edHelper.com
The 1910's
 The Irish Fight for Independence

The Irish Fight for Independence
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.68

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    negotiation, membership, poorly, dispose, attain, formation, military, pivotal, surrounding, society, manpower, fairly, tended, artillery, bands, civil
     content words:    United Kingdom, Irish Republican Brotherhood, Irish Volunteers, World War, Great Britain, Eoin MacNeill, Irish Citizen Army, World War I., Citizen Army, Easter Sunday

Print The Irish Fight for Independence
     Print The Irish Fight for Independence  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format
     Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
     Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format
     Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on The Irish Fight for Independence
     Leave your feedback on The Irish Fight for Independence  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

The Irish Fight for Independence
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     Some say the problems began in 1845. From 1845 to 1847, the country of Ireland suffered from a great famine. Most of the crops failed during this period. The potato crop was especially important to the Irish people. An unusual amount of rain caused the potatoes to rot in the ground instead of grow. Times were desperate for the people. Thousands of Irish citizens chose to take what belongings they had left and move to America. Those who were left had a hard time making a living. Many of those who remained lost faith in the British government.
 
2     The United Kingdom is made up of four distinct countries. England, Scotland, and Wales are on one island. Ireland was on an island just west of the other three countries. The people in Ireland were governed by England. The English called it "Home Rule." Most of the people of Ireland were happy being ruled by England. During the "Great Famine" many others began to question just how interested England was in the Irish people. Many felt that the English were treating the Irish poorly. They didn't think that Ireland was being treated fairly. Small groups who believed that Ireland needed to be independent started to emerge. The British tended to ignore these thoughts.
 
3     One of the groups that formed in Ireland was the Irish Republican Brotherhood or IRB. The first record of this group was in 1858. The group stayed fairly small. It is believed that there were never more than 2,000 members. It was a secret society so it is hard to know for sure. Their main goal through the years was Irish independence.
 
4     Many other small groups cropped up with the same goal. The main difference in the groups was just how they planned to go about reaching their goal. Some believed that independence could be gained through negotiation. Some believed that it would take a civil war to attain freedom. The idea of freedom kept rumbling for many years. It was 1916 before any one group put their beliefs into action.
 
5     The IRB believed that it would take a military stand to convince the British to give them their freedom. They also realized that they didn't have the manpower to pull the job off. Leaders of the group slipped some of their own members into the membership of another group called the Irish Volunteers. The IRB was ready to set a plan for freedom into action when World War I pulled Europe into war. The IRB put their plan on hold until Great Britain could breathe a little easier.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2009 edHelper