The Irish War of Independence was a guerrilla war fought from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army and the United Kingdom. In January 1919, the revolutionary Sinn Fein party formed an independent republic of Ireland after winning a majority in local elections, forming a parliament on 21 January 1919. Later that day, two Royal Irish Constabulary members were gunned down in County Tipperary, Ireland by the "Irish Volunteers", an organization of Irish nationalist rebels. The volunteers formed the Irish Republican Army to fight for independence against the British, and the IRA waged a guerrilla war against the British Army, the Royal Irish Constabulary, and the brutal "Blacks and Tans" auxiliary policemen. In 1921, the British agreed to sign a peace treaty with the IRA, creating the semi-independent Irish Free State. The war was seen as a political victory for Britain and a tactical victory for Ireland, as Ireland was now ruled by a pro-British government. The treaty would lead to the Irish Civil War between pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions in 1922.
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