In Easter 1920 the IRA burned 400 of the small posts the RIC had abandoned. In 1920 the Volunteer GHQ encouraged local commandants to begin attacks on fortified barracks, 16 were destroyed and 29 damaged. The violence removed the RIC from many country districts in the south and west and gave Sinn Fein a chance to develop its own police and courts but many areas experienced widespread lawlessness. Some parts of Ireland regretted the passing of the RIC during 1920-21.
The second front was the intelligence war, which is mainly associated with the IRA's Director of Intelligence, Michael Collins. He believed earlier rebellions failed because the government knew more about the rebels than the rebels knew about the government. Collins set up a very efficient intelligence network, which consisted of postmen, civil servants, policemen and even detectives. They passed on government letters, word of troop movement, and information on who was reliable. He set up a group called the Squad, whose job it was to murder anyone suspected of being a British spy. They killed with ruthless efficiency. Collins used this mass of information to outwit the government, plan ambushes on its forces, evade arrest and allow the Dail, declared illegal in September 1919, to carry on in the face of the most determined British opposition. .
After ignoring Ireland for so long Lloyd George was forced to act by the end of 1919 when violence reached such a pitch. He set up about introducing Home Rule and strengthened the administration in Dublin Castle. He reinforced the RIC, placed under the command of Major-General Tudor. The Restoration of Ireland Act 1920 permitted British army courts to operate in places where the civil courts had ceased to function. .
Lloyd George refused to recognise the Dail as a government and thought the IRA were a murder gang.