Events from the year 1920 in Ireland. Events 2 January – Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers of the 1st Cork Brigade (commanded by Mick Leahy) capture Carrigtwohill Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks, the first such attack carried out as official Republican policy. 27 February – the text of the Home Rule Bill to be introduced in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom is published. It provides for the establishment of a 128-member parliament in Dublin and a 52-member parliament in Belfast. 10 March – the Ulster Unionist Council accepts the Government's plan for a Parliament of Northern Ireland. 20 March – the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork (since January), Tomás Mac Curtain, is murdered by armed and disguised RIC men who break into his home. 22 March – thousands gather to pay their respects to the murdered Tomás Mac Curtain. Over 8,000 IRA Volunteers line the route to St. Finbarr's Cemetery. He is succeeded as Lord Mayor by Terence MacSwiney. 25 March – British recruits to the RIC begin to arrive in Ireland. They become known from their improvised uniforms as the "Black and Tans". 31 March – in the Second reading debate in the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the Government of Ireland Bill, Unionist leader Sir Edward Carson opposes the division of Ireland, seeing it as a betrayal of Unionists in the south and west. 2 April – Canadian-born lawyer Sir Hamar Greenwood, Bt, PC, KC, MP, is appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland. 5 April – IRA prisoners began the 1920 hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, demanding prisoner of war status. 13–14 April – Irish Trades Union Congress stages a general strike in support of the Mountjoy hunger strikers, securing their release. 15 April–8 June: Arthur Griffith establishes a Republican legal system (under Austin Stack) in areas under IRA control. The traditional Summer Assizes become virtually unworkable. 2 May – Viscount Fitzalan is sworn in as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the first Catholic to hold the viceroyalty since the reign of King James II. 10 May – forty Irish republican prisoners on hunger strike at HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs in London are released. 17 May – Sinn Féin supporters and Unionists engage in pitched street battles in Derry. 20 May – Dublin dock workers refuse to handle British military material, and are soon joined in the boycott by members of the Irish Transport