An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 23 and a century later the IRA's intelligence war remains one of the most controver- sial aspects of the conflict. The official record of the British Army's 6th Division suggested that the IRA exploited genuine intelligence concerns for sectarian reasons: "a large number of Protestant Loyalists were murdered and labelled as spies … a regular murder cam- paign was instigated against Protestant Loyalists and anyone suspected of being an informer quite irrespective of whether he really was one or not". Some modern historians have repeated this claim and used this controversy to question the legitimacy of the War of Independence as a whole. Historian Ruth Dudley-Edwards claims that "The vicious Irish War of Indepen- dence … was a time when [IRA] guerrillas ambushed their friendly local policemen and shot civilians on vague suspicion of giving information [to the British] bedeck- ing their corpses with placards saying 'Spies Beware' and burning down their homes." Furthermore Edwards maintains that the main targets of this war were Protestants. Canadian historian Peter Hart claimed that the conflict was a "dirty war" and that the IRA used the issue of British spies to engage in widespread anti-Protestant "sectarianism" and "ethnic cleansing". So is there any truth to these allegations? Did the IRA's military campaign in the War of Independence conceal a cam- paign to persecute Protestants? - The evidence available from contemporary historical records veteran testimony and the mate- rial in both British and Irish archives accounts sug- gests that there is little or no basis to these claims. The most striking thing about the IRA's intel- ligence war is that the number of al- leged British agents killed varied widely throughout Ireland. (See map). The ex- ecution of suspected spies was almost exclusively a 'southern' phenomenon. Apart from a small cluster of execu- tions in Armagh, Cavan and Monaghan the IRA execution of spies was almost unknown in Ulster. The War of Indepen- dence was most bitterly fought in Cork the largest number of IRA executions of alleged spies; seventy-eight in total, occurred in that county. The second highest number of executions occurred in Tipperary where fifteen civilians ac- cused of spying were executed. Whilst the IRA in Dublin killed at least fourteen civilians for spying. These three counties alone accounted for more than half of such killings nationally. This is unsur- prising given that these counties saw intense IRA activity and were amongst the first districts to be proclaimed under martial law. The execution of Protestants accused of spying was not widespread nationally. Of the 196 civilians killed by the IRA as alleged spies the religious affiliation of ten of them cannot be established, but of the remainder the overwhelming ma- jority - 75% were Catholic and just 25% were Protestant (Anglican, Presbyterian or Methodist). This ratio of three quar- ters Catholic and one quarter Protestant tallies exactly with the overall religious makeup of Irish society at that time. The IRA did not kill any civilians' accused of spying in Antrim, Derry, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Mayo, Tyrone or Wicklow. Furthermore, Catholics accounted for all of those shot by the IRA as spies in Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Waterford and Wexford. This rules out the possibility that the IRA in any of these twenty counties exploited the intelligence war as a pretext for "sectar- ian murder" or "ethnic cleansing". The largest number of Protestant civil- ians killed by the IRA as suspected spies occurred in Cork where 24 of those killed (approximately 30%) were Protestant. Although this figure seems dispropor- tionately high, there were very large Protestant communities in Cork, which were staunchly Loyalist in politics and consequently were more willing to assist the British forces. The British Army's "Record of the Rebellion" reported that Protestant Loyalists in West Cork had actively assisted them 'in the Bandon Valley … there were many Protestant farmers who gave information … it proved almost impossible to protect these brave men many of whom were murdered'. The IRA killed one alleged spy in Sligo and a further two in Leitrim - these were the only counties where all of those killed as spies were Protestant. Maria Lyndsay executed as a spy.

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