FAQ

In 1912 the MPs of the Irish Parliamentary Party persuaded the British Parliament to pass the Home Rule Bill, granting Ireland limited self-rule with the prospect of progressive independence in the same manner as Canada, Australia etc This was fiercely opposed by Irish Unionists (Irish people who wished to remain British and overwhelmingly Protestant) and their allies in the Conservative party as they feared that as a minority in an independent Ireland they would be persecuted and discriminated against by Irish Nationalists (Irish people who wished independence from Britain and overwhelmingly Catholic) who would not support Britain in wartime. Irish Unionists formed their own armed militia, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) demanding that if Ireland was to be allowed to secede from the United Kingdom that the six most northeasterly and pro-unionist counties (which came to be known as Northern Ireland) should be allowed to secede from Home Rule Ireland and remain a full part of Britain. In return Irish Nationalists formed their own militia to counter the UVF, the Irish Volunteers, opposing Northern Ireland the right to secede. Civil war threatened, however the crisis was averted by the outbreak of the First World War and both factions fought for Britain in the conflict.

At Easter 1916 a thousand strong extremist faction within the Irish Volunteers staged an armed rebellion in central Dublin with German support, demanding a fully independent united Irish Republic with no links to the rest of the British Isles. This killed over 400 people but the execution of the ringleaders created a wave of sympathy for the risers and Irish Nationalists successfully campaigned to have the surviving rebels released from prison and subsequently elected them to parliament in 1918, giving their Sinn Fein party (Gaelic for 'ourselves alone') a majority within Ireland. This incensed Irish Unionists who accused Nationalists of voting for murderers and made them more determined than ever to have Northern Ireland separate from the rest of the island.

In 1919 the Irish Republicans started killing police officers, soldiers and Unionist and moderate Nationalist civilians whom they accused of supporting the security forces, dubbing them 'informers'. By early 1920 the IRA (Irish Republican Army) had killed dozens and forced the police to withdraw from their more isolated police stations, replacing them with a shadow government of 'Sinn Fein courts'. In exchange, however, the security forces had arrested hundreds of prisoners. In the spring of 1920 the British Government, under huge pressure to find a political solution, staged a mass release of IRA prisoners as a conciliatory gesture towards Irish Nationalists. This backfired disastrously with a huge increase in IRA attacks and the security forces and Unionist civilian vigilantes ('Loyalists') increasingly turning to the extrajudicial killing of republicans and launching reprisal attacks against the lives and property of their supporters. By the summer of 1921 the violence had intensified with groups of IRA members formed into 'Flying Columns' being pursued through the countryside and martial law introduced into Munster, Ireland's southernmost province. By the summer the IRA were growing increasingly desperate, short of funds and ammunition with many of their leading members in prison (their leader Michael Collins later stated they were 'dead beat' and 'six weeks from defeat') But this still left the British Government with the difficulty of providing Ireland Home Rule so eventually a truce was declared and republican representatives were invited to London for negotiations.

The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was the oldest of all British police forces, founded by Sir Robert Peel in 1822. It was technically an armed force but by 1916 its' arms were obsolete (issued the same model revolver as Custer used at the Little Big Horn) and seldom carried, one recruit commenting that he had never touched a firearm after basic training. After the Easter Rising the RIC had to actually borrow modern weapons from London's Metropolitan Police. In the run up to Home Rule the RIC was deliberately run down and by the time of the conflict was largely a rural force described by Irish Secretary Augustine Birrell as 'elderly men preoccupied with fishing'. The negative depiction of the RIC in this film was therefore considered inaccurate and extremely biased. The Dublin Metropolitan Police operated in Ireland's capital separately from the RIC and remained unarmed until 1920. By the time of the conflict their 10 strong G division were the only officers in Ireland dealing with counter-terrorism and were targeted for assassination (MI5, Britain's fledgling counter-intelligence service was wholly preoccupied with the threat of Soviet Communism and less than 30 strong). By 1920 hundreds of RIC officers had resigned due to intimidation and in protest at the government's releases of IRA prisoners. Jobless First World War veterans were recruited to replace them, initially clothed in a mixture of army and police unit and nicknamed the 'Black and Tans' after a famous foxhunt. A sub-unit within the 'Black and Tans' were the Auxillaries ('Auxies'), an elite group of ex-officers distinguishable by their Tam O'Shanter headgear (a beret with a bobble in the middle) who formed a highly mobile strike force. The Black and Tans became the bogeymen of popular Irish Nationalist history and were subsequently blamed for all vigilante killings and revenge attacks from the security forces. The regular British Army operated in a supporting role to the police. Post conflict many Black & Tans would join the Palestine Police, dealing with another divided society. Many RIC officers would join the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland whilst others would join the Irish Free States new police force, the Civic Guard (later renamed the Garda). Their recruitment triggered a mutiny amongst the pro-Republicans in the force, the Irish Free State government promptly dismissing the mutineers from the service. The Dublin Metropolitan Police continued separately until 1925 when it was merged with the Garda. Many ex-British soldiers would also join the Garda and new Irish Free State Army (also known as the National Army), some men of the Irish Regiments (Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Connaught Rangers, Leinster Regiment, Royal Irish Regiment etc) simply swapping their uniforms (also sparking a mutiny amongst the pro-Republican soldiers who were also dismissed). Irishmen from the Free State would continue to serve in the British armed forces with over 100,000 joining during World War 2 alone.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty essentially gave a slightly enhanced form of Home Rule for Southern Ireland allowing it armed forces and financial independence (although this would actually mean what would become known as the Irish Free State would be substantially poorer than the rest of the British Isles). In return Northern Ireland was granted de facto permanent partition and would remain part of Britain. It was eventually signed by the Sinn Fein delegates after the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George threatened an immediate return to war, IRA leader Michael Collins describing the IRA's chances if the conflict resumed as akin to rabbits emerging from their warrens into the sights of the hunter's guns. The Treaty was overwhelmingly endorsed by the vast majority of the Irish population in a referendum but split the IRA, the pro-Treaty IRA arguing it was the best deal available whilst the anti-Treaty arguing it was no more than the Irish Parliamentary Party could have gained peacefully if they had accepted partition.

With British support the Irish governments National Army easily cleared the IRA from their territory, forcing them to return to guerilla tactics. The Free State Army eventually put them down by executing 5 prisoners in return for every person the IRA killed.

This drama gained the worst ratings of any Sunday night BBC series in history. It also resulted in a record number of complaints to the BBC that it was biased, pro-IRA and anti-British.