During the Great War, Ireland's intelligentsia declared an Irish Republic in an event known as the Easter Uprising. Though it was crushed, Britain's defeat in said global conflict gave the island nation yet another chance. In December of 1918, republican party Sinn Féin was victorious, and rushed to declare independence in early 1919. Michael Collins, now leader of the Irish Republican Army, declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain, beginning the Irish War of Independence. This conflict would last until July of 1921, when the Republic and Britain agreed to a ceasefire and negotiated a peace treaty favourable to the former. Collins' IRA was supported by millions of Irish-Americans through bonds, donations, private arms collections, and tens of thousand of veterans from the Great War who embarked to fight the UK, which received military support from the German Empire following the Treaty of Versailles. After finding victory in the Polish-Soviet War, the Soviet Union would itself support the IRA with loans, weapons, intelligence and military advisory.
Irish War of Independence
January 1919 to July 1921