The War in Ireland

At the outbreak of the Great War, large number of Irish nationals joined the British Army. In total, 200,000 Irish soldiers served in the East and on the Western Front. Many of the soldiers joined up for economic reasons and to escape hardship, although political considerations may have influenced some, either because they supported Home Rule or because they wished to demonstrate their attachment to the British Crown. At Easter 1916, 1,600 insurgents proclaimed Irish independence in Dublin. They capitulated six days later. The plan to introduce conscription on the island in the spring of 1918 strengthened Irish hostility towards the British. From January to July 1921, the Anglo-Irish War pitted the Irish Republican Army (the IRA) against the police, the British Army and the Black and Tans, a paramilitary force of former soldiers who sowed terror, although they did not succeed in totally repressing the movement. This war culminated in independence for Ireland, with the northern counties of Ulster remaining under the sovereignty of the British Crown, but not without internal conflicts and a civil war.