Worst week of unrest since Rising, and Michael Collins insists: No partition in Ireland
What was in the news 100 years ago today? Read our Echoes of Our Past, a weekly column by Richard Forrest, Cork City Library
Paper cuttings from 1921
Richard Forrest
IN the week of May 14-20, there were 60 attacks on Crown forces and the number of police and military casualties was 55, with 23 deaths, the Echo reported on May 21, 1921.
It was the highest weekly figure since the Rebellion in 1916.
Nearly half the casualties occurred on May 14, the day after the elections for the Southern Parliament. There seems no doubt they were the outcome of a pre-arranged plan to demonstrate Sinn Féin’s political strength and power to maintain armed resistance to British law.