History of Ireland
In 1916, there was a rebellion by Irish people who wanted to be independent. Britain stopped it quickly but many Irish were angry. They elected Sinn Féin, an independence party, to most Irish seats in Parliament. Sinn Féin members refused to go to London to join Parliament. Instead they started a new assembly in Dublin called the Dáil Éireann (or Dáil). Sinn Féin said that Ireland was now independent. In 1918 they organized the Irish Volunteers into the Irish Republican Army (IRA). From 1919-1921, the IRA fought a war against the British (Irish War of Independence) to be a separate country. In 1920 the British government decided to divide Ireland into Southern Ireland (The Provisional Government), which was about 5/6 of the island, and Northern Ireland. The Dáil and Britain signed a treaty in 1922 to make Southern Ireland into the Irish Free State. It was still connected to the UK, but it had more freedom. However, the IRA wanted to fully leave the UK. They fought a war (Irish Civil War) against the Irish Free State government. The IRA stopped fighting in 1923.