Ireland

Ireland is a separate country to England and has not joined it.

Gaelic Football and Hurling are the 2 major national sports in Ireland. They are run by the G.A.A (Gaelic Athletic Association) or Cumann Lúthchleas Gael in Irish.

Handball is actually another of the Gaelic games; note this is not the same as the handball from the Olympics, it was traditionally played with 2 players hitting a small rubber ball against a large free standing wall with the aim of stopping your opponent returning your hit, the ball may only bounce once after hitting the wall.

There is no conflict between the north and the republic. Basically Ireland was under british rule and events in the years after the 1916 rising led to The British 'giving back' Ireland, ie creating a republic. Although, 6 counties in Ulster (out of 9) were kept under british rule, and are now Northern Ireland. Within northern Ireland there are nationalists, those who want the north to join the republic, and unionists, those who want to remain under british rule. Therefore the conflict is generally confined within the north..

Christianity had already spread to Ireland by 438, when the Irish High King, Laighaire, held a folk-moot at Tara, on questions of faith. As representatives, there were 3 kings, 3 Brehona (pagan law-speakers) and 3 Christian missionaries. The laws that were drawn up contained elements from pagan and Christian law. These remained valid until superseded by English law in the seventeenth century.

St Patrick is said to have established Christianity as the official religion of Ireland in 448. If so, paganism seems to have continued to flourish, since the Christian monk, Ruadhan of Lothra, cursed Tara in 554, presumably because people still venerated its sacred nature.

The Vikings colonised Ireland at the end of the 8th century and Ireland once more became dual-faith.

The Irish Immigrants came in 3 waves. The first and second was after 1717. Because of crop failures and a failing linen industry not to mention the great religious conflict in their own country (Catholic/Protestant) which led to Irish against Irish led to a 60 year migration and over 200,000 Irish migrated to America (most landing at Philadelphia, the colonies' main port for Immigrants in the first and second migration of the Irish. Most Scottish-Irish came to America as indentured servants. The Nations first Immigrant Reception Station was Castle Garden which opened in 1855. In the 1890s a new center opened called Ellis Island. It closed in 1954, but it has been the gateway for three-fourths of all Immigrants. The 3rd wave of Irish Immigrants began in the mid 19th century (1840s). There was the great potato famine. They did not just go to America but also Canada. The British has caused havoc in Ireland and the Irish came to America (mainly) for a better life and worked on railroads, as coal miners and industrial business'. Although paid poorly the Irish Immigrants felt this was better than returning home to their native soil. To date there are over 43 million Irish descendants.

They are not sure how many people had moved to America because of the Famine but they know that it had caused more than two-thirds of the population to move there. Some of them came back after the Famine.

The Republic of Ireland uses the Irish pound as its basic unit of currency. Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, uses both the British pound and Bank of Ireland notes (also pounds).

Potatoes were brought back to Ireland and the rest of Europe from the "New World", South America, upon their discovery by European explorers. Potatoes were not found anywhere in Europe, Asia or Africa until they were imported.

Ireland became dependent on potatoes after their importation to Europe largely because it was a poor country and potatoes grow quickly and easily in many different climates.

Currently Gerry Adams acts as Sinn Féin's leader in the Dáil.

It was not between Catholics and Protestants and there were no winners. The troubles related to politics, not religion as is often portrayed. There is now a power-sharing agreement between representatives of the unionist/loyalist community and the nationalist/republican community. There are still people that are not happy with that, but most people have benefited, so it could be said that everyone has won.

A lot of European countries are not in the European Union. Iceland is one of them, but it is now considering joining it.

Part of the mechanism of colonial power is the suppression of native culture, and more than the language of Ireland has suffered from English domination. "Irishness" was illegal for many years, and its expression punishable by death or exile. Some families had to change their very names to avoid proscription, or being declared outlaws. But unlike the ancient bardic and harping traditions, which are extinct despite modern attempts at revival, the Irish language still lives, having native speakers who inhabit part of western Ireland.

Most elevations of Ireland (excepting the Equatorial Hindi-speaking plateau) were Francophone until the Excursion of 1953, when the heads of the Royal Houses travelled to London for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth and brought home back issues of Picture Post, which were placed in public libraries and memorised by the populace. This accounts for the pure archaic Received Pronunciation (RP) of the non equatorial elevations. The Hindi areas show an Urdu influence from Pakistani satellite broadcasts.

i was in viena and found three Irish speaking bars! its an amazing sounding language sounds really old and mysterious. its pretty sad its a minority language now.

They came as pirates looking for things to take. They raided many wealthy places in Ireland. Many also came and settled in Ireland starting settlements that became some of the modern day towns and cities in Ireland.

Britain is an island and Ireland is a separate island, so naturally they cannot be part of each other. What you are referring to is the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It was a part of the UK up until 1922, when they got their republic. British rule in Ireland goes back over 800 years. Some Irish rebelled against British rule over the centuries. I'm sure some wanted Ireland to remain a part of the UK.

There where a lot of Irish heroes who fought and died for Britain in first world war, and wars before that. There were 7 Irish regiments that disbanded in 1922, due to the Republic being formed. These regiments carried a lot of battle honours, 4 of which where the, Royal Dublin fusiliers, the Leinster reg, the Munster and the Connaught Rangers. In Ireland the Royal Irish constabulary was the police force, in 1922 it ceased to function in the south. It remained the police force in Northern Ireland until it changed to the Royal ulster constabulary.

I agree with the above however:

The 'Irish Free State' was established in 1922 under the terms of the treaty agreed with the British Government and was effectively a 'dominion' of the UK and remained part of the Commonwealth - this did not have total support across Ireland as the Free State exclude the six counties of Northern Ireland. Support (or not) for the treaty was the primary cause of the Irish civil war. The Irish Free State became 'Ireland' when the constitution was approved in 1937 following the election of an 'anti-treaty' Government in 1932. Quite when the Free State become a Republic is open to some debate as not all ties with the UK were cut at the same time. However there is no doubt that by 1949 Ireland was a republic.

The Republic, under the 1937 constitution, claim the six counties of Northern Ireland as its own until the ratification of the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) in 1998 when in a referendum the constitution was amended to drop the claim.

The transformation of Ireland's economy over the past decade has been characterised by the fastest growth in output and employment in the OECD. In 1999, output alone increased by 9.8% in real gross domestic product (GDP) terms and 7.8% in real gross national product (GNP) terms. In addition, employment has increased by over 40% from 1990 to 2000, again the fastest growth rate in the OECD

England took over Ireland in 1171, though parts of the country were only effectively subjugated in following years.

Nominally a kingdom from 1541, Ireland was absorbed by Great Britain into the United Kingdom in 1801.

The Irish Potato Famine was a result from a disease that was brought from America. The Famine caused many Irish to immigrate to new lands; mainly America and Canada. As people fled or died from the famine, the population of Ireland declined rapidly. By the time Ireland became independent in 1921, more than half of its population was gone since 1840. The famine caused major migration in America (our ancestors) and caused a rapid decline in population, which meant a rapid decline in money made by all the Irish farmers.

The euro became the Irish states official currency on the 1st of January 1999 but the punt wasn't withdrawn from circulation until 1st January 2002.

Geographically, at its closest point it is only about 25 miles from Britain to Ireland. However, unless you have your own yacht, you cannot travel between the two countries at their closest point. The closest ferry crossing takes several hours.

A long period of tension in Northern Ireland between Catholics, who believed they should be part of the Republic of Ireland, and Protestants, who wanted to remain in the United Kingdom. The division in Ireland dates from from 1922, when the majority of Ireland left the United Kingdom. However, the area around Belfast had a large Protestant population who strongly opposed leaving the United Kingdom.

The Troubles began in 1968, with the worst of the conflict being over by the mid-1970s, but the tension continued for many years. Republicans formed a paramilitary group called the Irish Republican Army, and Loyalists responded with similar defence groups. The Irish Government in Dublin were willing to cooperate with the British and strongly denounced the violence. The British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (the police force) frequently had to intervene to stop violence. This caused several problems, especially a clash during a protest in Derry, known as "Bloody Sunday". 14 protesters were killed by the army, who had been on the alert for an IRA sniper.

The majority of violence happened in Northern Ireland itself, with several bombing attacks and shootings. In 1971, a loyalist group killed 15 people at a bar in Belfast. In 1987, an IRA bombing killed 12 people at a Rememberance Day church service in Enniskillen, which caused many Republicans to turn against them. The worst attack was in 1998, not by the IRA itself but by a group of dissenters, killing 30 civilians in Omagh. A number of attacks happened in England; in 1992 the Prime Minister's house was damaged in an unsuccessful mortar attack, and four years later a lorry filled with explosives destroyed several buildings in Manchester, although no-one was killed as the area had been evacuated.

The peace process began in the late 1980s, and was finally completed with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which led to the violence soon ending. A referendum was soon held and 71% of voters agreed with the agreement (80% of eligible voters turned up). Since then, the IRA have laid down their weapons, although violence still happens sporadically.

This colour green is assituated with ireland. lepurcans, magical creatures, faries etc are also assituated with ireland, along with gunieus ( a drink) but the harp is the traditional symbol.

We don't have one.

We have "An Tiasoch" The Chieftian, Brian Cowen.

Less than 10% are.

In the UK red hair is generally associated with people of Celtic descent, i.e Scotland and Ireland. It is believed the people of Scotland came from 5 different ethnic groups who occupied or invaded northern Britain in the dark ages. In all of recorded history, red-haired people have never been mentioned as a group except by the Romans.

The 'Picts' where foes who the Romans fought and were described as having red-hair and 'large limbs' by Roman historian Tacitus. Modern historians with the help of anthropologists have placed red-hair as a unique characteristic belonging to the Picts, who were characteristic to what is now regarded as Scottish.

As far as the world-wide distribution of red-hair is concerned, it would be fair to say that the majority may well have descended from this North-Western European region, although as with all variations between people, mutations in genes can occur and be maintained in any population provided there is no detrimentus effect to the populations growth.

As for the reasons for red-hair, it's not easy to see any immediate selective advantage in terms of evolution. Here is some information of the genetics behind red-hair and this seems to provide

a clue....

Variation in both skin and hair pigmentation is due to varied amounts of the chemicals eumelanin (brown/black melanins) and phaeomelanin (red/yellow melanins) produced by melanocytes ("colour-cells").

The melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) is a regulator of eu- and phaeomelanin production in the melanocytes and mutations in this gene are known to cause coat colour changes in many mammals. Studies on Irish and Dutch populations have significantly linked variations in the MC1R gene to red-hair.

Also, so called 'loss-of-function' mutations in the human MC1R gene are known to be common and have recently been shown to be associated with red-hair. One other interesting point is that recent work has shown that some variants on the MC1R gene may be preferentially associated with hair colour rather than

skin type.

Because the primary function of melanins is thought to be for both 'photoprotection' and 'photosensitising` (eu- and phaeomelanins respectively), this offers reason to suggest that MC1R variants (most red-heads) are a risk factor, possibly independent of skin type, for melanoma susceptibility.

Why would mutations occur if such variations in MC1R

originally arose in areas of northern-Europe. Maybe it was because there was no selection against such mutations occurring in that region of the world. Due to the poor quality of weather in this area of the world, any mutations in MC1R would hold no relevance as the UV-levels would be significantly low enough to cause no damage despite decreased melatonin protection.

Unfortunately this assumes that MC1R mutations occurring in 'hot-climates' would result in high mortality rates occurring before age of parenthood which is probably unlikely. Other than that, I can't think of any other reason to suggest why red-hair originated in north-west Europe other than by random chance

Yes. They were the same country and both ruled by Britain for hundreds of years until the early 1920's when after much effort and fighting from the Irish to achieve independance Britain agreed to partition the Island and recognise the Republic's independance but remain in control of some counties in the northeast. There was a civil war in Ireland over whether this treaty should be accepted, but the pro-treaty side won, so the country was partitioned.

In more recent times Northern Ireland have set up an local parliament (like in Scotland and Wales) where local issues are dealt with. However, it remains part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (despite the fighting in Northern Ireland) and the UK is a separate country from the Republic.

Northern Ireland is ruled by Great Britain

The Republic of Ireland is not. YES it is Ireland that other stuff only shows up on map only words and lines, people are very same north and south im from ulster along border. were you go on Sunday is not goin to matter in ten years time or even now were small country hardliners on both sides are goin to be left behind by people. im excited when see Ireland playing sport now look what our soccer teams are like crap join them up look at the ruby, british people in Ireland we no this but whats funny is there Irish too but ill not take that from them we have a flag what does the orange stand for on it,

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone outside a tourist, a New York St Patrick s day parade or a pipe band wearing one (and they wear plain saffron). The traditional Irish garment was the leine, the kilt worn now (little kilt or phillabeg/feilidh-beag) was invented by an Englishman Rawlinson whose Scottish workers found the traditional highland kilt or plaide too uncomfortable. The Irish tartans that exist today have nearly all been invented by the Scottish tartan manufacturers in the twentieth century to sell to tourists. They are mostly taken from the colours of the arms of the counties and regions and the colours substituted into Scottish tartans to produce them. Various claims have been made that a number of Irish tartans were shown in a book called Clans Originaux (1880) but when the list was discovered it was more of a pattern book than a literary one and not one Irish pattern was contained. Nor have any other 19th century books on tartan. Pictures purportedly showing the Irish wearing tartan kilts have turned out to be mail quilts (protection) or the bottom of the Irish leine. The only actual Irish historical tartan dated to the 17th century was found in a peat bog in the 1950s in Ulster, the tartan cloth is thought to have been manufactured in Ireland but the actual trews they were made into in Scotland. Given the movement over the sea between the Gaelic cultures of Highlands of Scotland and Ireland historically hardly proof positive that it was Irish tartan.