Independence of Ireland

The Easter Rising

The Easter Rising

On April 24th 1916 was the Easter Rising in Dublin. The Easter Rising is seen as one of the most important events in the history of Ireland. The nationalist group, named the Irish Republican Brotherhood (also known as the IRB), was responsible for the Easter Rising. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was an important part of the organisation, Irish Volunteers. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was an secret community that had one goal: freedom for Ireland. Back then Ireland was part of the Great Britain. In 1914 began World War I. The members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood saw this as the perfect opportunity for rebellion. The Irish Republican Brotherhood lost from the British, because only a third of the expected amount of demonstrators showed up and they couldn’t count on the citizens of Dublin. At first the citizens saw The Irish Republican Brotherhood as irresponsible adventurers, who could harm their nationalism. But after the rebellion their opinion changed. So the Irish Republican Brotherhood did lose, but many Irish citizens disliked the British because of the rebellion.

The Independence War

In the beginning of the Irish Independence War there was a conflict between the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and the British. That happened after the gathering of the first Irish parliament, the Dáil Éireann. They would not take place in the British parliament. Michael Collins played a big role in the war as an Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician.

In 1921 Ireland and North-Ireland got separated, there was an Irish Free State. North-Ireland stayed part of Great-Britain. The reason for that was because the protestants, who came from England, were settling in North-Ireland, causing the population to feel more British and wanting to be part of Great-Britain.

In North-Ireland there lived both protestants and catholics, which caused the troubles.

The Irish Civil War, during from 1922-1923, was a war between the Irish Free State and the Republican opposition. The Irish Free State stood by the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the agreement entailed that North-Ireland stayed with Great-Britain and the rest of Ireland became independent. The Republican opposition was against the agreement and wanted that all of Ireland became independent. In 1923 there was an official truce between them.

Fun fact:

Did you know that the Irish Free State awarded 62,868 medals for service during the War of Independence

The Troubles

In North-Ireland lived protestant and catholics. The protestants came from Great-Britain, but because Ireland was conquered by them, the protestant came to Ireland. At some point a part of Ireland became independent. North-Ireland stayed part of Great-Britain. The catholics were in minority and feeled disadvantaged, so the stand up for there rights. Among the protestants there were formed milities, to be protected for the catholics. The milities thought that North-Ireland should be part of Great-Britain and the catholics of Ireland. Because of the violence from the protestants the Irish Republican Army acted more violent. On april 10th 1998 the Good Friday Agreement, also called the Belfast Agreement, was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the diverent parties in North-Ireland. This was an important step to peace for North-Ireland.

Fun fact:

Did you know that the last survivor of the conflict, Dan Keating (of the IRA), died in October 2007 at the age of 105