Keith A, if politics had stood still during the war, you'd be right. But in 1915 the Liberal government (Home Rule was a Liberal project) collapsed, and was replaced by a coalition dominated by the Conservative and Unionist Party. They were never going to allow Home Rule to come into being.
And what's this about "the fools, the fools" - they fought for and got full independence, a full and free Republic, rather than the county council status that Home Rule would have been.