Civil conflict in Ireland is well known, especially Bloody Sunday, when British Military killed 26 unarmed protestors – which is memorialized in U2’s hit song “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Earlier in history, in 1914, King George V called Irish Nationalists and Unionists to come to an agreement, which failed. Ireland was divided against itself, between the Catholics and the Protestants.
On this day December 23rd, in 1920, the Government of Ireland Act is passed dividing Ireland into Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland. The intention was for each half of Ireland to become self-governing.
This didn’t turn out as planned for the British who planned to maintain control over both North and South Ireland. Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State in 1922 after the Irish War of Independence. The Irish State was replaced by the Republic of Ireland in 1937 with a new constitution. The Act was repealed by Northern Ireland in 1998 and by Southern Ireland in 2007.