The War that Didn't Happen: Waiting for Ambushes in the Irish War of Independence

There is a widely held perception that the Anglo-Irish War or War of Independence was a hard-fought series of guerrilla war engagements punctuated by larger and often spectacular events in Cork, Dublin and elsewhere. However, an examination of the conflict from the perspective of a search for an alt...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Contemporary European history 2023-11, Vol.32 (4), p.532-550
Main Author: Ó Catháin, Máirtín Seán
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Military history
Military service
Ontology
Pensions
Special Issue Articles
War
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Summary:There is a widely held perception that the Anglo-Irish War or War of Independence was a hard-fought series of guerrilla war engagements punctuated by larger and often spectacular events in Cork, Dublin and elsewhere. However, an examination of the conflict from the perspective of a search for an alternative war, where little if anything occurred, can yield interesting and counter-intuitive results. This is exactly what this article sets out to do in order to demonstrate the often rich potential in the quest for nothing in particular, but primarily to establish that in every conflict of this type, another war often takes place, which shows itself to be largely ineffectual and futile though ultimately quite rewarding in its own way.
ISSN:0960-7773
1469-2171
DOI:10.1017/S0960777322000819