One hundred years ago, Ireland was a tumultuous place to live. By then, the country had been under British rule, and fighting for independence, for centuries. This culminated in a series of events in the 1910s and 1920s that included violent conflicts between Irish republicans, who wanted an end to British rule in Ireland, and British forces. Eventually, the Irish Civil War broke out in June 1922.
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
Among the most significant events of this period was the Easter Rising of 1916, an armed insurrection by Irish republicans who declared Ireland a republic independent from the United Kingdom. In 1919, the Irish War of Independence, a guerilla war between Irish republicans and British forces, began. It concluded in 1921 with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty by the British government and Irish republican leaders. The treaty established the Irish Free State, which was ultimately made up of twenty-six counties of Ireland (now, the Republic of Ireland). However, Northern Ireland, made up of six counties in the north, remained within the UK.
STILL DIVIDED
While some Irish republicans were in favour of the treaty, many opposed it. This resulted in another conflict, the Irish Civil War, fought between the pro-treaty Provisional Government and the anti-treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA). Ultimately, the Provisional Government was victorious and the war ended in May 1923. However, conflict between Irish republicans and nationalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to leave the UK and be part of a united Ireland, and unionists and loyalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the UK, continued in various forms for decades. This conflict was exacerbated during a period of politically-motivated violence known as The Troubles, which started in the late 1960s and ended with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.