Remembering the Past - 100 years ago
• Ulster Special Constabulary in Belfast
» Mícheál Mac Donncha
100 years ago this week the election to the new ‘Northern Ireland’ Parliament marked the beginning of the Orange state
In May 1921 the war in Ireland was continuing with ever greater intensity as the British government deployed its military forces against the civilian population in a vain attempt to defeat the IRA. There were military trials and death sentences, ‘official reprisals’ that saw homes and businesses burned out by British forces, and daily deaths in the conflict. At the same time the British government was advancing its plan to impose Partition under the Government of Ireland Act and it was soon to use negotiation as well as coercion to achieve and consolidate this outcome.