Timeline of Local and National Events 1920
National events in blue
Local events in black
1920
January 1920
4th
Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork becomes the first RIC Barracks to be captured by the IRA. It followed a three-hour gun battle and, in one sense, it marks the real start of the War of Independence.
15th
Municipal elections under PR see Sinn Féin win 72 of the 127 urban councils. Nationalists take Omagh and Unionists lose control of Enniskillen.
February 1920
15th
The IRA under Eoin O’Duffy attack Ballytrain Barracks in Co. Monaghan. Extensive damage is caused in the first such attack in the area.
27th
The ‘Fourth Home Rule Bill’ is published, proposing a 52- seat parliament in Belfast and a 128-seat parliament in Dublin.
March 1920
10th
An Ulster Unionist Council meeting in Belfast supports Carson’s motion to exclude Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal from the proposed new Northern Ireland state.
15th
Most Rev Dr McHugh, Bishop of Derry, denounces any proposal to coerce Catholics from Derry city, Tyrone and Fermanagh into a Belfast parliament and proposes a huge protest meeting of all Irishmen in Dublin irrespective of their party allegiance.
20th
Tomas MacCurtain is assassinated in Cork. The RIC is suspected of carrying out the attack.
25th
The first Black and Tans arrive in Ireland.
April 1920
2nd
Hamar Greenwood replaces Ian Macpherson as Chief Secretary for Ireland.
4th
Letterbreen Barracks is destroyed in an arson attack.
5th
IRA prisoners begin a hunger strike in Mountjoy Jail in their demand for POW status.
30th
Basil Brooke forms ‘Fermanagh vigilance’ on his estate at Colebrooke.
May 1920
10th
The IRA attack Newtownhamilton Barracks and cause extensive damage.
12th
Enniskillen is isolated as IRA Volunteers cut telegraph and telephone wires before destroying records in the Inland Revenue Offices which were housed in the Town Hall.
28th
A special meeting of the UUC in the Ulster Hall called by Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal Unionists reject Brig Gen Ricardo’s motion, refusing to accept any parliament that did not include all 9 Ulster Counties. In a tense atmosphere Carson declared that the UUC was not acting in breach of the 1912 Covenant.
June 1920
2nd
The results of the County Council elections are declared. In Tyrone the outcome was Sinn Féin – 6 seats, IPP – 7 seats and Unionists – 11 seats. In Fermanagh the outcome was Sinn Féin – 6 seats, IPP – 5 seats and Unionists – 9 seats.
7th
Patrick Loughran is killed during an attack on Cookstown Barracks. He is the first IRA Volunteer to be killed in Tyrone.
18th
Serious violence erupts in Derry which results in over 20 deaths during the following week.
18th
Derrylin Courthouse is destroyed in an arson attack.
19th
An angry meeting of Tyrone County Council sees Sinn Féin take the chair for the first time.
July 1920
11th
The first Black and Tan to die is killed defending an RIC barracks in Co. Kerry.
12th
Carson delivers an incendiary speech at the Twelfth demonstration in Belfast.
17th
A passenger train from Dundalk to Enniskillen is held up at Inniskean station in Co. Monaghan. The driver and fireman are kidnapped.
21st
Catholic workers and prominent socialists are driven from their employment in the Harland and Wolff shipyard.
23rd
Fourteen die in Belfast riots.
24th
All quarries owned by Tyrone County Council are closed because of an order banning the use of gelignite.
27th
The first Auxiliaries arrive in Ireland.
August 1920
11th
The Dáil cabinet orders a Belfast boycott in response to the expulsion of Catholic workers in Belfast. It is extended at the beginning of 1921.
15th
Terence MacSwiney begins his hunger strike.
22nd
District Inspector Oswald Swanzy (RIC), a suspect in the Tomas MacCurtain murder, is shot dead in Lisburn. His death leads to an outbreak of serious violence directed at the town’s Catholic population.
26th
An IRA attack on Drumquin Barracks results in the death of Constable James Munnelly, a Co. Mayo native who becomes the first RIC fatality in Tyrone.
September 1920
6th
Volunteers use large boulders to block the railway line between Omagh and Fintona.
8th
The government approves the formation of the Ulster Special Constabulary(USC).
20th
Black and Tans burn houses in the ‘Sack of Balbriggan’. Two civilians are killed in a reprisal for the killing of two RIC men in a local pub.
20th
Three soldiers, the youngest of whom was 15, are shot dead in Dublin while delivering a consignment of bread. One of the attackers, Kevin Barry, is arrested.
October 1920
3rd
The funeral of Capt Alan Lendrum, Resident Magistrate, takes place in Kilskeery. Lendrum, a member of a prominent Trillick family, was killed on his way to court in Co. Clare.
22nd
Tyrone County Council passes a resolution declaring that it will resist any attempt to force it to come under a Belfast parliament.
25th
Terence MacSwiney dies in Brixton Prison after 74 days on hunger strike.
25th
An IRA attack on Tempo Barracks results in the death of Sgt Samuel Lucas. Later a local man, Philip Breen, is shot dead in a reprisal attack.
25th
Rev James Whitla, the Enniskillen Methodist minister, is shot and wounded when he fails to stop at a military checkpoint on his return from a harvest festival in Ballinamallard.
November 1920
1st
Kevin Barry is hanged in Mountjoy Jail.
9th
Lloyd George tells guests at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London that we have ‘murder by the throat in Ireland’.
11th
Joe Devlin, the Ulster Nationalist leader, advocates Dominion Home Rule for Ireland with ‘adequate safeguards for North-East Ulster’ in the debate on the Government of Ireland Bill.
11th
An anti-partition meeting organised by Sinn Féin is held in Omagh. The chairmen of Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal County Councils are in attendance.
15th
Recruitment for the USC opens in Tyrone and Fermanagh under the respective County Commandants, Lt Col John Knox McClintock and Sir Basil Brooke.
21st
Collins’s Squad assassinate 14 British agents in Dublin on Bloody Sunday. A few hours later a joint force of Auxiliaries and RIC fire on the crowd at Croke Park during a match between Dublin and Tipperary. Fourteen are killed including a Tipperary player, Michael Hogan.
23rd
Two civilian drivers and three policemen are wounded in an IRA ambush at Garvaghey between Omagh and Ballygawley as they return from a court-martial in Derry.
28th
Tom Barry’s flying column attacks a motorised Auxiliary patrol at Kilmichael as it travels between Macroom and Bantry. Sixteen Auxiliaries die in the engagement.
December 1920
10th
Following the killing of an Auxiliary the centre of Cork city is destroyed by fire. The incident makes international headlines.
10th
The first attack on the police or military in Enniskillen leaves a soldier seriously wounded.
20th
After formally taking the oath of allegiance members of the Fermanagh Special Constabulary are accused of acting in a sectarian manner when marching past St Michael’s Church in Enniskillen.
23rd
De Valera returns from his tour of the United States.
23rd
The Government of Ireland Bill receives the royal assent.
Creative Centenaries – Government of Ireland Act (1920)
Creative Centenaries – Centenary Conversation Panel: Government of Ireland Act 1920
