The Irish Free State (1916–1939)
How the Irish finally got their independence after years of British rule
The struggle of the Irish to get rid of British rule has been a bloody one. It began with an uprising in 1916 and six years later ended in a civil war. Eventually, the Irish Free State takes shape and is admitted to the League of Nations in 1923. But long after that, private militias continue to fight each other. In 1939, the Republic declares its neutrality when the Second World War breaks out.
Nationalism and self-determination
On Easter Monday 1916, an uprising breaks out in Dublin against British rule, led by the leader of the so-called Irish Volunteers, Pádraig Pearse. Éamon de Valera, born in New York to an Irish mother and a supposedly Spanish father (Juan Vivion de Valera, from the Basque Country), also plays a part in this uprising, which fails. A ship carrying weapons from Germany is intercepted and blown up by the German captain. When this comes to the notice of the moderate and widely respected nationalist Eoin MacNeill, who is unaware of the planned uprising, he tries to call it off. Pearse, however, persists…
