The military history of any other race does not provide a parallel for the constant use of this death defying method of equipping a fighting force in time of war.

Historians often simply look at dates, facts and figures but the scale of the fight for Irish independence during the 1919-21 period is brilliantly summed up in this paragraph from the book 'Rebel Cork's Fighting Story'. This is the story that our children should learn and be aware of and respect where we have come from and those who got us there.

Every time an IRA unit, large or small attacked a police barrack or a military post, a military or police convoy, the primary purpose was that of obtaining arms and ammunition with which to continue and intensify the fight for national freedom. The resistance groups on the continent during the last war (WW1) received their military supplies from allied aircraft which dropped weapons, ammunition, radio receivers, transmitters and other equipment at prearranged places. But in Ireland of 1919, 1920 and 1921, the weapons and ammunition used against the invaders had first to be taken from them in a roadside ambush or in a raid on a barb wired encircled, steel- shuttered RIC or military post. The great bulk of the arms used against the British during the Irish War of Independence were captured British weapons taken from the field of battle. The military history of any other race does not provide a parallel for the constant use of this death defying method of equipping a fighting force in time of war.