ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the political background to the establishment of the independent Irish state. Although the impression is sometimes given that modern forms of politics began in Ireland in 1922, or at the earliest with the foundation of Sinn Fein a few years before that, this is misleading. The Norman invasions that began in 1169, and the establishment of the Lordship of Ireland that followed, marked the beginning of rudimentary statehood. Even after the union, Ireland remained constitutionally distinct from the rest of the UK. Since British rule in Ireland had been achieved by military force, the argument ran, it could be reversed only by the same means: by armed rebellion, not by parliamentary or constitutional means. Before looking at the establishment of the state itself and at subsequent developments, then, the chapter examines the legacy of the old regime. It analyses the political themes of the post-independence period, linking them with earlier developments.
