Ireland: A Crises for the UK?

[RedRalphWiggum]

OK, we're done with contemporary politics here. Last warning.

 

[Phalanxia]

The problem is that the Irish were never really militant until after the 1916 rebellion.

Yes, precisely. I really can't think of a way to accurately model the Irish Question without an event chain though, as Ireland's experience was rather unique. You would also need to make it clear that simply giving home rule, or even independence to the whole of Ireland would lead to a big spike in militancy for all British POPs, not just British POPs in provinces that are Irish cores.

 

[EGaffney]

America backed Irish independence pretty heavily.

Not in a way that game mechanics can model. Some historic context may be useful here, if slightly off-topic from this forum's purpose. Many individual (Irish-)Americans did indeed heavily support Irish republicanism, but they had little influence on the federal government before 1916 and the rise of Sinn Féin, primarily because there was nobody campaigning for independence back home to leverage that support. After 1916, it became a British domestic-policy story. The USA did not recognise Ireland until 1924, which was two years after independence. The USA did so because the UK asked them to.

It's hard to model this kind of international, non-state pressure in a game about domestic policy and state conflict. V2: Heart of Darkness crises seem to be backed by the threat of war, but it's hard to imagine a war about land that was not only acknowledged as "non-core provinces", but, furthermore, universally recognised as British by world governments (except the USSR).

 

[EGaffney]

Yes, precisely. I really can't think of a way to accurately model the Irish Question without an event chain though, as Ireland's experience was rather unique. You would also need to make it clear that simply giving home rule, or even independence to the whole of Ireland would lead to a big spike in militancy for all British POPs, not just British POPs in provinces that are Irish cores.

Funny, while sympathising with your position, I think Ireland isn't so unique. As I wrote before, there are half a dozen other countries that came to sovereign statehood in the same messy way as Ireland. (The mechanic is even called "Dominions" in V2, right?) British people themselves did not overly object, except in Ulster.