Irish are Elves?

Using the expiring streaming queue to guide some of what I watch on Netflix had me watching Michael Collins recently. He was one of the leaders of the Irish rebellion after WWI that lead to a deal between the Irish and English that created the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.

I've been pretty ignorant of both the timeline (centuries of conflict) and details of this famous feud, and the movie helped on at least a portion of that front. A particular detail that I wasn't aware of was upon achieving the deal with England (voted for by a majority of Irish) the rebels split and immediately began a civil war that lasted until Michael Collins was assassinated, at which point everyone seemed to decided - oops, yeah that was too far. Then it reverted back to just fighting with England via the IRA - the conflict we know a bit better.

For some reason the story reminded me a bit of the Elves from the Silmarillion, not necessarily for any specifics, but more in the self-inflicted tragedies that follow on tragedies from without. Ultimately the elves were responsible for all the bad shit that befell them, but occasionally they did rally to deal with a common foe, only to betray one another almost immediately after.

Always a good time to smack down the Elrond, "men are weak" comment. "Yeah? Fuck you elf."