Peter Hart

Definition: Defining the Irish Revolution

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the Irish revolution in more or less sociological or structural terms. It presents a series of propositions, based on the theory of revolutions and on recent local research, regarding the origins, nature, structure and dynamics of the revolutionary movement, process and outcomes. These are not intended to end discussion but to begin it. Debates have begun on a number of key issues concerning republicanism and the revolution: the social background and motives of the revolutionaries; the nature of violence; the radical potential of social conflict; and sectarianism north and south. However, there has been little critical consideration of equally (or more) fundamental factors such as gender and ethnicity, or of the conceptual terms of the debate itself. What do we call the events of 1916–23? Or should it be 1912–22 or 1917–21? Do these events form a unity or are they better understood discretely, as a succession of crises, rebellions and wars? Was there a revolution and if so, what kind of revolution was it?