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The Ira's Failure Of The Irish Civil War

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While the War of Independence was the first time Ireland would be separated from England in over 100 years, Ireland and England have had a parallel history for far longer than that. Since the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland passed in the parliaments of both England and Ireland in 1800, Ireland has been considered a legal part of the United Kingdom. Prior to this unification by law, Ireland had been under some sort of British control since the feudal rule under the King of Britain started in 1177. Feudal rule was brought to a close by proclamation of Henry VIII, in which he became King of Ireland. The Irish rebellion of 1641 brought a slight bump to this rule, but the re-conquest of Ireland by Parliamentary forces led by Oliver …show more content…

Read from the steps of the General Post Office, the Easter Proclamation declared “the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State” . Almost comically, no one hearing the proclamation seemed to care and when the British military arrived many Dubliners cheered . The Easter Rising was led mainly by The Irish Volunteers, which would later become the IRA during the Irish War of independence. An interesting aspect of the Easter Rising set for the later wars was how it foreshadowed the indifference many Irishmen felt towards the IRA during the later wars, as many seemed to be perfectly content under British rule. Additionally, the war strategy employed by the Volunteers was that of attempting to force a decisive encounter against the British and sought to get help from foreign countries sympathetic to their cause or countries that hated the British. During the Easter Rising the British deployed troops to simply quell the uprising, which they did with ease. Within 5 days, the Easter Rising ended and Ireland would be quiet for another three …show more content…

Unlike in the War of Independence the IRA did not have the backing of many Irish-Americans. Probably the major problem with finding backing amongst their former allies was the fact that they all almost universally welcomed the signing of the Treat. Even Irish strongholds like the city of Boston were pro-treaty, with one James Phelan telegramming the Lord Mayor of Dublin that he loved the treaty saying he expressed the “feeling(s) of all true friends of Ireland and England the world over” . Even the Catholic church in America refused to help the IRA. Former allies in Scotland were also of little help as most were loyal to Joseph Vize, who was a member of President Collins inner circle. With their assets in the United States frozen by Congress, the IRA had little chance of securing enough money to buy firearms. In addition to this the lack of support of the Irish in the United States meant that they would be unable to receive any substantial sum of money nor be able to secure weapons shipments. Additionally, unlike in the previous war they were unable to obtain arms and explosives from sympathizers in Scotland in large part thanks to Collin’s influence over this area. The IRA repeated a mistake they made during the earliest inkling of revolution, as in the Easter Rebellion they were reliant on outside forces acting on their

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