Why Britain Lost The Irish War of Independence (4K Documentary)

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Lets not forget many irishmen fought and died in WW1, when those who survived and returned home brought back their seasoned veterancy and combat expertise

finally someone ignored the lawyers' advice not to comment on this event

Kind of missed the most important part. The leaders of the 1916 Rising were brutally and inhumanely executed in prison. That galvanized public opinion in Ireland to fully support a Republic and effectively ruined any chance the British Empire had of slipping the yoke of centuries of oppression back on.

A small anachronism is that Ulster is not Northern Ireland Ulster is 9 counties of the province, and Northern Ireland is 6 of those 9.

SOME of Ulster stayed in the UK not all of it. The Unionists used to love saying "Ulster says No" when they objected to, well, everything but they aren't even all of Ulster, 3 counties are in the Republic.

What’s interesting is that you can see YouTube videos of leading ira veterans made in the 1960s speaking about these events and the civil war. That’s like hearing directly from Sam Adams or Thomas Paine

I am from Macroom in County Cork. Macroom was the centre of the fighting in the Irish war of Independance. Michael Collins was shot nearby as well as the Kilmichael ambush. It can be surprising sometimes of people from up the country and abroad come and visit these historical sites

Just a small note, the Dáil is pronounced as though you were saying Dall, not dail. Pedantic whinge over, that was a great video as always.

Interesting once again. Thank you

My great grandad was a column member, but he rarely ever told my father about the war because he had severe ptsd

Timely video thanks Great War!

Another excellent doc Great War team!

Epic video, epic last subtitle too 👍🏻

Because to win such a war you have to do so much damage that you may as well not have bothered.

Informative video. Thank you.

I love this channel!

Great video overall, but it’s “RIC”, not “IRC” for the royal irish constabulary

The Home Rule bill (far short of independence) was passed; signed and immediately shelved by the British in 1912. The cunning trick by the British was giving the Unionists an absolute veto over it. Which killed it completely. Everybody knew the Unionists would never agree to any form of home rule. They even opposed more local government power which they vetoed and then torpedoed in 1906. This deliberate policy destroyed the constitutional route because the Irish knew that no matter how often they voted for home rule/independence parties nothing would ever happen. The Unionists who were less than 20% of the total population would simply veto every proposal. After all, the Unionists were the British settler ruling class in Ireland and they knew it. And nothing short of war would change it. Thus knowing war was the only route, Sinn Fein/IRA had a dual strategy. One was fighting a guerrilla war. The other was taking over every local government body in the 26 counties by winning all elections from 1918. They then set up their own police force and court system. This hollowed out British occupation so that they had no effective control except in the largest cities. By keeping the IRA in being and successfully striking British patrols they forced the British on the back foot. Victory in this situation is not losing militarily against an enemy 10xs your size. By raising the cost for the British so an unacceptable level for them. And keeping your forces in the field. Every successful guerilla campaign in the 20th century followed the same strategy. The Americans prevented the British from the usual policy of large scale massacres (like Amritsar and hundreds of others) in order not to have an issue with the Irish American vote in the US. So the British could only carry out local small scale massacres and acts of terrorism. They simply could not get the kill rate of innocent victims to a high enough level to break the population. But the British wanted to and indeed their burning of Cork city is one example of them testing out of a large scale terror campaign for media reaction. However given the global media reaction to that particular terrorist operation, burning down other large Irish cities was then deemed to be a high risk strategy. Instead they decided that burning towns and villages and massacring 3-5 civilians per operation was ok. Which was how the British fought the war. All along, the primary objective of the British was to prevent home rule whilst avoiding direct responsibility for failing to implement it. Remember the government was controlled by the Conservatives who were the largest party in the coalition from 1916. And they were dedicated imperialists. The Liberals who were nominally pro home rule were split in half at this point; a small minority in government after 1918 and a few years from being completely wiped out as a political force. By giving out the Unionist veto this made the Unionists the fall guys. Which the Unionists were perfectly happy happy to be. And of course, this allowed the British to pretend to be neutral to international observers. Its an old trick but it didn't work in this situation. So plan B was to partition the country and offer limited independence to the 26 counties.

Incredible History Amazing Presentation Wonderful Details and some Proper Semantics Feel’s so Tact