This was a response to the 1798 rebellion where United Irishmen tried establishing an independent Irish nation (Irish Nationalist movement since 1800).

Many non-Protestant groups were already being excluded after England became Protestant.

Still many native Irish-born people stayed Catholic

Catholic landowners could easily have their land taken away by a Protestant.

The Act of Union abolished Irish parliament and combined the Irish and British governments (Irish Nationalist movement since 1800).

Since many Irish were Catholic, when they weren’t being given a fair voice this led to the rise of Irish Nationalism (Ireland).

1823 Daniel O’Connell’s Catholic Association tried to free themselves since Protestants had more of a voice.

This fueled the first real Irish nationalism movement. (Irish nationalist movement since 1800)

Because of the Act of Union, the economy in Ireland heavily favored British and rich Anglo-Irish (Irish Potato Famine).

Irish were Catholic English were Protestant.

1845- potato crops began to die out b/c of a microorganism that rotted potatoes from the inside out.

This led to lower food production and starvation.

As the famine grew worse many landowners evicted families from their home making the situation even worse.

Many felt the British weren’t doing anything to help.

As a result of the famine, millions migrated to England and America causing rapid depopulation in Ireland.

The famine also led to a lot of civil unrest. (The Irish Potato Famine)

With all of the civil and political unrest, many revolutionary groups were made.

One of the most popular was the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

Originally founded in 1858 in Dublin by James Stephen

A secret society inside a group called the Irish Volunteers

They play a huge role in Irish history throughout next few decades.

This was in their original oath: “I, A.B., do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will do my utmost, at every risk, while life lasts, to make Ireland an independent democratic republic” (Two Fenian Oaths)

This was the Third Bill for Home Rule in Ireland and the two previous were rejected.

Irish parliament has two houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The first one didn’t get through the House of Commons. The second one did pass but was rejected by the House of Lords.

In 1909, the House of Lords committed a violation which led to the House of Commons having power over them.

Unionists in Ireland opposed Home Rule because they felt it was a threat to their religion, Protestant, if they were cut off from British rule. There was a lot of planned resistance to this bill in the forms of protests and riots.

In September, 1912 over 200,000 men signed the Ulster Covenant which said they would resist Home Rule. “The Ulster Volunteers represented a major obstacle for the liberal Government in their efforts to introduce Home Rule in Ireland, they had the full support of the British Conservative party as well as many wealthy business interests in Ireland” (Home Rule in Ireland).

Britain was considering giving Ireland home rule until war broke out

In 1914, with tensions running high, the Irish Army was preparing to fight against the Ulster Volunteers

Many officers were preparing to fight against them.

As they were preparing, the officers decided they would rather resign than fight against the Volunteers

This resignation dropped the government’s plans to fight against the Volunteers.

(Home Rule in Ireland)

Tensions were extremely high between Unionists, the Protestants, and Nationalists, mostly Catholics.

With the Irish Brotherhood being the main revolutionary group, and Irish nationalism surging it felt like some sort of battle was bound to happen.

(Home rule in Ireland)

Britain was considering the Home Rule Bill but after war broke out, they put it aside

This infuriated Irish Nationalists

The Easter Rising was planned by members of the Brotherhood: Tom Clarke, James Connolly, Patrick Pearse, Éamonn Ceantt, Séan Mac Diarmada, Thomas Mac Donagh, and Joseph Mary Plunkett (The Leaders of the Easter Rising)

They all hoped that this would end British Rule in Ireland

On April 24, 1916 they gained control of multiple important buildings in Central Dublin.

About 1,600 men and women participated in this rebellion.

The main building they took was the General Post Office on Sackville Street which was in the middle of the city

Pearse read a proclamation of the Irish Republic there.

Originally, the plan was for multiple other risings to happen throughout Ireland

But, the rising was almost only in Dublin with a couple smaller risings in other cities.

Although they took important buildings, they never tried to break out to meet up with the other groups.

The Rising was stopped on April 30.

(Easter Rising: Europe since 1914)

The British did, however have some knowledge of the Easter Rising.

Britain broke German codes talking about the Easter Rising.

But since they were in the middle of World War 1, they didn’t want people to know they broke the codes.

So they didn’t send these codes to authorities in Dublin

Another sign was someone landing a German submarine

“The arrest of Roger Casement (1864–1916), who had landed from a German submarine in southwest Ireland on Good Friday, and the scuttling of the Aud gave Dublin Castle the first warning that a rising was imminent” (Easter Rising Europe since 1914)

Dublin authorities assumed after these setbacks that the Easter Rising wouldn’t continue

A lot of the Irish population didn’t approve of the rising, originally.

But that changed when, “3,430 men and 79 women were arrested (more than double the number of participants), and 89 men and 1 woman, Constance Markievicz (1868–1927), were sentenced to death” (Easter Rising Europe Since 1914)

15 men were executed including the seven that planned the Easter Rising

Many of these prisoners were released by Christmas.

In the of 1917, when the final prisoners were released they were treated like heroes.

Sinn Féin, a new representative wanted to breakaway from Britain so he established the first Irish Assembly on January 21, 1919. (Irish War for Independece)

• They issued a Declaration of Independence

Two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary were killed which marked the start of the war

Instead of multiple groups, everyone was working under the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Since they had so many less people, they used guerilla warfare where small groups of people would attack certain places.

By early 1920, the IRA destroyed many British barracks which was a huge win because many British authorities were evacuated.

These were all huge wins for Ireland but because of these size of the two armies they could never beat Britain militarily

So they resulted to propaganda.

Their thought was to gain more support from smaller towns and also defeating the British support in Ireland by ruining Britain’s reputation

Sir John Anderson, Under-Secretary for Ireland Said, “No war can be carried on effectively in the full glare of public criticism” (Irish War for Independence).

Britain started to realize that their situation in Ireland was actually much worse than they thought.

To try to do some damage control, they put up the Government of Ireland Act in 1920.

The Act only gave Ireland partial home rule and partial freedom which angered Irish nationalists

This led to the Act never really getting anywhere and, if anything, infuriated the Irish nationalists more

The British realized they would have to have more troops so they expanded the RIC and brought in the “Blacks and Tans” which were mostly ex-military

• They had little training and were put places without any real plans

In the second half of 1920, they violence kept growing.

The first half of 1921 saw the climax of violence with widespread attacks everywhere

(Irish War of Independence)

In 1921, the British military and police force was ramping up and was taking a huge toll on the IRA

• They were low on supplies and many troops were killed or taken as prisoners.

British forces were also under a lot of pressure from their people as they wanted the war to end but their was no win in near sight

In July 1921, they worked out a truce and on December 6, signed a treaty bringing the fighting to an end and made Ireland a free state

• This was known as the Anglo-Irish Treaty

• (Irish War for Independence)

  
  

The Peace Treaty did win the independence that the nationalists were looking for.

However, it didn’t make them a Republic which is what they were looking for.

6 counties in Ireland formed Northern Ireland and they remained part of Britain

This led immediately to a civil war

(Irish War of Independence)

Most people were ok with the Anglo-Irish treaty even though they weren’t a republic because they still had more freedom

There still was, however, a group of people that wanted complete freedom.

The IRA was very hostile but most of the Irish public approved of the treaty

The civil war ended up destroying Ireland’s economy

It divided the new Irish Free State and the Irish people were controlled by two opposing parties for the next few decades (Civil War)

Finally, Ireland Free State was now Ireland

They adopted their own constitution

In their constitution, it states, “Ireland is a sovereign, independent, democratic state” (Constitution of Ireland)

This new Constitution took off a lot of the restrictions in the 1922 constitution.

In 1949, Ireland officially became the Republic of Ireland on the 33rd anniversary of the Easter Rising

They were now recognized on the world stage without a connection to Britain

There still were some problems, though, like the economy

The government put forward a plan to boost the economy through foreign investments

The plan was successful and in the 1960s, there economy was boosted

This allowed for better education and social and political changes

(Ireland since 1920)

This was another era of civil unrest with terrorism and violence (Irish War for Independence)

The troubles made it hard for southern regions of Ireland to do any economic business with northern nations

British forces were sent to help with the civil unrest due to civil rights (The Troubles)

One day, during a civil rights protest, British troops killed fourteen people and injured thirteen others

• They day became known as Bloody Sunday and had international attention

There were dozens of more attacks until finally it ended in 1998

Over 3,600 people died

(Ireland since 1920)

It took centuries for Ireland to actually gain independence from Britain.

There was a lot of violence that took place to get to where they are today

Still, there are a lot of political differences but Ireland is respected on the world level

They aren’t known as Britain’s land anymore

(Ireland since 1920)