Added to this was the mounting national and international criticism of an Irish policy which allowed brutal unofficial reprisals on the civilian population by undisciplined RIC militias. As the Better Government for Ireland Bill entered its final stage in parliament in December, the government was aware of the pressing need to restore law and order in Ireland to facilitate elections to the newly created parliaments of Northern and Southern Ireland. Within a week of Bloody Sunday, over five hundred arrests had been made across the country. The most immediate official response on 22 November was to sanction the widespread arrest and internment of ‘all known officers’ of the IRA. This was a war and a new more stringent policy was required to deal with the IRA. Staggered by events of Bloody Sunday and the Kilmichael Ambush in November, the government could no longer convincingly portray the conflict as a police action. These measures, as well as the unofficial reprisals and collective punishments meted out by the Crown Forces, failed to frustrate IRA violence, which escalated in last months of 1920. British ex-servicemen supplemented the police force and the enactment of the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act in August extended their powers of search, arrest and internment without trial. In the face of intensifying IRA activity in 1920, the government decided to strengthen the besieged RIC rather than declare martial law in Ireland. This is why, in 19, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) rather than the substantial British Army garrison in Ireland was tasked with quashing the challenge to the British authority. As the prime minister asserted in April 1920, ‘you do not declare war against rebels’. The difficulty for Lloyd George’s coalition government was that to involve the military would be to admit that a state of war existed between the IRA ‘murder gang’ and the United Kingdom. In the face of IRA insurgency, they argued, martial law would unify military and police control and increase efficiency by trying suspects by court martial. With the outbreak of IRA violence in 1919, the Military Command in Ireland advocated placing the courts and the civil authorities under the control of the Army. It had been three months since the declaration of martial law in the southern province. The use of motor cars and bicycles was restricted, homes and businesses were liable to be searched or even destroyed as part of an official reprisal, and anyone caught on the streets after the 9 pm curfew was breaking the law. An atmosphere of menace prevailed as pedestrians were held up and searched after High Mass and shots were heard in the Grand Parade and near Patrick’s Bridge in the afternoon. It was a subdued city, blackened by fire and patrolled by British soldiers and armoured cars.
The streets of Cork were quiet on St Patrick’s Day, 1921. UCC’s Dr Helene O’Keeffe examines the events that led to the declaration of Martial Law in December 1920 and the impact of the new measures in the proclaimed areas.
#Martial law cast professional
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