ABSTRACT
The relationship between terrorism and guerrilla warfare is very close, because of the irregular nature of guerrilla methods. Hardly a single major guerrilla theorist or practitioner has claimed that a guerrilla strategy alone can produce decisive results. Agitational terrorism as such was uncommon in the first Anglo-Irish war, or was fused with the function of enforcement—which not only defended the IRA but at the same time enhanced its prestige and power. The guerrilla method is political rather than military in that it starts from and operates through public opinion. The assassination of Sir Henry Wilson in 1922 may be seen as an overhang from the Anglo-Irish war, as that of Kevin O'Higgins in 1927 was from the civil war. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a revolutionary secret society committed to achieving Irish political independence by physical force. K. von Clausewitz recognized the moral and political dimensions of war as paramount, and technical military dimensions as secondary.
