Search Results for 'Cornwallis'

In the decades preceding the 1916 Rising, an extraordinary revolution had already taken place in rural Ireland. The British government had lost its patience with Irish landlords who owned 95 per cent of the land of Ireland (100 percent of county Galway was landlord owned), and had largely squandered their wealth leaving themselves vulnerable to poor harvests, successive seasons of bad weather, and an increasingly impoverished tenantry.

The Government of Ireland Act came into being on May 3 1921, resulting in a parliament for the six northern counties and devolved powers for the 26 counties.