Irish Revolt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Irish Revolt - Essay Example Popularly it is known as the Irish Revolt. When this Irish revolt happened the British were at the back foot due to the war against Germany and its economy was in shambles. So it was very difficult for the British to control the insurgency in Ireland. During this period there was a great deal of political violence and upheavel. The violence used by the British to suppress the rebels led to an over-whelming support for them. To seek complete independence the Irish Republican Army waged a guerilla war against the British from 1919-1921. Though the World War I had weakened the British but still the Irish knew that it would be a Herculean task to engage Great Britain in a conventional war. So, the Irish nationalists collectively took a decision to bleed Great Britain slowly by starting an unconventional war against it through guerilla war tactics and intelligence played a very vital role in this. Michael Collins was the Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army. He pinched th e British so much through his deadly tactics that he had an award of 10,000 over his head for 'dead or alive'. The IRA was particularly gruesome on those who took the bait to pass on information about Collins and immediately liquidated the person. Collins was equally vehement in acting against the British intelligence officers and played a vital role in executing a number of them. The British wanted to give a body blow to the Irish revolt by executing Collins and even raised a local force by the name of Black and Tans for the job. Despite that the local intelligence sources of the IRA were so effective that they on a number of occasions pre-empted the raids. There were a section of counterintelligence operatives in the IRA known by the name of Inner-Circle, and who were responsible for the penetration of various British installations. Their network spanned many nations and was able to penetrate deep in to various British facilities extending from Ireland to America and gathered hidd en messages that were later decoded and that in turn helped in the Irish Revolutionaries. The Inner Circle also established a central records center, known by the name of Brain Center within Dublin to effectively control and co-ordinate the counter-intelligence activities. This brain center also had detailed dossiers on many high ranking officials and the known intelligence officers and sympathizers of the British. The British intelligence service tried to penetrate the intelligence arm of the IRA and in its bid even planted a fake spy known by the name of Digby Hardy but the Irish intelligence had a inkling about his past and gathered lots of incriminating evidence against him. Eventually, hardy was expelled from Ireland. It came as a major humiliation for the British Intelligence and equally showcased the efficiency of the Irish Intelligence. In their penetration efforts IIS operatives were more consistent and successful than their British counterparts. The IIS had a number of Dub lin Castle officials on its payroll and extracted valuable information from them regarding the British military tactics and policies against the Irish Nationalists. The prominent among them were Ned Broy and James MacNamara. The IIS chief Collins also had a very valuable asset inside the British military intelligence who regularly passed information about the