Intelligence played a critical role in the Irish War of Independence, though debate remains about the effectiveness of British information-gathering. Historians have focused largely on the intelligence war in Dublin. This article examines British Army intelligence in the 6th Division area (roughly the southern third of the island). It will contextualise British military intelligence before the conflict and traces the slow development of an intelligence organisation in the 6th Division. It then considers the sources and nature of British information gathering, particularly interrogation of prisoners and the collection and analysis of captured documents. Military intelligence summaries and a ‘Blacklist’ of I.R.A. suspects across the 6th Division are used to ascertain the quality of military intelligence products during the final stages of the conflict. The ‘Blacklist’ can be contrasted with I.R.A. unit arrest data and leadership lists, to assess the effectiveness of British military intelligence at a county level. This comparison provides a new measure of British performance, clearly revealing the limitations of British military intelligence in the 6th Division, particularly when compared to relatively more successful results achieved by crown forces in the Dublin District.

中文翻译：

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1919 年至 1921 年爱尔兰省的英国陆军情报：组织、结果和第 6 师黑​​名单

尽管关于英国信息收集的有效性仍存在争议，但情报在爱尔兰独立战争中发挥了关键作用。历史学家主要关注都柏林的情报战争。本文探讨了第 6 师地区（大约为该岛南部三分之一）的英国陆军情报。它将介绍冲突前英国军事情报的背景，并追溯第六师情报组织的缓慢发展。然后，它考虑了英国信息收集的来源和性质，特别是对囚犯的审讯以及对捕获的文件的收集和分析。军事情报摘要和第六师的爱尔兰共和军嫌疑人“黑名单”被用来确定冲突最后阶段军事情报产品的质量。 “黑名单”可以与爱尔兰共和军单位逮捕数据和领导名单进行对比，以评估英国军事情报在县级的有效性。这一比较提供了衡量英国表现的新标准，清楚地揭示了英国第六师军事情报的局限性，特别是与皇家军队在都柏林地区取得的相对更成功的成果相比。