"Actualy, Lloyd George's silvery (as in eel) tongue gave us nearly a century of bloodshed in the Northern Irish counties by forcing through a Treaty at gunpoint"

trying to summarise Irish Independence in one sentence gives rise to the absolute nonsense above. There were multiple levels of complexity involved and one of the main plenipotentiaries signatories to the original treaty negotiations, Collins, was ambushed and murdered by anti treaty forces during the ensuing civil war. This was fought over the refusal to recognise the retention of the 6 counties under UK rule and a refusal to accept dominion status, as exemplified by Canada and Australia.
De Valera himself acknowledged Collin's claim that the treaty would give "the freedom to achieve freedom".
It was also widely recognised that forcing 31 county independence would have led to sectarian warfare.