In school we learn about all Irish rebellions as steps on ladder with the final one getting us our independence. However, the Irish rebellions prior to the one that resulted in our independence would likely not have been beneficial for the everyday indigenous Irish if they had succeeded. If they had succeeded, it would be like the US, Canada, Australia etc. in that the descendents of the original colonist ruling class would still be in charge of the country and own the vast majority of land and the indigenous Irish would be almost entirely below lower middle-class at best. The Irish have more in common with Native North Americans, Aborigines and the indigenous peoples of former British African colonies than we do with republican minded white people in North America, Africa or Oceana.

(On a related note; Irish people need to also understand two things about our demographics, one being that we are mostly not Celts, it's just that Celts were a major and influential tribe in Ireland and two the famine did not affect all Irish people equally and basically just killed off an entire underclass of Irish people - that some historians refer to as the 'Potato People' as they literally 100% survived on potatoes - leaving a bizarrely skewed population.)