Irish War of Independence: The Road to Freedom 

you mutts killed CHARLES DANCE

Fellow Irishman here in Manchester 22 years and yes, Simon has done an excellent job in putting together this video - I was last home in October 2022 and I was horrified and heartbroken by what I’d seen in Dublin alone on my way to visit family in Rural Ireland - I absolutely despise our traitor government and our Gardai for destroying our country 🇮🇪☘️🇮🇪

"Unbiased" aye from a far left anti Anglo😂👏Sad what this country has turned into. Own people hating on the country. Because we had the biggest and best empire when every other nation was doing so at the time we weren't the first we weren't the most evil. Held to a different set of standards to everyone else.

Well yes but also something that's overlooked is it also pioneered a lot of non-violent and political tactics colonized people could use. Particularly in India, there was actually a very close bond between a lot of Irish Republicans And the Indian Congress, some of them even being long-term pen pals such as Dev and Nehru

Collins invented modern squad based combat. He was the first person to put the Thompson to use, and make rate of fire per man an important point. Also the Democrats in Chicago tipped off the gangsters who stole half the legally bought shipment of Thompson guns and started the brutality that happened on American streets.

@@josephbrowne3533 what relevance did that last point have to the conversation?

So many things are wrong bloody Sunday was Sunday November 21

@@josephbrowne3533 Except then they were the Dixiecrats, now they infest the GOP so what exactly were you not trying to say?

The fight for an Independent Ireland was part of our history GCSE. Trust me, they left nothing out. Mind you, I was at school a few years before the Good Friday Agreement was signed. I don't know what they're teaching in history these days.

It's like that everywhere. Here in the US the Trail of Tears is mentioned for about 11 seconds in our US history courses and no one ever really mentioned 2 presidents were in the Ku Klux Klan (Harding was an actual sitting president and Klan member simultaneously. at least Truman had the sense to say "meh. these guys seem a little extreme)

Harding was never in the KKK.

@@lukeyarasheski5510 sorry there is no credible evidence Harding was in the KKK. He made statements in the 20s opposing lynching and in favour of equal rights. After his death much BS was written about him that still has traction today. Now if you want a racist US president then look no further than Woodrow Wilson.

@@brendanbrown3100 Think what you want man. He was a Klansman. And a politician. So is it perhaps possible he lied during his public addresses about his personal views? Also there is plenty of evidence. I just gave you one example that youre choosing to ignore

impartiality is kinda what makes the whistlerverse so good ;) ...well except brainblaze i guess 😎

@@mho... or the casual Criminalist

😊

When I was in school, I was only ever taught about the "great" British things that happened in history. It's only now that I'm older with an interest in history that I have learnt about the atrocities that my country has committed throughout history. My Nan was Irish, so I'm taking the time to learn about Irish history, which I was never taught about.

We're very good at PR in Ireland which is why this is a glorious victory you will read about ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjFXpnymhTg.html&pp=ygUma2lsbWljaGFlbCBhbWJ1c2ggYSBzb2xkaWVyJ3MgdGhvdWdodHM%3D @@Charlie-pu9bx

@@Charlie-pu9bx Yes I was taught about the great British Empire and my granddaughters are taught it was an appalling oppressor. They teach you what they need you to believe at the time. If you want an original piece of Irish history take a look at this - it wasn't all heroic ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjFXpnymhTg.html&pp=ygUla2lsbWljaGVhbCBhbWJ1c2ggYSBzb2xkaWVycyB0aG91Z2h0cw%3D%3D

Nah, no one cared despite all the IRA propaganda, after all, SF supported the Germans

what about all them vikings that invaded us in 10th century? most of them came from Ireland, that's not our fault..... and then the catholics backed by france

@@DarkShroom Not to mention we Irish colonised southwest England prior to the arrival of the Normans, hence why Cornwall has towns called Gaelic names such as Dunderry and Derriford.

@@MrLorenzovanmatterho That is not why Cornwall has Gaelic names. The entirety of the British Isles was populated by Gaelic speakers before the arrival of Anglo Saxons. The Natives of Cornwall, Devon, England and Wales were all Gaelic and that is why you can find Gaelic places names all over the place. There are more in Wales and Cornwall because those places held out longer than England did against the Germanic invasions. I have never heard of Irish groups colonising Cornwall btw. I know that the Dál Riata colonised North East Scotland but this Cornwall information is new to me.

@@yoloswaggins7121 Possibly but remember the Anglo Saxons were there over 500 years before the Normans arrived, certainly we did colonise the Southwest prior to that.

That wasnt said by jfk ? I believe it was lenin or even marx

@@jonasduchateau8619 It was JFK in March 1962

Every peaceful, or democratic, Irish movement to repeal the Act of Union was met by escalating repression and the deployment of anti-sedition laws that would have made Putin blush. The reality is that British rule in Ireland had no popular mandate, and was maintained by a massive armed gendarmerie(the Royal Irish Constabulary[RIC]), with a large British Army garrison to back them up. And of course, the British Army's barracks and weapons stores in Britain were only a short ferry trip away.

Bit ironic coming from JFK.....

Did JFK really say that? I don't really remember him using it, and I have read some of his old papers/speeches, etc. I remember "Ask not what your country", and "Ich bin ein Berliner", but not Kennedy saying that about peaceful VS violent Revolution... Also, can anyone tell me why that makes him a hypocrite...?

FINALLY, someone who sees why we've actively disliked the English ever since independence.

Course you're a fucking free stater. Our lads were out fighting for basic civil rights long after your state was GIFTED sovereignty. You traitors love to sing songs of praise for the actions that took place 100 years ago & forget that you left plenty of us behind. Now you lot have the gaw to associate the fight post '22 as unnecessary.

The small town I live in balbriggan was burned down completely by the black & tans, and it wasn’t just the rebellion where we were slaughtered they allowed us to starve to death in the famine when they could’ve saved 4million people but chose not to because they saw us as peasants they wanted our land and tried to strip our Irish from us Irish is 1 of the oldest languages in the history of the world and it’s almost gone now because of England

My grandmother 's dad and brother both gave their lives for Irish Independence. It was because of that and the persecution, that my grandmother and her mother came to the US. 31 January is still a solemn day of rememberance for my family. Éire go Deo

Sounds just like my fathers childhood in Turkie in a Kurdish village during the 80s/90s. Chasing rebels and forcing evacuations afterwards burning down villages sending them all over the country as refugees. Only difference you lads had an Island at least..

The Man who fired the first Shots

@@ruairiodonohoe2533 he didn't even fire a shot in solohead that day ,Tadgh Crowe fired the first shot killing the first police man and Sean Treacy the second ,the shooting was over before Dan knew it started ,for all information on soloheadbeg ambush read all the participants of the day first hand statements on their pension applications now available to read on the military archives, breen played his part just not on this day

That's the most American sounding shit I've ever heard from an Irishman's mouth

Replaced Black and Tans with the IDF, and you got the standard Palestinian thought.

@@Anverse-14 The Irgun was based on the IRA and their leader took the code name Michael in honour of Michael Collins

He got. It wrong this time this is no where near the truth just recycled Irish propaganda

He got. It wrong this time this is no where near the truth just recycled Irish propaganda

@@halfhuff976 what would you expect from an anti-brexit "left wing" guy that expatriated to a country with exceptionally low tax rates lol

I know nothing about this so cast a vote for it. 👍

@@halfhuff976 So you are saying that nothing happened?! 🤣

Loads of them

You about 40 ish? The troubles as the press called it came later in our childhood

This needs more upvotes.

This video is not about “The Troubles”. That took place in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998. This is about the centuries long fight for Irish independence culminating in the War of Independence as covered in this video.

The Tans Burnt down an Entire city. But that just made the entire county a Fortress of Nationilism. They do not learn

From the time Dan Breen killed the first two confused village policemen in 1919 to November 1920 the IRA had killed almost 200 men many of them police often in their homes, digging their gardens or having a pint after work. The Black and Tans were not recruited from the prisons as any research will tell you they were war veterans with years in the trenches and killing meant absolutely nothing to them. Having said that like all veterans they didn't kill for fun you'll find a post on youtube where Australians in France only fired on the Germans by arrangement. There was no point in killing people every day it just made everyone's life difficult. A British veteran who was never in Ireland put it simply if the Germans did a dirty trick on us we didn't worry about the Geneva Convention we did it back on them. The first two scumbags the IRA encountered on bloody Sunday where veterans of the machine gun corps and they gave them the treatment they'd been giving the RIC. They had only been in Ireland a month and like most of their comrades and not had a chance to rape kill murder or plunder anyone nevertheless they took them into a back garden and shot them. When their bodies were found their comrades killed two IRA prisoners which was of course murder but not to them. Most IRA companies were about twenty strong and consisted of teenagers or early 20 somethings who got together elected the leader and went out to create mayhem according to their inclination. Some of their activities would make a modern police force laugh. Holding up a railway station and stealing £2, cutting the telegraph wires etc. but some of them went in for killing. the lads of the IRA and had a good year killing and terrorising all on sundry and thought they could do the same to the veterans. The veterans response was simple they weren't going to take any **** from country boys and said, if you want to play rough boys this is rough. They weren't psychopaths they were playing by Western front rules where if the Germans did a dirty trick on them they did it straight back to them. My mother's home was raided by the Tans, she and her five sisters were not hurt but they screamed the place down. My parents were as fierce in their hatred of the Tans as anyone could be but a telling comment came from my mother. She said, they were terrible fellas England sent over those Black and Tans terrible fellas then she paused and said quietly, mind you the IRA were afraid of their life of them.

Too true….

Because of course we would let russia back the irish and makes bases with missiles there no problem at all obviously

Excellent observation. Well said.

To be fair, at the time Ireland had not been internationally recognized as an independent nation. Policing your own backyard (even if you 'grounds keeper' is trying to carve off his own separate parcel of land) is a bit different than claiming your neighbor's yard as part of your property like what Putin's doing. And I say that as a man who will back the Irish over the damned tea-swilling Brits any day of the week.

Says every single Native American for over 500 years..... Lolol

Definitely just more Irish history. Pearse and Tone would be interesting plus more recent. Hume, Gerry, Martin maybe

I think they did one on him

Would love to see a video on the siege of jadotiville on this channel

The Nine Years War was fascinating.

@@ranica47 You mean Tyrone's Rebellion (1593-1603) or the War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697)?

Do you know when it was published and what publishing company made it?

@@sallyintucson Peter De Rosa, published 1990. Hope you enjoy. Some of the letters and poetry written by those involved is amazing and heart wrenching

@@gruntsffs1 Thanks! Where are you serving?

@@sallyintucson no problem 👍🏻 I joined the army infantry in 1992 and retired in 2014. I served in Germany, the US, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Iraq. I volunteered to be a recruiter for my last your so that I could be an applicant’s first contact. I never made the 20-22 enlistments in those 4 years, but in my heart I did. The soldiers I enlisted knew exactly what they were getting in to and, their likelihood of going to combat. I call that a win.

@@gruntsffs1 During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I adopted three soldiers back to back. Amazing what you can fit in those little boxes with practice. I then dog sat for a Army Reservist for eight years. If/when we go back to war/military action I’ll be adopting again. Thank you for serving.

A lot of people are still dealing with the aftermath of the Troubles, at both an economic and at a personal level. It's going to take a while for that kind of evil to wash downstream. But it will. And Ireland will return to being a single entity.

The political winds have shifted pretty far in the last 25 years. I think that Irish Independence isn't too far off.

Id like to see one Ireland together for better with compromise for British unionist thinking people but some parts of NI r extreme loyalists British unionist whatever so I fear it might not happen ☘️

You don't have to put quotation marks for the troubles, that's what it's called.

I've learned a lot of things watching documentaries on RU-vid that they never taught me in American schooling.

You're not from Boston are you? I am French Canadian from the Boston area and I know all of this. The right up to the IRA and Bobby Sands hunger strike

@@zenolachance1181 Bostonians pretending to be Irish since for ever

@@zenolachance1181 The best part is right up to the IRA, except the IRA were involved in everything, shows you what I said Bostonians are not Irish just pretending to be.

I think given the topics I’d prefer if this channel stayed more serious. But if Simon wanted to restart the Biographics Podcast’s original iteration or some other casual history podcast I’d listen for sure.

Most of his channels are fully scripted, I think it's just the casual criminality and brain blaze where he adds his own off script and humour

You're not Irish

@@Avocadovr768 I never said I was. I said I am descended from a variety of peoples who lived in Ireland at various points in history. I identify as a Wisconsin hybrid.

@@Avocadovr768 where did she say she was Irish? 🤡

They did, even though they actually sent an army of about 150 thousand soldiers to Indonesia. It's just insane that we put up a bigger fight to keep one of our colonies than against our invasion by Germany. I'm ashamed of the history of my country sometimes....

Halo, halo Bandung...

@@marktg98 in 1940 your equipment was best suited to fighting a late 19th century war. By 1947 the British and Americans had armed and trained your soldiers and given some fun toys of war to your navy and air services. If the Netherlands had the same army in 1940 as it had in 1947, Indonesia would have won within the year

If possible the Dutch were even worse than the brits.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjFXpnymhTg.html&pp=ygUma2lsbWljaGFlbCBhbWJ1c2ggYSBzb2xkaWVyJ3MgdGhvdWdodHM%3D

Untold ? Maybe in the UK it's untold in Ireland we know our history and don't forget

It's what you remember that counts ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjFXpnymhTg.html&pp=ygUma2lsbWljaGFlbCBhbWJ1c2ggYSBzb2xkaWVyJ3MgdGhvdWdodHM%3D @@marcphelan9883

Ireland would be an independent country now, full and entire, if not for the idiots that decided to use violence. They couldn't have cocked up this country more if they'd tried. Otherwise, lovely comment. :)

@@SharpeBalth I have to agree. Although I think Post-seperation Ireland was a bit better than you put it (Apart from the economy certainly.) and the Irish were committed to democracy and such so the country remained surprisingly stable, it does seem the bloodshed was remarkably unnecessary and caused further bloodshed down the line. If nothing else, Irishmen seem to not realise how much of a relief loosing Ireland from British hands was.

Start learning you’ve a lot to catch up on

Keep that way as follow USA ppl funded ira and still raise money in covert ways for political wing of it.. In NI

@@joprocter4573 It's cute when uninformed people like yourself choose to ignore the existence of protestant terror groups such as the UDF, UDA, LVF, UPV, RHC or the RUC and the British army which were all funded by the British people. I applaud the people in the US for helping. 😁

@@joprocter4573Why would you need to covertly raise money for a political party?

As an Irish history teacher what do you make of this? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjFXpnymhTg.html&pp=ygUma2lsbWljaGFlbCBhbWJ1c2ggYSBzb2xkaWVyJ3MgdGhvdWdodHM%3D

I can't get an audience for this anywhere least of all Ireland ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjFXpnymhTg.html&pp=ygUma2lsbWljaGFlbCBhbWJ1c2ggYSBzb2xkaWVyJ3MgdGhvdWdodHM%3D

Indeed they do ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjFXpnymhTg.html&pp=ygUma2lsbWljaGFlbCBhbWJ1c2ggYSBzb2xkaWVyJ3MgdGhvdWdodHM%3D

Britain has other things to learn about. You got independence, you learn it.

The war of independence happened 50 years before the troubles

Lol wrong time period. The war for independence was not called the troubles, the troubles are entirely different but has the same views.

@@King_Cova Sorry about that! Maybe Simon will cover that in the third segment in this series?

@@niallkilkelly865 Thanks, I didn’t know!

@@padawanmage71 Part 3 will be about the civil war that happened after the signing of the treaty. Simon would also have to do eitheir a very well detailed video on The Troubles or split it into multiple parts itself.

Or Ernest O’Malley, one of the most interesting characters of the time.

What did Dan Breen do ? Except self promote himself

Irish man here There is also a further 70 years of sectarian violence (the troubles) and segregation in the North of ireland between Republican Catholic's and Protestant Unionists (Catholic's were unable to get jobs in the North and were driven away from there homes there). Alot of people here in Ireland still harbour a lot of anger towards the British establishment over the 700-800 odd years of occupation, the famine and the more recent war crimes of the last 100 years (in fairness we ourselves did some shitty things during the troubles, the Omagh bombings being one instance) The whole Brexit thing really brought it to the surface again for a new generation for various reasons but in particular the question of the North of Ireland and whether it future lies with London or Dublin

@@caverly72 Question northern or southerner? Because most people in the south honestly dont care too much about the north and if it will be incorporated into the country, I mean it's another 1.5 million people to add into to the country that's already drained financially, and FF and FG have zero interest in the north, now if SF get into power then the question of the north being powered by Dublin or London might come up again, but SF would have a lot of things to clear up and go forward with before ever turning to the north, so if the north was to be a part of a united Ireland again it's down a long road in the future.

@@King_Cova I'm a Southerner. I'll be honest I myself really didn't take an interest in reunification with the North until Brexit (where the prospect of a hard boarder was really a consideration for the British government for a while which made me sick). Now I'm of a different mind as I've taken more of a interest in the North and that now really is the right time for reunification because I strongly believe it might be done peacefully as I'd say there's more than a few moderate Protestants not happy with the British government right now. Your right SF probably would be the only ones to bring it home but as you said there are many issues here in the South, housing and health care are top issues to sort and SF have promised alot on both

The Black & Tans and Auxiliaries which were British veterans of WW1 committed war crimes in Ireland. After the Irish War of Independence hundreds of them including their Commander General Henry Tudour would join the Palestine Police Force.

Thank you brother💚🇮🇪🇵🇸

As an Irish person we see what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people and how similar it is to what Britain did to the Irish.

🇮🇱💪🏻

@@MasMurosyMenosMoros wouldn’t wipe my arse with that flag😂👎🏻

TIocfaidh ar La 🇮🇪🤝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Alba Go bragh. “We can still rise now and be a nation again”. Celtic brothers

@@ianmoore3470 Saor Alba agus Èirinn 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🤝🇮🇪

Yes, turn yourself into a banana republic at Brussels' mercy

@@vulpes7079 better than being a banana republic at Westminster’s mercy. They’ve been stealing from us and lying about it for longer than you can imagine. But, it’s no skin off my nose if you believe their lies. You see, up here, we actually research stuff and fact check our politicians. They’re far from perfect, but next to the hyenas in the commons and the unelected lords they’re bloody saint’s and if you think they have your best interests at heart then you are a fool. Saor Alba Gu Brath 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@@vulpes7079 oh I miss Brussels, better than Johnson at least

The last one was in reprisal to the murder of two Royal Irish Constabulary men. Does not justify it of course.

Asked for his impressions of the campaign this is what he wrote in 1923 My own view is that to win a war of this sort you must be ruthless Oliver Cromwell, or the Germans would have settled it in a very short time. Nowadays public opinion procured such methods, the nation would never allow it, and the politicians would lose their jobs if they sanctioned it. That being so I consider that Lloyd George was really right in what he did, if we had gone on we could probably have squashed the rebellion as a temporary measure, but it would have broken out again like an ulcer the moment we removed the troops. I think the rebels would probably have refused battle and hidden their arms etc. until we had gone. The only way therefore was to give them some form of self-government, and let them squash the rebellion themselves, they are the only people who could really stamp it out and they are still trying to do so and as far as one can tell they seem to be having a fair amount of success. I am not however in close touch with the situation over there, but it seems to me that they have had more success than we had. I arrived at the above conclusion after a very great you have thought on the subject you are probably not agree. Yours ever BL Montgomery Major York, 14 Oct 1923 Summary “Having a fair amount of success - more success than we had” The Irish government’s success was due to the fact it rounded up and interned without trial all IRA suspects. Over a period of three years the British government executed 25 IRA men. In nine months the Irish government executed 75 IRA men and various others were summarily shot by their army and security service. Needless to say their security services were themselves former IRA and knew how to go about it. A man found with a revolver near and attack in Dublin was shot dead on the spot while 2 IRA youths caught putting up posters were found dead in a quarry the following day. Officially the Irish Government did not actually take reprisals but they would have a certain number of IRA men in prison under sentence of death. When one of their officials was assassinated they would carry out an appropriate number of executions. So they were not carrying out reprisals only following the normal process of the law - clever? The message got through to the extremists that their efforts were fatally affecting their own people. Elsewhere as an Irish soldier said to me many years ago, “We were the army that defeated the IRA we didn’t f--- about with them like the British we just shot the bastards.”

You are totally wrong. Major Bernard Montgonery never commanded any Auxiliary unit. He served with the regular British Army during the Irish War of Independence.

@@johnroche7541 Well, maybe he did. But the fact is that written orders, signed by Montgomery, still exist, where strong measures against the Irish rebels are recommended. “Monty” may indeed have had some Irish blood on his hands.

@@Clipgatherer The Irish War of Independence is fascinating because some of the British officers who served in this conflict would later become famous or infamous in WW2. Obviously Major Bernard Montgomery who served with the 17th Infantry Brigade in Cork City would become famous for defeating General Erwin Rommel at the Battle of El-Alamein in WW2. Major Arthur Pervival of the 1st Bn Essex Regiment based in Cork would later as Lt-General Percival surrender Singapore to the Japanese. The "blackest day in the history of the British Empire" according to Churchill. There is famous footage of Percival in tropical uniform and wearing shorts surrendering to the Japanese. Major Douglas Wimberley who served with the 2nd Bn Cameron Highlanders based in Co.Cork would later command the 51st Highland Brigade at the Battle of El-Alamein. Major John Holland and Major Colin Gubbins served in Dublin and were so influenced by the IRA tactics that they would adopt similar tactics when they set up both the Commando's and SOE(Special Operation Executive) which in Churchills words were to "set Europe ablaze".