Irish Civil War (Cinco De Mayo)

The Irish Civil War was a long conflict fought in Ireland between 1994 and 2002, beginning with the official independence of the Republic of Ireland in 1994 and ending with the Portland Accords that went into effect officially on January 1, 2002. The war was fought initially between the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary force opposing the terms of the Irish Treaty of Independence at the conclusion of the Irish War of Independence, and the National Army of Ireland, over control of the country. In a military coup in 1997, Gerry Adams of the Sinn Féin, the IRA's political wing, seized power in Dublin and invaded the contested region of Ulster, which both Ireland and the UR claimed along with locals. The late 1990s formed the most violent part of the conflict, and Northern Ireland remains contested today. The 2002 Portland Accords, signed in Portland, Oregon, marked the conclusion of a nine-month ceasefire and negotiations between the various parties for a power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland. As of 2014, Sinn Féin remains the governing party in Northern Ireland, where paramilitary violence continues to this day.