Ireland

Ireland (Irish: Éire) also known as the Republic of Ireland (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is a country in North-Western Europe covering the island of the same name. It stands as one of the last bastions of capitalist society in Western Europe. Despite this, it retains paradoxically friendly relations with its socialist neighbors, due to a myriad of historical and mutually beneficial political factors.

## History

By 1936 the nascent republic had finally fully established itself. While bitterness and devastation remained from the "Northern War" started in the aftermath of the British revolution, In general things were looking up. The young nation could finally stand tall. It was a 32 county republic eager to solve its pressing language issues and discover its place in the world.

### Before the 2nd Great War

By late 1937, German capital had totally dried up, leaving the population reeling. The precious industry that had just started to recover from a decade of turmoil collapsed in an instant. Riots broke out across the island, as shops burned from Belfast to Cork. As a result of the chaos, the functional stability achieved in Ulster would collapse yet again. In response to the economic collapse, Collins signed the twin Common Travel Area and Common Economic Area agreements with the Union of Britain which allowed for slow economic recovery and thriving trade between the British Isles.

### The One Big Party

Since 1922 when Irish independence was archived the sole party in power was the Sinn Fein, however conflict broke out over the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that led to major splits in Sinn Feins, not until the British Revolution crashed Britain as a factor in politics and in 1925, politics have reconsolidated back to Sinn Fein via its now uncompromised stance regarding independence and unity by invading Northern Ireland. With a compromised unity government formed during the Northern War, Sinn Fein reunited with De Valera and the anti-Treatyites, with the final triumph of republicans in Northern Ireland during the short insurgency and war. De Valera's Sinn Fein dissenters and himself rejoined the party in the year followed. For most of the 1st and 2nd Presidency of Collins, the Sinn Fein one-party state slowly consolidated via Collins's somewhat controversial Bonapartist politics and tactics. in 1936 a major faction of the Labour Party split off to form the National Labour Party in opposing to the radicalised politics of the Labour Party as a result of being increasingly marginalised by absolute domination of Sinn Fein and later merged to join Sinn Fein itself.

### The Emergency

In 1939 the 2nd Great War broke out between the International and the Reichspakt. Ireland declared total neutrality in this conflict however and throughout the war it would act as a vital supply lifeline for the UoB and France to import resources from the outside world, receiving steel imports to maintain its' merchant navy in return for grain, dairy and meat exports. During the war, the Irish government declares an emergency and begins strict rationing of essential supplies like coal, wood, oil and tea.

In 1940 numerous strikes by Royalist Terror Groups were unleashed upon the ports of Belfast, Dublin, Cork and a number of British port cities, noting the shared threat, the Irish government brought the Special Operations Division (Irish: Rannán Oibríochtaí Speisialta) into co-operation with the British Revolutionary Exportation Directorate or R.E.D in order to counter the Royalist Forces. The Operation, launched in late 1940, was named Operation Pendragon. In 1941 Operation Pendragon had already uncovered and broken up most of the Royalist terrorist cells, with public receptions to the arrests being wide praise of the governments in question at keeping the country mostly safe, however, it wasn't entirely like that in Ireland. Operation Pendragon had uncovered a disturbing report that a large number of prominent Ulster politicians, Protestant priests and Senior Officials of the Ulster Constabulary had ties to many of the Royalist terrorist groups, so Ireland conducted mass arrests of anyone suspected of supporting the Royalists. In response large riots and protests broke out across Ulster demanding the release of the "political prisoners", but Ireland ignored them and carried through with the sentencing.

Another report uncovered by Operation Pendragon is the role of German spies in aiding the Royalists in carrying out attacks in Britain and Ireland. Ireland makes an official denunciation of Germany for funding terrorist activities, straining relations severely. These already-tense relations with Germany teetered on the brink of war in 1942, due to the accidental bombing of the merchant vessel S.S Selkie off the coast of Norway. Accusing Germany of this strike being a deliberate action, Ireland recalled their ambassadors and severed all ties with Germany, Germany soon after recalled their own ambassadors from Ireland, accusing them of being "a communard nation in disguise".

### Ireland in the new order

In 1946, Ireland emerged unscathed into the new world order. As the Socialist International and Eurasian Treaty Organisation tightened their grasp on the world. former German industrial and agricultural assets in the country were swiftly nationalized and auctioned off to the highest Bidders. This process would be controversial and wrought with accusations of corruption and nepotism in the auctioning process. Cracks are forming in the rank and files as well as the leadership of Sinn Fein after the Congress of the Victors where a new socialist order in Europe was established and the joint declaration of the "struggle for the establishment of human rights, democracy and prosperity via workers power everywhere on earth." started the conservative factions of SF who questioned the course of appeasement, meanwhile the left-wing became increasing angered in the corruption and growing patronage system that Collins established by trying to court both the business unions and the labour unions.