Growing tension and resentment in Ireland over British rule and the question of Irish independence set in motion a chain of events that came to be known as the Irish Revolution.
Conflicts between nationalists, who wanted a completely independent Irish republic, and unionists, who wished to remain under British control, led to the establishment of armed paramilitary groups in both areas of the island. The threat of civil war between the factions over the question of Irish independence was imminent. This crisis was temporarily averted, however, by the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), and representatives of both groups supported the British war effort against Germany. However, one splinter group of the nationalist faction refused to join the war effort. Instead, they initiated the Easter Rebellion of 1916, capturing the city of Dublin and declaring the independence of Ireland. The rebellion was unsuccessful, primarily due to limited support from the Irish people. However, Britain's severe reaction, including the execution of 15 Irish nationalist leaders, outraged the Irish population and set the stage for the nationalist group Sinn Fein to become the dominant political party in Ireland. Sinn Fein had been organized several years before the uprising by Arthur Griffith, a Dublin journalist. Sinn Fein now called for Ireland, including the northern areas, to become a republic independent of the United Kingdom. In the 1918 election, Sinn Fein candidates won 73 of the 106 seats allotted to Ireland in the British Parliament.
In January 1919 the Sinn Fein members of Parliament met in Dublin as the Dáil Éireann, or national assembly. They proclaimed Ireland's independence and formed a government with Eamon de Valera as president. There followed guerrilla attacks by Irish insurgents, later called the Irish Republican Army (IRA), on British forces, particularly the Black and Tans, an auxiliary British police force. These attacks and British reprisals became an ugly war in which hundreds of people were killed.
In December 1920 the British Parliament enacted the Government of Ireland Bill, providing one parliament for the 6 counties of the Protestant north (Northern Ireland) and another for the remaining 26 counties. The people of Northern Ireland accepted this limited home rule and elected a separate parliament in May 1921. Efforts to implement the new government in the other 26 counties served only to solidify Sinn Fein's position. The guerrilla war ended with a truce on July 11. Negotiations between representatives of the Dáil and the British government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George produced a treaty signed on December 6, 1921, whereby the 26 counties would become the Irish Free State within the Commonwealth of Nations, with a status equal to that of Canada and a modified oath of allegiance to the British monarch. The Dáil ratified the treaty on January 15, 1922, by a vote of 64 to 57, thus ending the Irish Revolution. Sinn Fein split over the issue of ratification into pro- and anti-Treaty factions. Those in opposition to the treaty were led by de Valera, who resigned as president of the Dáil and was replaced by Griffith. Michael Collins, a pro-Treaty Sinn Fein leader, became chairman of the provisional government.
Under the leadership of de Valera, anti-Treaty Sinn Fein called for a resumption of the struggle against Britain and initiated the Irish Civil War against the provisional government.
With the question of the treaty the chief issue, an election for a provisional Dáil was held in June 1922. Candidates supporting the treaty won a majority of the seats. Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein, refusing to recognize the authority of the new Dáil, proclaimed a rival government and intensified their attacks on the Irish Free State. In the ensuing struggle, hundreds were killed on both sides, including Michael Collins. Meanwhile, the Dáil, headed now by William Thomas Cosgrave, drafted a constitution providing for a bicameral legislature (Dáil and Seanad, or senate), which was adopted on October 11, 1922. Following approval by the British Parliament, it became operative on December 6. The official government of the Irish Free State was instituted at once, with Cosgrave assuming office as president of the executive council. In April 1923 the anti-Treaty group ended its guerrilla campaign in time to participate in the national elections, and public order was gradually restored. Neither party secured a majority in the August elections. Cosgrave retained power, however, and de Valera led his followers in a boycott of the Dáil. Cosgrave put together a viable government, which reached an agreement with Britain on some mutual problems and strengthened the economy by a series of measures, including a hydroelectric project on the Shannon River.
The Irish Free State had joined the League of Nations in 1923, and the following year it set a precedent for members of the Commonwealth of Nations by sending its own ambassador to Washington, D.C. At the Imperial Conference of 1926, the Free State joined with other dominions to obtain the Balfour Report, which stated that the British government would not legislate for the dominions or nullify acts passed by their own legislatures. Once this was confirmed by the Statute of Westminster in 1931, Ireland had the power to legislate away its relationship with Britain.
De Valera and anti-Treaty Sinn Fein ended their boycott following the elections in August 1927 and entered the Dáil as the Fianna Fáil Party. In part as a result of the government's failure to cope with domestic difficulties brought on by the world economic crisis of the early 1930s, Cosgrave's party lost several seats to Fianna Fáil in the elections of February 1932. De Valera thereupon became head of the government, beginning a stay in office that would last 16 years. Legislation that he sponsored in April included provisions for revoking the oath of allegiance to the British crown. This bill, which also would have virtually ended the political ties between Britain and the Free State, was approved by the Dáil, but was rejected by the Seanad. Next, de Valera withheld payment of certain land purchase annuities that the British claimed were legally due them. This led to a protracted tariff war between the two countries, which seriously damaged the economy of the Free State. In another significant move, de Valera secured the repeal of a law restricting the activities of the IRA. The electorate registered approval of his program in the January 1933 elections, in which a majority of Fianna Fáil members were returned to the Dáil.
With this mandate from the people, de Valera systematically developed his program for the gradual elimination of British influence in Irish affairs, obtaining abrogation of the oath of allegiance, restrictions on the role of the governor-general who represented the British crown, and other measures. Simultaneously, the government initiated measures designed to give the country a self-sufficient economy. Steps taken included high income taxes on the rich, high protective tariffs, and control of foreign capital invested in Irish industry. In June 1935 de Valera severed his political ties with the IRA, which had been extremely critical of many of his policies, and imprisoned some of its leaders. Meanwhile, a draft of a new constitution was in progress. In 1936 de Valera, in coalition with other groups in the Dáil, finally secured passage of legislation abolishing the Seanad, long inimical to his policies. The Dáil functioned as a single-house legislature for the remainder of its term. In connection with the events surrounding the abdication of King Edward VIII of Britain, the Dáil enacted in 1936 a bill that deleted all references to the king from the constitution of the Free State and abolished the office of governor-general. The External Relations Act of 1936, passed at the same time, restricted the association of the Free State with the Commonwealth of Nations to joint action on certain questions involving external policy, specifically the approval of its trade treaties of the Free State and the appointment of its foreign envoys.
The five-year term of office of the Dáil expired in June 1937. In the subsequent election de Valera and Fianna Fáil were returned to power and, in a simultaneous plebiscite, the voters approved the new constitution. This document abolished the Irish Free State and established Eire as a “sovereign independent democratic state.” The constitution provided for an elected president as head of state; a prime minister as head of government; and a two-house legislature, with a new 60-member senate. Although it presumed to apply to all Ireland, its application in Northern Ireland was not to take effect prior to unification. It made no reference to the British monarch or to the Commonwealth of Nations, but de Valera indicated that Eire's relations with Britain would be governed by the External Relations Act of 1936. In 1938 the Irish writer and patriot Douglas Hyde became the first president of Eire, and de Valera became prime minister.
In 1938 a treaty ended the tariff war between Eire and Britain. It provided for the withdrawal of British forces from naval bases in Eire in exchange for a lump-sum payment to settle the annuities owed to Britain. The slight improvement in relations between the two nations was marred by a violent terrorist campaign in Britain conducted by the IRA.
Although Eire remained neutral in World War II (1939-1945), thereby demonstrating its independence, many of its citizens joined the Allied forces or worked in British war industries. In the immediate post-war period, the economic dislocations in Britain and Europe subjected the economy of Eire to severe strains, resulting in a period of rapid inflation and, indirectly, in the defeat of Fianna Fáil and de Valera in the elections of February 1948. John Aloysius Costello became prime minister, leading a coalition of six parties, the chief of which was Fine Gael. He called for lower prices and taxes, the expansion of industrial production, and closer commercial relations with Britain. In November 1948 Costello led the Dáil in passing the Republic of Ireland Bill.
