Taking the War to England: The IRA in Britain

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'We are doing this because you are doing it in Ireland'. These were the words of an IRA volunteer in Manchester explaining attacks in Britain during the Irish War of Independence. During the conflict, Britain and particularly England became a major battlefield. Britain was not only geographically close to Ireland, it was also home to large Irish communities in many major cities. Between 1919 and 1922, the IRA made sustained efforts to bring the conflict across the Irish Sea, carrying out hundreds of attacks, most of them in England. This forgotten front of the war included major attacks on the Liverpool docks, the targeting of Black and Tans in Britain and several high-profile incidents,…