The Partition of Ireland

• In 1913, the British government promised ‘Home Rule’ for Ireland. The proposal was to have a self-governing Ireland with its own parliament but still part of the UK.
• In 1913, the British government promised ‘Home Rule’ for Ireland. The proposal was to have a self-governing Ireland with its own parliament but still part of the UK. A Home Rule Bill was introduced in Parliament. It was opposed by the Protestants in the North of Ireland, who threatened to resist Home Rule by force.
• The outbreak of the First World War led the British government to postpone any changes in Ireland. Irish Nationalists were not willing to wait, and in 1916, there was an uprising (the Easter Rising) against the British in Dublin.
• The leaders of the Easter Rising were executed under military law. A guerrilla war against the British army and the police in Ireland followed. In 1921 a peace treaty was signed and in 1922 Ireland became two countries.
• The six counties in the North, which were mainly Protestant, remained part of the UK under the name Northern Ireland. The rest of Ireland became the Irish Free State. It had its own government and became a republic in 1949.
• The conflict between those wishing for full Irish independence and those wishing to remain loyal to the British government is often called ‘the Troubles’.