History Glossary

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War of Independence
the conflict between the Irish Volunteers (from 1920 called the Irish Republican Army) and the British government. It began with the murder of policemen in Co. Tipperary in January 1919 and became a full-scale guerrilla war in 1920. Neither side achieved military victory and a truce was called on 9th July 1921.

Wilson, Sir Henry
a southern Irish Protestant who rose to be a Field Marshal and Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He strongly sympathised with cavalry officers who threatened to resign at the Curragh in March 1914. Elected Unionist MP for Co. Down in 1918 he became military adviser to the new Northern Ireland government. On 22nd June 1922 he was assassinated by two IRA men at the front of his London home – this murder helped to begin the Irish Civil War.