Timeline of the Irish War of Independence

The Irish War of Independence was a guerrilla conflict and most of the fighting was conducted on a small scale by the standards of conventional warfare.

Although there were some large-scale encounters between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the state forces of the United Kingdom (Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)/Auxiliary Division and Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) paramilitary units—the Black and Tans, the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) and the regular British Army), most of the casualties were inflicted in assassinations and reprisals on either side.

The war began with an unauthorised ambush by IRA volunteers Dan Breen and Seán Treacy at Soloheadbeg in 1919 and officially ended with a truce agreed in July 1921.

However, violence continued, particularly in the disputed territory of Northern Ireland, until mid-1922 (see The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922)).

In the rest of Ireland, the war was followed by the Irish Civil War between supporters and opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

RIC and British Army trucks outside Limerick
Seán Hogan 1919
Lord French Ambush
A Black and Tan in Dublin
An armoured car outside Mountjoy Prison during a hunger strike by IRA prisoners
There was fierce fighting between republicans and loyalists in Derry in June 1920
Sectarian violence erupted in Belfast after loyalists forced Catholics from their jobs at Harland & Wolff shipyards (pictured in 1911)
IRA volunteer Kevin Barry, who was hanged for his part in the killing of three British soldiers on 20 September 1920.
Funeral procession of Major E. Smyth and Captain A.P. White on the Quays in Dublin.
British soldiers and relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims during the military enquiry into the Croke Park massacre
Monument to the Kilmichael ambush of 28 November 1920, in which 3 IRA volunteers and 17 British Auxiliaries were killed
The Burning of Cork
British soldiers carrying out reprisals in Meelin, County Cork following an IRA ambush
British soldiers searching trains in Kerry for republicans
Plaques on Friary Street, Kilkenny, commemorating the deaths of two IRA men on 21 February 1921.
Memorial to Seán Allen in Tipperary Town , killed in Cork on 28 February 1921.
RIC officers in Cork, 1921
A funeral in Cork for IRA volunteers killed at Clogheen, late March 1921
Auxiliaries and Black and Tans outside a hotel in Dublin, April 1921
Tom Maguire
A British Whippet tank pulling a military lorry at the River Liffey, Dublin, 17 May 1921
British soldiers at the aftermath of a firebomb attack on the Royal Army Motor Depot, Dublin, June 1921
The Lord Lieutenant inspecting troops in Belfast during the opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament, June 1921
Photographs of the train derailed at Adavoyle railway station
Photographs of the train derailed at Adavoyle , printed in the Daily Mirror , 27 June 1921
A crowd outside the Mansion House, Dublin, the day before the truce was signed
A prayer vigil at Downing Street, London, during the Treaty negotiations
Members of the Irish negotiation committee returning to Ireland after the Treaty signing
Grave of Declan Hurton (IRA), killed at Thurles in December 1921.
Free State Troops march across The River Shannon bridge in Atlone, to take over Victoria Barracks from the British Army who had just evacuated it. Athlone, February 1922. The barracks was renamed Custume Barracks .