Was Violence The Main Reason For Irish Independence 1801-1922?

“Was violence the main reason for Irish independence 1801-1922?”

Violence has always been a part of Ireland, fuelled by religion, politics and nationalism. While it did play a significant role in Ireland being granted independence at the end of 1922, it was the motives behind the violence that arguably had more of an impact.
Ireland entered the century with violence in the county of Wicklow, with prisoners still being shipped to Austrailia. Due to the violence the Irish Parlement and the British government implemented the Act Of Union in an attempt to salvage peace, which is a key example as to violence being the main motive for change. However, Catholic Emancipation which was promised to stop discrimination against Catholics was not implemented
Many historians are of the opinion that political, social and economical reasons were the most significant reason for the famine being as devastating as it was, such as land acquisition, absentee landlords, the lack of intervention from Westminster and the Corn Laws. The famine became a key issue for Irish Nationalist Movements as it heightened tensions between the Irish and the British due to the reaction from Charles Trevelyan, the assistant secretary to the treasury who was largely responsible for the British governments response to the famine. He like many other British MPs viewed the Irish peasanty as a lower form of humanity and therefore chose to not intervene too greatly. The Radical Young Ireland group was formed as a response in 1846 and then an attempted armed rebellion in 1948. This was unsuccessful, highlighting the fact that it was the social and political aspects of the famine that had the biggest impact towards eventual independence and not the
Organised by a seven man military that was part of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the rising began on the 24th of April and lasted six days. Patrick Pearse and other small rebellion groups seized key locations in Dublin with street fights, sniping and long range gun battles in an attempt to overthrow the British government. Although the poorly organised rebellion failed as a whole, with most of those who lead a significant and active role in the uprising being executed, and several members involved feeling it was destined to fail as it was considered as nothing more than a romanticised idea with no real outcome, it brought physical Irish nationalism and republicism back to the for front of Irish politics. It can be argued that while purely the violence that occurred during this uprising was the main reason for the nationalism which would ultimately contribute to independence being granted, the political reasons behind the violence such as the Home Rule that was promised to Ireland in 1914 being suspended, had more of a long term significant impact, this can also be supported by the previous 1848 rebellion which also failed. Due to this, after Easter Rising Ireland saw a rise in popularity for Sinn Fein- the political party at the forefront of Irish