11‭ ‬July‭ ‬1921:‭ ‘‬The Truce‭’ ‬began at‭ ‬12‭ ‬noon on this day.‭ ‬This brought to an end organised military operations between the Irish Republican Army and the British Crown Forces during the Irish War of Independence.‭ ‬The negotiations leading up to the cessation of hostilities had been concluded some days previously at the Mansion House [above] in Dublin between representatives of the President Eamon de Valera and the British Prime Minister Lloyd George.

The terms agreed were that no British reinforcements would enter Ireland,‭ ‬raids and arrests would cease and secret operations end.‭ ‬The Irish in turn agreed to cease attacking the British,‭ ‬not to interfere with private or British owned property and not to disturb the peace that would necessitate military interference.‭ ‬Both sides agreed not to engage in provocative displays of their respective forces,‭ ‬armed or unarmed.

The following day an Irish Delegation consisting of Eamon de Valera,‭ ‬Arthur Griffith,‭ ‬Austin Stack and Robert Barton departed for London to open negotiations with the British Government.‭ ‬The Lord Mayor of Dublin,‭ ‬Count Plunkett and Erskine Childers also accompanied the delegation. It looked like the violence that had wracked Ireland for the last two and a half years was coming to an end.

But while an uneasy Peace settled down upon most of the Country it was a different story in the North, particularly in the city of Belfast. It had always been a volatile place in July – owing to the parades of the Orange Order on 12^th July – but this was violence intensified and militarised on a scale not seen before. There sectarian violence resulted in an orgy of violence, burnings and intimidation with the Police & Military openly taking sides against the Nationalist population.

The 11th fell on a Monday that year, and the previous day became known as Belfast's 'Bloody Sunday'. That day 16 people were killed violently, 1 RIC man, 10 Catholic and 5 Protestant civilians. By the end of the week, 23 people had been killed in Belfast, hundreds more wounded, two hundred homes destroyed and a thousand people made homeless.
See: www.theirishstory.com