Ireland: The Struggle for Independence, 1900–1923
Ireland: The Struggle for Independence, 1900–1923
This is the most heavily examined sequence in the course: Home Rule, the Rising, the War of Independence, the Treaty and the Civil War. Know the order and the reasons.
Timeline spine
- 1912 Third Home Rule Bill; Ulster Covenant and Ulster Volunteers; 1913 Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army.
- 1914 Howth gun-running; Home Rule suspended for the duration of the war.
- 1916 Easter Rising: IRB Military Council - Pearse, Clarke, MacDonagh, MacDiarmada, Plunkett, Connolly, Ceannt. The Proclamation was read at the GPO; surrender after a week; 15 leaders executed, which swung public opinion.
- 1918 conscription crisis and the 'German Plot' arrests; Sinn Féin won 73 seats.
- 1919 First Dáil; Soloheadbeg; IRA guerrilla war with flying columns and Dáil courts; Black and Tans and Auxiliaries; Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920.
- 1921 Truce and Anglo-Irish Treaty: dominion status, Oath of Allegiance, partition with a Boundary Commission; Cabinet split; Civil War 1922–23.
Worked example Why did the Treaty divide Sinn Féin? It produced a Free State, not a republic; the Oath was unacceptable to purists; partition was accepted only as temporary. Reasoning: the split was about sovereignty, not merely tactics.
Traps Merging 1916 with the War of Independence. Saying the Treaty created a republic. Ignoring Cumann na mBan and the shift in public opinion after the executions.