pleasant was led by Tom Hales and the attack on Timoleague was led by Sean Hales. Neither attack led to serious casualties on either side. (O’Farrell gives date as 12th February.) |
Hart (1998), pg 194; Deasy (1973), pgs 95-98; O’Farrell (1997), pg 40 |
|
Feb |
Public meetings of Commission of Inquiry into the Industry and Resources of Ireland set up by Dáil held over three days in Cork. The RIC tried to stop them but Commission managed to hold their meetings by frequently moving the venue. |
Figgis (1927), pgs 278-279 |
|
Feb |
Peadar MacMahon
sent by IRA GHQ to Mayo where he organised a series of classes for officers
in each of the battalion areas in subjects such as field drill and musketry. |
Price (2012), pg 54 |
|
Feb |
During February, over 4,000 raids and 296 arrests by Crown forces |
Macardle (1999), pg 330 |