Causes Of The Irish War Of Independence

The Irish War of Independence was the pride of every person from the Republic of Ireland. It represents a hard-fought freedom that was well deserved. This war took place from 1919-1921 and is a very much overlooked event in history. The dominant United Kingdom had already annexed many countries to build up their empire which included Ireland. Ireland, fed up with the Britain’s appalling leadership, asked for division from the United Kingdom. An obvious disagreement stirred up tension which led to multiple rebellions like Easter Rising. Continuous struggles for freedom built passion and nationalism for the Irish people. With all the past turmoil building up, Ireland commenced a war for their freedom. Although an often forgotten war, The Irish War of Independence resulted in rebellions, bloodbaths, and a major split in a nation.

The first event that led up to the war was the Home Rule Crisis. Ever since the 1880s, the Irish people wanted their own self-government. Eventually in 1912, after continuous efforts, the Irish finally got what they wanted when the British passed the Third Home Rule Act. This act simply gave Ireland political control over their own country. However, this did not last long because a group called the Ulster Unionists did not agree with Ireland’s home rule. The Ulster Unionists were a political party in Northern Ireland that wanted Ireland to stay under Britain’s control. They formed a group called the Ulster Volunteers which used physical force to show their opposition against the Third Home Rule Act. In response, the Irish nationalists set up a group called the Irish Volunteers to “secure the rights and liberties common to all the people of Ireland.” As tensions grew, both groups started collecting weapons...

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...pons and money, and also to kill important British leaders. As the war slowly progressed the Irish Republican Army made it their priority to aim for the Royal Irish Constabulary. The Royal Irish Constabulary, or the RIC, was the British police force in Ireland. They were not a very strong group because they lacked weapons, but they had around 10,000 people. The RIC was a much hated group in Irish society, which played an advantage to the Irish Republican Army. They even had a struggle just to buy food from shops because shop owners refused to deal with them. This forced a lot of the RIC members to resign. They undoubtedly had a hard time obtaining weapons because nobody wanted to help them. The British eventually resorted to threatening the Irish people. However, this only led to more attacks on the RIC by the Irish. After many attacks, most of the police force had