How Ireland Became Free

This is a good question, posed by Andra here.

It's kind of a departure from what I've been talking about, but why not go into this quickly? Or rather, I will try to, since I think one of the problems I've been having in this project is focusing on the big picture, the entire project; I get tunnel vision at points, but here goes.

This is a really good resource.

-In 1917, at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis all parties in opposition to British rule united with the goal of establishing a free Irish republic.
-In 1919, the Irish Parliament (Dail Eireann) met for the first time and decided to take over local government and let British rule fall away (I'm not exactly sure how this was going to work).
-This obviously turned violent, morphing into guerrilla warfare after Britain outlawed Sinn Fein and Dail Eireann and introduced a much stronger military presence (Black and Tans).
-In 1920, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 was passed, which divided Ireland into North and South. The North accepted the act, while the South did not.
-In 1921, a treaty was reached which maintained Ireland as a part of the British Empire, but with Dominion status. Ireland became The Irish Free State and remained a British Dominion until the 1940's.
-In 1922, the treaty was narrowly passed.
-In 1922-23, civil war broke out between followers of Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera. Collins was killed and Valera became president of the divided Ireland. (Source)

I am most intrigued by this sort of move towards legislative restructuring made by the Irish and their hope that the British government would just fall apart. It kind of reminds me of Solidarity in Poland. I wonder if anything like this was seen in the Spanish Netherlands or Latvia, though I'd think that it'd be more likely in Latvia.

Andra noted that, "I see another connection between Latvia and the Spanish Netherlands in the way they gained their independence. Neither of them really caused their own independence, though both sides fought for it and desperately wanted it. Rather, it was the weakening of the empires that occupied these two countries that allowed them to gain independence." Interestingly, I think this is what the Irish hoped would happen with Britain. Given that their actions directly followed WWI, perhaps they were banking on the fact that Britain had been weakened by the war.