Republicans swept the board in the general election of 1918, consigning the constitutional nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party to history. The decisive electoral victory was also a clear declaration that people, in their droves, had abandoned the minimalist demand of Home Rule and now sought a Republic. At the outset of 1919, what are often considered to be the first shots of the Black and Tan War were fired by Dan Breen and his comrades at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary.