Lecture Four in the War of Independence series will examine the IRA strategy for defeating the RIC and the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. The successful guerilla tactics employed by "Flying Columns" of IRA men on the run, was supplemented by a PR campaign which publicized the tragic deaths of martyrs like Terence MacSwiney and Kevin Barry. Larger targets including blowing up barracks and train stations, or cutting roads, meant that British forces found it increasingly difficult to patrol the countryside. An army many times smaller than the British forces in Ireland was fighting the Empire to a compromise.
This is the fourth lecture in our War of Independence Centenary Series with Executive Director Dr. Elizabeth Stack.