August – Two pillar boxes were blown up in Liverpool, there were no casualties or injuries. 29 August – Wires of a dozen telephone kiosks were cut, assumed to be IRA activity. 3 September – Emergency Powers Act was enacted as the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. October – Russell made a speech which has been interpreted as attempting to shore up flagging belief IRA members had in the effectiveness the S-Plan was having:"England's difficulty – Ireland's opportunity" has ever been the watchword of the Gael.. Now is the time for Irishmen to take up arms and strike a blow for the Ulster people. 18 November – There were four explosions at business premises in London. Two other bombs were discovered and neutralized. 24 November – Two police boxes and two telephone kiosks were damaged by explosions. 28 November – There were two explosions in Southampton. 11 December – Trial opened in Birmingham of three men and two women indicted for murder as a result of the bombing of Coventry on 25 August 1939. The accused were 29-year-old labourer Joseph Hewitt, 29-year-old labourer James McCormick (alias of Richards), 22-year-old Mary Hewitt, 49-year-old Brigid O'Hara and 32-year-old clerk Peter Barnes. The Hewitts were a married couple and Bridgid O'Hara was Mrs. Hewitt's mother. All pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering 21-year-old Elsie Ansell, (the prosecution had limited the charge to one victim). Three days later, the verdict of guilty was returned. James McCormick (Richards) and Peter Barnes were sentenced to death. The sentencing triggered a series of IRA attacks on British post offices, postboxes and mail trains in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Crewe and London. 1940 5 February – All over Ireland there were demonstrations and resolutions of protest against the executions of the bombers. De Valera appealed for a reprieve. The New York Times analysed Irish public opinion so:Opinion here is either that 2 innocent men will hang, or that it is the partition of Ireland by the British who forced these young Irishmen to perpetrate such outrages. Anglo-Irish relations could markedly deteriorate through the hanging of these men. 6 February – There were three explosions in mailbags, two in Euston Station, London, one in the GPO on Hill Street, Birmingham. This attack was regarded by The Times as a reprisal for the failure to reprieve Barnes and McCormick (Richards). 7 February – McCormick (Richards) (29) and Barnes (32)