February
1920
|
Feb-02-20/1 |
Private James Barnes of the BA’s The Welch
Regiment is accidently shot by a fellow BA soldier in Arklow Military
Barracks in Co. Wicklow. |
O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 120 |
|
Feb-02-20/2 |
Commenting on the influence of BA’s CIGS Field Marshall Henry Wilson on Irish Affairs, the London correspondent of the Irish Independent writes that he was operating a “sinister dictatorship” in Irish military affairs and that the British army commander in Ireland is “responsible not to the Irish Executive but to the Carsonite Field Marshall”. |
Mitchell (1995), pg 127 |
|
Feb-04-20/1 |
McNamara says that Patrick Thornton, an
ex-British Army soldier, is killed by a group of men at Loughaunbeg near
Spiddal, Co. Galway on this date. This
may have been a drunken brawl or may have been a republican killing of an
alleged informer. (O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say that this incident happened on February 2nd and that he died on the February 8th.) |
McNamara (2018), pgs 153-154; O’Halpin and Ó
Corráin (2020), pg 120 |
|
Feb-04-20/2 |
A bomb is thrown by the IRA into the DMP’s
sleeping quarters in Kevin St in Dublin.
There was extensive damage but no casualties. |
Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 181 |
|
Feb-04-20/3 |
Following a trip to Ireland, Walter Long
reports to the British cabinet that “people in the inner circles” of unionism
were opposed to the inclusion of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan in a Northern
Ireland assembly because that “would provide such an access of strength to
the Roman Catholic party, that the “supremacy of the Unionists could be
seriously threatened”. He continued
that there was “a real danger that on certain questions the Unionist Labour
Party in Ulster might vote with the Roman Catholics”. See Feb-24-20/1. |
Matthews (2004), pg 19; Boyce (1972), pg |
|
Feb-06-20/1 |
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.
(A form of the Monroe Doctrine.)
This leads to conflict with some leaders of the Irish-American
community and to disquiet back in Ireland. See Feb-17-20/2. |
Macardle (1999), pg 368; Mitchell (1995), pgs 194-195; Kissane (2005), pg 43 |
|
Feb-06-20/2 |
As part of an on-going land agitation dispute,
James Ward, who was a herd on the Blake estate at Menlo, Castelgar, Co.
Galway is shot dead at the gate lodge. |
McNamara (2018), pg 172; O’Halpin and Ó
Corráin (2020), pg 120 |
|
Feb-07-20/1 |
Churchill as Secretary of State for War in the
British cabinet presses for the withdrawal of British troops from Persia but
meets resistance from Curzon and Milner.
See Jun-04-20/1. |
Jeffrey (2006), pg 249 |
|
Feb-07-20/2 |
RIC Constable Edward Mulholland is
accidentally shot dead by a colleague in Moyne, Co. Tipperary. |
Abbott (2019), pg 410; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 120 |
|
Feb-09-20/1 |
Lance-Corporal Charles Shreeve of the BA’s
Royal Field Artillery is accidently shot dead by a fellow in the Military
Barracks in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. |
O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 120 |
|
Feb-10-20/1 |
Writing to de Valera, Collins says that “all
the attempts [by Dublin Castle] have signally failed … to prevent people
knowing the terms of the Loan and the attempts to prevent them from
subscribing”. However, see Mar-06-20/2. |
O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pg 116 |
|
Feb-12-20/1 |
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 refuse 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; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 121; Kautt (2014), pg 48; Cork Fatality Register |
|
Feb-12-20/2 |
During an attack on an RIC patrol at Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, Seamus O’Brien (O/C 5th Battalion, East Wicklow Brigade, IRA) is killed. |
O’Farrell (1997), pg 75; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 121 |
|
Feb-12-20/3 |
An attempt is made to free Robert Barton as he
was transferred from Ship St Barracks to Mountjoy Jail in Dublin but it
fails. (Barton had been arrested on January 31st.) He had been court martialled in Ship St Barracks. He was subsequently deported to Portland Prison and stayed there until shortly before the Truce. He was badly missed by Collins as they had worked closely together “during the past difficult year”. |
Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pgs 182-183;
O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pg 111 |
|
Feb-12-20/4 |
Two young BA soldiers, William Pearce and Guy
Robers, drown in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal. |
O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 553 |
|
Feb-13-20/1 |
Writing to the RC Bishop O’Donnell of Raphoe,
Belfast Nationalist leader Joe Devlin says “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 comments that Devlin realised that “any future arrangement between London and Dublin would have to recognise the separate existence of ‘Northern Ireland’ as a fait accompli.” Phoenix goes on to say that there was a refusal by the majority of northern Catholics (especially Sinn Féin) to treat the partition proposals as seriously intended. |
Phoenix (1994), pgs 76-77; McCluskey (2014), pg 88 |
|
Feb-14-20/1 |
The IRA, under Eoin O'Duffy, captures its
first RIC barracks in Ulster at Ballytrain, Co Monaghan. |
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-14-20/2 |
The RIC Barracks at Castlemartyr, Co. Cork is captured by the IRA under Diarmuid Hurley, commandant (captain?) of the Midleton company. |
Breen (1989), pg 106; Cashman in The Kerryman (1955), pg 60
|
|
Feb-14-20/3 |
Michael Ensko dies on February 20th after being struck by a British Army lorry on this date in Ennis, Co. Clare. |
Ó Ruairc (2009), pg 328; O’Halpin and Ó
Corráin (2020), pg 122 |
|
Feb-14-20/4 |
Ella Wood is burnt to death after being caught
in a fire set by arsonists on the Soldiers’ Home in Buttevant, Co. Cork |
O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 121; Cork Fatality Register |
|
Feb-14-20/5 |
Sixty-one year old, Ellen Morris, is shot dead
by one of a group of men carrying out an arms raid on her home in The
Ballagh, Co. Wexford. She attacked a raider with a spade. IRA man, John Lacey, subsequently pleaded
guilty for her manslaughter and gets 18 months in prison with hard labour. |
O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 121; |
|
Feb-15-20/1 |
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-16-20/1 |
Aghern RIC barracks (near Fermoy) on Co. Cork
is attacked but not captured. One IRA man seriously wounded. |
O’Donoghue (1986), pg 68 |
|
Feb-17-20/1 |
Despite the
objections of Unionist politicians, Walter Long’s Irish Committee comes down
in favour of a parliament for a nine-county Ulster rather than six
counties. But see
Feb-24-20/1. |
Boyce (1972), pg 109 |
|
Feb-17-20/2 |
After being informed that his statement of February 6th had raised questions among his cabinet colleagues back in Ireland, de Valera writes to the Dáil cabinet saying that he was dispatching Patrick McCartan back to Dublin to explain the matter to them. He said that he was putting little in writing because “if captured and published such a letter might blow our work here sky-high”. He also asked for statements of full confidence from the cabinet and Dáil. When McCartan
arrived in Dublin in March, a number of cabinet ministers (Brugha, Plunkett
and Markievicz) were unconvinced but Griffith and Collins managed to secure
approval for McCartan’s explanation. |
Mitchell (1995), pg 195 |
|
Feb-18-20/1 |
Writing to
Macpherson, French says “I can best describe the situation here … as
something in the nature of an incipient Boer War … Now what was the history
of the Boer War? At first we tried to capture their strongholds and engage
them in pitched battles and afterwards we covered the country with a network
of ‘flying columns’. But they remained unconquered until we wired them all up
inside concentration camps. This is really how we won the Boer War, and it is
the only way we will settle this business here”. |
O’Halpin (1987), pg 200; Sheehan (2017), pg 94 |
|
Feb-18-20/2 |
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-19-20/1 |
Harry Timothy Quinlisk is shot as a spy by the
IRA in Cork City. He had earlier made contact with Michael Collins in Dublin and told him that he could procure arms. However, Collins had broken of contact after been warned by DMP man, Ned Broy. After Quinlisk had been told that Collins had gone to Cork, he had followed him there where he was rumbled. He was shot by three IRA men, led by Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade at Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane. |
O'Callaghan (1974), pgs 52-53; Hopkinson (2002), pg 56; O’Farrell (1997), pg 89; Gallagher (1953), pg 241; Brennan (1950), pgs 258-260; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 121-122; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 183; O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pg 113; Cork Fatality Register |
|
Feb-19-20/2 |
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-19-20/2 |
A large force of IRA men from 2nd and 3rd Battalions, Dublin Brigade, IRA raid the B&I Steam Packet Co. warehouse on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin. They were expecting a large store of military equipment but there was none. |
Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 184 |
|
Feb-20-20/1 |
Counties Dublin, Louth, Longford, Sligo,
Waterford, Westmeath, and Wicklow proclaimed by Dublin Castle as being in a
state of disturbance. |
Abbott (2000), pg 67 |
|
Feb-20-20/2 |
O’Farrell says that D. Dennehy from Midleton,
Co. Cork died on this day. (However, it is highly probable that O’Farrell got
the year wrong – see Feb-20-21/2.) |
O’Farrell (1997), pg 106 |
|
Feb-20-20/3 |
DMP Constable John M. Walsh is shot dead at the corner of Suffolk St and Grafton in Dublin. DMP Sgt James Dunleavy is also wounded. This killing was carried out by brothers Paddy and Gabriel McGrath – Paddy is wounded and taken to King George V Hospital. |
Abbott (2000), pg 62; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 122; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pgs 184-185; Kautt (2014), pg 49 |
|
Feb-21-20/1 |
Another raid by Crown Forces on Cullenswood
House in Ranelagh in Dublin. [See Jan-20-20/2 for previous raid.]. Again Mulcahy manages to escape (this time in
his in his pyjamas) but the British discover IRA documents including the
names of most of the men in the Dublin Brigade of the IRA. (The BA claim to have captured “complete
rolls addresses of 3,000 members of the Dublin Brigade IRA”.) |
Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 186 Check O’Connell ref in Molyneux and Kelly
(2020), pgs; Sheehan (2007), pg 11 |
|
Feb-22-20/1 |
Mid-Clare Brigade IRA ambush a four-man RIC
bicycle patrol at Crowe’s Bridge near Inagh.
One of the IRA ambush party, Vice-O/C Martin Devitt, is killed and
another, Ignatius O’Neill, is injured. |
O’Farrell (1997), pg 106; Ó Ruairc (2009), pg
108-110; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 122 |
|
Feb-23-“0/1 |
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-23-20/2 |
A curfew, between the hours of midnight and 5.00am, is imposed on Dublin (except Kingstown) by order of the Lord Lieutenant. (Fanning says February 20th and Kautt says February 22nd.) French says “we are up against a powerful
conspiracy – something more than the ‘scallywags’ we thought”. See Jun-30-20/2. Quoting Mockaitis, Sheehan (2017) says that
curfews were “designed to make the inhabitants of an area uncomfortable”. |
Abbott (2019), pg 349; Townshend (2014), pg 137; Fanning (2103), pg 221; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 186; Kautt (2014), pg 39; Sheehan (2007), pg 11; Sheehan (2017), pg 98 |
|
Feb-24-20/1 |
British cabinet meets and finally agrees that
they would give the Ulster Unionists what they wanted i.e. a Northern Ireland
of six counties. (Matthews notes that this was before the
Unionists themselves had formally decided on six counties – see Mar-10-20/3
- he also notes that it would seem
from the cabinet minutes that Bonar Law was responsible for this decision.) See Feb-25-20/1. |
Fanning (2013), pg 218; Matthews (2004), pg
19; Boyce (1972), pg 110 |
|
Feb-25-20/1 |
Government of Ireland Act receives its first reading in the Westminster parliament (comes into law on December 23rd 1920). Provisions Include: (1) Partition of Ireland
with a parliament in Dublin covering the 26 counties and another in Belfast
for the six counties. (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. |
Curran J M (1980), pg30; Phoenix (1994), pgs 77-78 |
|
Feb-27-20/1 |
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 February 12th.) |
Hart (1998), pg 194; Deasy (1973), pgs 95-98; O’Farrell (1997), pg 40 |
|
The offices of Donal O’Connor & Co.,
Chartered Accountants (see Oct-27-19/2) on Westmoreland St in Dublin are
raided by Crown Forces. O’Connor was the auditor for the Dáil Loan. They
removed some documents. Shortly afterwards Crown Forces raid the
offices of the Sinn Féin Co-operative People’s Bank in Harcourt St. They
removed £8,370 in cash, deposit receipts and gold. They also removed all office equipment. The manager (and sole employee) of the Sinn
Féin Co-operative People’s Bank, David Kelly, subsequently issues proceedings
against Edgeworth-Johnson and Shaw for the return of the books and
money. See Jun-16-20/1. This was the first public indication that the
Dublin Castle authorities had decided to go after Dáil and Sinn Féin
funds. They had set up an inquiry
under the Crimes Act headed by Resident Magistrate Alan Bell – see
Dec-30-19/1. As noted, these type of
inquiries are usually referred to as
‘Star Chambers’ with witnesses before such inquiries having few rights. See Mar-02-20/1 |
O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pg 120 |
|
|
Feb-28-20/1 |
A party of five BA soldiers are returning to
their barracks in Queenstown (Cobh), Co. Cork when they are held up and
disarmed at Bunker Hill. Apparently, Private William Newman of the BA’s
Sherwood Foresters tried to run away but he was shot. He dies the next day. His coroner’s inquest
does not return a verdict of murder. |
O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 122-123; Sheehan (2017), pg 117; Cork Fatality Register |
|
Feb-1920/1 |
Peadar MacMahon is 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-1920/2 |
The leader of the British Liberal Party, H. H.
Asquith, puts forward the policy of granting of self-governing dominion
status to Ireland within the Empire. See Oct-05-20/3. |
Boyce (1972), pg 122 |
|
Feb-1920/3 |
In the United States, speaking on the use of
physical force, de Valera asks “Can we, struggling for our freedom, afford to
fling away any weapon by which nations in the past have achieved their
freedom?” Griffith tells a French journalist that “It is
only natural that Sinn Féiners should defend themselves against the
provocations and outrages to which they have been subjected”. |
Mitchell (1995), pgs 75-76 |
|
Feb-1920/5 |
During February, over 4,000 raids and 296
arrests are made by Crown forces. |
Macardle (1999), pg 330 |