Home Rule was within reach just as the first world war shook Europe, suspending it indefinitely, yet already laying the foundations for a partitioned Ireland. As the war was well underway, a group of Dubliners (including Connolly, Pearse, Clarke, Mac Donagh and Plunkett) started plotting a rebellion, the Easter Rising, which was to initiate the war of independence and later the establishment of the Irish Free State. On Easter Monday 1916, together with an army of nationalists, they occupied five strategic buildings in Dublin, declaring the GPO (General Post Office) the headquarters for their ‘provisional government of the Irish Republic’. While there was no unified support for the rebellion, Dubliners were united in their anger following the British response to hand down executions and imprisonments. And so it happened that although the uprising failed, it created unprecedented support for the national question and Sinn Fein won a landslide victory in the general elections in 1918. They went on to proclaim the Irish Republic in 1919, create a separatist Irish parliament (Dáil Eireann), and to plan the war of independence. The war of independence began in 1919. Years of insurgency, led by Michael Collins, began against the British government. It was not until a truce – was agreed upon with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on December 6, 1921, which granted Ireland limited independence – that it came to an end. Under this treaty, members of parliament were obliged to swear allegiance to the British crown, and the island was partitioned, with 26 counties forming the Irish Free State. This split the country even further, and relations within the Dáil deteriorated rapidly. Feelings of gross betrayal among those against the treaty (De Valera) towards those in favour of it (Collins), led to the civil war in 1922.

The civil war claimed the lives of 3,000 people in the first eleven months, including Michael Collins, who was assassinated by an IRA hitman in 1922. Following Collins’ death, and due to a lack of general support, the treaty was finally accepted and approved by the elected officials of the breakaway government, (including de Valera). Two political parties emerged as a result of this war, Fianna Fáil, founded by de Valera in 1926, and Fianna Gael. Fianna Fail went on to win the general election and started penning an Irish constitution. In 1949, under a coalition government, Ireland was finally declared a Republic, although still without six counties.