Ireland's Easter rising.

The Irish 1916 Easter rising was one of the seminal events in modern Irish history. The Irish rebels wanted independence and freedom, and an end to British rule in Ireland. More than 450 people lost their lives in almost a week of fighting between republican rebels, who were led by the poet and teacher Patrick Pearse, against the British armed forces. The rebellion was a military failure, but the execution of Pearse alongside the other 15 leaders of the rising, turned the Irish population's public opinion, which was mostly apathetic to the ideas of independence from the UK, decidedly against the British. The rising was a valiant, heroic rebellion, but from a military point of view it was suicidal and insane. The Irish rebels, most of whom were poets, journalists, teachers, students, civil servants and intellectuals, were poorly armed and were no match for the British armed forces. However, the rising did cement the concepts of Irish nationalism, independence, sovereignty and the liberation of Ireland from the UK in the minds of ordinary Irish people, which subsequently led to the Irish war of independence which broke out in 1919. Only six years after the Easter rising, and following a brutal independence war, Ireland achieved independence from Britain in 1922. More than 700 years of direct English and later British involvement in Ireland, were effectively over and Ireland became a free, independent and sovereign nation. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]