The disastrous Famine dismantled Irish society, creating an environment in which Sinn Fein’s propaganda would later thrive.

Though it was quickly crushed, the rising would come to inform frustrated nationalists after the failure to achieve Home Rule.

Ireland was undergoing a land crisis: a majority of Irish lands are owned by the nobility, whose rents are far too high for the average laborer. Eviction, displacement, and poverty were rampant. Enter the Land Act of 1881.

Gladstone’s introduction of the first Home Rule Bill in 1886 marks the beginning of an unsuccessful struggle to grant Ireland autonomy within the British Empire.

Though the Home Rule issue was stagnant, Parnell remained entirely focused on it. Conservatives in Parliament remained adamant in their opposition to Home Rule, however, it was Parnell’s sex scandal and untimely death in 1891 that “killed” Home Rule.

After Parnell’s death, and with Gladstone’s looming retirement from politics, there was an increased pressure to pass a bill.

The public’s growing frustration with the Irish Parliamentary Party’s failure regarding Home Rule contributed to the rise of political challengers. Sinn Fein begins to argue in favor of an armed resistance to achieve complete independence and separation from England.

The outbreak of World War I prevented the implementation of the third Home Rule Bill, which Parliament had passed. The Bill was too little to late, many sought the more ambitious goal of an Irish Republic.

Though the uprising failed to establish an Irish Republic as it intended, the brutal execution of the seven ringleaders turned Irish public opinion against the British.

After a landslide victory in the 1918 election, Sinn Fein waged a War of Independence against Great Britain. The goal was a united, self-governing Irish Republic.

A few months after the truce in July 1921, Ireland and Britain signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. The goal was peace.

Following the occupation and later bombardment of the Four Courts, the Irish Civil War began. Disagreeing over the implementation of the Treaty, men that were once united in the nationalist cause unleashed a brief, yet devastating war.