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The 1920 Munitions Strike: "An unusual kind of strike"

100 years ago today, on 20 May 1920, Irish railway workers started refusing to transport British weapons and forces. It was a crucial act of civil resistance in the War of Independence

Captain Eileen McGrane

"Most Effective Women": The story of Eileen McGrane

A steam train crosses a bridge in Kerry

See the effect of the 1920 Munitions Strike

De Valera in America: follow the tour that rocked Irish-America

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family in the 1910s. (Image by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

How Russian crown jewels went from the Romanovs to Harry Boland

Crowds outside Mountjoy Prison show their support for IRA inmates. They may not have been representative of public opinion

What did the general public think of the War of Independence?

Badge of shame: The R.I.C. members became pariahs

Outcasts: how Ireland shunned the R.I.C. and their families

On November 27th 1920 the Irish Independent newspaper responds quickly to British propaganda, exposing the 'Battle of Tralee' as a British propaganda ploy. Image courtesy of National Library of Ireland

Censorship and propaganda: Media in the War of Independence

Unidentified young woman wearing Cumann na mBan pin. Image courtesy of National Library of Ireland

Cumann na mBan and the War of Independence

Volunteers Maurice Crowe (Tipperary) and Michael Carolan (Belfast) recover in the Mater Hospital (April 1920) after the Mountjoy hunger strike had ended [Photo: Irish Military Archives,, IE-MA-BMH-CD-208-2-11

Hunger Strikes and the War of Independence

The Irish Revolution: watch the documentary series

Pictures of the Past.

An image from the exhibition

The National Library of Ireland presents From Turmoil to Truce

Women protesting outside Mountjoy Jail, Dublin in 1920.

In Pictures: Hunger Strikes and Protests

May Gibney in uniform Courtesy of Kilmainham Gaol Museum/OPW 19PO-1A22-27

Portraits and Pamphlets: A Cumann na mBan Gallery

The RIC

Mary McAulliffe on the changing role of the R.I.C. during the War of Independence

The RIC

Mary McAulliffe on the changing role of the R.I.C. during the War of Independence

The Dáil Ban

John Borgonovo on how the ban backfired on the British

The First Dáil

Helene O'Keeffe on the first TDs

Cumann na mBan

Helene O'Keeffe on the crucial role women played in the War of Independence

The History Show on RTE Radio 1

Bringing the past to life with Myles Dungan and guests

From the RTÉ Archives.

"Nothing Else Mattered": Sighle Humpreys of Cumann na mBan

What was it like to be involved in Cumann na mBan during its first revolutionary decade? In this 1984 interview, Sighle Humphreys shares her memories.

Earnán de Blaghd, Robert Barton and James Ryan (1969)

Standing For An Irish Parliament

Maire Comerford remembers the first meeting of the Dáil

Dan Breen on the Soloheadbeg ambush

About the War of Independence project

The War of Independence project is a partnership between RTÉ History, the Department of Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht and The Atlas of the Irish Revolution

RTE History.

World War 1

Gallipoli: An Irish Story

The 1916 Rising

History on Brainstorm.

Irish playwright and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, Lady Gregory. Photo: George C. Beresford/Beresford/Getty Images

Why Lady Gregory is one of Ireland's greatest cultural figures

"In light of regressive fantasies, our current fascination with food thought to have been first invented in the pre-Neolithic period makes even more sense"

The historical roots of our lockdown obsession with baking bread

Some of what the Annals of Tigernach had to say about the events of 664 AD, "a true annus horribilis"

Reeling in the years: why 664 AD was a terrible year in Ireland

A queue for the new supermarket in Shannon. Photo: Shannon Group archives

How to build a new town in Ireland

Rita Childers in 1973 for RTÉ Guide. Photo: Roy Bedell © RTÉ Photographic Archive

The woman who could have been Ireland's first female president

A hawthorn tree at Kylemore Lough in Connemara. Photo: Getty Images

Death, sex, superstition and fear: the hawthorn tree in Ireland

Sister Kate McCarthy: "it's fitting that she should be remembered because she was an inspiration throughout her life and she still is to women and to Cork and to Ireland"

An Irish nun, the French resistance, the Gestapo and Nazi prisons

Two of the main figures in the 1970 Arms Crisis: Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney

All you need to know about the 1970 Arms Crisis

A stained glass window in the church of St Lawrence in Eyam illustrates the onset of the plague. Photo: Simon Norfolk https://simonnorfolk.com/

How a village's self-isolation stopped the Great Plague spreading

Health department staff in Louisiana, where 70% of coronoavirus deaths have been among African Americans, at the New Orleans Convention Center. Photo: Claire Bangser / AFP via Getty Images

How Covid-19 has highlighted African-American health problems

"The difficulty of confronting uncomfortable pasts has become heightened in the north, particularly due to the tensions around the issue of Brexit and a United Ireland border poll"

The problems around commemorating the Troubles

"The late seventh century was a time of unprecedented scholarly activity in Ireland, and the archaeological record points to how the long term impact of this plague was limited."

When plagues and pandemics were common in ancient Ireland

Century Ireland

Discover the history of your land