Independence of Ireland from the UK

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part it.

For centuries British dominion in Ireland gave rise to unrest which finally erupted into violence with the Easter Rising of 1916, when independence was proclaimed. The rising was crushed and many of its leaders executed, but the campaign for independence carried on through a bloody Anglo-Irish War of 1919-1921.

In July 1921 a truce in introduced between the Irish and British forces after months of stalemate. In October 1921, a Republican delegation travels to London to negotiate terms with the British. In December, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, the terms of which created the Irish Free State made up from 26 of 32 counties roughly what is the Republic of Ireland today. The treaty did give autonomy but made the Irish Free State part of the British Commonwealth and its citizens had to swear allegiance to the Crown. It was in 1922 that 26 counties of Ireland gained independence from London following negotiations which led to the other six counties, part of the province of Ulster, remaining in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Partition was followed by a year of civil war.