ABSTRACT
Ireland is an ancient land, but a young nation. While aspects of its culture date back centuries, or even millennia, the nation-state of Ireland is less than 100 years old, born of violent rebellion against a colonial master. The Easter Rising of April 1916 led to a war of independence against Great Britain, followed by the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. Even that didn’t settle matters, as the rebellion was followed by a brutal civil war that ended in 1923. The opposing sides in that struggle were factions that accepted, and those that rejected, terms of the treaty that ended rebellion and established the Free State, but also partitioned the island, with six northern counties remaining part of the United Kingdom.
