kiraskole

The War of IndependenceFrom 1919 to 1921 the Irish fought against the English in order to become an independent republic.In 1918 most of the Irish people had voted for the Irish party, Sinn Fein.Instead of entering the British Parliament, Sinn Fein built up an independent Irish parliament. This parliament also had its own army, The Irish Volunteers – later known as the Irish Republican Army, IRA.

The War of Independence started because some members of the IRA killed some English police officers.This developed into a guerrilla war with Michael Collins as the leader of the IRA. During the next two years this war spread across most of Ireland bringing a lot of violence                                                                                                              and suffering not only to the soldiers, but also to the Irish people.

It is said that the reason why the English chose to surrender at last was that they realised that they could not win in this kind of guerrilla warfare. Therefore England offered Ireland a treaty where 26 counties of Ireland would be united in a Free State.The North Eastern part of Ireland consisting of 6 counties would still be under British Rule. This lead to the partition of Ireland.

The Partition

The North Eastern part of Ireland was mostly populated by pro- British Protestants.

Therefore it was natural for the British government to make a treaty where this part of Ireland still would be English.

 But this partition of the country was to become the reason for massive conflicts for many, many years.The Sinn Fein only accepted this partition reluctantly and found that it was necessary in order to get some peace. But they were still keen on fighting for a united, independent Ireland.In Northern Ireland there was still a conflict between pro-British Protestants and pro-Irish Catholics. In Ireland there was still

a conflict going on because not everybody was satisfied with this partition of their country.