Irish Free State

A state that won more independence than its own supporters could agree to accept, and went to war with itself over the wording. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 ended the war of independence by creating a self-governing dominion with the same status as Canada - control of taxation, the army and policy - but not a republic: members of the new parliament were required to swear an oath referring to the Crown, Britain kept three naval ports, and the six northeastern counties opted out as expected. Michael Collins defended it as the freedom to achieve freedom rather than the freedom sought. The Dail approved it by 64 votes to 57, and the split ran through families and through the movement itself. The civil war that followed lasted from 1922 to 1923, killed fewer people than the war against Britain but left far deeper bitterness, and the pro-treaty government executed 77 opponents, more than the British had. Collins was killed in an ambush in his own county. Ireland's two main parties still descend directly from the two sides. The state then dismantled the treaty's constraints step by step: the oath was abolished in 1933, the ports returned in 1938, and a new constitution in 1937 renamed the state Ireland. It stayed neutral in the Second World War. A republic was declared in 1949. Partition remains unresolved. The state existed under that name from 1922 to 1937 with Dublin as its capital. It covered 26 of Ireland's 32 counties. Its civil war lasted around eleven months. Ireland now has around 5.3 million people.

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