ABSTRACT
The Church and Sinn Fein joined hands in a campaign to resist any attempts by Britain, which adopted conscription in 1916, to impose it in Ireland, a campaign which was both popular and successful. The Asquithian Liberals, traditionally the British partner of the Irish Nationalists, had been massacred. A good deal of mythology surrounds the murders and counter-murders which took place in the second half of 1920 and the first half of 1921. The slaughter and destruction continued, on a scale which made the struggle with Britain the previous year seem minor. The damage was so enormous that there was no possibility of Ulster coming into a united Ireland. The Irish Boundary Commission Bill was passed in 1924. A South African, a former member of Milner’s ‘Kindergarten’, Mr Justice Featham, was appointed the independent chairman.
