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Although a Home Rule Bill, supporting the Irish Nationalist demand for independence, passed its final legislative stage in May 1914, it was not implemented as a result of the outbreak of war. Frustration over this situation led to an armed uprising in Dublin on Easter Sunday, 1916.By the following day some 2,000 supporters of the rising had taken up strategic positions around the city and nationalist leaders proclaimed Ireland a republic. The rising lasted for several days before the leaders surrendered to British forces. A total of fifteen of the nationalist leaders were subsequently executed, and some 3,000 were interned.An Irish Free State was eventually established in 1921, although six counties in the north remained part of the United Kingdom.
Controversy over this settlement was the source of civil war on the island, which lasted until a ceasefire was established in 1923. Relations between the Free State (known as Eire from 1936) and the British government remained strained till after the Second World War.
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