What was the Truce?

WAR BY OTHER MEANS!

The Truce occurred because the British were not winning the military war against the IRA and they were clearly losing the war for ‘hearts and minds’.

This was confirmed by the results of the two local government elections of 1920 when Republicans won the overwhelming majority of seats. And the even more overwhelming victory of Sinn Fein in the General Election of June 1921 when it won in every single electable seat, uncontested, in the 26 counties. These election results confirmed the unshakeable commitment for independence that the people had voted for in 1918 and whose rejection of that Election result by Britain had caused the war in the first place.

But the shooting war was only suspended on the British side on 11 July 1921.There is no state more experienced at war than Britain and they never see the end of shooting as the end of a war if their objective has not been attained. And the objective was not attained by July 1921 which was not ‘to lose Ireland’ and to keep it within the British Empire by some means or other.

The World War that Britain launched in August 1914 to destroy Germany did not end on 11/11/1918. It ended when Germany was starved into submission by the food blockade — killing about ¾ of a million Germans – and thereby laying the basis for the next war.

The negotiations that followed the Truce were a continuation of the War against Independence by other means and succeeded in splitting the Independence movement under the threat of renewed war and a so-called Treaty that abolished the Republic that had been voted and fought for. Britain insisted that the shooting war be resumed in June 1922 to ensure the military defeat of those who wanted to maintain the Republic and the Independence movement.

Aubane Historical Society

http://www.aubanehistoricalsociety.org/

St. Peter’s Church, Cork 9/7/2021