... the unionists, who wanted to remain part of the British Empire. The possibility of civil war was imminent, when World War I broke out and crisis was temporarily averted by representatives of both sides supporting, for the most part, the British war effort. One splinter nationalist group however, refused to support the war and in 1916 set up an 'Easter Uprising' where Dublin was taken and Ireland declared independent. The uprising failed, however, largely due to lack of popular support, and the revolutionaries were dealt with extremely severely by the British. This enraged Irish masses and set the stage for the Revolution. In 1918, Irish Members of Parliament (led by Sinn Fein, the largest Irish group at the time) refused to take their seats in Parliament and instead declared a free Irish state with Eamon de Valera as its leader. The British government refused to recognize this state, and years ...

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