In the latest of our guest blogs we discuss the role of Westmeath County Council during the Irish Revolution. In the first of two articles, Gretta Connell describes how the council responded to the transformations in Ireland between 1916 and 1920. The Local Government (Ireland) Act of 1898 set up County Councils, Urban District Councils […]
In the latest of our guest posts, we discuss Alice Ginnell’s activism between 1915 and 1923. Dr Anne Marie O’Brien takes up the story. Alice King was born near Mullingar, County Westmeath in 1882 to James and Georgina King. On 30 January 1902 she married Laurence Ginnell who was thirty years her senior. Between 1906 […]
In this edition we discuss the activities of Cumann na mBan in Westmeath during the War of Independence, a time in which its members gathered intelligence, carried dispatches and provided safehouses for the local IRA. As we have seen in earlier blogs, the Conscription Crisis was an important period for republican organisations in Westmeath with […]
In our previous post, we discussed the assassination of Thomas Craddock in August 1920 and the escalation of the IRA’s campaign in Westmeath. In this edition, we discuss events in and around Athlone during subsequent months. During the first half of October the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) carried out many raids around Athlone, both in […]
In previous posts we discussed the British government’s Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, introduced in August 1920, and the creation of an IRA flying column in Westmeath soon after. These developments signified an escalation of the conflict in Westmeath between August and November 1920. Prior to this period, IRA General Headquarters (GHQ) in Dublin […]
In this edition, we continue our series of guests posts. Dr John Gibney discusses how the Westmeath Independent reported on global events during a time of change and disruption. Many historians now examine the Irish revolution in the light of the upheavals that came in the aftermath of the First World War. But how were […]
In earlier posts, we discussed the retreat of the RIC from large areas of Westmeath, particularly during the first half of 1920. As British authority declined, republican alternatives emerged to take its place. The destruction of RIC barracks by the IRA during Easter 1920 was a pivotal moment in the War of Independence, one which […]
In November 1920 the offices of the Westmeath Independent were destroyed in an attack by the Crown forces. As we approach the centenary of that event, we devote this edition of the blog to the circumstances facing the media during the War of Independence. We will discuss the attack on the newspaper, which will be […]
In this edition, we take a break from our series on developments in Westmeath and welcome our first guest contributor, Dr John Gibney of the Royal Irish Academy. In November 1920 James Daly, a soldier in the Connaught Rangers regiment of the British army, was executed in India. Daly, who spent much of his youth […]
Previously, we charted the development of the IRA in Westmeath. Here, we discuss the ‘flying column’ that was formed in 1920. As we have seen in an earlier post, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had carried out a nationwide operation during Easter 1920, destroying over 300 buildings, such as abandoned Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks, […]