Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Ireland

Did you mean: Ireland (island, Northern Ireland), Ireland, Republic of (country, Ireland), Ireland Inc, Kathy Ireland (Model / Actor), Patricia Ireland, John Ireland (politician) More...

 
Dictionary: Ire·land1   (īr'lənd) pronunciation
Home > Library > Travel > Dictionary - Places

An island in the northern Atlantic Ocean west of Great Britain, divided between the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is a part of the United Kingdom. The island was invaded by Celts c. 500 B.C. and converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick in the fifth century A.D. Ireland came under English control in the 17th century and was joined with Great Britain by the Act of Union in 1801. After the Easter Rebellion (1916) and a war of independence (1919-1921) the island was split into the independent Irish Free State (now Ireland) and Northern Ireland, which is still part of the United Kingdom.

 

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Photography Encyclopedia: Ireland's
Top
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Photography Encyclopedia

Ireland's earliest photographer was Francis Stewart Beatty, a Belfast engraver, in September 1839. Its first commercial studio opened in Dublin's Rotunda building in 1841 and was soon joined by those of a motley band of entrepreneurs in a country where the daguerreotype did not enjoy patent protection. Leone Glukman opened a particularly successful studio in Dublin in the 1840s, and his lithographs of daguerreotypes of the Young Irelanders, including William Smith O'Brien, the leader of the 1848 Rebellion, were a great success.

Irish experimenters with the calotype process included William Holland Furlong and Michael Packenham Edgeworth, a half-brother of the novelist Maria Edgeworth. John Shaw Smith took an extensive series of calotypes on his travels to Italy and the Middle East in the early 1850s. The Dublin Photographic Society was established in 1854, becoming the Photographic Society of Ireland in 1858.

The ‘Big Houses’ in the country were associated with many fine photographers in the 1850s and 1860s. Francis Edmund Currey at Lismore Castle, Co. Waterford; Lady Augusta Dillon (née Crofton) and the Hon. Luke Dillon of Clonbrock House, Co. Galway; Edward King Tenison of Kilronan Castle, Co. Roscommon; and Mary, Countess of Rosse, at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly. The albums of Hugh Annesley of Castlewellan, Co. Down, date from the mid-1850s to the late 1870s. William Despard Hemphill, a Tipperary surgeon, published The Abbeys and Castles of Clonmel (1860), illustrated with his mounted stereographs.

Meanwhile, professional photographers were making their mark. James Robinson, who ran a studio in Dublin, made legal history in 1859 when his stereoscopic pair The Death of Chatterton, modelled after the painting of the same name by Henry Wallis, was deemed to have infringed copyright law. Commercial studios in the 1850s had begun taking an interest in topographical views. By 1857 the London Stereoscopic Company had sent employees to capture Ireland's scenery on camera. Frederick Holland Mares, who was deeply influenced by ideas of the picturesque, created a widely known series of scenic views in the 1860s, the negatives of which were bought by William Mervyn Lawrence (1840-1932) in the 1870s. Lawrence became the leading name in Irish topographical photography, with Robert French the best known of his photographers.

Landscape has remained the dominant genre in Irish photography, appearing in many guises, from topographical views and postcards to late 20th-century documents of the troubles in the North. Interpretations of the landscape, as fantasy, memento, nightmare, or boundary, continue to be varied.

The Lauder family, through Lauder Brothers (est. 1853), and Lafayette's, dominated the studio business in Dublin; Alfred Werner was a successful society portraitist in the 1880s and 1890s. Other firms included Edward Harding in Cork, Thomas Wynne (1838-93) in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, and A. H. Poole in Waterford. Alexander Ayton had a studio in Derry in the early 1860s and published Sights and Scenes in Ireland in the late 1890s, which included remarkable images of rural poverty in Donegal in the 1860s. In Belfast, E. T. Church ran a successful studio in the 1870s and 1880s. Robert Welch (1859-1936) established a studio there in 1883, and his knowledge of the scenery, antiquities, botany, and geology of Ulster is reflected in his work. Welch was official photographer of the Harland & Wolff shipbuilding company, and in 1914 also photographed impoverished western communities for the Congested Districts Board. Other notable Ulster photographers include Francis Bigger, Alexander Hogg, and William Green.

In 1894 Professor John Joly of Trinity College, Dublin, patented a single-shot colour process, and in 1895 exhibited transparencies at the Royal Dublin Society. However, the invention failed commercially and was rendered obsolete by the autochrome process.

Ireland's early 20th-century cultural revival was largely driven by literature. However, both George Bernard Shaw and J. M. Synge (1871-1909) were keen photographers, and Synge recorded life on the Aran Islands on his visits there in 1898-1902. The Camera in the 1920s proved to be an influential journal. Father Frank Browne, SJ, who had taken up photography in 1897, became renowned for his pictures of the Titanic leaving on her maiden voyage; on his death in 1960 he left over 40, 000 images, now in the Jesuit Archive in Dublin.

Many surviving photographs relate to Ireland's political history. The National Library of Ireland's collection alone includes police photographs of nationalist conspirators and suspects; pictures of evicted families, including the remarkable Coolgreany Evictions Album (1887); and many images of the events and personalities of 1916-22. Political violence in Northern Ireland has inspired much documentary photography. During the emergency that began in 1969, photojournalists converged on Ulster from all over the world. Willie Doherty, Victor Sloan, and David Farrell, among others, created more avowedly artistic work. Since 1980 Brian Hughes has documented Belfast's street life and political murals. Here too, the landscape tradition persists, as evidenced by Paul Seawright's unsettling and enigmatic photographs of places where murder victims were discovered.

The postcard industry reached its zenith in the work of John Hinde, whose idealized and retouched images dominated the business in the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, Hinde's images have been an enduring source of ironic homage, most notably in the work of Anthony Haughey. Liam Blake, Walter Pfeiffer, Tom Kelly, and Peter Zoller's romanticized landscape images have also proved popular.

Photography was only gradually accorded an honoured place in Ireland's artistic life. The Irish Gallery of Photography, founded in 1978, provided a venue in Dublin for photographers to exhibit work increasingly informed by international trends. Similarly, the Press Photographers' Association of Ireland has championed photojournalism, with the Irish Times, in particular, leading the way.

The history of photography on the island was relatively neglected until the work of such pioneers as Edward Chandler. There is an increasing interest in Ireland's photographic heritage in universities and colleges of higher education. Archives include that of the National Library of Ireland in Dublin, with c.300, 000 images; the Irish Architectural Archive; the Ulster Museum; the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum; and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

William Mervyn Lawrence: Ross Castle, Co. Killarney, Ireland, late 19th century. Albumen print
William Mervyn Lawrence: Ross Castle, Co. Killarney, Ireland, late 19th century. Albumen print


Anon.: The prince of Wales and his entourage on the Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim, Ireland, late 19th century. Albumen print
Anon.: The prince of Wales and his entourage on the Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim, Ireland, late 19th century. Albumen print

— Louise Kavanagh/<auth init="DO'M">Donncha O'Muirithe

See also country house photography.

Bibliography

  • Rouse, S., Into the Light: An Illustrated Guide to the Photographic Collections of the National Library of Ireland (1998).
  • Kavanagh, L., ‘Photography and Ireland: A Select Bibliography’, History of Photography, 23 (1999).
  • Maguire, W. A., A Century in Focus: Photographers and Photography in the North of Ireland (2000).
  • Chandler, E., Photography in Ireland: The Nineteenth Century (2001)
Celtic Mythology: Ireland
Top
Home > Library > Religion & Spirituality > Celtic Mythology

Second largest of the British Isles, 32,595 square metres in area, largest of all Celtic lands; its modern population, between 4 and 5 million, is smaller than that of Scotland, although the island may have contained more than 9 million in 1840. Ireland was divided into thirty-two counties in the 17th century, twenty-six of which formed an independent nation in 1922, first as the Irish Free State and, after 1949, as the Republic of Ireland, occupying 26,601 square metres, or 81.6 per cent of the total. Six counties remained a part of the UK in 1922 and were partitioned from the rest as Northern Ireland, a name with no currency before that time; all six, however, are coextensive with the ancient province of Ulster, whose full borders embrace three more counties, now in the Republic.

According to widely known literary tradition, the Irish name for Ireland, Éire, derives from Ériu, one of many feminine personifications of the country (see below); the dative and genitive forms of the name are Érinn, Érenn. At the same time the name is strikingly similar to that of the Érainn, a people of early southern Ireland. According to the late medieval, biblicized pseudo-history Lebor Gabála, Ireland is named for Ír, the first of the Milesians. The Greek forms for Ireland as recorded in Ptolemy (2nd cent. AD), Ierna, Iernē (elsewhere Ivernē), were latinized into Hibernia (also Iverna, Ivernia). Modern commentators have identified the Iverni with the Érainn of early Ireland, specifically the subdivision known as Corcu Loígde. For a period in the early 20th century the anglicized term ‘Ivernian’ was coined to denote all the population of early Ireland. From Latin also come the terms Scotia for the island and Scotti for its inhabitants, especially those in the north-east. When people from the north-east of Ireland invaded what they then called Alba in the 4th century, that country came to be called Scotland after them. Additionally, the ancient people known as the Attecotti may also have been in fact from Ireland.

Celtic-speaking peoples were by no means the earliest inhabitants of Ireland. Radiocarbon dating indicates human habitation in what is now Co. Sligo as early as c.7500 BC, but the Celts did not arrive until the first millennium BC, specific dates for which are still under contention. This means that most of the best-known archaeological remains in Ireland, e.g. Newgrange (c.3200 BC), Dowth, and Knowth, were built by pre-Celtic peoples, even though they are frequently cited in Celtic tradition. Among the earliest Celtic-speaking peoples may have been the Priteni (or Picts), who migrated west from Britain; the Belgae, also found on the Continent and in Britain; the Lagin, perhaps from Armorica [Brittany] who may have invaded both Ireland and Britain simultaneously; and finally the Gaels or Goidelic-speakers. The language inherited from these invaders, Irish, is the most prominent of the Q-Celtic family. T. F. O'Rahilly argued in Early Irish History and Mythology (1946) that only the last invaders, the Goidelic-speakers, were Q-Celts and that all the earlier peoples were P-Celts, a controversial assertion that has little or no acceptance despite the enormous influence of his study. Shadowy parallels for the early populations of Ireland are found in the Lebor Gabála, which applies the name Milesian to the Q-Celtic ancestors of the modern Irish.

Unique among Celtic countries are Ireland's many poetic personifications and characterizations, most of them female. Among the oldest is iath nAnann [land of Ana], in the 10th-century Sanas Cormaic [Cormac's Glossary], alluding to Ana, the pre-Christian earth-goddess. Perhaps as old are the three beautiful divinities of the Lebor Gabála, Ériu, Banba, and Fódla. Also from the Lebor Gabála is the first invader, Cesair, a woman whose name can be a poetic synonym for Ireland. Two early modern personae, Cáit Ní Dhuibhir and Róisín Dubh [Dark Rosaleen], depict a lovely maiden in distress. Not all personifications have radiated sexual allure, however. The loathsome Cailleach Bhéirre [hag of Beare] proffers the forbidding face of sovereignty; she appears reincarnated in Sean-bhean Bhocht/Shan Van Vocht, ‘the Poor Old Woman’, an emblem of the United Irishmen's rising in 1798 and frequently cited since then. A weakened Ireland could still be nurturing as in Druimin Donn Dílis [faithful, brown, white-backed cow]. Yet other female figures are powerful and commanding, like Granuaile, based on the historical 16th-century Mayo coast pirate, Gráinne Mhaol NíMháille, and Caitlín Ní hUallacháin [Cathleen Ni Houlihan], much evoked by 19th- and 20th-century nationalists. The two most important non-female metaphors for Ireland are Fál or Lia Fáil, the phallic stone of Tara, and Claidheamh Soluis [sword of light; reformed spelling Claíomh Solais]. Two common poetic nicknames are Inis Ealga [noble isle] and Inis Fáil [island of destiny], alluding to the stone Fál. In Geoffrey Keating's history (17th cent.) Ireland is Muicinis [pig island].

Although Ireland is nearly bisected on an east-west axis by the Shannon River, the historical imagination has favoured a north-south division along a nearly invisible line called the Eiscir Riada that runs from outside Galway City into what is today Dublin. Two stories explain this bifurcation. In the better-known version, Conn Cétchathach [of the Hundred Battles] claimed the land north of Eiscir Riada, while Eogan Mór (also known as Mug Nuadat) took the south; all territory was consequently either Leth Cuinn [Conn's half] or Leth Moga [Mug's half]. A division along the same line, Eiscir Riada, is made in the Lebor Gabála, with Éber Finn taking the north and Éremón taking the south. The north-south division persists in the alignment of Ireland's five provinces. Initially Ulster (earlier Ulaid) and Connacht are mostly north of the Eiscir Riada, while Leinster (Lagin) and Munster (Mumu), so large as to be counted as two-east and west- are south. When Mide is counted as the fifth province (and thus Munster as one), it also lies north of Eiscir Riada. Although the composition of each province reflects centuries of migration and settlement patterns, part 2 of the Welsh Mabinogi offers a different origin story: all the men of Ireland are slain except for five pregnant women whose sons establish the five provinces of Ireland.

While Ireland was not conquered by the Romans, it drew closer to the rest of Europe with Christian evangelization, putatively led by St Patrick, beginning in the 5th century. Subsequently, early Irish writing was expressed in an adaptation of the Roman alphabet. As well as being the oldest written vernacular in Europe, the Irish language [Old Irish Goídelc; Modern Irish Gaedhealg; reformed Modern Irish Gaeilge] survives in the largest volume of early texts of any early European language, more than 600, many of which have never been edited or translated. Some, not all, are bound in great early codices like the Book of the Dun Cow [Lebor na hUidre] (c.1100), Book of Leinster [Lebor Laignech/na Núachongbála] (c.1160), and Yellow Book of Lecan [Lebor Buide Lecáin (c.1390). From the advent of Christianity in the 5th century until the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in 1169, writing, in Irish or Latin, was largely an ecclesiastical franchise. Native-born clergymen absorbed pre-Christian narratives and in time made their own use of them.

Thus much of what is called ‘Celtic mythology’ in this volume has been transmitted to us by scribes unsympathetic with, if not hostile to, the religious traditions that had fostered the original traditions. Not surprisingly, some 19th- and early 20th-century commentators argued that heroic stories from early Irish literature did not constitute a ‘mythology’ because they had been compromised in transmission. Clearly, the characters of some divinities, notably Ana for whom the Tuatha Dé Danann are named, are nearly lost. Some heroes, such as Lug Lámfhota and Fionn mac Cumhaill, were certainly originally divinities. Yet much of the unwritten pre-Christian original tradition has been retained, as is implied by the numerous parallels between Old Irish literature, ‘Celtic Mythology’, and classical, Norse, Slavic, Indian, and other Indo-European mythologies. Additionally, more recent archaeological finds in the British Isles and elsewhere co-ordinate many aspects of the milieu depicted in the four major cycles of early Irish literature, the Mythological, the Ulster, the Fenian, and the Cycle of Kings.

Written tradition in Irish survived the 12th-century reform of the Irish Church, which brought with it the introduction of orders of Continental monasticism, like the Benedictines and the Cistercians, and ended the native monasticism of Celtic Christianity. Prominent families, including gaelicized Normans, acted as patrons in the transmission of manuscripts down the departure of the native aristocracy, the ‘Flight of the Earls’, at the beginning of the 17th century. Increased anglicization diminished Irish literary tradition, yet manuscripts continued to be produced in large numbers, sometimes abroad, e.g. Duanaire Finn at Louvain in the Spanish Netherlands, through the 18th century and up to the middle of the 19th.

Proscription of the Irish language in commerce and legal affairs meant that its speakers, though they were still a majority of the population as late as 1800, were often illiterate and powerless. Lack of the ability to write did not prevent the survival of an enormously rich oral tradition, which began to be collected, translated, and published in the 19th century. T. Crofton Croker's first volumes, Researches in the South of Ireland (1824) and Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825), attracted European attention, including that of the Brothers Grimm and Sir Walter Scott. Over the next two centuries hundreds of other collectors would fill libraries with narratives, many of which are rooted in the oldest documents of Irish literary tradition. The voluminous files of the Irish Folklore Commission, compiled in the 20th century, are more extensive than collections from any other western European country. At the end of the 20th century, the wellsprings of this oral tradition had by no means been exhausted. Oral tradition has survived the calamitous decline of the Irish language. The 1911 census recorded that only 17.6 per cent of the population could speak Irish to any degree, certainly a smaller number at independence eleven years later. The Free State Government (which became the Republic of Ireland, 1949) made a knowledge of Irish a requirement for schools and for applications to civil service positions, a policy that continued until 1973, and also created financial and other incentives to native speakers to remain in the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking regions. With the 21st century approaching, more than 1 million persons had some knowledge of Irish while no more than 100,000, about 3.3 per cent of the population of the Republic, spoke Irish as a primary language. Irish Éire; Scottish Gaelic Éirinn; Manx Nerin, Yn Erin; Welsh Iwerddon; Cornish Ywerdhon; Breton Iwerzhon, Iwerzon, Iverdon. See also Bibliography under ‘Irish’.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Ireland
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Columbia Encyclopedia
Ireland, Irish Eire (âr'ə) [to it are related the poetic Erin and perhaps the Latin Hibernia], island, 32,598 sq mi (84,429 sq km), second largest of the British Isles. The island is divided into two major political units-Northern Ireland (see Ireland, Northern), which is joined with Great Britain in the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland (see Ireland, Republic of). Of the 32 counties of Ireland, 26 lie in the Republic, and of the four historic provinces, three and part of the fourth are in the Republic.

Geology and Geography

Ireland lies west of the island of Great Britain, from which it is separated by the narrow North Channel, the Irish Sea (which attains a width of 130 mi/209 km), and St. George's Channel. More than a third the size of Britain, the island averages 140 mi (225 km) in width and 225 mi (362 km) in length. A large central plain extending to the Irish Sea between the Mourne Mts. in the north and the mountains of Wicklow in the south is roughly enclosed by a highland rim. The highlands of the north, west, and south, which rise to more than 3,000 ft (914 m), are generally barren, but the central plain is extremely fertile and the climate is temperate and moist, warmed by southwesterly winds. The rains, which are heaviest in the west (some areas have more than 80 in./203 cm annually), are responsible for the brilliant green grass of the "emerald isle," and for the large stretches of peat bog, a source of valuable fuel. The coastline is irregular, affording many natural harbors. Off the west coast are numerous small islands, including the Aran Islands, the Blasket Islands, Achill, and Clare Island. The interior is dotted with lakes (the most celebrated are the Lakes of Killarney) and wide stretches of river called loughs. The Shannon, the longest of Irish rivers, drains the western plain and widens into the beautiful loughs Allen, Ree, and Derg. The River Liffey empties into Dublin Bay, the Lee into Cork Harbour at Cobh, the Foyle into Lough Royle near Derry, and the Lagan into Belfast Lough.

History

Ireland to the English Conquest

The earliest known people in Ireland belonged to the groups that inhabited all of the British Isles in prehistoric times. In the several centuries preceding the birth of Jesus a number of Celtic tribes invaded and conquered Ireland and established their distinctive culture (see Celt), although they do not seem to have come in great numbers. Ancient Irish legend tells of four successive peoples who invaded the country-the Firbolgs, the Fomors, the Tuatha De Danann, and the Milesians. Oddly enough, the Romans, who occupied Britain for 400 years, never came to Ireland, and the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain, who largely replaced the Celtic population there, did not greatly affect Ireland.

Until the raids of the Norse in the late 8th cent., Ireland remained relatively untouched by foreign incursions and enjoyed the golden age of its culture. The people, Celtic and non-Celtic alike, were organized into clans, or tribes, which in the early period owed allegiance to one of five provincial kings-of Ulster, Munster, Connacht, Leinster, and Meath (now the northern part of Leinster). These kings nominally served the high king of all Ireland at Tara (in Meath). The clans fought constantly among themselves, but despite civil strife, literature and art were held in high respect. Each chief or king kept an official poet (Druid) who preserved the oral traditions of the people. The Gaelic language and culture were extended into Scotland by Irish emigrants in the 5th and 6th cent.

Parts of Ireland had already been Christianized before the arrival of St. Patrick in the 5th cent., but pagan tradition continued to appeal to the imagination of Irish poets even after the complete conversion of the country. The Celtic Christianity of Ireland produced many scholars and missionaries who traveled to England and the Continent, and it attracted students to Irish monasteries, until the 8th cent. perhaps the most brilliant of Europe. St. Columba and St. Columban were among the most famous of Ireland's missionaries. All the arts flourished; Irish illuminated manuscripts were particularly noteworthy. The Book of Kells (see Ceanannus Mór) is especially famous.

The country did not develop a strong central government, however, and it was not united to meet the invasions of the Norse, who settled on the shores of the island late in the 8th cent., establishing trading towns (including Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick) and creating new petty kingdoms. In 1014, at Clontarf, Brian Boru, who had become high king by conquest in 1002, broke the strength of the Norse invaders. There followed a period of 150 years during which Ireland was free from foreign interference but was torn by clan warfare.

Ireland and the English

In the 12th cent., Pope Adrian IV granted overlordship of Ireland to Henry II of England. The English conquest of Ireland was begun by Richard de Clare, 2d earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, who intervened in behalf of a claimant to the throne of Leinster; in 1171, Henry himself went to Ireland, temporarily establishing his overlordship there. With this invasion commenced an Anglo-Irish struggle that continued for nearly 800 years.

The English established themselves in Dublin. Roughly a century of warfare ensued as Ireland was divided into English shires ruled from Dublin, the domains of feudal magnates who acknowledged English sovereignty, and the independent Irish kingdoms. Many English intermarried with the Irish and were assimilated into Irish society. In the late 13th cent. the English introduced a parliament in Ireland. In 1315, Edward Bruce of Scotland invaded Ireland and was joined by many Irish kings. Although Bruce was killed in 1318, the English authority in Ireland was weakening, becoming limited to a small district around Dublin known as the Pale; the rest of the country fell into a struggle for power among the ruling Anglo-Irish families and Irish chieftains.

English attention was diverted by the Hundred Years War with France (1337-1453) and the Wars of the Roses (1455-85). However, under Henry VII new interest in the island was aroused by Irish support for Lambert Simnel, a Yorkist pretender to the English throne. To crush this support, Henry sent to Ireland Sir Edward Poynings, who summoned an Irish Parliament at Drogheda and forced it to pass the legislation known as Poynings' Law (1495). These acts provided that future Irish Parliaments and legislation receive prior approval from the English Privy Council. A free Irish Parliament was thus rendered impossible.

The English Reformation under Henry VIII gave rise in England to increased fears of foreign, Catholic invasion; control of Ireland thus became even more imperative. Henry VIII put down a rebellion (1534-37), abolished the monasteries, confiscated lands, and established a Protestant "Church of Ireland" (1537). But since the vast majority of Irish remained Roman Catholic, the seeds of bitter religious contention were added to the already rancorous Anglo-Irish relations. The Irish rebelled three times during the reign of Elizabeth I and were brutally suppressed. Under James I, Ulster was settled by Scottish and English Protestants, and many of the Catholic inhabitants were driven off their lands; thus two sharply antagonistic communities were established.

Another Irish rebellion, begun in 1641 in reaction to the hated rule of Charles I's deputy, Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, was crushed (1649-50) by Oliver Cromwell with the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. More land was confiscated (and often given to absentee landlords), and more Protestants settled in Ireland. The intractable landlord-tenant problem that plagued Ireland in later centuries can be traced to the English confiscations of the 16th and 17th cent.

Irish Catholics rallied to the cause of James II after his overthrow (1688) in England (see the Glorious Revolution), while the Protestants in Ulster enthusiastically supported William III. At the battle of the Boyne (1690) near Dublin, James and his French allies were defeated by William. The English-controlled Irish Parliament passed harsh Penal Laws designed to keep the Catholic Irish powerless; political equality was also denied to Presbyterians. At the same time English trade policy depressed the economy of Protestant Ireland, causing many so-called Scotch-Irish to emigrate to America. A newly flourishing woolen industry was destroyed when export from Ireland was forbidden.

During the American Revolution, fear of a French invasion of Ireland led Irish Protestants to form (1778-82) the Protestant Volunteer Army. The Protestants, led by Henry Grattan, and even supported by some Catholics, used their military strength to extract concessions for Ireland from Britain. Trade concessions were granted in 1779, and, with the repeal of Poynings' Law (1782), the Irish Parliament had its independence restored. But the Parliament was still chosen undemocratically, and Catholics continued to be denied the right to hold political office.

Another unsuccessful rebellion was staged in 1798 by Wolfe Tone, a Protestant who had formed the Society of United Irishmen and who accepted French aid in the uprising. The reliance on French assistance revived anti-Catholic feeling among the Irish Protestants, who remembered French support of the Jacobite restoration. The rebellion convinced the British prime minister, William Pitt, that the Irish problem could be solved by the adoption of three policies: abolition of the Irish Parliament, legislative union with Britain in a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Catholic Emancipation. The first two goals were achieved in 1800, but the opposition of George III and British Protestants prevented the enactment of the Catholic Emancipation Act until 1829, when it was accomplished largely through the efforts of the Irish leader Daniel O'Connell.

Ireland under the Union

After 1829 the Irish representatives in the British Parliament attempted to maintain the Irish question as a major issue in British politics. O'Connell worked to repeal the union with Britain, which was felt to operate to Ireland's disadvantage, and to reform the government in Ireland. Toward the middle of the century, the Irish Land Question grew increasingly urgent. But the Great Potato Famine (1845-49), one of the worst natural disasters in history, dwarfed political developments. During these years a blight ruined the potato crop, the staple food of the Irish population, and hundreds of thousands perished from hunger and disease. Many thousands of others emigrated; between 1847 and 1854 about 1.6 million went to the United States. The population dropped from an estimated 8.5 million in 1845 to 6.55 million in 1851 (and continued to decline until the 1960s). Irish emigrants in America formed the secret Fenian movement, dedicated to Irish independence. In 1869 the British prime minister William Gladstone sponsored an act disestablishing the Protestant "Church of Ireland" and thereby removed one Irish grievance.

In the 1870s, Irish politicians renewed efforts to achieve Home Rule within the union, while in Britain Gladstone and others attempted to solve the Irish problem through land legislation and Home Rule. Gladstone twice submitted Home Rule bills (1886 and 1893) that failed. The proposals alarmed Protestant Ulster, which began to organize against Home Rule. In 1905, Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin among Irish Catholics, but for the time being the dominant Irish nationalist group was the Home Rule party of John Redmond.

Home Rule was finally enacted in 1914, with the provision that Ulster could remain in the union for six more years, but the act was suspended for the duration of World War I and never went into effect. In both Ulster and Catholic Ireland militias were formed. The Irish Republican Brotherhood, a descendent of the Fenians, organized a rebellion on Easter Sunday, 1916; although unsuccessful, the rising acquired great propaganda value when the British executed its leaders.

Sinn Fein, linked in the Irish public's mind with the rising and aided by Britain's attempt to apply conscription to Ireland, scored a tremendous victory in the parliamentary elections of 1918. Its members refused to take their seats in Westminster, declared themselves the Dáil Éireann (Irish Assembly), and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The British outlawed both Sinn Fein and the Dáil, which went underground and engaged in guerrilla warfare (1919-21) against local Irish authorities representing the union. The British sent troops, the Black and Tans, who inflamed the situation further.

Partition

A new Home Rule bill was enacted in 1920, establishing separate parliaments for Ulster and Catholic Ireland. This was accepted by Ulster, and Northern Ireland was created. The plan was rejected by the Dáil, but in autumn 1921, Prime Minister Lloyd George negotiated with Griffith and Michael Collins of the Dáil a treaty granting Dominion status within the British Empire to Catholic Ireland. The Irish Free State was established in Jan., 1922. A new constitution was ratified in 1937 that terminated Great Britain's sovereignty. In 1948, all semblance of Commonwealth membership ended with the Republic of Ireland Act.

See Ireland, Republic of and Ireland, Northern.

Bibliography

See N. Mansergh, The Irish Question, 1840-1921 (1965); J. C. Beckett, The Making of Modern Ireland, 1603-1921 (1966); K. S. Bottigheimer, Ireland and the Irish: A Short History (1982); R. Munck, Ireland: Nation, State, and Class Conflict (1985); R. D. Crotty, Ireland in Crisis (1986); R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 (1989); J. Lee, Ireland, 1912-1985: Politics and Society (1989); T. Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (1995); C. C. O'Brien, Religion and Nationalism in Ireland (1995); D. Kiberd, Inventing Ireland (1996); N. Davies, The Isles: A History (2000).

History 1450-1789: Ireland
Top
Home > Library > History, Politics & Society > History 1450-1789

Ireland's history has been shaped by the inescapable facts of geography. A small island at the western edge of Europe, barely within the mainstream of Continental experience, it lay beyond the reach of the Roman Empire (with all that that entailed for the development of law and modes of administration) yet would later become one of the great depositories of Christian art, spirituality, and learning. The European context is crucial to an understanding of Ireland's past, but the critical geographical fact is the island's proximity to Britain. On a clear day, the Mull of Kintyre in southwest Scotland is visible from the Antrim coast in northeast Ireland. Gaelic civilization, moreover, extended like an arc along the western and northern coasts of Ireland into the Scottish Highlands. Scottish Lowlanders and the English referred to Scots Gaelic as the "Irish language." From the importation by Gaelic lords of Highland mercenary soldiers—the gallowglass and the redshanks—to the role of Scots settlers in the Ulster plantation and the Scots army in the North in the 1640s, a strong Scottish dimension runs through early modern Irish history, though ultimately Ireland's troubled relationship with its larger neighbor, England, would have the greater impact.

The Fall of the House of Kildare

In 1450 Ireland was a lordship, and the king of England its lord. The English crown's claim to sovereignty over the whole island had never been vindicated in practice, however, and during the later Middle Ages English power and jurisdiction were in retreat. Effectively, the king's writ and the common law were confined to the Pale, the area of English settlement around Dublin, capital city and seat of royal authority. Beyond the Pale and the towns, the great Anglo-Norman magnates negotiated the shifting frontiers of Gaeldom through "march law," a bastardized amalgam of common and Irish brehon (native) laws and customs. Even the levers of royal authority began to slip from the king's grasp. The crown in Ireland was represented either by a lord lieutenant, a lord deputy, or, in the absence of one or the other, by lords justices. Between 1447 and 1460, Richard of York's (1411–1460) political standing conferred stature upon the lord lieutenancy and, equally important, kept it within the orbit of the court. Then, between the 1470s and 1520, successive earls of Kildare virtually monopolized the office, using it as a source of patronage to extend their local power base and network of alliances.

The local autonomy enjoyed by the "Kildare ascendancy" has struck some historians of the old nationalist school as part of a wider pattern of incipient Anglo-Irish separatism. But it is surely anachronistic to attribute proto-nationalist ambitions to a political community, the descendants of the original Anglo-Norman settlers, that had no concept of an Irish "nation" in the modern sense. It did, however, have a strong sense of English identity, albeit "English by blood" rather than by birth. Nevertheless, from Parliament's declaration that Ireland was "corporate of itself" (1460) to its declaration of legislative independence in 1782, Anglo-Irish constitutional relations provides a major framework for Irish political history. Subordination of Ireland to England (and, after 1707, Great Britain) and Irish resistance to subordination, though rarely rising to outright separatist aspirations, runs like a leitmotiv through these centuries.

The ascendancy of the earls of Kildare entailed a sometimes spectacular loss of royal control over Irish affairs, most vividly in 1487 when the Yorkist eighth earl, Garrett Mor, crowned the pretender, Lambert Simnel (c. 1475–1535), king of England in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Kildare's survival in office, despite his treason, underlines the weakness of the English crown in the fifteenth century. From a position of greater strength and internal stability, however, Henry VIII would not countenance such overmighty subjects anywhere within his realm. Thus, when the ninth earl was summoned to London under the shadow of the executioner in 1534, his son, Lord Offaly, "Silken Thomas," led his followers in the Geraldine League into rebellion. The Geraldine revolt, which lasted until 1540, opened a new, blood-drenched chapter in Irish history. The advent of a new era was signaled by the first ever use of artillery—against the Kildare stronghold of Maynooth—by the ruthless suppression of the rebellion, and by the first stirrings of anti-Reformation Catholicism among the rebels.

The fall of the house of Kildare also inaugurated a prolonged phase of direct rule from London. That practice became the sine qua non of England's Irish policy, and several illustrious names among England's governing elite occupied Dublin Castle, namely the earls of Essex (1599), Strafford (1633–1640), and Chesterfield (1745–1747). There were notable exceptions to the rule: the Irish-born Protestant first duke of Ormond served as lord lieutenant under both Charles I and Charles II, while the Irish-born old English Catholic, the earl of Tyrconnell, held the office under James II in the 1680s. But after the first decade of the eighteenth century (when the second duke, Ormond's grandson, served) occupation of Dublin Castle was reserved for Englishmen. Until the very end of that century, and the appointments of John Fitzgibbon as lord chancellor and Viscount Castlereagh as chief secretary, Englishmen monopolized all senior executive posts, including the lord lieutenancy, chief secretaryship, lord chancellery, and the archbishopric of Armagh. On one level, official Ireland, especially its established church, functioned merely as a patronage outpost for a British political system oiled by the disbursement of places, preferments, pensions, promotions, titles, and favors. On another level, control of the executive rested on British security considerations.

England's Difficulty, Ireland's Opportunity

Security underpinned England's Irish policy. In essence, the concern was strategic. As Thomas Waring put it in the wake of the Cromwellian reconquest of 1649–1650, "humane reason and policie dictate's that the hous cannot bee safe so long as the back door is open." Ireland served as England's "back door" as early as 1497, when another Yorkist pretender, Perkin Warbeck, landed at Cornwall with a retinue of Irish supporters. Then, as Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe split into warring camps, the vulnerability of Protestant England's western seaboard (and the dangers of Spain's sponsorship of Irish Catholic rebels) concentrated the Tudor mind. Spain (and the papacy) twice intervened in Ireland, landing troops at Smerwick, County Kerry (1580), and, in greater force, at Kinsale, County Cork (1601). Strategic necessity lent urgency to the Tudor reconquest of the sixteenth century and galvanized English determination to hold onto Ireland thereafter. Enemies changed, geography did not: French soldiers fought in Ireland in 1690 and 1798.

England's dominance depended, at bottom, on coercive force. Beyond that, Whitehall and Westminster exercised an array of political, legislative, and administrative controls. These included the retention in English hands of key public offices and the imposition of restrictive laws limiting the autonomy of the Irish Parliament and regulating Irish trade. A few legislative landmarks plot the troubled course of Anglo-Irish relations. First, "Poynings's Law" (1494), aimed originally at too-powerful lord deputies of the Kildare type, evolved into a procedure whereby all Irish parliamentary bills were subject to amendment—amounting to a veto—by the English Privy Council. The repeal of Poynings's Law constitutes the so-called revolution of 1782. Second, the Irish Parliament's subordinate status, institutionalized under Poynings, received confirmation in the Declaratory Act of 1720, a forthright assertion of Westminster's supremacy in the Kingdom of Ireland. Finally, Westminster used its claim of jurisdiction to impose laws prohibiting the import of Irish cattle to England (1667) and the export of Irish wool (1699). Both laws long caused bitter resentment in Ireland, the preliminary controversy surrounding the latter provoking the classic defense of Ireland's historic right to legislative independence, William Molyneux's The Case of Ireland Being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated (London, 1698).

The roots of England's perennial "Irish problem" lay in the failures of England's Irish policies. By 1450, although the territory of the Pale had contracted, it still boasted the most densely populated, intensively cultivated, and economically diverse region of the country. Yet Gaeldom had also demonstrated its military and cultural vitality. And, as Sir John Davies recognized in his Discovery of the True Causes Why Ireland Was Never Entirely Subdued (1612), the Irish problem would remain intractable for so long as the Gael remained outside—and indeed resistant to—the boon of common law, civility, and, by Davies's time, Protestantism or "true religion." "All the world knows their barbarism," Cromwell remarked of his Irish enemies. Only the adoption of English customs, Reformed religion, language, and law—in a word, anglicization—could save them from their wretched condition.

Gaelic Ireland

The Gaelic Irish saw matters differently, and while the story of English-Irish conflict supplies the historian with a ready, dramatic, and compelling narrative structure, it is vital that historians not view the past solely in terms of that conflict. Early modern Ireland, viewed from the Atlantic shores of Donegal, looks rather different from the anglophone Ireland mapped and preserved in the Public Record Office. For the historian, the question of perspective is precisely about rescuing the Gaelic-speaking O'Donnell retainer and Mac Sweeny swordsman from the enormous condescension of the state papers. Gaelic politics, economy, and society are more difficult to reconstruct than Anglo-Ireland because they never generated the sorts of records—tax rolls, bureaucratic memoranda, even paintings—upon which historians usually rely. The Gaelic world has thus either remained hidden, or, as recently as 1988, been caricatured on the basis of the naive or hostile reportage of outsiders. Fortunately, the dearth of conventional sources has been circumvented somewhat by the mining of a rich, if tricky, lode of nontraditional evidence: Irish-language poetry. Excavations (and cataloguing) are still in the heroic phase, but already the findings of scholars working with these hitherto underused sources have altered and enhanced our understanding of, for example, the depth and range of Irish Jacobite sentiment in the eighteenth century.

English late medieval society, including the Irish Pale, was organized around legally binding principles of mutual obligation and services based on land tenures. In contrast, in Gaelic society land ownership and inheritance, obligation, and political succession were determined by kinship. A chief's power rested on his ability to enforce it, and under the system of "tanistry" his designated heir was as likely a brother or cousin as an eldest son. Kinship, alliances through marriage and fosterage and the receipt of tribute from lesser clans defined a great chief's status more than territory or even cattle—the staple of the Gaelic pastoral economy. Certain families, notably the O'Neills and O'Donnells in Ulster, the O'Connors in Connacht, and the Mac Carthys and O'Briens in Munster, predominated. They inhabited a world of insistent, lowintensity warfare and comparative political instability. Exactions of tribute—in kind, or in military or labor services—lacked regulation, and by the early modern period were epitomized by the abuses of "coign and livery"—the billeting at free quarters by a chief of his dependants on his tenants.

The crown and the Dublin administration were not prepared to leave the natives to their own ways for three reasons. First, the inevitable processes of intermarriage, cultural interaction, and linguistic borrowings (in both directions) of the Gaedhil (or Irish) and the Gaill (or foreigners)—which historians call gaelicization but which the English called degeneracy—could not be permitted to continue. Second, the English "common law mind" embraced legal uniformity and abhorred local particularism. Ireland, reported an early-sixteenth-century English observer, comprised a patchwork of over sixty "countries" ruled by captains, each of whom "maketh war and peace for himself, and holdeth by the sword, and hath imperial jurisdiction within his room, and obeyeth to no other person." Worse still, degenerate "captains of English noble family . . . folloeth the same Irish order." The gaelicized Anglo-Norman House of Desmond cast its shadow across the common law mind. Finally, particularistic march law and Gaelic custom rooted in local power bases challenged royal sovereignty as well as legal uniformity.

"Conquest and Reform"

Whereas conventional nationalist histories of sixteenth-century Ireland focused on reconquest, revisionist historians have recovered the Tudor commitment to reform, although conquest and, in Brendan Bradshaw's terminology, "the catastrophic dimension of Irish history" are now being reintroduced to a more complicated picture. The set pieces of reform are the Act of Kingly Title (1541), which upgraded Ireland from a lordship to a kingdom, and "surrender and regrant," under which Gaelic chieftains surrendered their titles to the crown and were regranted them in English law. Several leading figures were ennobled, for example "the O'Neill" now became Earl of Tyrone, and succession and inheritance were at least theoretically stabilized by the extension of primogeniture. In the longer run, however, the prospects for reform were dashed by the rise of confessional conflict.

In Ireland, the Protestant Reformation assumed the character of an alien imposition. Decisively, the old English, as well as the native Irish, remained Catholic. Protestants were—and remained—a minority. When the Tudors completed the reconquest by the subjugation of Hugh O'Neill (1603), Gaelic Ireland had suffered military defeat but retained its cultural identity. Ethnic origin divided the Gael from his fellow Catholic old English almost as much as from the Protestant new English, yet shared adversity during the first decades of the seventeenth century conspired to forge a common Catholic identity. The defeat of O'Neill was followed by "the flight of the Earls" (1607) when O'Neill and others fled to Catholic Europe. Interpreted as an act of rebellion, the fugitives' lands escheated to the crown and were redistributed to English and Scottish settlers in the plantation of Ulster. The last bastion of Gaelic civilization thereby became the beachhead of British Protestantism in Ireland. The Scottish communities, moreover, laid the seedbed for Presbyterianism.

Stuart Ireland thus hosted four major ethno-religious groups: native Irish Catholics, old English Catholics, new English Protestants of the established church, and (before 1642, informally) Scots Presbyterians. Intra-denominational relations, already tense, strained to breaking point with the crisis of the Stuart monarchies in the late 1630s. Ireland, in fact, helped detonate the wars of the three kingdoms with the Ulster rebellion of 1641. Many Protestant planters were killed by insurgents, and lurid tales of massacre swept England, deepening the rage against popery and suspicion of the king, in whose defense the rebels claimed to act. Ireland, like England and Scotland, experienced the trauma of civil war in the 1640s. Alliances and allegiances shifted bewilderingly but, crucially, the old English were forced into military coalition with their Gaelic coreligionists. When Cromwell arrived in 1649 once more to subjugate the Irish and to revenge 1641, he made no ethnic distinctions among his papist enemies.

The land confiscations begun in the Tudor era and continued by the Ulster plantation reached unprecedented levels with the Cromwellian settlement. In 1603 Catholics owned more than 60 percent of the land; by 1659 that figure had been reduced to about 9 percent. During the reign of Charles II, Catholic ownership climbed back to around 25 percent, thanks to successful pleas in the court of claims, but fell again to 14 percent by the end of the century as a result of the forfeitures that followed the second defeat of Catholic Ireland in 1691. This time there would be no court of claims, but rather a relentless chipping away, by the implementation of penal laws, at the remaining Catholic-owned land. By 1775 it stood at 5 percent. The political nation, like the landowning elite, of eighteenth-century Ireland was Protestant. But the Protestants were a minority, and if anything is inevitable in history, the Catholics could not be excluded from public life and political power forever. A rising Catholic mercantile class had already begun to articulate its grievances by the 1780s, but once more it was events outside the island that catalyzed Irish politics, including the "Catholic question." With the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, a new epoch opened in European—and Irish—history.

Bibliography

Brady, Ciaran, and Raymond Gillespie, eds. Natives and Newcomers: Essays on the Making of Irish Colonial Society, 1534–1641. Dublin, 1986.

Connolly, Sean J. Law, Religion and Power: The Making of Protestant Ireland, 1660–1760. Oxford, 1992.

Ellis, Steven G. Ireland in the Age of the Tudors, 1447–1603: English Expansion and the End of Gaelic Rule. London and New York, 1998.

Moody, T. W., F. X. Martin, and F. J. Byrne, eds. A New History of Ireland III: Early Modern Ireland, 1534–1691. Oxford, 1976.

—JIM SMYTH

Geography: Ireland
Top
Home > Library > Travel > Geography

Island in the Atlantic Ocean separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea. It is divided into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

  • It is called the “Emerald Isle” because of its lush green countryside.

Wikipedia: Ireland
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
This article is about the island in Europe. For the sovereign state named "Ireland", see Republic of Ireland. For the constituent country of the United Kingdom, see Northern Ireland. For other uses, see Ireland (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 53°N 7°W / 53°N 07°W / 53; -07

Ireland
Native name: Éire / Ireland
Ireland from space edit.jpg
True colour image of Ireland, captured by a NASA satellite on 4 January 2003, with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Irish Sea to the east.
Geography
Ireland (island) in Europe.png
Location Northern Europe or Western Europe[1]
Area 81,638.1 km2 (31,520.6 sq mi) [2] (20th)
Coastline 3,700 km (2,300 mi)
Highest point Carrauntoohil (1,041 m (3,415 ft))
Country
Largest city Dublin
Constituent country Northern Ireland
Largest city Belfast
Demographics
Population 6,300,000 (as of 2009)
Density 71 /km2 (180 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups Irish, Ulster Scots, Irish Travellers

Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɪrlənd/  ( listen), locally [ˈaɾlənd]; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə]  ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann, Latin: Hibernia) is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world.[2] It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain. The sovereign state of Ireland (official name Ireland, description "Republic of Ireland")[3] covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) covering the remaining one-sixth of the island, located in the northeast.

The first settlements in Ireland date from around 8000 BC. By 200 BC Celtic migration and influence had come to dominate Ireland. Relatively small scale settlements of both the Vikings and Normans in the Middle Ages gave way to complete English domination by the 1600s. Protestant English rule resulted in the marginalisation of the Catholic majority, although in the north-east, Protestants were in the majority due to the Plantation of Ulster. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. A famine in the mid-1800s caused large-scale death and emigration. The Irish War of Independence ended in 1921 with the British Government proposing a truce and during which the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, creating the Irish Free State. This was a Dominion within the British Empire, with effective internal independence but still constitutionally linked with the British Crown.[4] Northern Ireland, consisting of six of the 32 Irish counties which had been established as a devolved region under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, immediately exercised its option under the treaty to retain its existing status within the United Kingdom.[5] The Free State left the Commonwealth to become a republic in 1949. In 1973 both parts of Ireland joined the European Community. Conflict in Northern Ireland led to much unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s, which subsided following a peace deal in 1998.

The population of Ireland is slightly under six million (2006), with nearly 4.25 million residing in the Republic of Ireland[6] and an estimated 1.75 million in Northern Ireland.[7][8] This is a significant increase from a modern historic low in the 1960s, but still much lower than the peak population of over 8 million in the early 19th century, prior to the Great Famine.[9]

The name Ireland derives from the name of the Celtic goddess Ériu (in modern Irish, Éire) with the addition of the Germanic word land. Most other western European names for Ireland, such as Spanish Irlanda, derive from the same source.[10]

Contents

Geography

Political geography

Political map of Ireland showing the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
Further information: for the political history of the island, see History of Ireland; for other political institutions, see Politics of Ireland and Demography and politics of Northern Ireland

Ireland is occupied by two political entities:

  • Ireland (also sometimes 'Republic of Ireland', such as seen on this map for disambiguation, is not normally used in international diplomacy), a sovereign country, covers five-sixths of the island. Its capital is Dublin.
  • Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, covers the remaining sixth. Its capital is Belfast.

All-island traditional subdivisions

Traditionally, Ireland is subdivided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster; and, in a political system that was developed between the 13th and 17th centuries, thirty-two counties.[11] Twenty-six of the counties are in the Republic of Ireland, and six counties (six of Ulster's nine counties) are in Northern Ireland. "Ulster" is often used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, although Ulster and Northern Ireland are neither synonymous nor co-terminous, according to very old boundaries established in the early modern period, since three counties of Ulster (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan) are part of the Republic of Ireland. Counties Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, and Tipperary have been broken up into smaller administrative areas, but they are still considered by the Ordnance Survey Ireland to be official counties. The counties in Northern Ireland are no longer used for local governmental purposes, though their traditional boundaries are still used for informal purposes such as sports leagues, etc.[12] and in some other cultural, ceremonial or tourism contexts.[13]

Map of all the traditional counties and provinces on the island of Ireland
Province Population[14] Area (km²) Area (sq mi) Largest city
Connacht 504,121 17,713 6,839 Galway
Leinster 2,295,123 19,774 7,635 Dublin
Munster 1,173,340 24,608 9,501 Cork
Ulster 1,993,918 24,481 9,452 Belfast

All-island institutions

Despite the national separation resulting from differing governments, the entire island shares a highway and railway system, power and water grids, radio and television broadcasting systems, and phone and Internet systems. Satellite communications and the Internet serve all parts of Ireland and interconnect them with each other, as well as with the rest of the world.

The English language is spoken and understood by almost all people on both sides of the boundary, though some speak Irish Gaelic as well.

Ireland as an island operates as a single entity in a number of areas that transcend governmental divisions. With a few notable exceptions, this island operates as a single unit in all major religious denominations, in many economic fields despite using two different currencies, and in sports such as hurling, Gaelic football, rugby football (union and league), golf, tennis, boxing, cricket, baseball, American football, field hockey, and perhaps ice hockey.

An exception to this is soccer: following partition, the (previously all-island) Irish Football Association retained control of soccer only in Northern Ireland, with a separate Football Association of Ireland being formed for the remainder of the island. The creation of an all-island soccer league and a single international team (as is the case for rugby union) has been publicly touted by various prominent figures on the island in recent years, such as Irish government minister Dermot Ahern.[15] More recently, there have been calls for an All-Ireland league, however due to contract commitments with sponsors and lack of interest between the two football associations this is unlikely in the near future.[16] An all-Ireland club cup competition, the Setanta Cup, was created in 2005.

All major religious bodies are organised on an all-Ireland basis, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, and the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Some trade unions are also organised on an all-island basis and associated with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) in Dublin, while others in Northern Ireland are affiliated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom, and some affiliate to both—although such unions may organise in both parts of the island as well as in Great Britain. The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) organises jointly in Northern Ireland with the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom (NUS), under the name NUS-USI.

Strand 2 of the Belfast Agreement provides for all-Ireland co-operation in various guises. For example, a North-South Ministerial Council was established as a forum in which ministers from the Irish government and the Northern Ireland Executive can discuss matters of mutual concern and formulate all-Ireland policies in twelve "areas of co-operation", such as agriculture, the environment and transport. Six of these policy areas have been provided with implementation bodies, an example of which is the Food Safety Promotion Board. Tourism marketing is also managed on an all-Ireland basis, by Tourism Ireland.

Two political parties, Sinn Féin and the Irish Green Party, contest elections and hold legislative seats in both jurisdictions. The largest party in the Republic of Ireland, Fianna Fáil, registered with the Electoral Commission in Northern Ireland, and has considered extending its organisation into Northern Ireland, perhaps via a merger with another political party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).[17]

An increasingly large amount of commercial activity operates on an all-Ireland basis, a development which is in part facilitated by the two jurisdictions' shared membership of the European Union. There have been calls for the creation of an "all-island economy" from members of the business community and policy-makers on both sides of the border, so as to benefit from economies of scale and boost competitiveness in both jurisdictions.[18] This is a stated aim of the Irish government and nationalist political parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly.[19] One commercial area in which the island already operates largely as a single entity is the electricity market.[20] and there are plans for the creation of an all-island gas market.[21]

March 17th is celebrated throughout Ireland as the traditional Irish holiday of St. Patrick's Day.

Physical geography

Physical features of Ireland. See also this larger version.
Main article: Geography of Ireland

A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. The highest peak is Carrauntoohil (Irish: Corrán Tuathail) in County Kerry, which is 1,038 m (3,406 ft).[22][23] The River Shannon, at 386 km (240 mi), is the longest river in Ireland.[24][25] The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". The island's area is 84,421 km2 (32,595 sq mi). [26]

Ireland's least arable land lies in the south-western and western counties.[citation needed] These areas are largely mountainous and rocky, with green panoramic vistas.

Climate

See also: Climate of Ireland

Overall, Ireland has a mild but changeable oceanic climate with few extremes. The warmest recorded air temperature was 33.3 °C (91.9 °F) at Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny on 26 June 1887, whereas the lowest recorded temperature was −19.1 °C (−2.4 °F) at Markree Castle, County Sligo on 16 January 1881.[27]

Other statistics show that the greatest recorded annual rainfall was 3,964.9 mm (156.1 in) in the Ballaghbeena Gap in 1960. The driest year on record was 1887, with only 356.6 mm (14.0 in) of rain recorded at Glasnevin, while the longest period of absolute drought was in Limerick where there was no recorded rainfall over 38 days during April and May 1938.[28]

The climate is typically insular, and as a result of the moderating moist winds which ordinarily prevail from the South-Western Atlantic, it is temperate, avoiding the extremes in temperature of many other areas in the world at similar latitudes.[29]

Precipitation falls throughout the year, but is light overall, particularly in the east. The west, however, tends to be wetter on average and prone to the full force of Atlantic storms, especially in the late autumn and winter months, which occasionally bring destructive winds and high rainfall totals to these areas, as well as snow and hail. The regions of North Galway and East Mayo have the highest incidents of recorded lightning annually (5 to 10 days per year).[28] Munster in the south records the least snow with Ulster in the north more prone to snow. In 2009 temperatures went belowbr> −7 °C (19.4 °F) and caused up to
1⁄2 m (1.64 ft) of snow in the mountains where as in Dublin there was 10 cm (3.9 in) of snow in places.

Inland areas are warmer in summer and colder in winter – there are usually around 40 days of below freezing temperatures
(0 °C/32 °F) at inland weather stations, but only 10 days at coastal stations. Ireland is sometimes affected by heat waves, most recently in 1995, 2003 and 2006.

Geology

Geologically the island consists of a number of provinces—in the far west around Galway and Donegal is a medium to high grade metamorphic and igneous complex of Caledonide (Scottish Highland) affinity. Across southeast Ulster and extending southwest to Longford and south to Navan is a province of Ordovician and Silurian rocks with more affinities with the Southern Uplands province of Scotland. Further south, there is an area along the Wexford coast of granite intrusives into more Ordovician and Silurian rocks with a more Welsh affinity.[30][31]

Carrauntoohil, the highest peak in Ireland, located in Macgillycuddy's Reeks

In the southwest, around Bantry Bay and the mountains of Macgillicuddy's Reeks, is an area of substantially deformed but only lightly metamorphosed Devonian-aged rocks.[32]

This partial ring of "hard rock" geology is covered by a blanket of Carboniferous limestone over the centre of the country, giving rise to the comparatively fertile and famously "lush" landscape of the country. The west coast district of The Burren around Lisdoonvarna has well developed karst features.[33] Elsewhere, significant stratiform lead-zinc mineralization is found in the limestones (around Silvermines and Tynagh).

Hydrocarbon exploration is ongoing. The first major find was the Kinsale Head gas field off Cork/Cobh by Marathon Oil in the mid-1970s.[34][35] More recently, in 1999, Enterprise Oil announced the discovery of the Corrib Gas Field. This has increased activity off the west coast in parallel with the "West of Shetland" step-out development from the North Sea hydrocarbon province. The Helvick oil field, estimated to contain over 28 million barrels (4,500,000 m3) of oil, is another recent discovery.[36]

Wildlife

Ireland has fewer animal and plant species than either Great Britain or mainland Europe because it became an island shortly after the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. Many different habitat types are found in Ireland, including farmland, open woodland, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, conifer plantations, peat bogs, and various coastal habitats. According to the WWF, the territory of Ireland can be subdivided into two ecoregions: the Celtic broadleaf forests and North Atlantic moist mixed forests.

Fauna

Main article: Fauna of Ireland
The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is Ireland's largest wild mammal.

Only 26 land mammal species are native to Ireland because it was isolated from Europe by rising sea levels after the Ice Age. Some species, such as the red fox, hedgehog, and badger are very common, whereas others, like the Irish hare, red deer and pine marten are less so. Aquatic wild-life, such as species of turtle, shark, whale, and dolphin, are common off the coast. About 400 species of birds have been recorded in Ireland. Many of these are migratory, including the Barn Swallow. Most of Ireland's bird species come from Iceland, Greenland, Africa among other territories. There are no snakes in Ireland and only one reptile (the common lizard) is native to the country. Extinct species include the great Irish elk, the wolf and the great auk. Some previously extinct birds, such as the Golden Eagle, have recently been reintroduced after decades of extirpation.

Agriculture drives current land use patterns in Ireland, limiting natural habitat preserves,[37] particularly for larger wild mammals with greater territorial needs. With no top predator in Ireland, populations of animals (such as semi-wild deer) that cannot be controlled by smaller predators (such as the fox) are controlled by annual culling.

Flora

See also: List of the vascular plants of Britain and Ireland and Trees of Britain and Ireland
Gorse (Ulex europaeus)

Phytogeographically, Ireland belongs to the Atlantic European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. Until mediæval times Ireland was heavily forested with oak, pine and birch. Forests now cover about 9% (4,450 km² or one million acres) of the land.[38] Because of its mild climate, many species, including sub-tropical species such as palm trees, are grown in Ireland. Much of the land is now covered with pasture, and there are many species of wild-flower. Gorse (Ulex europaeus), a wild furze, is commonly found growing in the uplands, and ferns are plentiful in the more moist regions, especially in the western parts of Ireland. It is home to hundreds of plant species, some of them unique to the island. The country has been "invaded" by some grasses, such as Spartina anglica.[39]

The algal and seaweed flora is that of the cold-temperate. The total number of species is: 264 Rhodophyta; 152 Heterokontophyta; 114 Chloropyta; and 31 Cyanophyta, giving a total of 574. Rarer species include: Itonoa marginifera (J.Ag.) Masuda & Guiry); Schmitzia hiscockiana Maggs and Guiry; Gelidiella calcicola Maggs & Guiry; Gelidium maggsiae Rico & Guiry and Halymenia latifolia P.Crouan & H.Crouan ex Kützing.[40] The country has been invaded by some algae, some of which are now well established: Asparagopsis armara Harvey – which originated in Australia and was first recorded by M. De Valera in 1939; Colpomenia peregrina Sauvageau – now locally abundant and first recorded in the 1930s; Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt – now well established in a number of localities on the south, west, and north-east coasts; Codium fragile ssp. fragile (formerly reported as ssp. tomentosum) – now well established.[41] Codium fragile ssp. atlanticum has recently been established to be native, although for many years it was regarded as an alien species.

The impact of agriculture

The long history of agricultural production coupled with modern intensive agricultural methods (such as pesticide and fertiliser use) has placed pressure on biodiversity in Ireland.[citation needed] "Runoff" of contaminants into streams, rivers and lakes impact the natural fresh-water ecosystems. A land of green fields for crop cultivation and cattle rearing limits the space available for the establishment of native wild species. Hedgerows however, traditionally used for maintaining and demarcating land boundaries, act as a refuge for native wild flora. Their ecosystems stretch across the countryside and act as a network of connections to preserve remnants of the ecosystem that once covered the island. Subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy which supported these agricultural practices are undergoing reforms.[42] The CAP still subsidises some potentially destructive agricultural practices, however, the recent reforms have gradually decoupled subsidies from production levels and introduced environmental and other requirements.[42]

Forest covers about 10% of the country, with most designated for commercial production.[37] Forested areas typically consist of monoculture plantations of non-native species which may result in habitats that are not suitable for supporting a broad range of native species of invertebrates. Remnants of native forest can be found scattered around the country, in particular in the Killarney National Park. Natural areas require fencing to prevent over-grazing by deer and sheep that roam over uncultivated areas. This is one of the main factors preventing the natural regeneration of forests across many regions of the country.[43]

History

Main article: History of Ireland
History of Ireland
Ireland from space edit.jpg
This article is part of a series
Chronological
Timeline
Prehistory
Protohistory
400–800
800–1169
1169–1536
1536–1691
1691–1801
1801–1922
1919–present (Republic)
1921–present (Northern Ireland)
Topical
Battles · Clans · Kingdoms · States
Gaelic monarchs · British monarchs
Economic history
Irish language
Ireland Portal
 v • d • e 

A long cold climatic spell prevailed until the end of the last glacial period about 9,000 years ago, and most of Ireland was covered with ice. Sea-levels were lower then, and Ireland, as with its neighbour Britain, rather than being islands, were part of a greater continental Europe. Mesolithic stone age inhabitants arrived some time after 8000 BC. Agriculture arrived with the Neolithic circa 4500 to 4000 BC, when sheep, goats, cattle and cereals were imported from southwest continental Europe. At the Céide Fields in County Mayo, an extensive Neolithic field system – arguably the oldest in the world[44] – has been preserved beneath a blanket of peat. Consisting of small fields separated from one another by dry-stone walls, the Céide Fields were farmed for several centuries between 3500 and 3000 BC. Wheat and barley were the principal crops.[45]

Stone age passage tombs at Carrowmore, County Sligo

The Bronze Age, which began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold as well as bronze ornaments, weapons and tools. The Iron Age in Ireland was supposedly associated with people known as Celts. They are traditionally thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of waves between the 8th and 1st centuries BC, with the Gaels, the last wave of Celts, conquering the island and dividing it into five or more kingdoms. Many scientists and academic scholars now favour a view that emphasises cultural diffusion from overseas over significant colonisation such as what Clonycavan Man was reported to be.[46][47]

The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia,[48] or Scotia.[49][50] Ptolemy[51]in AD 100 recorded Ireland's geography and tribes.[52] Native accounts are confined to Irish poetry, myth, and archaeology. The exact relationship between the Roman Empire and the tribes of Hibernia is unclear; the only references are a few Roman writings.

In early medieval times, there was a High King who presided over the (then five: the fifth being Meath) provinces of Ireland. These provinces too had their own kings, who were at least nominally subject to the monarch, who resided at Tara. This concept of national kingship is first articulated in the 7th century, but only became a political reality in the Viking Age, and even then not a consistent one.[53][54][55] The early written judicial system was the Brehon Law, and it was administered by professional learned jurists who were known as the Brehons.

According to early medieval chronicles, in 431, Bishop Palladius arrived in Ireland on a mission from Pope Celestine I to minister to the Irish "already believing in Christ." The same chronicles record that Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, arrived in 432. There is continued debate over the missions of Palladius and Patrick, but the general consensus is that they both existed.[56]

The druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of the new religion.[57] Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin and Greek learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving Latin and Greek learning during the Early Middle Ages.[57][58] The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. From the 9th century, waves of Viking raiders plundered monasteries and towns, adding to a pattern of endemic raiding and warfare. Eventually Vikings settled in Ireland, and established many towns, including the modern day cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford.

Aughnanure, the main castle of O'Flaherty

From 1169, Ireland was entered by Cambro-Norman warlords, including Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (Strongbow),[59] on an invitation from the then King of Leinster. In 1171, King Henry II of England came to Ireland, using the 1155 Bull Laudabiliter issued to him by then Pope Adrian IV, to claim sovereignty over the island, and forced the Cambro-Norman warlords and some of the Gaelic Irish kings to accept him as their overlord. From the 13th century, English law began to be introduced. By the late 13th century the Norman-Irish had established the feudal system throughout most of lowland Ireland. Their settlement was characterised by the establishment of baronies, manors, towns and large land-owning monastic communities, and the county system. The towns of Dublin, Cork, Wexford, Waterford, Limerick, Galway, New Ross, Kilkenny, Carlingford, Drogheda, Sligo, Athenry, Arklow, Buttevant, Carlow, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel, Clonmel, Dundalk, Enniscorthy, Kildare, Kinsale, Mullingar, Naas, Navan, Nenagh, Thurles, Wicklow, Trim and Youghal were all under Norman-Irish control.

In the 14th century the English settlement went into a period of decline and large areas, for example Sligo, were re-occupied by Gaelic septs. The medieval English presence in Ireland (The Pale) was deeply shaken by the Black Death, which arrived in Ireland in 1348.[60] From the late 15th century English rule was once again expanded, first through the efforts of the Earls of Kildare and Ormond then through the activities of the Tudor State under Henry VIII and Mary and Elizabeth. This resulted in the complete conquest of Ireland by 1603 and the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th century, as a result of English and Scottish Protestant colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland, and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Williamite War in Ireland. Approximately 600,000 people, nearly half the Irish population, died during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.[61]

Half-hanging of suspected United Irishmen.

After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics and nonconforming Protestants were barred from voting or attending the Irish Parliament. Under the penal laws (introduced from 1691) no Irish Catholic could sit in the Parliament of Ireland, even though some 90% of Ireland's population was native Irish Catholic. This ban was followed by others in 1703 and 1709 as part of a comprehensive system disadvantaging the Catholic community, and to a lesser extent, Protestant dissenters.[62] The new English Protestant ruling class was known as the Protestant Ascendancy. Towards the end of the 18th century the (entirely Protestant) Irish Parliament attained a greater degree of independence from the British Parliament than it had previously held. The Irish Famine of 1740–41 killed about 400,000 people.

In 1798, many members of the Protestant dissenter tradition made common cause with Catholics in a rebellion inspired and led by the Society of United Irishmen. It was staged with the aim of creating a fully independent Ireland as a state with a republican constitution. Despite assistance from France the Irish Rebellion of 1798 was put down by British forces.

In 1800, the British and subsequently the Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union which, in 1801, merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The passage of the Act in the Irish Parliament was achieved with substantial majorities, in part (according to contemporary documents) through bribery, namely the awarding of peerages and honours to critics to get their votes.[63] Thus, Ireland became part of an extended United Kingdom, ruled directly by the UK Parliament in London.

Emigrants Leave Ireland, an engraving by Henry Doyle depicting the emigration to The United States because of the Great Famine in Ireland.

The Great Famine, which began in the 1840s, caused the deaths of one million Irish people, and caused over a million to emigrate.[64] By the late 1840s, as a result of the famine, half of all immigrants to the United States originated from Ireland. A total of 35 million Americans (12% of total population) reported Irish ancestry in the 2005 American Community Survey.[65] Mass emigration became entrenched as a result of the famine and the population continued to decline until late in the 20th century. The pre-famine peak was over 8 million recorded in the 1841 census.[66] The population has never returned to this level.[67]

The 19th and early 20th century saw the rise of Irish nationalism among the Roman Catholic population. Daniel O'Connell led a successful campaign for Catholic Emancipation, which was passed by the United Kingdom parliament. A subsequent campaign for repeal of the Act of Union failed. Later in the century Charles Stewart Parnell and others campaigned for self-government within the Union or "Home Rule". Unionists, especially those located in the Northern part of the island, who considered themselves to be British as well as Irish, were strongly opposed to Home Rule, under which they felt they would be dominated by Catholic and Southern Irish interests.[68] To prevent Home Rule the Ulster Volunteers were formed in 1913 under the leadership of Lord Carson. This was followed by the Irish Volunteers, formed in 1914 to support the enactment of the Home Rule Act, which was suspended on the outbreak of World War I. Under John Redmond the National Volunteers broke away from the Irish Volunteers to serve with the Irish regiments of the New British Army.[69]

Armed rebellions, such as the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence of 1919, occurred in this period. In 1921, a treaty was concluded between the British Government and the leaders of the Irish Republic. The Anglo-Irish Treaty recognised the two-state solution created in the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Northern Ireland was presumed to form a home rule state within the new Irish Free State unless it opted out. Northern Ireland had a majority Protestant population and opted out as expected, choosing to rejoin the United Kingdom, incorporating, however, within its border a significant Catholic and nationalist minority.[70] A Boundary Commission was set up to decide on the boundaries between the two Irish states, though it was subsequently abandoned after it recommended only minor adjustments to the border. Disagreements over some provisions of the treaty led to a split in the nationalist movement and subsequently to the Irish Civil War. The Civil War ended in 1923 with the defeat of the anti-treaty forces.

Post-partition

Irish Independence

Main article: History of Ireland
Annotated page from the Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the Irish Free State and independence for 26 out of 32 Irish counties.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified by the Dáil in January 1922 by a vote of 64 - 57. The minority refused to accept the result and this resulted in the Irish Civil War, which lasted until 1923. On 6 December 1922, in the middle of the Civil War, the Irish Free State came into being. During its early years the new state was governed by the victors of the Civil War. However, in the 1930s Fianna Fáil, the party of the opponents of the treaty, was elected into government. The party proposed, and the electorate accepted in a referendum in 1937, a new constitution which declared the state to be "Éire or in the English language, Ireland" (article 4 of the Constitution).

Leinster House in Dublin, seat of Dáil Éireann.

The country of Ireland was a neutral during World War II, which was sometimes known internally as "The Emergency". It offered some assistance to the Allies, especially in the potential defense of Northern Ireland. Of course, citizens of Northern Ireland fought in the armed forces of the United Kingdom, nearly all of them on a voluntary basis.

It has been estimated[71] that about 50,000 volunteers from the independent country of Éire/Ireland also voluntarily joined the British armed forces during the Second World War.

Just a few years after the end of World War II, independent Éire/Ireland Ireland declared itself to be a Republic in 1949.

There was again large-scale emigration from Ireland in the 1950s and again in the 1980s, with emigrants bound for such countries as Australia, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Brazil. Beginning in 1987, the Irish economy improved, and the 1990s saw the beginning of unprecedented economic success, in a phenomenon known as the "Celtic Tiger".[72] By 2007 it had become the fifth richest country (in terms of GDP per capita) in the world, and the second richest in the European Union, moving from being a net recipient of the budget to becoming a net contributor during the next budget round (2007–13), and from a country of net emigration to one of net immigration. In October 2006, there were negotiations between Ireland and the United States to negotiate new immigration policies between these two countries. This was in response to the growth of the Irish economy and desire of a significant number of American citizens who sought to move to Ireland for work.[73]

Northern Ireland

Edward Carson signing the Solemn League and Covenant declaring opposition to Home Rule "using all means which may be found necessary".
Parliament Buildings, seat of the present Northern Ireland Assembly.
Main article: History of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland was created as a division of the United Kingdom by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. From 1921 until 1972, Northern Ireland enjoyed limited self-government within the United Kingdom, with its own parliament and prime minister.

In the first half of the 20th century, Northern Ireland was largely spared the strife of the Civil War, but there were sporadic episodes of inter-communal violence between nationalists and unionists during the decades that followed partition. Although the Irish Free State was neutral during World War II, Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom was not, and became involved in the British war effort (albeit without military conscription as it was introduced in Great Britain). Belfast suffered a bombing raid from the German Luftwaffe in 1941.

In elections to the 1921–1972 regional government, the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland each voted largely along sectarian lines, meaning that the Government of Northern Ireland (elected by "first past the post" from 1929) was controlled by the Ulster Unionist Party. Over time, the minority Catholic community felt increasingly alienated by the regional government, with further disaffection fuelled by practices such as gerrymandering of the local council in Derry, and discrimination against Catholics in housing and employment[74][75][76].

In the late 1960s nationalist grievances were aired publicly in mass civil rights protests, which were often confronted by loyalist counter-protests.[77] The Government's reaction to confrontations was seen to be one-sided and heavy-handed, and law and order broke down as unrest and inter-communal violence increased.[78]

In August 1969, the regional government requested that the British Army be deployed to aid the police, who were exhausted after several nights of serious rioting. In 1969, the paramilitary Provisional IRA, which favoured the creation of a united Ireland, was formed and began a campaign against what it called the "British occupation of the six counties". Other groups, on both the unionist side and the nationalist side, participated in the violence and the period known as "The Troubles" began, resulting in over 3,600 deaths over the subsequent three decades.[79] Owing to the civil unrest during "The Troubles", the British government suspended home rule in 1972 and imposed "direct rule" by the British Parliament and the Cabinet.

There were several (ultimately unsuccessful) political attempts to end "The Troubles", such as the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973 and the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. In 1998, following a Provisional IRA ceasefire and multi-party talks, the Belfast Agreement was concluded and ratified by referendum. This agreement attempted to restore self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power-sharing between the two communities. Violence decreased greatly after the signing of the accord, and on 28 July 2005, the Provisional IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and international weapons inspectors supervised what they currently regard as the full decommissioning of the Provisional IRA's weapons.[80] The power-sharing assembly was suspended several times but restored from 8 May 2007.

From 2 August 2007, the British government officially ended its military support of the police in Northern Ireland, and began withdrawing troops (in 1972, British troops numbered more than 25,000 in Northern Ireland; after the withdrawal, a garrison of approximately 1,500 remain on garrison duty).[81]

Culture

Main articles: Culture of Ireland, Culture of Northern Ireland, and Irish people
Arts in Ireland
The Book of Kells.
Newgrange —5000 year old burial site.

Language

Main articles: Languages of Ireland, Irish language, and Hiberno-English

Literature and the arts

Main articles: Irish literature, Celtic Revival, Irish art, and Irish theatre
James Joyce, widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century.

For an island with a relatively small population, Ireland has made a large contribution to world literature in all its branches, mainly in English.[82] Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century. Jonathan Swift, still often called the foremost satirist in the English language, was wildly popular in his day for works such as Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, and he remains so in modern times. More recently, Ireland has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century; Samuel Beckett himself refused to attend his own Nobel award ceremony, in protest at Joyce not having received the award. Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses is considered one of the most important works of Modernist literature, and his life is celebrated annually on 16 June in Dublin as the Bloomsday celebrations.[83]

The story of art in Ireland begins with Stone Age carvings found at sites such as Newgrange.[84] It is traced through Bronze age artifacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the mediæval period. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong indigenous tradition of painting emerged, including such figures as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.

Modern Irish literature is still often connected with its rural heritage,[citation needed] through writers such as John McGahern and poets such as Seamus Heaney.

Another famous Irish writer is Oscar Wilde known for most for his quotable witty sayings.

In the performing arts, playwrights such as Seán O'Casey, Brian Friel, Sebastian Barry, Conor McPherson and Billy Roche have placed Ireland on the world stage.[85] There is a thriving performing arts culture all over the country, performing international as well as Irish plays. In addition, Galway has An Taibhdhearc, the Irish Language Theatre established in 1928.[86][87]

Music and dance

Main articles: Music of Ireland and Irish dance

The Irish tradition of folk music and dance is known worldwide,[88] not least through the phenomenon of Riverdance.[89]

In the middle years of the 20th century, as Irish society was attempting to modernise, traditional music tended to fall out of favour, especially in urban areas.[90] During the 1960s, and inspired by the American folk music movement, there was a revival of interest in the Irish tradition. This revival was led by such groups as The Dubliners, The Chieftains, Emmet Spiceland, The Wolfe Tones, the Clancy Brothers, Sweeney's Men, and individuals like Seán Ó Riada and Christy Moore.[91]

Before too long, groups and musicians including Horslips, Van Morrison, and Thin Lizzy were incorporating elements of traditional music into a rock idiom to form a unique new sound. During the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction between traditional and rock musicians became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing over between these styles of playing as a matter of course. This trend can be seen more recently in the work of artists like U2, Enya, Flogging Molly, Moya Brennan, The Saw Doctors, Bell X1, Damien Rice, The Corrs, Aslan, Sinéad O'Connor, Clannad, The Cranberries, Rory Gallagher, Westlife,The Script, B*witched, BoyZone, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Black 47, Stiff Little Fingers, VNV Nation, Rob Smith, Ash, The Thrills, Stars of Heaven, Something Happens, A House, Sharon Shannon, Damien Dempsey, Declan O' Rourke, The Frames and The Pogues.

During the 1990s, a subgenre of folk metal emerged in Ireland that fused heavy metal music with Irish and Celtic music. The pioneers of this subgenre were Cruachan, Primordial, Geasa and Waylander.

Irish music has shown an immense increase in popularity with many attempting to return to their roots. Some contemporary music groups stick closer to a "traditional" sound, including Altan, Téada, Danú, Dervish, Lúnasa, and Solas. Others incorporate multiple cultures in a fusion of styles, such as Afro Celt Sound System and Kíla.

Ireland has done well in the Eurovision Song Contest, being the most successful country in the competition, with seven wins in 1970 with Dana, 1980 and 1987 with Johnny Logan, 1992 with Linda Martin, 1993 with Niamh Kavanagh, 1994 with Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan and in 1996 with Eimear Quinn.[92]

Science

Ireland has a rich history in science[93] and is known for its excellence in scientific research conducted at its many universities and institutions. Noted particularly are Ireland's contributions to fiber optics technology and related technologies.

The Irish philosopher and theologian Johannes Scotus Eriugena (c. 815–877) was considered one of the leading intellectuals of his era. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO OBE, (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish explorer who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He along with his expedition made the first ascent of Mount Erebus, and the discovery of the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole, reached on 16 January 1909 by Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson, and Alistair MacKay.

Robert Boyle, best known for the formulation of Boyle's Law.

Robert Boyle (1627–1691) was an Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor and early gentleman scientist, largely regarded one of the founders of modern chemistry. He is best known for the formulation of Boyle's law, stating that the pressure and volume of an ideal gas are inversely proportional.[93]

Irish physicist John Tyndall (1820-1893) discovered the Tyndall effect, explaining why the sky is blue.

Other notable Irish physicists include Ernest Walton (winner of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sir John Douglas Cockcroft for splitting the nucleus of the atom by artificial means and contributions in the development of a new theory of wave equation),[94] William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (or Lord Kelvin) which the absolute temperature unit Kelvin is named after. Sir Joseph Larmor a physicist and mathematician who made innovations in the understanding of electricity, dynamics, thermodynamics, and the electron theory of matter. His most influential work was Aether and Matter, a theoretical physics book published in 1900. [95] George Johnstone Stoney (who introduced the term electron in 1891), John Stewart Bell (the originator of Bell's Theorem and a paper concerning the discovery of the Bell-Jackiw-Adler anomaly), who was nominated for a Nobel prize, mathematical physicist George Francis FitzGerald, Sir George Gabriel Stokes and many others.[93]

Notable mathematicians include Sir William Rowan Hamilton (mathematician, physicist, astronomer and discoverer of quaternions), Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (influential in the development of neo-classical economics, including the Edgeworth box), John B. Cosgrave (specialist in number theory, former head of the mathematics department of St. Patrick's College and discoverer of a new 2000-digit prime number in 1999 and a record composite Fermat number in 2003) and John Lighton Synge (who made progress in different fields of science, including mechanics and geometrical methods in general relativity and who had mathematician John Nash as one of his students).

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera.[96] In 1940, physicist Erwin Schrödinger received an invitation to help establish the Institute. He became the Director of the School for Theoretical Physics and remained there for 17 years, during which time he became a naturalised Irish citizen.[96]

Sports

Main article: Sports in Ireland
See also: List of Irish sports people

The most popular sports in Ireland are Gaelic Football and Association Football.[97] Together with Hurling and Rugby, they make up the four biggest team sports in Ireland. Gaelic Football is the most popular in terms of match attendance and community involvement,[98] and the All-Ireland Football Final is the biggest day in Ireland's sporting calendar. Association football, meanwhile, is the most commonly played team sport in Ireland and the most popular sport in which Ireland fields international teams.[99] Furthermore, there is significant Irish interest in the English and (to a lesser extent) Scottish soccer leagues. Many other sports are also played and followed, particularly golf and horse racing but also show jumping, greyhound racing, swimming, boxing, baseball, basketball, cricket, fishing, handball, motorsport, tennis and hockey.

Hurling and Gaelic football, along with camogie, ladies' Gaelic football, handball and rounders, make up the national sports of Ireland, collectively known as Gaelic games. All Gaelic games are governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), with the exception of ladies' Gaelic football and camogie, which are governed by separate organisations. The GAA is organised on an all-Ireland basis with all 32 counties competing. The headquarters of the GAA (and the main stadium) is located at the 82,500[100] capacity Croke Park in north Dublin. Major GAA games are played there, including the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. During the redevelopment of the Lansdowne Road stadium, international rugby and soccer are played there.[101] All GAA players, even at the highest level, are amateurs, receiving no wages (although they are permitted to receive a limited amount of sport-related income from commercial sponsorship.

Tyrone v Kerry at the All-Ireland Football Final in 2005.

The Irish Football Association (IFA) was originally the governing body for Association football throughout the island. The game has been played in Ireland since the 1860s (Cliftonville F.C. of Belfast being Ireland's oldest club) but remained a minority sport outside of Ulster until the 1880s. However, some clubs based outside Belfast felt that the IFA largely favoured Ulster-based, Protestant clubs in such matters as selection for the national team. Following an incident in which, despite an earlier promise, the IFA, for security reasons, moved an Irish Cup final replay from Dublin to Belfast,[102] the clubs based in what would soon become the Free State set up a new Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS) - now known as the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) - in 1921. Despite being initially blacklisted by the Home Nations' associations, the FAI was recognised by FIFA in 1923 and organised its first international fixture in 1926 (against Italy). However, both the IFA and FAI continued to select their teams from the whole of Ireland, with some players earning international caps for matches with both teams. Both also referred to their respective teams as "Ireland". In 1950, FIFA directed the associations only to select players from within their respective territories, and in 1953 FIFA further clarified that the FAI's team was to be known only as "Republic of Ireland", and the IFA's team only as "Northern Ireland" (with certain exceptions). Northern Ireland qualified for the World Cup finals in 1958 (reaching the quarter-finals), 1982 and 1986. Team Republic qualified for the World Cup finals in 1990 (reaching the quarter-finals), 1994, 2002 and the European Championships in 1988.

The Irish rugby team includes players from north and south, and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) governs the sport on both sides of the border. Consequently in international rugby, the Ireland team represents the whole island. The Irish rugby team have played in every Rugby World Cup, making the quarter-finals at four of them. Ireland also hosted games during the 1991 and the 1999 Rugby World Cups (including a quarter-final). There are four professional provincial sides that contest the Magners League and Heineken Cup. Irish rugby has become increasingly competitive at both the international and provincial levels since the sport went professional in 1994. During that time, Ulster (1999[103]), Munster (2006[104] and 2008[105]) and Leinster (2009[106]) have won the Heineken Cup. In addition to this, the Irish International side have had increased success in the 6 nations Rugby tournament against Europes other elite sides. This success, including triple crowns (victories over all other home nations in Great Britain)in 2006 and 2007, culminated with a clean sweep of victories, known as a grand slam, in the six nations 2009.</ref> www.rbs6nations.com/en/match-centre_multimedia.php. Subsequent to this, Ireland provided the majority of the squad for the British and Irish lions tour of South Africa in summer 2009.</ref> theglobalherald.com/mcgeechan...lions...squad-to-tour.../5/ The Ireland cricket team was among the associate nations which qualified for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, where it defeated Pakistan and finished second in its pool, earning a place in the Super 8 stage of the competition. They also competed in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 after jointly winning the qualifiers. Here they made the Super 8 stage.

The Irish rugby league team is also organised on an all-Ireland basis. The team is made up predominantly of players based in England with Irish family connections, with others drawn from the local competition and Australia. Ireland reached the quarter-finals of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.

As with rugby and Gaelic games, cricket, golf, tennis, rowing, hockey and most other sports are organised on an all-island basis. Greyhound racing and horse racing are both popular in Ireland: greyhound stadiums are well attended and there are frequent horse race meetings. The Republic is noted for the breeding and training of race horses and is also a large exporter of racing dogs. The horse racing sector is largely concentrated in the central east of the Republic. Boxing is also an all-island sport governed by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association. In 1992, Michael Carruth won a gold medal for boxing in the Barcelona Olympic Games and in 2008 Kenny Egan won a silver medal for boxing in the Olympic Games in Beijing. Irish athletics has seen some development in recent times, with Sonia O'Sullivan winning two notable medals at 5,000 metres; gold at the 1995 World Championships and silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Gillian O'Sullivan won silver in the 20k walk at the 2003 World Championships, while sprint hurdler Derval O'Rourke won gold at the 2006 World Indoor Championship in Moscow. Olive Loughnane won a silver medal in the 20k walk in the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009. Golf is a popular sport in Ireland and golf tourism is a major industry. The 2006 Ryder Cup was held at The K Club in County Kildare.[107] Pádraig Harrington became the first Irishman since Fred Daly in 1947 to win the British Open at Carnoustie in July 2007.[108] He successfully defended his title in July 2008 [109] before going on to win the PGA Championship in August.[110] Harrington became the first European to win the PGA Championship in 78 years (Tommy Armour in 1930), and was the first winner from Ireland.

The west coast of Ireland, Lahinch and Donegal Bay in particular, have popular surfing beaches; being fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean. Donegal Bay is shaped like a funnel and catches West/South-West Atlantic winds, creating good surf - especially in winter. In recent years, Bundoran has hosted European championship surfing. The south-west of Ireland, such as the Dingle Peninsula and Lahinch, also has surf beaches. Scuba diving is increasingly popular in Ireland with clear waters and large populations of sea life, particularly along the western seaboard. There are also many shipwrecks along the coast of Ireland, with some of the best wreck dives being in Malin Head and off the County Cork coast. With thousands of lakes, over 14,000 kilometres (8,700 mi) of fish bearing rivers, and over 3,700 kilometres (2,300 mi) of coastline, Ireland is a popular angling destination. The temperate Irish climate is suited to sport angling. While salmon and trout fishing remain popular with anglers, salmon fishing in particular received a boost in 2006 with the closing of the salmon driftnet fishery. Coarse fishing continues to increase its profile. Sea angling is developed with many beaches mapped and signposted, and in recent times the range of sea angling species has increased.[111]

Places of interest

There are three World Heritage Sites on the island; these are the Bend of the Boyne, Skellig Michael and the Giant's Causeway.[112] [113] A number of other places are on the tentative list, for example the Burren and Mount Stewart.[114]

Some of the most visited sites in Ireland include Bunratty Castle, the Rock of Cashel, the Cliffs of Moher, Holy Cross Abbey and Blarney Castle.[115] Historically important monastic sites include Glendalough and Clonmacnoise, which are maintained as national monuments.[116]

Dublin is the most heavily touristed region,[115] and home to several top attractions such as the Guinness Storehouse and Book of Kells.[115] The west and south west (including the Killarney and Dingle regions in County Kerry, and Galway and the Aran Islands) are also popular tourist destinations.[115]

The stately homes, built during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in Palladian, Neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles, such as, Castle Ward, Castletown House, Bantry House, are of interest to tourists, and those converted into hotels, such as Ashford Castle, Castle Leslie and Dromoland Castle can be enjoyed as accommodation.[117]

Blarney Castle.

Giant's Causeway.

Killarney National Park.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Ireland
The population of Ireland and Europe relative to population density showing the disastrous consequence of the Great Famine (1845-9).

Ireland has been inhabited for at least 9,000 years, although little is known about the paleolithic and neolithic inhabitants of the island (other than by inference from genetic research in 2004 that challenges the idea of migration from central Europe and proposes a flow along the Atlantic coast from Spain).[46] Early historical and genealogical records note the existence of dozens of different peoples that may or may not be "mythological" (Cruithne, Attacotti, Conmaicne, Eóganachta, Érainn, Soghain, to name but a few).

Population density map of Ireland 2002 showing the heavily weighted eastern seaboard and the northern province of Ulster. Prior to the Great Famine, the provinces of Connacht, Munster and Leinster were more or less evenly populated. Ulster was far less densely populated than the other three.

During the past 1,000 years or so, Vikings, Normans, Scots and English have all added to the indigenous gene pool.

Ireland's largest religious group is Christianity, of which the largest denomination is the Catholic Church (over 73% for the entire island, and about 86.8%[118] for the Republic), and most of the rest of the population adhere to one of the various Protestant denominations. The largest is the Anglican Church of Ireland. The Irish Muslim community is growing, mostly through increased immigration (see Islam in Ireland). The island also has a small Jewish community (see History of the Jews in Ireland). Over 4% of the Republic's population describe themselves as of no religion.[118]

Ireland has for centuries been a place of emigration, particularly to England, Scotland, the United States, Canada, and Australia. With growing prosperity, Ireland has become a place of immigration instead. Since joining the EU in 2004, Polish people have been the largest source of immigrants (over 150,000)[119] from Central Europe, followed by other immigrants from Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Latvia.[120] According to the 2006 census, 420,000 foreign nationals, or about 10% of the population, lived in Ireland.[121] Up to 50,000 eastern European migrant workers had left Ireland towards the end of 2008.[122]

Ireland's high standard of living, high wage economy and EU membership attract migrants from the newest of the European Union countries: Ireland has had a significant number of Romanian immigrants since the 1990s. In recent years, mainland Chinese have been migrating to Ireland in significant numbers (up to 100,000).[123] Nigerians, along with people from other African countries have accounted for a large proportion of the non-European Union migrants to Ireland.

Ireland has been predominantly English-speaking since the nineteenth century, with Irish now the first language only of a tiny minority, and less than 10% of the population use the language regularly outside of the education system.[124] In the North, English is the de facto official language, but official recognition is afforded to both Irish and Ulster-Scots language. All three languages are spoken on both sides of the border. In recent decades, with the increase of immigration on an all-Ireland basis, many more languages have been introduced, particularly deriving from Asia and Eastern Europe, such as Chinese, Polish, Russian, Turkish and Latvian.

Cities

Main article: Cities in Ireland

After Dublin (1.7m in Greater Dublin), Ireland's largest cities are Belfast (700,000 in Belfast Metropolitan Area), Cork (380,000 in Greater Cork), Derry (110,000 in Derry Urban Area), Limerick (93,321 including suburbs), Galway (71,983), Lisburn (71,465), Waterford (49,240 including suburbs), Newry (27,433), Kilkenny (23,967 incl. suburbs) and Armagh (14,590); there are several towns with larger populations than many of these, but not having historic charters are not recognised as cities.

Transport

Main article: Transport in Ireland

Air

Aer Lingus Airbus A320 jet

There are five main international airports in Ireland: Dublin Airport, Belfast International Airport (Aldergrove), Cork Airport, Shannon Airport and Ireland West Airport (Knock). Dublin Airport is the busiest airport in Ireland,[125] carrying over 22 million passengers per year;[126] a new terminal and runway is now under construction, costing over €2 billion.[127] All provide services to Britain and continental Europe, while Belfast International, Dublin, Shannon, and Ireland West (Knock) also offer a range of transatlantic services. Shannon was decades ago an important stopover on the trans-Atlantic route for refueling operations[128] and, with Dublin, is still one of the Ireland's two designated transatlantic gateway airports.

There are several smaller regional airports: George Best Belfast City Airport, City of Derry Airport (Eglinton), Galway Airport, Kerry Airport (Farranfore), Sligo Airport (Strandhill), Waterford Airport, and Donegal Airport (Carrickfinn). Scheduled services from these regional points are mostly limited to the rest of Ireland and to Great Britain.

Airlines in Ireland include: Aer Lingus (the former national airline of Ireland), Ryanair, Aer Arann, and CityJet.

Ports and harbours

Samson and Goliath cranes at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Ireland has ports in the towns of Arklow, Belfast (Port of Belfast), Cork (Cork Harbour), Derry (Londonderry Port), Drogheda, Dublin (Dublin Port), Dundalk, Dún Laoghaire, Foynes, Galway, Larne, Limerick, New Ross, Rosslare Europort, Sligo, Warrenpoint, Waterford (Port of Waterford), and Wicklow.

Ports in the Republic handle 3,600,000 travelers crossing the Irish Sea between Ireland and Britain each year, amounting to 92% of all sea travel.[129] This has been steadily dropping for a number of years (20% since 1999), probably as a result of low cost airlines.

Ferry connections between Britain and Ireland via the Irish Sea include the routes from Swansea to Cork, Fishguard and Pembroke to Rosslare, Holyhead to Dún Laoghaire, Stranraer to Belfast and Larne, and Cairnryan to Larne. There is also a connection between Liverpool and Belfast via the Isle of Man. The world's largest car ferry, Ulysses, is operated by Irish Ferries on the Dublin–Holyhead route.

In addition, Rosslare and Cork run ferries to France.

The vast majority of heavy goods trade is done by sea. Northern Irish ports handle 10 megatonnes (Mt) (11 million short tons) of goods trade with Britain annually, while ports in the south handle 7.6 Mt (8.4 million short tons), representing 50% and 40% respectively of total trade by weight.

Several potential Irish Sea tunnel projects have been proposed, most recently the "Tusker Tunnel" between the ports of Rosslare and Fishguard proposed by the Institution of Engineers of Ireland in 2004.[130][131] A different proposed route is between Dublin and Holyhead, proposed in 1997 by a leading British engineering firm, Symonds, for a rail tunnel from Dublin to Holyhead. Either tunnel, at 80 km (50 mi), would be by far the longest in the world, and would cost an estimated €20bn.

Rail

Railway routes, with major towns/station, mountains, ports and airports.

The railway network in Ireland was developed by various private companies, some of which received (British) Government funding in the late 19th century. The network reached its greatest extent by 1920. The broad gauge of 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)[132] was eventually settled upon throughout the island, although there were also hundreds of kilometres of 914 mm (3 ft) narrow gauge railways.[132]

Long distance passenger trains in the Republic are managed by Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) and connect most major towns and cities across the country.

In Dublin, two local rail networks provide transport in the city and its immediate vicinity. The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) links the city centre with coastal suburbs, while a new light rail system named Luas, opened in 2004, transports passengers to the central and western suburbs. Several more Luas lines are planned as well as an eventual upgrade to metro. The DART is run by Iarnród Éireann while the Luas is being run by Veolia under franchise from the Railway Procurement Agency (R.P.A.).

Under the Irish government's Transport 21 plan, reopening the Navan-Clonsilla rail link, the Cork-Midleton rail link and the Western Rail Corridor are amongst plans for Ireland's railways.[133]

In Northern Ireland, all rail services are provided by Northern Ireland Railways (N.I.R.), part of Translink. Services in Northern Ireland are sparse in comparison to the rest of Ireland or Britain. A large railway network was severely curtailed in the 1950s and 1960s (in particular by the Ulster Transport Authority). The current situation includes suburban services to Larne, Newry and Bangor, as well as services to Derry. There is also a branch from Coleraine to Portrush. Waterside Station in Derry is the main railway station for Derry as well as County Donegal, which no longer has a rail network.

Ireland also has one of the largest dedicated freight railways in Europe, operated by Bord na Móna. This company has narrow gauge railways[132] totalling nearly 1,400 kilometres (870 miles).[134]

Roads

Dublin Port Tunnel under construction.
Main article: Roads in Ireland

Motorists must drive on the left in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. There is an extensive road network, with a (developing) motorway network fanning out from Belfast, Cork and Dublin. Historically, land owners developed most roads and later Turnpike Trusts collected tolls so that as early as 1800 Ireland had a 16,100 km (10,000 mi) road network.[135]

In recent years, the Irish Government launched a new transport plan that is the largest investment project ever in Ireland's transport system - with €34 billion being invested from 2006 until 2015. Work on a number of road projects has already commenced while a number of objectives have been completed.[136] The new transport plan can largely be divided into five categories, Metro / Luas, Heavy rail, roads, buses and airports. The plan was announced on 1 November 2005, by the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen.[137]

The year 1815 marked the introduction of the first horsecar service from Clonmel to Thurles and Limerick run by Charles Bianconi.[138] Now, the main bus companies are Bus Éireann in the Republic and Ulsterbus, a division of Translink, in Northern Ireland, both of which offer extensive passenger service in all parts of the island. Dublin Bus specifically serves the greater Dublin area, and a further division of Translink called Metro, operates services within the greater Belfast area. Translink also operate Ulsterbus Foyle in the Derry Urban Area.

All speed limit signs in the Republic of Ireland were changed to the metric system in 2005, but some direction signs still show distance in miles.[139] Distance and speed limit signs in Northern Ireland use imperial units.

Ireland's Power Networks

For much of their existence electricity networks in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were entirely separate. Both networks were designed and constructed independently, but are now connected with three interlinks and also connected through Britain to mainland Europe. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in the Republic drove a rural electrification programme in the 1940s until the 1970s. EirGrid is building a HVDC transmission line between Ireland and Britain with a capacity of 500 MW — about 10% of Ireland's peak demand.[140]

Ringsend power station, Dublin.

The situation in the North is complicated by the issue of private companies not supplying NIE with enough power, while in the South, the ESB has failed to modernise its power stations. In the latter case, availability of power plants has averaged 66% recently, one of the worst such figures in Western Europe.

The natural gas distribution network is also now all-Ireland, with a pipeline linking Gormanston, County Meath, and Ballyclare, County Antrim.[141] Most of Ireland's gas now comes through the interconnectors between Twynholm in Scotland and Ballylumford, County Antrim, Gormanston or Loughshinny, County Dublin with a decreasing supply from the Kinsale field.[142][143] The Corrib Gas Field off the coast of County Mayo has yet to come on-line, and is facing some localized opposition over the controversial decision to refine the gas onshore.

There have been recent efforts in Ireland to use renewable energy such as wind power with large wind farms being constructed in coastal counties such as Donegal, Mayo and Antrim. What will be the world's largest offshore wind farm is currently being developed at Arklow Bank off the coast of Wicklow. It is predicted to generate 10% of Ireland's power needs when it is complete. These constructions have in some cases been delayed by opposition from locals, most recently on Achill Island, some of whom consider the wind turbines to be unsightly. Another issue in the Republic of Ireland is the failure of the aging network to cope with the varying availability of power from such installations. The ESB's Turlough Hill is the only power storage fcility in Ireland.[144]

Economy

Main articles: Economy of the Republic of Ireland, Economy of Northern Ireland, and Economic history of Ireland

Ireland was periodically troubled by emigration until the 1980s. About half a million people left Ireland in the 1950's alone.[145] These problems virtually disappeared over the course of the 1990s, which saw the beginning of unprecedented economic growth, in a phenomenon known as the "Celtic Tiger."[146] In 2005, Ireland was ranked the best place to live in the world, according to a "quality of life" assessment by Economist magazine.[147] Ireland has been in recession since second quarter of 2008 and some commentators have claimed it is in a depression. [148][149] In August 2009, the unemployment rate for Ireland was 12.5%.[150]

See also

Lightningireland.png Ireland portal

Notes

  1. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ei.html
  2. ^ a b "Islands by area". UN system-wide earthwatch. United Nations Environment Programme. 1998-02-18. http://islands.unep.ch/Tiarea.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30. 
  3. ^ "Republic of Ireland Act 1948". Section 2. Government of Ireland. 1948. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie:80/1948/en/act/pub/0022/sec0002.html#zza22y1948s2. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  4. ^ Olson, p. 58.
  5. ^ Magee, p. 108.
  6. ^ "Population 1901 - 2006". People and Society. CSO. 2006. http://www.cso.ie/statistics/Population1901-2006.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
  7. ^ "NI's population passes 1.75m mark". News. BBC News. December 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7775349.stm. Retrieved 2009-08-30. 
  8. ^ "Migration pushes population in the North up to 1.75 million". Breaking News. Demography and Methodology Branch, NISRA. July 2007. http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhcwkfmhsnkf/rss2/. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  9. ^ "Irish-Catholic Immigration to America". Immigration. Library of Congress. 7 May 2007. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/irish2.html. Retrieved 2008-10-25. 
  10. ^ Also Italian, Romanian and Portuguese Irlanda, French Irlande, German Irland, and Dutch Ierland, as well as Russian Ирландия [irlˈanʲdʲijə].
  11. ^ Crawford, John G. (1993). Anglicizing the Government of Ireland: The Irish Privy Council & the Expansion of Tudor Rule 1556-1578. Irish Academic Press. ISBN 0716524988. 
  12. ^ "Ulster county divisions". Comhairle Uladh CLG. GAA. 2008. http://ulster.gaa.ie/county/. Retrieved 2008-10-24. 
  13. ^ "NI Tourist board comprising Counties Armagh and Down". Armagh and Down. NI Tourist Board. 2008. http://www.armaghanddown.com/. Retrieved 2008-10-24. 
  14. ^ "Population by Province". Population. CSO. 2006. http://www.cso.ie/statistics/popofeachprovcountycity2006.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  15. ^ "Call for all-Ireland soccer team". BBC Sport. BBC News. 19 January 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6280591.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-26. 
  16. ^ "All-Ireland warning from Delaney". BBC Sport. BBC News. 17 January 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/irish/7193678.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-26. 
  17. ^ Jones, Steve (2003-02-01). "Ireland: Fianna Fail and SDLP float unity pact". World Socialist Web Site. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/irel-f01.shtml. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  18. ^ "National Competitiveness Council Submission on the National Development Plan 2007-2013". Submission. National Competitiveness Council. October 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-11-09. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.forfas.ie/ncc/reports/ncc_ndp_submission/ncc061114_ndp_submission_dept_finance_webopt.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-07. 
  19. ^ "Agreement Reached in the Multi-party Negotiations". Agreement. Northern Ireland Assembly. 10 April 1998. http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/io/agreement.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-26. 
  20. ^ "About SEMO". Publication. Single Electricity Market Operator (SEMO). 2005. http://www.allislandmarket.com/about/. Retrieved 2008-10-26. 
  21. ^ "DUP minister expresses support for single gas market". Newspaper. Belfast Telegraph. 2007-05-18. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/politics/dup-minister-expresses-support-for-single-gas-market-13442926.html. Retrieved 2008-10-26. 
  22. ^ "Ordnance Survey FAQs". Ordnance Survey of Ireland. http://www.osi.ie/en/faq/faqs.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-30. 
  23. ^ "Kerry: Key Facts". Discoverireland.ie. http://www.discoverireland.ie/southwest/kerry/what-to-do/key-facts.aspx. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  24. ^ "Nature and Scenery". Ireland's landscape. Discover Ireland (Official Ireland tourism website). http://www.discoverireland.com/gb/about-ireland/nature/. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  25. ^ "Ireland". Encarta Encyclopedia. Micsosoft Corporation. Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. http://www.webcitation.org/5kwrVypco. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  26. ^ Nolan, Professor William. "Geography of Ireland". Government of Ireland. http://www.gov.ie/en/essays/geography.html. Retrieved 2009-11-11. 
  27. ^ "Temperature in Ireland". Climate. Met Éireann. http://www.met.ie/climate/temperature.asp. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  28. ^ a b "Rainfall". Climate. Met Éireann. http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  29. ^ "Climate of Ireland". Climate. Met Éireann. http://www.met.ie/climate/climate-of-ireland.asp. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  30. ^ "Geology of Ireland". Geology for Everyone. Geological Survey of Ireland. http://www.gsi.ie/Education/Geology+for+Everyone/Geology+of+Ireland.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  31. ^ "Bedrock Geology of Ireland". Geology for Everyone. Geological Survey of Ireland. http://www.gsi.ie/NR/rdonlyres/0302F251-C4ED-4938-BCF0-CF228A3E8F6A/0/GSI_GeolIreland_A4.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  32. ^ "Geology of Kerry-Cork - Sheet 21". Maps. Geological Survey of Ireland. 2007. http://www.gsi.ie/Publications+and+Data/Maps/Geology+of+Kerry-Cork+-+Sheet+21.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  33. ^ Karst Working Group 2000 (2000). "The Burren: Karst of Ireland - the Burren". County Clare Library. http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/places/the_burren/burren_karst.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  34. ^ "Irish Natural Gas Market". Story of Natural Gas. Bord Gáis. http://www.bordgais.ie/corporate/index.jsp?1nID=93&2nID=97&3nID=353&nID=363. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  35. ^ Shannon, P.; Haughton, P.D.W.; Corcoran, D.V. (2001). The Petroleum Exploration of Ireland's Offshore Basins. London: Geological Society Publishing House: Lyell Collection—Special Publications. pp. 2. ISBN 1423711637. http://books.google.com/books?id=F7yJAAAACAAJ. 
  36. ^ "Providence sees Helvick oil field as key site in Celtic Sea". Irish Examiner. 2000-07-17. http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/07/17/current/bpage_2.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-27. 
  37. ^ a b "Land cover and land use". Environmental Assessment. Environmental Protection Agency. 2000. http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/assessment/land/. Retrieved 2007-07-30. 
  38. ^ "National forestation statistics". Forest Facts. Coillte Teoranta. 2007-01-05. http://www.coillte.ie/forests/forest_facts/forest_facts_by_county/national/. Retrieved 2008-11-05. 
  39. ^ "Invasive Alien Species in Northern Ireland - Spartina anglica, Common Cord-grass". National Museums Northern Ireland. http://www.habitas.org.uk/invasive/species.asp?item=2680. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  40. ^ Guiry, M.D.; Nic Dhonncha, E.N (2001), The marine macroalgae of Ireland : biodiversity and distribution in Marine Biodiversity in Ireland and Adjacent Waters, Proceedings of a Conference 26–27 April 2001 (Publication no. 8 ed.), Belfast: Ulster Museum 
  41. ^ Minchin, D. (2001), Biodiversity and Marine Invaders (Appendix): in Marine Biodiversity in Ireland and Adjacent Waters, Proceedings of a Conference 26–27 April 2001 (Publication no. 8 ed.), Belfast: Ulster Museum 
  42. ^ a b CAP reform - a long-term perspective for sustainable agriculture, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/capreform/index_en.htm, retrieved 2007-07-30 
  43. ^ Roche, Dick (2006-11-08), National Parks, 185, Seanad Éireann, http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0185/S.0185.200611080008.html, retrieved 2007-07-30  Seanad Debate involving Former Minister for Environment Heritage and Local Government
  44. ^ "Heritage Ireland - Céide Fields". Heritage Ireland. http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/West/CeideFields/. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  45. ^ "The Neolithic Stone Age in Ireland : Farming". The Ireland Story. Wesley Johnson. 2000. http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/neolithic_age.html. Retrieved 2008-11-07. 
  46. ^ a b Oppenheimer, Stephen (2006-10-21). "Myths of British ancestry". Prospect Magazine (Prospect Magazine) (127). ISSN 1359-5024. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2006/10/mythsofbritishancestry/. Retrieved 2008-11-07. 
  47. ^ Mascheretti, Silvia; Rogatcheva, Margarita B.; Gündüz, Islam; Fredga, Karl; and Searle, Jeremy B (2003-08-07). "How did pygmy shrews colonize Ireland? Clues from a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences". Proceedings of the Royal Society (Royal Society) 270 (1524): 1593. doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2406. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1691416. Retrieved 2008-11-07. 
  48. ^ "Hibernia". Roman Empire. United Nations of Roma Victrix. http://www.unrv.com/provinces/hibernia.php. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  49. ^ O'Hart, John (1892). Irish Pedigrees; Or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation. Dublin: J. Duffy and Co. pp. 725. http://books.google.com/books?id=qFRmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA725. 
  50. ^ "Scotia". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2001–05. Encyclopedia.com. 2007. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Scotia.aspx. Retrieved 20089-11-11. 
  51. ^ http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a791562641&fulltext=713240928
  52. ^ "The Geography of Ptolemy". Roman-Britain.org. 2003-04-23. http://www.roman-britain.org/ptolemy.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  53. ^ Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLO. 
  54. ^ Roe, Harry; Ann Dooley (1999). Tales of the Elders of Ireland. Oxford University Press. 
  55. ^ Michael Roberts et al. (1957). Early Irish history and pseudo-history. Bowes & Bowes Michigan University Press. 
  56. ^ De Paor, Liam (1993). Saint Patrick's World: The Christian Culture of Ireland's Apostolic Age. Dublin: Four Courts, Dublin. p. 78, 79. ISBN 1-85182-144-9. 
  57. ^ a b Cahill, Tim (1996). How the Irish Saved Civilization. Anchor Books. ISBN 0385418493. 
  58. ^ Dowley, Tim, et al., ed (1977). Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-8028-3450-7. 
  59. ^ Chrisafis, Angelique (2005-01-25). "Scion of traitors and warlords: why Bush is coy about his Irish links". World News. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jan/27/usa.angeliquechrisafis. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  60. ^ Ibeji, Mike. "Black death: The spread of the Plague: Ireland". British History: Middle Ages. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_08.shtml. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  61. ^ "The curse of Cromwell". A Short History of Ireland. BBC Northern Ireland. http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro99.shtml. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  62. ^ "Laws in Ireland for the Suppression of Popery". University of Minnesota Law School. http://local.law.umn.edu/irishlaw/offices.html. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  63. ^ Ward, Alan J. (1994). The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland, 1782-1992. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-81320-784-3. 
  64. ^ "The Irish Potato Famine". Digital History. 2008-11-07. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish_potato_famine.cfm. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  65. ^ "Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St. Patrick's Day (17 March) 2007". Press releases. U.S Census Bureau. 2007-01-17. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/009465.html. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  66. ^ Vallely, Paul (2006-04-25). "1841: A window on Victorian Britain - This Britain". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/1841-a-window-on-victorian-britain-475516.html. Retrieved 2009-04-16. 
  67. ^ Quinn, Eamon (2007-08-19). "Ireland Learns to Adapt to a Population Growth Spurt". Europe. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/world/europe/19ireland.html?ex=1345176000&en=ab2b49203b6fb511&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  68. ^ Kee, Robert (1972). The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. pp. 376–400. ISBN 029717987X. 
  69. ^ Kee, Robert (1972). The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. pp. 478–530. ISBN 029717987X. 
  70. ^ Kee, Robert (1972). The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. pp. 719–748. ISBN 029717987X. 
  71. ^ Connolly, Kevin (2004-06-01). "Irish who fought on the beaches". Northern Ireland News. BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3749629.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  72. ^ Clancy, Patrick; Sheelagh Drudy, Kathleen Lynch, Liam O'Dowd (1997). Irish Society: Sociological Perspectives. Institute of Public Administration. pp. 68–70. ISBN 1872002870. 
  73. ^ "Ireland considering immigration deal with U.S.". Politics. Reuters. 2006-10-25. http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL2525249520061025. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  74. ^ Whyte, John. "'How much discrimination was there under the Unionist regime, 1921-1968?' by John Whyte". Contemporary Irish Studies. Conflict Archive on the Internet. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/discrimination/whyte.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  75. ^ "Fair Employment in Northern Ireland". Northern Ireland Office. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/cmd380.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  76. ^ ""We Shall Overcome" .... The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968 - 1978 by NICRA (1978)". Conflict Archive on the Internet. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/crights/nicra/nicra78.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
  77. ^ Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 33–56. ISBN 0-74753392X. 
  78. ^ Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 56–100. ISBN 0-74753392X. 
  79. ^ "Turning the pages on lost lives". BBC News. 1999-10-08. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/467904.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  80. ^ Nieminen, Brigadier Tauno; General John de Castelain, Andrew D. Sens. "Independent International Commission on Decommissioning" (PDF). http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/peace/decommission/iicd190106.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-15. 
  81. ^ "Where are British troops and why?". UK News. BBC. 2008-04-29. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4094818.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  82. ^ "Background Note: Ireland". Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. US Department of State. July 2008. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3180.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  83. ^ "Bloomsday 2007 Community Wide Events". Past Events. The James Joyce Centre. http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/detail.asp?ID=86. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  84. ^ O'Kelly, Michael J.; O'Kelly, Claire (1982). Newgrange. Archaeology Art and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0500273715. http://books.google.com/books?id=bGiMHQAACAAJ. 
  85. ^ Houston, Eugenie (2001). Working and Living in Ireland. Working and Living Publications. ISBN 0-95368-968-9. 
  86. ^ "Stair na Taibhdheirce". An Taibhdheirce. 2005. http://www.antaibhdhearc.com/stair.html. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  87. ^ "An Taibhdhearc". Fodors. http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/ireland/western-ireland-with-galway/review-102098.html. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  88. ^ O'Lochlainn, Colm (1965). More Irish Street Ballads. Pan. p. vii. ISBN 0-33025-317-4. 
  89. ^ Butler, Jean; Edited by Andrew Higgins Wyndham (2006). Re-imagining Ireland: Re-imaging Irish Dance. Virginia: University of Virginia Press. p. 141. ISBN 0-81392-544-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=Oo-u0p31yjQC. 
  90. ^ Geraghty, Des (1994). Luke Kelly: A Memoir. Basement Press. p. pps. 26-30. ISBN 1-85594-090-6. 
  91. ^ Moore, Christy (2000). One Voice: My Life in Song. Hodder and Stoughton/Lir. ISBN 0-34076-839-8. 
  92. ^ "Ireland in shock Eurovision exit". BBC Online. 2005-05-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4563257.stm. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
  93. ^ a b c Reville, William (2000-12-14). "Ireland's Scientific Heritage". Understanding Science" series: Famous Irish Scientists. University College Cork; Faculty of Science. http://understandingscience.ucc.ie/pages/irishscientists.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  94. ^ Finch, Eric; Denis Weaire (2006-10-06). "Walton Biography". Trinity College School of Physics. http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/history/walton/walton_biography.php. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  95. ^ McCartney, Mark (2002-12-01). "William Thomson: king of Victorian physics". Features (Physics World). http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/16484. Retrieved 2008-11-22. 
  96. ^ a b "School of Theoretical Physics: History - Formation of the School". Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. 2007-06-01. http://www.stp.dias.ie/history/history1.shtml. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  97. ^ "The Social Significance of Sport". The Economic and Social Research Institute. http://www.esri.ie/pdf/BKMNINT180_Main%20Text_Social%20and%20Economic%20Value%20of%20Sport.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-21. 
  98. ^ "Culture and Sport". About Ireland. Government of Ireland. http://www.irlgov.ie/aboutireland/eng/cultureandsport.asp. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  99. ^ "Sports Participation and Health Among Adults in Ireland". The Economic and Social Research Institute. http://www.esri.ie/UserFiles/publications/20070223162340/BKMNINT178_Main%20Text%20Chapters%201-4.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-15. 
  100. ^ "Croke Park. Not just a venue. A destination.". Croke Park Stadium. http://www.crokepark.ie/. Retrieved 2007-10-03. 
  101. ^ "For First Time, Croke Park Is Ireland's Common Ground". The Washington Post. 2007-02-06. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/05/AR2007020501459.html. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 
  102. ^ "FAI History: 1921–1930". Football Association of Ireland. 2006-03-20. http://www.fai.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=9. Retrieved 2008-10-21. 
  103. ^ "The Fourth Heineken Cup Final". Match report. European Rugby Cup. 1999-01-30. http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/82_629.php. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  104. ^ "Munster fulfil their destiny". Match report. European Rugby Cup. 2006-05-20. http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/12_5287.php. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  105. ^ "Munster claim second Heineken Cup". Match report. European Rugby Cup. 2008-05-24. http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/12_10240.php. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  106. ^ "Leicester Tigers v Leinster". Match report. European Rugby Cup. 2009-05-23. http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/12_12682.php. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
  107. ^ "2006 Ryder Cup Team Europe". PGA of America, Ryder Cup Limited. 2006-01-23. http://www.rydercup.com/2006/europe/news/20060123_home.html. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  108. ^ Brennan, Séamus (2007-07-22). "Séamus Brennan, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism comments on victory by Padraig Harrington in the 2007 British Open Golf Championship". Press release. http://www.arts-sport-tourism.gov.ie/publications/release.asp?ID=2028. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  109. ^ "Peter Dawson speaks about golf's Olympic ambition". The Open Championship 2008 (Opengolf.com). 2008-10-14. http://www.opengolf.com/ChampionshipGolf/TheOpenChampionship/News.aspx?searchstring=Peter+Dawson. Retrieved 2008-10-15. 
  110. ^ "In Pictures: Harrington wins US PGA". RTÉ. 2008-08-11. http://www.rte.ie/sport/golf/2008/0811/harrington.html. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 
  111. ^ "Fishing in Ireland". Central Fisheries Board. http://www.cfb.ie/fishing_in_ireland/. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  112. ^ Els, Slots. "World Heritage Sites in Ireland". UNESCO's World Heritage Site. http://www.worldheritagesite.org/countries/ireland.html. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  113. ^ Els, Slots. "World Heritage Sites in UK". UNESCO's World Heritage Site. http://www.worldheritagesite.org/countries/unitedkingdom.html. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  114. ^ "World Heritage List - Tentative listings database". UNESCO. http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/308/. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  115. ^ a b c d Fáilte Ireland (2006). "Tourism Facts" (PDF). National Tourism Development Authority. http://www.failteireland.ie/getdoc/975fbac0-cf5d-4574-946e-26700b8a4efa/Tourism-Facts-2006.aspx. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  116. ^ "National Monuments in Ireland". National Monuments. National Monuments Service. http://www.archaeology.ie/NationalMonuments/. Retrieved 2008-10-22. 
  117. ^ Fisher, Robert; Editor: (2008). Fodor's Ireland 2008. New York: Fodor's. pp. pps. = 30–31. ISBN 1-4000-1821-5. http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/ireland/. 
  118. ^ a b "Census 2006 Volume 13 Religion" (PDF). Central Statistics Office. http://www.cso.ie/census/census2006results/volume_13/volume_13_religion.pdf. Retrieved 2008-01-29. 
  119. ^ Sullivan, Kevin (2007-10-24). "Hustling to Find Classrooms For All in a Diverse Ireland". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302162_pf.html. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  120. ^ "eircom launches two new Talktime International packages". Press Releases: Latest News. Eircom. July 2007. http://home.eircom.net/about/press/2007/July/10763015. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  121. ^ Ireland steps up as immigration leader. The Christian Science Monitor. September 5, 2007.
  122. ^ Ireland's age of affluence comes to an end. The Guardian. April 5, 2009.
  123. ^ Casey, Garrett (2008-03-21). "Up to 10,000 Chinese Christians in Ireland: DUFEM report". Gazette. Church of Ireland. http://gazette.ireland.anglican.org/2008/210308/index210308.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  124. ^ "Table 15: Irish speakers aged 3 years and over in each Province, County and City, classified by frequency of speaking Irish, 2006". Census 2006 - Volume 9 - Irish Language. CSO. http://beyond2020.cso.ie/Census/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=75639. Retrieved 2008-11-09. (37.6% of workforce (>15 years) classified as "Irish speakers")
  125. ^ "About us". Dublin Airport. Dublin Airport Authority. http://www.dublinairport.com/about-us/. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  126. ^ "Dublin Airport tops 23 million passengers in 2007". Business. Thomas Crosbie Media. 2008-01-22. http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/mheyojojcwgb/. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  127. ^ "DAA To Begin Building New Terminal Within Weeks". Press Releases. Dublin Airport Authority. 2007-07-29. http://www.dublinairportauthority.com/media-centre/press-releases/112007.html. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  128. ^ "Shannon stopover to go by 2008". Business News. RTE. 2005-11-11. http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/1111/shannon.html. Retrieved 2008-11-09. 
  129. ^ CSO figures
  130. ^ IEI report (pdf)
  131. ^ BBC report
  132. ^ a b c "CIA World Factbook - Ireland - Transportation". CIA. 2008-11-06. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ei.html#Trans. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  133. ^ "Heavy Rail". Project. Transport 21. 2008-06-18. http://www.transport21.ie/Projects/Heavy_Rail/Heavy_Rail.html. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  134. ^ "The Bog Railway". Student Room. Bord na Móna. http://www.bnm.ie/corporate/index.jsp?nID=358&pID=357. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  135. ^ "History of Transport in Ireland, Part 1". About Us. Córas Iompair Éireann. http://www.cie.ie/about_us/schools_and_enthusiasts.asp#1. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  136. ^ "Roads". Projects. Transport 21. 2008-06-18. http://www.transport21.ie/Projects/Roads/Roads.html. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  137. ^ Ahern, Bertie (2005-11-05). "Speech by An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern T.D., at the launch of Transport 21 in Dublin Castle". Media: Launch Materials. Transport 21. http://www.transport21.ie/MEDIA/Launch_Material/Speech_by_An_Taoiseach,_Bertie_Ahern_T.D.,_at_the_launch_of_Transport_21_in_Dublin_Castle.html. Retrieved 2008-11-08. 
  138. ^ Murphy, John (2005-01-04). "Bianconi home to become Clonmel hotel". Irish Examiner. http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2005/01/04/story573513087.asp. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  139. ^ Nolen, Kevin (2007-04-17). "Lost: Dublin signpost with distances in miles". ErasmusPC. http://www.erasmuspc.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=318&Itemid=88. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  140. ^ "Project Activity". East-West Interconnector. EirGrid. 16 September 2009. http://www.interconnector.ie/projects/east-westinterconnector/projectactivity/. Retrieved 2009-09-29. 
  141. ^ "Bord Gáis Networks :: Northern Ireland :: South-North Pipeline". Bord Gáis. http://www.bordgais.ie/networks/index.jsp?1nID=102&pID=109&nID=313. Retrieved 2009-05-08. 
  142. ^ "Northern Ireland Energy Holdings - Frequently Asked Questions". Northern Ireland Energy Holdings. http://www.nienergyholdings.com/FAQs/Index.php. Retrieved 2009-05-08. 
  143. ^ "Gas Capacity Statement 2007" (pdf). Commission for Energy Regulation. http://www.cer.ie/GetAttachment.aspx?id=d9f0b11e-3a13-42bb-86b7-f7470a9c68cc. Retrieved 2009-05-08. 
  144. ^ "Options For Future Renewable Energy Policy, Targets And Programmes issued by Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources". Hibernian Wind Power Ltd. 2004-02-27. http://www.hibernianwindpower.ie/hiberwindresponse_dcmnr.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  145. ^ Irish Emigration, past and present. Lessons to be learned?. University College Cork.
  146. ^ End of the road. The Guardian. May 10, 2009.
  147. ^ "The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index". The Economist: The World in 2005 (The Economist Group). http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.PDF. 
  148. ^ Ireland 'technically' in depression...
  149. ^ Ireland's Economy in Free Fall Collapse
  150. ^ Harmonised unemployment rate by gender - total - % (SA). Eurostat.

References

External links

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ireland
Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ireland



This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

Did you mean: Ireland (island, Northern Ireland), Ireland, Republic of (country, Ireland), Ireland Inc, Kathy Ireland (Model / Actor), Patricia Ireland, John Ireland (politician) More...

Learn More
Oliver Cromwell
Dublin
England

What is there to do in Ireland? Read answer...
Is it in Ireland? Read answer...
What can you do at Ireland? Read answer...

Help us answer these
How do you get to mirage Ireland?
Where is gainertown ireland?
When is haze out in ireland?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Photography Encyclopedia. The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
History 1450-1789. Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Geography. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ireland".  Read more