Province of Ulster

From Acw

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Revision as of 06:50, 12 November 2006

Timeline:

• 1940 - The De Valera govt, persuing neutrality, uncovers Operation Kathleen, and clamps down on IRA activity. By 1941 The IRA leadership flees to their stronghold of Northern Ireland.

• 1943 - Renewed contacts between the Abwehr and Provisional IRA result in German arms and munitions being smuggled into the North. The IRA begin implementing the S-Plan, concentrating on targets mapped out by the Abwehr, in particular the coalmines and industry of North England - targets generally out of range of German bombing. The British government demands that Eire take action to stop the IRA.

• 1944 - After a major hit on the Saville & Shaw Cross Colliery, the British government begins to openly supply the Northern Irish Protestant paramilitaries with weapons, and declares martial law in Northern Ireland.

• 1945 - The IRA abandons the S-Plan and focuses on the increasingly heated civil war in the North. Reports of atrocities from both sides begin to emerge.

• 1947 - De Valera's staunch refusal to intervene in the North Irish Civil War sees his party defeated at the polls by a coalition of Sinn Fein and Fine Gaul members. Within a week, Sinn Fein members, without consulting the cabinet, order Irish regular troops to cross into the North and declare on the IRA's behalf in the escalating civil war. The coalition breaks up, with Fine Gaul and Fianna Fail attempting to form a coalition and order Irish troops back to safeguard Ireland's neutrality. However, Britain refuses to accept an apology, and declares war on the Irish Republic. Initially, however, apart from some token bombing raids, the British confine their attacks to Northern Ireland.

• 1948 - Ireland tries to have itself included with the Axis parties in the Yalta agreement, but is rejected by the Axis powers. After Yalta, Britain prepares itself for a full-scale invasion of the country, pulling almost all its forces from the European mainland.

• The Boxing Day invasion, the Second Anglo-Irish war - British troops land near Dublin and Cork, setting up beachheads and holding position. Meanwhile, a huge armoured column puts ashore near Derry in Northern Ireland, and strikes southwards to link up with the troops near Dublin.

• Shortly after the armoured column links up with the Dublin troops, the British invasion stalls after a major IRA attack on the main resupply port. A decision is made to hold position while resupply is secured, but the beachhead around Cork is overwhelmed in this period, and virtually the entire force massacred.

• After this interruption, the British invasion swallows the whole of Ireland, with brutal reprisals for the Cork massacre occurring in every major city British troops enter.

• 1949 - the entire island is under British control, and the IRA seems to have been beaten into submission.

• 1950 - After a few months of apparent calm, oppressive British policies spark a renewed uprising, and the Second Anglo-Irish war reignites.

• 1953 - Eamon de Valera is executed for war crimes, despite having been imprisoned since the capture of Dublin in 1949.

• 1955 - Rumours begin to circulate about secret British death-camps in the West, away from populated areas.

• 1957 - After 7 years of brutal civil war, Britain officially announces the beginning of concentration camps and resettlement policies. America formally protests, but does not intervene.

• 1961 - President Kennedy brokers peace talks between a war-weary Britain and Sinn Fein, now generally recognised as Ireland's legitimate voice, since the execution of de Valera. Sinn Fein refuses to give up Northern Ireland again, supported by a sympathetic Kennedy and in 1962, a nearly bankrupt Britain relents, and withdraws entirely from the island of Eire.

• 2135 - George VII demands that Eire rejoin the Empire. The liberal Fianna Fine Gaul party in power in Eire refuses. Relations steadily worsen as the officially pacifist Irish government rapidly develops its Self-defence Force and appeals to its ally, the UISA.

• 2136 - George VII gives Eire an ultimatum, and again Eire refuses. George VII declares war on Ireland, despite the official protests of the UISA. The UISA refuses to intervene, citing continuing Migration Crisis uprisings in the south.

• 2137 - The Third Anglo-Irish War ends with the complete subjugation of Ireland. The island is renamed the Province of Ulster, and the legal classification of Subject is differentiated to that of Citizen.

• 2138 - The Great Misery begins, with native Irish populations moved into huge ghettoes on the West Coast or directly onto the experimental Ark Ships, and British and Indian Citizens displaced by the Migration Crises resettled in the fertile East of the country.

• 2142 - Huge Irish populations are included in the experimental Ark Ship projects, particularly those from highly troublesome areas.