Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The debates that culminated in the ratification of the treaty setting up the Irish free state ended one war--the struggle with Britain for Irish independence--but triggered another, the Irish Civil War of 1922 to 1923. . . . Signed in January 1922, it guaranteed Irish independence from Britain, but as a dominion of the Crown rather than as an Irish republic. It also gave the chiefly Protestant northern countries of Ulster the chance to opt out of the new state, which they took. . . . The pro-and anti-treaty factions gave birth to the two parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, that still dominate Irish politics." [Furtado: 1001 Days] "A central issue throughout the 19th and early 20th century was land ownership. A small group of about 10,000 English families owned practically all the farmland; Most were permanent residents of England, and seldom presented the land. They rented it out to Irish tenant farmers. Falling behind in rent payments meant eviction, and very bad feelings – often violence. . . . In the 1870s the issue of Irish self-government again became a major focus of debate under Charles Stewart Parnell, founder of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Prime Minister Gladstone made two unsuccessful attempts to pass Home Rule in 1886 and 1893. Parnell's leadership ended when he was implicated in a divorce scandal that gained international publicity in 1890. . . . In 1922 both parliaments ratified the Treaty, formalising independence for the 26-county Irish Free State (which renamed itself Ireland in 1937, and declared itself a republic in 1949); while the 6-county Northern Ireland, gaining Home Rule for itself, remained part of the United Kingdom." [Wikipedia] "Hard-won independence from Britain in 1921 did not bring real economic prosperity until the final decades of the twentieth century, when Ireland became known as the Celtic Tiger (…). Participation in the EU (since 1973), adoption of the euro (in 2002), business-friendly tax policies, comparatively low wages, an English-speaking workforce, and an advantageous relative location combined for a time to produce the highest rate of economic growth in the EU. [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 178-9]