World: 1608 and All That

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At war's end the struggle began again with the long years of the "Troubles." The Irish Republican Army, brilliantly led by Michael Collins, fought one of the first of this century's many guerrilla wars. The bloodletting continued until 1921, and was ended when Britain's Prime Minister David Lloyd George offered peace on the basis of a partition of Ireland into 26 independent counties, called the Irish Free State, and six of the original nine counties of Ulster, which would remain united with Great Britain. Michael Collins accepted the offer, but diehard I.R.A. men, who wanted a united Ireland or none at all, plunged the newly independent state, later called Eire, into civil war. The internecine fighting cost Collins his life.

The Protestant majority ruling the six counties has lived ever since in exaggerated fear of a takeover by Eire, which is 96% Catholic. Even more feared than a takeover from without, however, is one from within—since the number of Ulster's Catholics is increasing faster than that of its Protestants. Through voting restrictions and gerrymandering, the Protestants have attempted to ensure that these gains in population will not lead to increased Catholic power at the polls. The result has been the growing bitterness and clashes of recent years, exacerbated on both sides by long Irish memories.