So there you have it - the first democratically elected Parliament in Ireland endorsed the Easter Week uprising as "acting on behalf of the Irish people"
Can't say fairer than that.

Of course what that should read to put it into perspective is

So there you have it - After the election in 1918 the first democratically elected Parliament in Ireland consisting of a huge Republican Sinn Fein majority endorsed the Easter Week uprising of 1916 carried out by a fanatical minority Republican Group as "acting on behalf of the Irish people"

The fact that the majority of the people of Ireland in 1916 felt exactly the opposite ( One of Keith A's two points) isn't even mentioned and why should it - putting it in football terms which team would you expect Celtic Supporters to cheer for?

Would the peacemakers in Paris also ratify the Irish Republic?

No more than they would have ratified the existence of a German Alsace- Lorraine or a German Belgium.

By the way does Mr Jonathan Bardon give a date for the "crucial meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council in 1916 {where} it had been agreed to seek partition of the six north-eastern counties" - It wouldn't by any chance have taken place shortly AFTER the failed Easter Rising would it? I think that you will find it was which rather backs up the statements made that the failed rising hardened opinions and feelings on both sides and more or less guaranteed permanent partition. We all know that in July 1914 they were willing to try a temporary partition solution but by July 1916 the Unionists only wanted permanent partition, which because of Sinn Fein's stand, the war of independence and the ensuing civil war the Unionists got. Decades later after a host of unsuccessful attempts to coerce and terrorise the people of Northern Ireland into a Union they didn't want the Republican "men-of-the-gun" who supposedly modelled themselves on the "magnificent seven" of 1916 had to stand on the sidelines and see the Government of Ireland Act 1920 superseded by the April 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the abandonment by the Government of the Republic of Ireland of Articles 2 & 3 of their Constitution thereby further reinforcing the Permanent Partitioning of the Island which came about as a direct result of the events in Dublin one hundred years ago.

"Can't say fairer than that". Indeed.