text:
History of Ireland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Part of a series on the
History of Ireland
Chronology[show]
Prehistory
Protohistory
400–800
800–1169
1169–1536
1536–1691
1691–1801
1801–1923
Timeline of Irish history
Peoples and polities[show]
Gaelic Ireland
Lordship of Ireland
Kingdom of Ireland
United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland
Irish Republic
Irish Free State
Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
Topics[show]
Conflicts
Clans
Kingdoms
States
Gaelic monarchs
British monarchs
Economic history
History of the Irish language
Ireland portal
v
t
e
Part of a series on the
History of the British Isles
Overview[show]
United Kingdom
England
Isle of Wight
Isles of Scilly
Scotland
Shetland
Orkney
Inner Hebrides
Outer Hebrides
Wales
Anglesey
Northern Ireland
Ireland
Isle of Man (Mann)
Channel Islands
Jersey
Guernsey
Prehistoric period[show]
Prehistoric Britain
Prehistoric England
Prehistoric Scotland
Prehistoric Shetland
Prehistoric Orkney
Prehistoric Wales
Prehistoric Ireland
Prehistoric Mann
Classical period[show]
Roman Britain
Roman Scotland
Roman Wales
Protohistoric Ireland, Roman Ireland
Sub-Roman Britain
Medieval period[show]
Medieval England
Early medieval England
High medieval England
Late medieval England
Medieval Scotland
Early medieval Scotland
High medieval Scotland
Late medieval Scotland
Medieval Wales
Early medieval Wales
High medieval Wales
Late medieval Wales
Medieval Ireland
Early medieval Ireland
High medieval Ireland
Late medieval Ireland
Medieval Mann
Early modern period[show]
Early modern Britain
Early modern England
Early modern Scotland
Early modern Wales
Early modern Ireland
Early modern Mann
Late modern period[show]
United Kingdom (since 1707)
Victorian period
Edwardian period
First World War
Interwar period
Second World War
Post-war period (political history)
Post-war period (social history)
Late modern Ireland
Late modern Mann
v
t
e
Prehistoric Ireland spans a period from the first known evidence of human presence dated to about 10,000 years ago until the emergence of "protohistoric" Gaelic Ireland at the time of Christianization in the 5th century. Christianity subsumed or replaced the earlier polytheism and other forms of Celtic paganism by the end of the 7th century.
The Norman invasion of the late 12th century marked the beginning of more than 800 years of direct English rule and, later, British involvement in Ireland. In 1177 Prince John Lackland was made Lord of Ireland by his father Henry II of England at the Council of Oxford.[1] The Crown did not attempt to assert full control of the island until the rebellion of the Earl of Kildare threatened English hegemony. Henry VIII proclaimed himself King of Ireland and also tried to introduce the English Reformation, which failed in Ireland. Attempts to either conquer or assimilate the Irish lordships into the Kingdom of Ireland provided the initial impetus for a series of Irish military campaigns between 1534 and 1603. This period was marked by a Crown policy of plantation, involving the arrival of thousands of English and Scottish Protestant settlers, and the consequent displacement of the pre-plantation Catholic landholders. As the military and political defeat of Gaelic Ireland became more pronounced in the early seventeenth century, sectarian conflict became a recurrent theme in Irish history.
The 1614 overthrow of the Catholic majority in the Irish Parliament was realised principally through the creation of numerous new boroughs which were dominated by the new settlers. By the end of the seventeenth century, recusants (adherents to the older religion were now termed), representing some 85% of Ireland's population, were then banned from the Irish Parliament. Protestant domination of Ireland was confirmed after two periods of war between Catholics and Protestants in 1641-52 and 1689-91. Political power thereafter rested entirely in the hands of a Protestant Ascendancy minority, while Catholics and members of dissenting Protestant denominations suffered severe political and economic privations under the Penal Laws. The Irish Parliament was abolished from 1 January 1801 in the wake of the republican United Irishmen Rebellion and Ireland became an integral part of a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the provisions of the Acts of Union 1800. Although promised a repeal of the Test Act, Catholics were not granted full rights until Catholic Emancipation was attained throughout the new UK in 1829. This was followed by the first Irish Reform Act 1832, a principal condition of which was the removal of the poorer Irish freeholders from the franchise.
The Irish Parliamentary Party strove from the 1880s to attain Home Rule through the parliamentary constitutional movement, eventually winning the Home Rule Act 1914, although this Act was suspended at the outbreak of World War I. The Easter Rising staged by republicans two years later brought physical force republicanism back to the forefront of Irish politics.
In 1922, after the Irish War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty, most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom to become the independent Irish Free State, which after the 1937 constitution, began to call itself Ireland. The six northeastern counties, known as Northern Ireland, remained within the United Kingdom. The Irish Civil War followed soon after the War of Independence. The history of Northern Ireland has since been dominated by sporadic sectarian conflict between (mainly Catholic) Irish nationalists and (mainly Protestant) unionists. This conflict erupted into the Troubles in the late 1960s, until peace was achieved with the Belfast Agreement thirty years later.
Contents
1 Prehistory (10,500 BC–400 AD)
1.1 Stone Age to Bronze Age
1.2 Iron Age
2 Early Christian Ireland (400–800)
3 Early medieval and Viking era (800–1166)
4 Norman Ireland (1168–1535)
4.1 Arrival of the Normans
4.2 Lordship of Ireland
4.3 Gaelic resurgence and Norman decline
5 Early modern Ireland (1536–1691)
5.1 Conquest and rebellion
5.2 Wars and penal laws
5.2.1 Slavery
6 Protestant ascendancy (1691–1801)
7 Union with Great Britain (1801–1912)
8 Home Rule, Easter Rising and War of Independence (1912–1922)
9 Free State and Republic (1922–present)
10 Northern Ireland (1921–present)
10.1 "A Protestant state" (1921–1972)
10.2 Direct rule (1972–1999)
10.3 Devolution and direct rule (1999–present)
11 Modern Ireland
12 Flags in Ireland
13 Historiography
13.1 Relations with Britain
13.2 Recent approaches
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
17 Further reading
17.1 Historiography
18 External links
Prehistory (10,500 BC–400 AD)[edit]
Main article: Prehistoric Ireland
Stone Age to Bronze Age[edit]
Ireland during the Ice Age
What is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from references in Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and archaeology. While some possible Paleolithic tools have been found, none of the finds are convincing of Paleolithic settlement in Ireland.[2] However a bear bone found in Alice and Gwendoline Cave, County Clare, in 1903 may push back dates for the earliest human settlement of Ireland to 10,500 BC. The bone shows clear signs of cut marks with stone tools, and has been radiocarbon dated to 12,500 years ago.[3]
The earliest confirmed inhabitants of Ireland were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, who arrived some time around 7900 BC.[4] While some authors take the view that a land bridge connecting Ireland to Great Britain still existed at that time,[5] more recent studies indicate that Ireland was separated from Britain by c. 14,000 BC, when the climate was still cold and local ice caps persisted in parts of the country.[6] The people remained hunter-gatherers until about 4000 BC. It is argued this is when the first signs of agriculture started to show, leading to the establishment of a Neolithic culture, characterised by the appearance of pottery, polished stone tools, rectangular wooden houses, megalithic tombs, and domesticated sheep and cattle.[7] Some of these tombs, as at Knowth and Dowth, are huge stone monuments and many of them, such as the Passage Tombs of Newgrange, are astronomically aligned. Four main types of Irish Megalithic Tombs have been identified: dolmens, court cairns, passage tombs and wedge-shaped gallery graves.[7] In Leinster and Munster, individual adult males were buried in small stone structures, called cists, under earthen mounds and were accompanied by distinctive decorated pottery. This culture apparently prospered, and the island became more densely populated. Near the end of the Neolithic new types of monuments developed, such as circular embanked enclosures and timber, stone and post and pit circles.
Newgrange, built c. 3200 BC, is an Irish passage tomb located at Brú na Bóinne.
The Bronze Age, which came to Ireland around 2000 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments, weapons and tools. There was a movement away from the construction of communal megalithic tombs to the burial of the dead in small stone cists or simple pits, which could be situated in cemeteries or in circular earth or stone built burial mounds known respectively as barrows and cairns. As the period progressed, inhumation burial gave way to cremation and by the Middle Bronze Age, remains were often placed beneath large burial urns.
Iron Age[edit]
Main article: Hibernia
The Iron Age in Ireland began about 600 BC. The period between the start of the Iron Age and the historic period (431 AD) saw the gradual infiltration of small groups of Celtic-speaking people into Ireland,[8][9] with items of the continental Celtic La Tene style being found in at least the northern part of the island by about 300 BC.[10][11] The result of a gradual blending of Celtic and indigenous cultures would result in the emergence of Gaelic culture by the fifth century.[8][12] It is also during the fifth century that the main over-kingdoms of In Tuisceart, Airgialla, Ulaid, Mide, Laigin, Mumhain, Cóiced Ol nEchmacht began to emerge (see Kingdoms of ancient Ireland). Within these kingdoms a rich culture flourished. The society of these kingdoms was dominated by an upper class consisting of aristocratic warriors and learned people, which possibly included Druids.
Linguists realised from the 17th century onwards that the language spoken by these people, the Goidelic languages, was a branch of the Celtic languages. This is usually explained as a result of invasions by Celts from the continent. However, other research has postulated that the culture developed gradually and continuously, and that the introduction of Celtic language and elements of Celtic culture may have been a result of cultural exchange with Celtic groups in southwest continental Europe from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.[13][14]
The hypothesis that the native Late Bronze Age inhabitants gradually absorbed Celtic influences has since been supported by some recent genetic research.[15][need quotation to verify]
The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. Ptolemy, in 100 AD, recorded Ireland's geography and tribes. Ireland was never a part of the Roman Empire, but Roman influence was often projected well beyond its borders. Tacitus writes that an exiled Irish prince was with Agricola in Roman Britain and would return to seize power in Ireland. Juvenal tells us that Roman "arms had been taken beyond the shores of Ireland". In recent years, some experts have hypothesized that Roman-sponsored Gaelic forces (or perhaps even Roman regulars) mounted some kind of invasion around 100 AD,[16] but the exact relationship between Rome and the dynasties and peoples of Hibernia remains unclear.
Irish confederations (the Scoti) attacked and some settled in Britain during the Great Conspiracy of 367. In particular, the Dál Riata settled in western Scotland and the Western Isles.
Early Christian Ireland (400–800)[edit]
Main article: History of Ireland (400–800)
Kevin's monastery att Glendalough, County Wicklow
The middle centuries of the first millennium AD marked great changes in Ireland. Politically, what appears to have been a prehistoric emphasis on tribal affiliation had been replaced by the 8th century by patrilineal dynasties ruling the island's kingdoms. Many formerly powerful kingdoms and peoples disappeared. Irish pirates struck all over the coast of western Britain in the same way that the Vikings would later attack Ireland. Some of these founded entirely new kingdoms in Pictland and, to a lesser degree, in parts of Cornwall, Wales, and Cumbria. The Attacotti of south Leinster may even have served in the Roman military in the mid-to-late 300s.[17]
Perhaps it was some of the latter returning home as rich mercenaries, merchants, or slaves stolen from Britain or Gaul, that first brought the Christian faith to Ireland. Some early sources claim that there were missionaries active in southern Ireland long before St. Patrick. Whatever the route, and there were probably many, this new faith was to have the most profound effect on the Irish.
Tradition maintains that in A.D. 432, St. Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. St Patrick's Confession, in Latin, written by him is the earliest Irish historical document. It gives some information about the Saint.[18] On the other hand, according to Prosper of Aquitaine, a contemporary chronicler, Palladius was sent to Ireland by the Pope in 431 as "first Bishop to the Irish believing in Christ", which demonstrates that there were already Christians living in Ireland. Palladius seems to have worked purely as Bishop to Irish Christians in the Leinster and Meath kingdoms, while Patrick – who may have arrived as late as 461 – worked first and foremost as a missionary to the pagan Irish, in the more remote kingdoms in Ulster and Connacht.
A page from the Book of Kells that opens the Gospel of John
Patrick is traditionally credited with preserving and codifying Irish laws and changing only those that conflicted with Christian practices. He is credited with introducing the Roman alphabet, which enabled Irish monks to preserve parts of the extensive oral literature. The historicity of these claims remains the subject of debate and there is no direct evidence linking Patrick with any of these accomplishments. The myth of Patrick, as scholars refer to it, was developed in the centuries after his death.[19]
Irish scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished shortly thereafter. Missionaries from Ireland to England and Continental Europe spread news of the flowering of learning, and scholars from other nations came to Irish monasteries. The excellence and isolation of these monasteries helped preserve Latin learning during the Early Middle Ages. The period of Insular art, mainly in the fields of illuminated manuscripts, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, the Ardagh Chalice, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. Insular style was to be a crucial ingredient in the formation of the Romanesque and Gothic styles throughout Western Europe. Sites dating to this period include clochans, ringforts and promontory forts.
Francis John Byrne describes the effect of the epidemics which occurred during this era:
The plagues of the 660s and the 680s had a traumatic effect on Irish society. The golden age of the saints was over, together with the generation of kings who could fire a saga-writer's imagination. The literary tradition looks back to the reign of the sons of Aed Slaine (Diarmait and Blathmac, who died in 665) as to the end of an era. Antiquaries, brehons, genealogists and hagiographers, felt the need to collect ancient traditions before they were totally forgotten. Many were in fact swallowed by oblivion; when we examine the writing of Tirechan we encounter obscure references to tribes which are quite unknown to the later genealogical tradition. The laws describe a ... society that was obsolescent, and the meaning and use of the word moccu[20] dies out with archaic Old Irish at the beginning of the new century.[21]
The first English involvement in Ireland took place in this period. Tullylease, Rath Melsigi and Maigh Eo na Saxain were founded by 670 for English students who wished to study or live in Ireland. In summer 684, an English expeditionary force sent by Northumbrian King Ecgfrith raided Brega.
Early medieval and Viking era (800–1166)[edit]
Main article: Early Medieval Ireland 800–1166
Brian Boru, Irish hero who fought the Vikings
The first recorded[citation needed] Viking raid in Irish history occurred in 795 AD when Vikings from Norway looted the island. Early Viking raids were generally fast-paced and small in scale. These early raids interrupted the golden age of Christian Irish culture and marked the beginning of two centuries of intermittent warfare, with waves of Viking raiders plundering monasteries and towns throughout Ireland. Most of those early raiders came from western Norway.[citation needed]
The Vikings were expert sailors, who travelled in longships, and by the early 840s, had begun to establish settlements along the Irish coasts and to spend the winter months there.[citation needed] The longships were technologically advanced,[citation needed] allowing them to travel faster through the narrow rivers. Vikings founded settlements in several places; most famously in Dublin. Most of the settlements were near the water, allowing the Vikings to trade using their longships. Written accounts[citation needed] from this time (early to mid 840s) show that the Vikings were moving further inland to attack (often using rivers) and then retreating to their coastal headquarters.
Map showing the Viking settlements in Ireland
In 852, the Vikings landed in Dublin Bay and established a fortress. Dublin became the centre for trade of many goods, especially slaves.[citation needed] Bringing back new ideas and motivations, they began settling more permanently. In the tenth century an earthen bank was constructed around the city with a second larger bank built outside that in the eleventh century. On the interior of the town, an extensive series of defenses have been excavated at Fishamble Street, Dublin. The site featured nine waterfronts, including two possible flood banks and two positive defensive embankments during the Viking Age. The early embankments were non-defensive, being only one meter high, and it is uncertain how much of the site they encircled. After several generations a group of mixed Irish and Norse ethnic background arose, the Gall-Gaels, '(Gall being the Old Irish word for foreign).
The second wave of Vikings made stations at winter-bases called longphorts to serve as control centres to exert a more localized force on the island through raiding.[citation needed] The third wave in 917 established towns as not only control centres, but also as centres of trade to enter into Irish economy and greater Western Europe.[citation needed] Returning to Dublin, they set up a market town. Over the next century a great period of economic growth would spread across the pastoral country. The Vikings introduced the concept of international trade to the Irish,[citation needed][dubious – discuss] as well as popularized a silver economy with local trade and the first minting of coins in 997.[citation needed]
In 902 Máel Finnia mac Flannacain of Brega and Cerball mac Muirecáin of Leinster joined forces against Dublin, and "The heathens were driven from Ireland, i.e. from the fortress of Áth Cliath [Dublin]".[note 1] They were allowed by the Saxons to settle in Wirral, England, but would however later return to retake Dublin.[22]
The Vikings never achieved total domination of Ireland, often fighting for and against various Irish kings. The Battle of Clontarf in 1014 began the decline of Viking power in Ireland but the towns which Vikings had founded continued to flourish, and trade became an important part of the Irish economy.

Norman Ireland (1168–1535)[edit]
Main article: Norman Ireland
Arrival of the Normans[edit]
Main article: Norman invasion of Ireland
A tower house near Quin, County Clare. The Normans consolidated their presence in Ireland by building hundreds of castles and towers such as this.
By the 12th century, Ireland was divided politically into a shifting hierarchy of petty kingdoms and over-kingdoms. Power was exercised by the heads of a few regional dynasties vying against each other for supremacy over the whole island. One of these men, King Diarmait Mac Murchada of Leinster was forcibly exiled by the new High King, Ruaidri mac Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair of the Western kingdom of Connacht. Fleeing to Aquitaine, Diarmait obtained permission from Henry II to recruit Norman knights to regain his kingdom. The first Norman knight landed in Ireland in 1167, followed by the main forces of Normans, Welsh and Flemings. Several counties were restored to the control of Diarmait, who named his son-in-law, the Norman Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, heir to his kingdom. This troubled King Henry, who feared the establishment of a rival Norman state in Ireland. Accordingly, he resolved to establish his authority.
With the authority of the papal bull Laudabiliter from Adrian IV, Henry landed with a large fleet at Waterford in 1171, becoming the first King of England to set foot on Irish soil. Henry awarded his Irish territories to his younger son John with the title Dominus Hiberniae ("Lord of Ireland"). When John unexpectedly succeeded his brother as King John of England, the "Lordship of Ireland" fell directly under the English Crown.
Ireland in 1014: a patchwork of rival kingdoms
The extent of Norman control of Ireland in 1300
Lordship of Ireland[edit]
Main article: Lordship of Ireland
The Normans initially controlled the entire east coast, from Waterford to eastern Ulster, and penetrated a considerable distance inland as well. The counties were ruled by many smaller kings. The first Lord of Ireland was King John, who visited Ireland in 1185 and 1210 and helped consolidate the Norman-controlled areas, while ensuring that the many Irish kings swore fealty to him.
Throughout the thirteenth century the policy of the English Kings was to weaken the power of the Norman Lords in Ireland. For example, King John encouraged Hugh de Lacy to destabilise and then overthrow the Lord of Ulster, before naming him as the first Earl of Ulster. The Hiberno-Norman community suffered from a series of invasions that ceased the spread of their settlement and power. Politics and events in Gaelic Ireland served to draw the settlers deeper into the orbit of the Irish.
Gaelic resurgence and Norman decline[edit]
Irish soldiers, 1521 – by Albrecht Dürer.
By 1261 the weakening of the Normans had become manifest when Fineen MacCarthy defeated a Norman army at the Battle of Callann. The war continued between the different lords and earls for about 100 years, causing much destruction, especially around Dublin. In this chaotic situation, local Irish lords won back large amounts of land that their families had lost since the conquest and held them after the war was over.
The Black Death arrived in Ireland in 1348. Because most of the English and Norman inhabitants of Ireland lived in towns and villages, the plague hit them far harder than it did the native Irish, who lived in more dispersed rural settlements. After it had passed, Gaelic Irish language and customs came to dominate the country again. The English-controlled territory shrank to a fortified area around Dublin (the Pale), whose rulers had little real authority outside (beyond the Pale).
By the end of the 15th century, central English authority in Ireland had almost disappeared. England's attentions were diverted by the Wars of the Roses. The Lordship of Ireland lay in the hands of the powerful Fitzgerald Earl of Kildare, who dominated the country by means of military force and alliances with Irish lords and clans. Around the country, local Gaelic and Gaelicised lords expanded their powers at the expense of the English government in Dublin but the power of the Dublin government was seriously curtailed by the introduction of Poynings' Law in 1494. According to this act the Irish Parliament was essentially put under the control of the Westminster Parliament.
Early modern Ireland (1536–1691)[edit]
Main article: Ireland 1536–1691
Conquest and rebellion[edit]
Main articles: Tudor conquest of Ireland and Kingdom of Ireland
From 1536, Henry VIII decided to conquer Ireland and bring it under crown control. The Fitzgerald dynasty of Kildare, who had become the effective rulers of Ireland in the 15th century, had become unreliable allies of the Tudor monarchs. They had invited Burgundian troops into Dublin to crown the Yorkist pretender, Lambert Simnel as King of England in 1487. Again in 1536, Silken Thomas Fitzgerald went into open rebellion against the crown. Having put down this rebellion, Henry resolved to bring Ireland under English government control so the island would not become a base for future rebellions or foreign invasions of England. In 1541, he upgraded Ireland from a lordship to a full Kingdom. Henry was proclaimed King of Ireland at a meeting of the Irish Parliament that year. This was the first meeting of the Irish Parliament to be attended by the Gaelic Irish chieftains as well as the Hiberno-Norman aristocracy. With the institutions of government in place, the next step was to extend the control of the English Kingdom of Ireland over all of its claimed territory. This took nearly a century, with various English administrations either negotiating or fighting with the independent Irish and Old English lords. The Spanish Armada in Ireland suffered heavy losses during an extraordinary season of storms in the autumn of 1588. Among the survivors was Captain Francisco de Cuellar, who gave a remarkable account of his experiences on the run in Ireland.[23]
The re-conquest was completed during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, after several brutal conflicts. (See the Desmond Rebellions, 1569–73 and 1579–83, and the Nine Years War, 1594–1603, for details.) After this point, the English authorities in Dublin established real control over Ireland for the first time, bringing a centralised government to the entire island, and successfully disarmed the native lordships. However, the English were not successful in converting the Catholic Irish to the Protestant religion and the brutal methods used by crown authority (including resorting to martial law) to bring the country under English control, heightened resentment of English rule.
From the mid-16th to the early 17th century, crown governments carried out a policy of land confiscation and colonisation known as Plantations. Scottish and English Protestant colonists were sent to the provinces of Munster, Ulster and the counties of Laois and Offaly. These Protestant settlers replaced the Irish Catholic landowners who were removed from their lands. These settlers formed the ruling class of future British appointed administrations in Ireland. Several Penal Laws, aimed at Catholics, Baptists and Presbyterians, were introduced to encourage conversion to the established (Anglican) Church of Ireland.
Wars and penal laws[edit]
After an unusually bitter Irish Catholic rebellion and civil war, Oliver Cromwell, on behalf of the English Commonwealth, re-conquered Ireland by invasion which lasted from 1649 to 1651. Under Cromwell's government, landownership in Ireland was transferred overwhelmingly to Puritan soldiery and commercial undertakers to pay for the war.
The 17th century was perhaps the bloodiest in Ireland's history. Two periods of war (1641–53 and 1689–91) caused huge loss of life. The ultimate dispossession of most of the Irish Catholic landowning class was engineered, and recusants were subordinated under the Penal Laws.
During the 17th century, Ireland was convulsed by eleven years of warfare, beginning with the Rebellion of 1641, when Irish Catholics rebelled against the domination of English and Protestant settlers. The Catholic gentry briefly ruled the country as Confederate Ireland (1642–1649) against the background of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms until Oliver Cromwell reconquered Ireland in 1649–1653 on behalf of the English Commonwealth. Cromwell's conquest was the most brutal phase of the war. By its close, up to more than a half of Ireland's pre-war population was killed or exiled as slaves, where many died due to harsh conditions. As retribution for the rebellion of 1641, the better-quality remaining lands owned by Irish Catholics were confiscated and given to British settlers. Several hundred remaining native landowners were transplanted to Connacht.
Portrait of James II of England by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
Forty years later, Irish Catholics, known as "Jacobites", fought for James from 1688 to 1691, but failed to restore James to the throne of Ireland, England and Scotland.
Ireland became the main battleground after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when the Catholic James II left London and the English Parliament replaced him with William of Orange. The wealthier Irish Catholics backed James to try to reverse the Penal Laws and land confiscations, whereas Protestants supported William and Mary in this "Glorious Revolution" to preserve their property in the country. James and William fought for the Kingdom of Ireland in the Williamite War, most famously at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, where James's outnumbered forces were defeated.
Slavery[edit]
From the 15th to the 18th century, Irish, English, Scots and Welsh prisoners were transported for forced labor in the Caribbean to work off their term of punishment. Even larger numbers came voluntarily as indentured servants. In the 18th century they were sent to the American colonies, and in the early 19th century to Australia.[24][25] The Irish were dehumanised by the English, described as "savages," so making their displacement appear all the more justified. In 1654 the British parliament gave Oliver Cromwell a free hand to banish Irish "undesirables". Cromwell rounded up Catholics throughout the Irish countryside and placed them on ships bound for the Caribbean, mainly the island of Barbados. By 1655, 12,000 political prisoners had been forcibly shipped to Barbados and into indentured servitude.[26]
Protestant ascendancy (1691–1801)[edit]
Main article: Ireland 1691–1801
See also: Protestant Ascendancy
The majority of the people of Ireland were Catholic peasants; they were very poor and largely inert politically during the eighteenth century, as many of their leaders converted to Protestantism to avoid severe economic and political penalties. Nevertheless, there was a growing Catholic cultural awakening underway.[27] There were two Protestant groups. The Presbyterians in Ulster in the North lived in much better economic conditions, but had virtually no political power. Power was held by a small group of Anglo-Irish families, who were loyal to the Anglican Church of Ireland. They owned the great bulk of the farmland, where the work was done by the Catholic peasants. Many of these families lived in England and were absentee landlords, whose loyalty was basically to England. The Anglo-Irish who lived in Ireland became increasingly identified as Irish nationalists, and were resentful of the English control of their island. Their spokesmen, such as Jonathan Swift and Edmund Burke, sought more local control.[28]
Jacobite resistance in Ireland was finally ended after the Battle of Aughrim in July 1691. The Penal Laws that had been relaxed somewhat after the Restoration were reinforced more thoroughly after this war, as the infant Anglo-Irish Ascendency wanted to ensure that the Irish Roman Catholics would not be in a position to repeat their rebellions. Power was held by the 5% who were Protestants belonging to the Church of Ireland. They controlled all major sectors of the Irish economy, the bulk of the farmland, the legal system, local government and held strong majorities in both houses of the Irish Parliament. They strongly distrusted the Presbyterians in Ulster, and were convinced that the Catholics should have minimal rights. They did not have full political control because the government in London had superior authority and treated Ireland like a backward colony. When the American colonies revolted in the 1770s, the Ascendency wrested multiple concessions to strengthen its power. They did not seek independence because they knew they were heavily outnumbered and ultimately depended upon the British Army to guarantee their security.[29]
Subsequent Irish antagonism toward England was aggravated by the economic situation of Ireland in the 18th century. Some absentee landlords managed their estates inefficiently, and food tended to be produced for export rather than for domestic consumption. Two very cold winters near the end of the Little Ice Age led directly to a famine between 1740 and 1741, which killed about 400,000 people and caused over 150,000 Irish to leave the island. In addition, Irish exports were reduced by the Navigation Acts from the 1660s, which placed tariffs on Irish products entering England, but exempted English goods from tariffs on entering Ireland. Despite this most of the 18th century was relatively peaceful in comparison with the preceding two centuries, and the population doubled to over four million.
By the 18th century, the Anglo-Irish ruling class had come to see Ireland, not England, as their native country.[30] A Parliamentary faction led by Henry Grattan agitated for a more favourable trading relationship with Great Britain and for greater legislative independence for the Irish Parliament. However, reform in Ireland stalled over the more radical proposals toward enfranchising Irish Catholics. This was partially enabled in 1793, but Catholics could not yet become members of the Irish Parliament, or become government officials. Some were attracted to the more militant example of the French Revolution of 1789.
Presbyterians and Dissenters too faced persecution on a lesser scale, and in 1791 a group of dissident Protestant individuals, all of whom but two were Presbyterians, held the first meeting of what would become the Society of the United Irishmen. Originally they sought to reform the Irish Parliament which was controlled by those belonging to the state church; seek Catholic Emancipation; and help remove religion from politics. When their ideals seemed unattainable they became more determined to use force to overthrow British rule and found a non-sectarian republic. Their activity culminated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which was bloodily suppressed.
Ireland was a separate kingdom ruled by King George III of Britain; he set policy for Ireland through his appointment of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or viceroy. In practice, the viceroys lived in England and the affairs in the island were largely controlled by an elite group of Irish Protestants known as "undertakers." The system changed in 1767, with the appointment of An English politician who became a very strong Viceroy. George Townshend served 1767-72 and was in residence in The Castle in Dublin. Townsend had the strong support of both the King and the British cabinet in London, and all major decisions were basically made in London. The Ascendancy complained, and obtained a series of new laws in the 1780s that made the Irish Parliament effective and independent of the British Parliament, although still under the supervision of the king and his Privy Council.[31]
Largely in response to the 1798 rebellion, Irish self-government was ended altogether by the provisions of the Acts of Union 1800 (which abolished the Irish Parliament of that era).[32]
Union with Great Britain (1801–1912)[edit]
Main article: Ireland 1801–1922
Daniel O'Connell
In 1800, following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Irish and the British parliaments enacted the Acts of Union. The merger created a new political entity called United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801. Part of the agreement forming the basis of union was that the Test Act would be repealed to remove any remaining discrimination against Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists and other dissenter religions in the newly United Kingdom. However, King George III, invoking the provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701 controversially and adamantly blocked attempts by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. Pitt resigned in protest, but his successor Henry Addington and his new cabinet failed to legislate to repeal or change the Test Act.
In 1823 an enterprising Catholic lawyer, Daniel O'Connell, known in Ireland as 'The Liberator' began an ultimately successful Irish campaign to achieve emancipation, and to be seated in the Parliament. This culminated in O'Connell's successful election in the Clare by-election, which revived the parliamentary efforts at reform. The Catholic Relief Act 1829 was eventually approved by the UK parliament under the leadership of the Dublin-born Prime Minister, the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. This indefatigable Anglo-Irish statesman, a former Chief Secretary for Ireland, and hero of the Napoleonic Wars, successfully guided the legislation through both houses of Parliament. By threatening to resign, he persuaded King George IV to sign the bill into law in 1829. The continuing obligation of Roman Catholics to fund the established Church of Ireland, however, led to the sporadic skirmishes of the Tithe War of 1831–38. The Church was disestablished by the Gladstone government in 1867. The continuing enactment of parliamentary reform during the ensuing administrations further extended the initially limited franchise. Daniel O'Connell M.P. later led the Repeal Association in an unsuccessful campaign to undo the Act of Union 1800.[33]
The second of Ireland's "Great Famines", An Gorta Mór struck the country during 1845–49, with potato blight, exacerbated by the political factors of the time[34] leading to mass starvation and emigration. (See Great Irish Famine) The impact of emigration in Ireland was severe; the population dropped from over 8 million before the Famine to 4.4 million in 1911. Gaelic or Irish, once the island's spoken language, declined in use sharply in the nineteenth century as a result of the Famine and the creation of the National School education system, as well as hostility to the language from leading Irish politicians of the time; it was largely replaced by English.
Outside mainstream nationalism, a series of violent rebellions by Irish republicans took place in 1803, under Robert Emmet; in 1848 a rebellion by the Young Irelanders, most prominent among them, Thomas Francis Meagher; and in 1867, another insurrection by the Irish Republican Brotherhood. All failed, but physical force nationalism remained an undercurrent in the nineteenth century.
Irish family evicted at Moyasta, County Clare during Land War, c.1879
A central issue throughout the 19th and early 20th century was land ownership. A small group of about 10,000 English families owned practically all the farmland; Most were permanent residents of England, and seldom presented the land. They rented it out to Irish tenant farmers. Falling behind in rent payments meant eviction, and very bad feelings – often violence.[35] The late 19th century witnessed major land reform, spearheaded by the Land League under Michael Davitt demanding what became known as the 3 Fs; Fair rent, free sale, fixity of tenure. Parliament passed laws in 1870, 1881, 1903 and 1909 that enabled most tenant farmers to purchase their lands, and lowered the rents of the others.[36] From 1870 and as a result of the Land War agitations and subsequent Plan of Campaign of the 1880s, various British governments introduced a series of Irish Land Acts. William O'Brien played a leading role in the 1902 Land Conference to pave the way for the most advanced social legislation in Ireland since the Union, the Wyndham Land Purchase Act of 1903. This Act set the conditions for the break-up of large estates and gradually devolved to rural landholders, and tenants' ownership of the lands. It effectively ended the era of the absentee landlord, finally resolving the Irish Land Question.
In the 1870s the issue of Irish self-government again became a major focus of debate under Charles Stewart Parnell, founder of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Prime Minister Gladstone made two unsuccessful attempts to pass Home Rule in 1886 and 1893. Parnell's leadership ended when he was implicated in a divorce scandal that gained international publicity in 1890. He had been secretly living for years with Katherine O'Shea, the long-separated wife of a fellow Irish MP. Disaster came quickly: Gladstone and the Liberal Party refused to cooperate with him; his party split; the Irish Catholic bishops led the successful effort to crush his minority faction at by-elections. Parnell fought for control to the end, but his body was collapsing and he died in 1891 at age 45.
After the introduction of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 which broke the power of the landlord-dominated "Grand Juries", passing for the first time democratic control of local affairs into the hands of the people through elected Local County Councils, the debate over full Home Rule led to tensions between Irish nationalists and Irish unionists (those who favoured maintenance of the Union). Most of the island was predominantly nationalist, Catholic and agrarian. The northeast, however, was predominantly unionist, Protestant and industrialised. Unionists feared a loss of political power and economic wealth in a predominantly rural, nationalist, Catholic home-rule state. Nationalists believed they would remain economically and politically second-class citizens without self-government. Out of this division, two opposing sectarian movements evolved, the Protestant Orange Order and the Catholic Ancient Order of Hibernians.
Home Rule, Easter Rising and War of Independence (1912–1922)[edit]
Main article: Irish revolutionary period
Home Rule became certain when in 1910 the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) under John Redmond held the balance of power in Commons and the third Home Rule Bill was introduced in 1912. Unionist resistance was immediate with the formation of the Ulster Volunteers. In turn the Irish Volunteers were established to oppose them and enforce the introduction of self-government.
The Easter Proclamation, issued by Leaders of the Easter Rising
In September 1914, just as the First World War broke out, the UK Parliament passed the Third Home Rule Act to establish self-government for Ireland, but was suspended for the duration of the war. To ensure implementation of Home Rule after the war, nationalist leaders and the IPP under Redmond supported with Ireland's participation in the British and Allied war effort under the Triple Entente against the expansion of Central Powers. The core of the Irish Volunteers were against this decision, but the majority left to form the National Volunteers who enlisted in Irish regiments of the New British Army, the 10th and 16th (Irish) Divisions, their Northern counterparts in the 36th (Ulster) Division. Before the war ended, Britain made two concerted efforts to implement Home Rule, one in May 1916 and again with the Irish Convention during 1917–1918, but the Irish sides (Nationalist, Unionist) were unable to agree to terms for the temporary or permanent exclusion of Ulster from its provisions.
The period 1916–1921 was marked by political violence and upheaval, ending in the partition of Ireland and independence for 26 of its 32 counties. A failed militant attempt was made to gain separate independence for Ireland with the 1916 Easter Rising, an insurrection in Dublin. Though support for the insurgents was small, the violence used in its suppression led to a swing in support of the rebels. In addition, the unprecedented threat of Irishmen being conscripted to the British Army in 1918 (for service on the Western Front as a result of the German Spring Offensive) accelerated this change. (See: Conscription Crisis of 1918). In the December 1918 elections Sinn Féin, the party of the rebels, won three-quarters of all seats in Ireland, twenty-seven MPs of which assembled in Dublin on 21 January 1919 to form a 32-county Irish Republic Parliament, the first Dáil Éireann unilaterally declaring sovereignty over the entire island.
Irish parliaments
House of Lords of the Kingdom of Ireland (abolished 1800)
House of Commons of the Kingdom of Ireland (abolished 1800)
Leinster House, home of the Ireland's parliament since 1922.
Parliament Buildings (Stormont). Previously home of Parliament. Now used by the Assembly.
Unwilling to negotiate any understanding with Britain short of complete independence, the Irish Republican Army, the army of the newly declared Irish Republic, waged a guerilla war (the Irish War of Independence) from 1919 to 1921. In the course of the fighting and amid much acrimony, the Fourth Government of Ireland Act 1920 implemented Home Rule while separating the island into what the British government's Act termed "Northern Ireland" and "Southern Ireland". In July 1921 the Irish and British governments agreed to a truce that halted the war. In December 1921 representatives of both governments signed an Anglo-Irish Treaty. The Irish delegation was led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. This abolished the Irish Republic and created the Irish Free State, a self-governing Dominion of the Commonwealth of Nations in the manner of Canada and Australia. Under the Treaty, Northern Ireland could opt out of the Free State and stay within the United Kingdom: it promptly did so. In 1922 both parliaments ratified the Treaty, formalising independence for the 26-county Irish Free State (which renamed itself Ireland in 1937, and declared itself a republic in 1949); while the 6-county Northern Ireland, gaining Home Rule for itself, remained part of the United Kingdom. For most of the next 75 years, each territory was strongly aligned to either Catholic or Protestant ideologies, although this was more marked in the six counties of Northern Ireland.
Free State and Republic (1922–present)[edit]
Main articles: History of the Republic of Ireland, Irish Free State, Republic of Ireland, and Names of the Irish state
Political map of Ireland
The treaty to sever the Union divided the republican movement into anti-Treaty (who wanted to fight on until an Irish Republic was achieved) and pro-Treaty supporters (who accepted the Free State as a first step towards full independence and unity). Between 1922 and 1923 both sides fought the bloody Irish Civil War. The new Irish Free State government defeated the anti-Treaty remnant of the Irish Republican Army, imposing multiple executions. This division among nationalists still colours Irish politics today, specifically between the two leading Irish political parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
The new Irish Free State (1922–37) existed against the backdrop of the growth of dictatorships in mainland Europe and a major world economic downturn in 1929. In contrast with many contemporary European states it remained a democracy. Testament to this came when the losing faction in the Irish civil war, Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil, was able to take power peacefully by winning the 1932 general election. Nevertheless, until the mid-1930s, considerable parts of Irish society saw the Free State through the prism of the civil war, as a repressive, British-imposed state. It was only the peaceful change of government in 1932 that signalled the final acceptance of the Free State on their part. In contrast to many other states in the period, the Free State remained financially solvent as a result of low government expenditure, despite the Economic War with Britain. However, unemployment and emigration were high. The population declined to a low of 2.7 million recorded in the 1961 census.
The Roman Catholic Church had a powerful influence over the Irish state for much of its history. The clergy's influence meant that the Irish state had very conservative social policies, forbidding, for example, divorce, contraception, abortion, pornography as well as encouraging the censoring and banning of many books and films. In addition the Church largely controlled the State's hospitals, schools and remained the largest provider of many other social services.
With the partition of Ireland in 1922, 92.6% of the Free State's population were Catholic while 7.4% were Protestant.[37] By the 1960s the Protestant population had fallen by half. Although emigration was high among all the population, due to a lack of economic opportunity, the rate of Protestant emigration was disproportionate in this period. Many Protestants left the country in the early 1920s, either because they felt unwelcome in a predominantly Catholic and nationalist state, because they were afraid due to the burning of Protestant homes (particularly of the old landed class) by republicans during the civil war, because they regarded themselves as British and did not wish to live in an independent Irish state, or because of the economic disruption caused by the recent violence. The Catholic Church had also issued a decree, known as Ne Temere, whereby the children of marriages between Catholics and Protestants had to be brought up as Catholics. From 1945, the emigration rate of Protestants fell and they became less likely to emigrate than Catholics.[citation needed]
President John F. Kennedy in motorcade in Cork on 27 June 1963
In 1937 a new Constitution re-established the state as Ireland (or Éire in Irish). The state remained neutral throughout World War II (see Irish neutrality), which saved it from much of the horrors of the war, although tens of thousands volunteered to serve in the British forces. Ireland was also impacted by food rationing, and coal shortages; peat production became a priority during this time. Though nominally neutral, recent studies have suggested a far greater level of involvement by the South with the Allies than was realised, with D Day's date set on the basis of secret weather information on Atlantic storms supplied by Ireland. For more detail on 1939–45, see main article The Emergency.
In 1949 the state was formally declared a republic and it left the British Commonwealth.
In the 1960s, Ireland underwent a major economic change under reforming Taoiseach (prime minister) Seán Lemass and Secretary of the Department of Finance T.K. Whitaker, who produced a series of economic plans. Free second-level education was introduced by Donogh O'Malley as Minister for Education in 1968. From the early 1960s, Ireland sought admission to the European Economic Community but, because 90% of exports were to the United Kingdom market, it did not do so until the UK did, in 1973.
Global economic problems in the 1970s, augmented by a set of misjudged economic policies followed by governments, including that of Taoiseach Jack Lynch, caused the Irish economy to stagnate. The Troubles in Northern Ireland discouraged foreign investment. Devaluation was enabled when the Irish Pound, or Punt, was established as a separate currency in 1979, breaking the link with the UK's sterling. However, economic reforms in the late 1980s, helped by investment from the European Community, led to the emergence of one of the world's highest economic growth rates, with mass immigration (particularly of people from Asia and Eastern Europe) as a feature of the late 1990s. This period came to be known as the Celtic Tiger and was focused on as a model for economic development in the former Eastern Bloc states, which entered the European Union in the early 2000s (decade). Property values had risen by a factor of between four and ten between 1993 and 2006, in part fuelling the boom.
Irish society adopted relatively liberal social policies during this period. Divorce was legalised, homosexuality decriminalised, and abortion in limited cases was allowed by the Irish Supreme Court in the X Case legal judgement. Major scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, both sexual and financial, coincided with a widespread decline in religious practice, with weekly attendance at Roman Catholic Mass dropping by half in twenty years. A series of tribunals set up from the 1990s have investigated alleged malpractices by politicians, the Catholic clergy, judges, hospitals and the Gardaí (police).
Ireland's new found prosperity ended abruptly in 2008 when the banking system collapsed due to the Irish property bubble bursting. Some 25-26% of GDP was needed to bail out failing Irish banks and force banking sector consolidation. This was the largest banking bailout for any country in history, in comparison only 7–8% of GDP was needed to bail out failing Finnish banks in its banking crisis in the 1990s. This resulted in a major financial and political crisis as Ireland entered a recession.[38] Emigration rose to 1989 levels as the unemployment rate rose from 4.2% in 2007 to reach 14.6% as of February 2012.[39]
However, since 2014, Ireland has seen strong economic growth, dubbed as the "Celtic Phoenix".
Northern Ireland (1921–present)[edit]
Main article: History of Northern Ireland
"A Protestant state" (1921–1972)[edit]
The 1920 Government of Ireland Bill created the state of Northern Ireland, which consisted of the six northeastern counties of Londonderry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Antrim, Down and Armagh.[40] From 1921 to 1972, Northern Ireland was governed by a Unionist government, based at Stormont in east Belfast. Unionist leader and first Prime Minister, James Craig, declared that it would be "a Protestant State for a Protestant People". Craig's goal was to form and preserve Protestant authority in the new state which was above all an effort to secure a unionist majority. In 1926 the majority of the population in the province were Presbyterian and Anglican therefore solidifying Craig's Protestant political power. The Ulster Unionist Party thereafter formed every government until 1972.[41] Discrimination against the minority nationalist community in jobs and housing, and their total exclusion from political power due to the majoritarian electoral system, led to the emergence of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the late 1960s, inspired by Martin Luther King's civil rights movement in the United States of America. The military forces of the Northern Protestants and Northern Catholics (IRA) turned to brutal acts of violence to establish power. As time went on it became clear that these two rival states would bring about a civil war. After the Second World War, keeping the cohesion within Stormont seemed impossible; increased economic pressures, solidified Catholic unity, and British involvement ultimately led to Stormont's collapse. As the civil rights movement of the United States gained worldwide acknowledgement, Catholics rallied together to achieve a similar socio-political recognition. This resulted in the formation of various organisations such as the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) in 1967 and the Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) in 1964.[42] Non-violent protest became an increasingly important factor in mobilising Catholic sympathies and opinion and thus more effective in generating support than actively violent groups such as the IRA. However, these non-violent protests posed a problem to Northern Ireland's prime minister Terrance O'Neil (1963) because it hampered his efforts to persuade Catholics in Northern Ireland that they too, like their Protestant counterparts, belong within the United Kingdom. Despite O'Neil's reforming efforts there was growing discontent amongst both Catholics and Unionists. In October 1968 a peaceful civil rights march in Derry turned violent as police brutally beat protesters. The outbreak was televised by international media, and as a result the march was highly publicised which further confirmed the socio-political turmoil in Ireland.[43] A violent counter-reaction from conservative unionists led to civil disorder, notably the Battle of the Bogside and the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969. To restore order, British troops were deployed to the streets of Northern Ireland at that time.
The violent outbreaks in the late 1960s encouraged and helped strengthen military groups such as the IRA, who posited themselves as the protectors of the working class Catholics who were vulnerable to police and civilian brutality. During the late sixties and early seventies recruitment into the IRA organisation dramatically increased as street and civilian violence worsened. The interjection from the British troops proved to be insufficient to quell the violence and thus solidified the IRA's growing military importance.[44] On 30 January 1972 the worst tensions came to a head with the events of Bloody Sunday. Paratroops opened fire on civil rights protesters in Derry, killing 13 unarmed civilians. Bloody Friday, Bloody Sunday, and other violent acts in the early 1970s came to be known as the Troubles. The Stormont parliament was prorogued in 1972 and abolished in 1973. Paramilitary private armies such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, resulted from a split within the IRA, the Official IRA and Irish National Liberation Army fought against the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Ulster Volunteer Force. Moreover, the British army and the (largely Protestant) Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) also took part in the chaos that resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 men, women and children, civilians and military. Most of the violence took place in Northern Ireland, but some also spread to England and across the Irish border.
Irish police forces
Defunct Irish police forces
Royal Irish Constabulary
(1822—1922)
Dublin Metropolitan Police
(1836—1925)
Irish Republican Police
(Irish Republic 1920—1922)
Royal Ulster Constabulary
(1922—2001)
Current Irish police forces
Northern Ireland
Belfast Harbour Police
(1847)
Larne Harbour Police
(1847)
Royal Military Police
(1946)
Belfast International Airport Constabulary
(1994)
Police Service of Northern Ireland
(2001)
Ministry of Defence Police
(2004)
Republic of Ireland
Garda Síochána
(1922)
Póilíní Airm
(1922)
Garda Síochána Reserve
(2006)

Direct rule (1972–1999)[edit]
For the next 27½ years, with the exception of five months in 1974, Northern Ireland was under "direct rule" with a Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the British Cabinet responsible for the departments of the Northern Ireland government. Direct Rule was designed to be a temporary solution until Northern Ireland was capable of governing itself again. Principal acts were passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the same way as for much of the rest of the UK, but many smaller measures were dealt with by Order in Council with minimal parliamentary scrutiny. Attempts were made to establish a power-sharing executive, representing both the nationalist and unionist communities, by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act of 1973 and the Sunningdale Agreement in December 1973. Both acts however did little to create cohesion between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Constitution Act of 1973 formalised the UK government's affirmation of reunification of Ireland by consent only; therefore ultimately delegating the authoritative power of the border question from Stormont to the people of Northern Ireland (and the Republic of Ireland). Conversely, the Sunningdale Agreement included a "provision of a Council of Ireland which held the right to execute executive and harmonizing functions". Most significantly, the Sunningdale Agreement brought together political leaders from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the UK to deliberate for the first time since 1925.[45] The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention and Jim Prior's 1982 assembly were also temporarily implemented; however all failed to either reach consensus or operate in the longer term.
During the 1970s British policy concentrated on defeating the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) by military means including the policy of Ulsterisation (requiring the RUC and British Army reserve Ulster Defence Regiment to be at the forefront of combating the IRA). Although IRA violence decreased it was obvious that no military victory was on hand in either the short or medium terms. Even Catholics who generally rejected the IRA were unwilling to offer support to a state that seemed to remain mired in sectarian discrimination, and the Unionists were not interested in Catholic participation in running the state in any case. In the 1980s the IRA attempted to secure a decisive military victory based on massive arms shipments from Libya. When this failed, senior republican figures began to look to broaden the struggle from purely military means. In time this began a move towards military cessation. In 1986 the Irish and British governments signed the Anglo Irish Agreement signalling a formal partnership in seeking a political solution. The Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) recognised the Irish government's right to be consulted and heard as well as guaranteed equality of treatment and recognition of the Irish and British identities of the two communities. The agreement also stated that the two governments must implement a cross-border co-operation.[46] Socially and economically Northern Ireland suffered the worst levels of unemployment in the UK and although high levels of public spending ensured a slow modernisation of public services and moves towards equality, progress was slow in the 1970s and 1980s. Only in the 1990s, when progress toward peace became tangible, did the economic situation brighten. By then the demographics of Northern Ireland had undergone significant change, and more than 40% of the population was Catholic.
Devolution and direct rule (1999–present)[edit]
More recently, the Belfast Agreement ("Good Friday Agreement") of 10 April 1998 brought – on 2 December 1999 – a degree of power sharing to Northern Ireland, giving both unionists and nationalists control of limited areas of government. However, both the power-sharing Executive and the elected Assembly were suspended between January and May 2000, and from October 2002 until April 2007, following breakdowns in trust between the political parties involving outstanding issues, including "decommissioning" of paramilitary weapons, policing reform and the removal of British army bases. In new elections in 2003, the moderate Ulster Unionist and (nationalist) Social Democrat and Labour parties lost their dominant positions to the more hard-line Democratic Unionist and (nationalist) Sinn Féin parties. On 28 July 2005, the Provisional IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and on 25 September 2005 international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the PIRA. Eventually, devolution was restored in April 2007.
Modern Ireland[edit]
Ireland's economy became more diverse and sophisticated than ever before by integrating itself into the global economy. In 1973, Ireland acceded to the European Economic Community [EEC], precursor to the European Community [EC] and European Union [EU], at the same time as the UK. By the beginning of the 1990s Ireland had transformed itself into a modern industrial economy and generated substantial national income that benefited the entire nation. Although dependence on agriculture still remained high, Ireland's industrial economy produced sophisticated goods that rivalled international competition. Ireland's international economic boom of the 1990s led to its being called a Celtic Tiger.
The Catholic Church, which once exercised great power, found its influence on socio-political issues in Ireland much reduced. Irish bishops were no longer able to advise and influence the public on how to exercise their political rights. Modern Ireland's detachment of the Church from ordinary life can be explained by the increasing disinterest in Church doctrine by younger generations and the questionable morality of the Church's representatives. A highly publicised case was that of Eamonn Casey, the Bishop of Galway, who resigned abruptly in 1992 after it was revealed that he had had an affair with an American woman and had fathered a child. Further controversies and scandals arose concerning paedophile and child-abusing priests. As a result, many in the Irish public began to question the credibility and effectiveness of the Catholic Church.[47] In 2011 Ireland closed its embassy at the Vatican, an apparent result of this growing trend.[48]
Flags in Ireland[edit]
The Irish tricolour
The Union Flag (See also flag of Northern Ireland)
The national flag of Ireland is a tricolour of green, white and gold. This flag, which bears the colours green for Irish Catholics, orange for Irish Protestants, and white for the desired peace between them, dates to the mid-19th century.[49] The tricolour was first unfurled in public by Young Irelander Thomas Francis Meagher who, using the symbolism of the flag, explained his vision as follows: "The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the "Orange" and the "Green," and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood". Fellow nationalist John Mitchel said of it: "I hope to see that flag one day waving as our national banner."
After its use in the 1916 Rising it became widely accepted by nationalists as the national flag, and was used officially by the Irish Republic (1919–21) and the Irish Free State (1922–37).
In 1937 when the Constitution of Ireland was introduced, the tricolour was formally confirmed as the national flag: "The national flag is the tricolour of green, white and orange." While the tricolour today is the official flag of Ireland, it is not an official flag in Northern Ireland although it is sometimes used unofficially.
The only official flag representing Northern Ireland is the Union Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland however its use is controversial.[50] The Ulster Banner is sometimes used unofficially as a de facto regional flag for Northern Ireland.
Since Partition, there has been no universally-accepted flag to represent the entire island. As a provisional solution for certain sports fixtures, the Flag of the Four Provinces enjoys a certain amount of general acceptance and popularity.
Historically a number of flags have been used, including:
Saint Patrick's Flag (St Patrick's Saltire, St Patrick's Cross) which represented Ireland on the Union Flag after the Act of Union;
a green flag with a harp (used by most nationalists in the 19th century and which is also the flag of Leinster);
a blue flag with a harp used from the 18th century onwards by many nationalists (now the standard of the President of Ireland);
the Irish tricolour.
St Patrick's Saltire was formerly used to represent the island of Ireland by the all-island Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), before adoption of the four-provinces flag. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) uses the tricolour to represent the whole island.
Historiography[edit]
Further information: List of Irish historians
Ireland has a very large historiography, contributed by scholars in Ireland, North America, and Britain.[51] There has been both a standard interpretation and, since the late 1930s, a good deal of revisionism.[52] One of the most important themes has always been Irish nationalism—what Alfred Markey, calls:
the received nationalist tale replete with heroes, villains and a host of stock elements, has a long history and has exercised a particularly important influence on the development of Irish identity.[53]
Nationalism has led to numerous monographs and debates.[54][55]
A great deal of attention has focused on the Irish revolutionary period, 1912-23. Starting in 2012 a series of conferences on "Reflecting on a decade of War and Revolution in Ireland 1912-1923: Historians and Public History" brought together hundreds of academics, teachers, and the general public.[56]
Relations with Britain[edit]
Ireland in some ways was the first acquisition of the British Empire.[57] Marshall says historians continue to debate whether Ireland should be considered part of the British Empire.[58] Recent work by historians pays special attention to continuing Imperial aspects of Irish history,[59] Atlantic Ocean history,[60] and the role of migration in forming the Irish diaspora across the Empire and North America.[61][62][63]
Recent approaches[edit]
As historiography evolves, new approaches have been applied to the Irish situation. Studies of women, and gender relationships more generally, had been rare before 1990; they now are commonplace with over 3000 books and articles.[64] Postcolonialism is an approach in several academic disciplines that seeks to analyze, explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism. The emphasis is usually on the human consequences of controlling a country and establishing settlers for the economic exploitation of the native people and their land.[65][66][67]
See also[edit]
History of Belfast
History of Cork
History of Derry
History of Dublin
History of England
History of Europe
History of the European Union
History of Galway
History of Limerick
History of Northern Ireland
History of Kilkenny
History of Ireland (1801-1923)
History of the Republic of Ireland
History of Scotland
History of the United Kingdom
History of Wales
History of Waterford
History of rail transport in Ireland
History of Roman Catholicism in Ireland
Irish Historians
Irish genealogy
Miscellanea Historica Hibernica (book)
Timeline of Irish history
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ AU 902.2 Note that the untranslated text [1] reads: "Indarba n-gennti a h-Ere, .í. longport Atha Cliath o Mael Findia m. Flandacain co feraibh Bregh & o Cerball m. Muiricain co Laignibh...", that is "longport", not "fortress".
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Connolly, S.J., The Oxford Companion to Irish History, 2007, Oxford Univ. Press. p.423. ISBN 978-0-19-923483-7
Jump up ^ O'Kelly, Michael J.; O'Kelly, Claire (1989). Early Ireland: an introduction to Irish prehistory. Cambridge University Press. p. 5. ISBN 0-521-33687-2.
Jump up ^ "Earliest evidence of humans in Ireland". Bbc.co.uk. 21 March 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
Jump up ^ Driscoll, Killian. "The Mesolithic and Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Ireland". Retrieved 19 July 2017.
Jump up ^ O'Kelly, Michael J. (2005). "III. Ireland Before 3000 BC". A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and early Ireland. Clarendon Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-19-821737-4.
Jump up ^ Edwards, R.J., Brooks, A.J. (2008) The Island of Ireland: Drowning the Myth of an Irish Land-bridge? In: Davenport, J.J., Sleeman, D.P., Woodman, P.C. (eds.) Mind the Gap: Postglacial Colonisation of Ireland. Special Supplement to The Irish Naturalists' Journal. pp. 19ff.
^ Jump up to: a b Cooney, Gabriel (2000). Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415169776.
^ Jump up to: a b Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster, 2005, ISBN 0-85640-764-X
Jump up ^ David Ross, Ireland History of a Nation, ISBN 1-84205-164-4
Jump up ^ Wallace, Patrick F., O'Floinn, Raghnall eds. Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities, pp. 126–12, ISBN 0-7171-2829-6
Jump up ^ S.J. Connolly, Oxford Companion to Irish History, 2002, ISBN 978-0-19-923483-7
Jump up ^ Sean Duffy, A Concise History of Ireland, 2005, ISBN 0-7171-3810-0
Jump up ^ "Myths of British Ancestry". Prospect Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
Jump up ^ "DNA Research Links Scots, Irish And Welsh To North-western Spain". George Mason University History News Network. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
Jump up ^ "A Y Chromosne Census of the British Isles (pdf)" (PDF). Familytreedna.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 September 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
Jump up ^ "Yes, the Romans did invade Ireland". British Archaeology.
Jump up ^ *Philip Rance, 'Attacotti, Déisi and Magnus Maximus: the Case for Irish Federates in Late Roman Britain’, Britannia 32 (2001), pp. 243–270
Jump up ^ MacAmnaidh, S. 2013. Irish History. Parragon Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4723-2723-9
Jump up ^ Carmel McCaffrey, Leo Eaton "In Search of Ancient Ireland" Ivan R Dee (2002)PBS 2002
Jump up ^ Meaning "pertaining to the tribe of . .", or roughly equivalent to the later "Mc" or "Mac"
Jump up ^ "Tribes and Tribalism in Early Ireland", Ériu (journal) 22, 1971, p. 153
Jump up ^ "Chronicles the history of the world from the deluge". Annála Ríoghachta Éireann (The Annals of the Four Masters) ((Noah) to 1616.).
Jump up ^ 'The Wild Irish are Barbarous and Most Filthy in their Diet', bbc.co.uk
Jump up ^ Kristen Block and Jenny Shaw, "Subjects Without an Empire: The Irish in the Early Modern Caribbean," Past & Present (2011) 210#1 pp 33-60.
Jump up ^ Hilary McD. Beckles, "A 'riotous and unruly lot': Irish Indentured Servants and Freemen in the English West Indies, 1644-1713," William & Mary Quarterly (1990) 47#4 pp 503-545. in JSTOR
Jump up ^ Junius P Rodriguez, PhD (1997). The historical encyclopedia of world slavery. 1. A – K. ABC-CLIO. pp. 368–. ISBN 978-0-87436-885-7. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
Jump up ^ Ian McBride, Eighteenth-Century Ireland: The Isle of Slaves - The Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland (2009 ch 6-7
Jump up ^ R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (1988) pp 153-225
Jump up ^ Harry T. Dickinson, "Why did the American Revolution not spread to Ireland?." Valahian Journal of Historical Studies #18-19 (2012) pp: 155-180. abstract
Jump up ^ R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (1988) p 178
Jump up ^ R.F. Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1972 (1988) pp 226-40
Jump up ^ R. B. McDowell, Ireland in the age of imperialism and revolution, 1760–1801 (1979)
Jump up ^ Kee, Robert. The Green Flag. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972. pp. 187–243
Jump up ^ Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991, p. 19. ISBN 978-0-14-014515-1
Jump up ^ Michael J. Winstanley, Ireland and the Land Question 1800-1922 (1984) online
Jump up ^ Timothy W. Guinnane and Ronald I. Miller. "The Limits to Land Reform: The Land Acts in Ireland, 1870–1909*." Economic Development and Cultural Change 45#3 (1997): 591-612. online
Jump up ^ M.E.Collins, Ireland 1868–1966, (1993) p. 431)
Jump up ^ "Central Statistics Office Ireland Key short-term economic indicators:Gross Domestic Product (GDP)". Cso.ie. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
Jump up ^ CSO figures reveal unemployment levels Archived 8 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. - Inside Ireland, 7 March 2012
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia: "Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", p. 102. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia: "Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", pp. 102–104. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia: "Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", pp. 108–110. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia: "Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", pp. 110–114. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia: "Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", pp. 114–116. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia :"Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", pp. 116–118. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia :"Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", pp. 119–121. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ Paseta, Senia: "Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction", pp. 128–141. Oxford University Press, 2003
Jump up ^ "Closure of Vatican embassy has wide-ranging implications". The Irish Times. 18 February 2012.
Jump up ^ National Flag Department of the Taoiseach}
Jump up ^ Devenport, Mark (15 January 2018). "Flags and symbols". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
Jump up ^ For example Richard Bourke and Ian McBride, eds. (2016). The Princeton History of Modern Ireland. Princeton University Press. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link) ; and S. J. Connolly, ed., The Oxford Companion to Irish History (Oxford UP, 2000)
Jump up ^ Ciaran Brady, ed., Interpreting Irish history: the debate on historical revisionism, 1938-1994 (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1994)
Jump up ^ Alfred Markey, "Revisionisms and the Story of Ireland: From Sean O'Faolain to Roy Foster," Estudios Irlandeses - Journal of Irish Studies (2005): 91-101. online
Jump up ^ Steven G. Ellis, "Nationalist historiography and the English and Gaelic worlds in the late middle ages." Irish Historical Studies (1986): 1-18. online Archived 1 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ Brendan Bradshaw, "Nationalism and historical scholarship in modern Ireland." Irish Historical Studies (1989): 329-351. in JSTOR
Jump up ^ ""Reflecting on a Decade of War and Revolution in Ireland 1912 - 1923: The Road to War" (2014)". Creativecentenaries.org. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
Jump up ^ Kevin Kenny, ed., Ireland and the British Empire (2004)
Jump up ^ P.J. Marshall, The Cambridge illustrated history of the British Empire (2001) p 9.
Jump up ^ Stephen Howe, Ireland and empire: colonial legacies in Irish history and culture (2002).
Jump up ^ Nicholas P. Canny, Kingdom and Colony: Ireland in the Atlantic World, 1560-1800 (1988)
Jump up ^ Andrew Bielenberg, ed., The Irish Diaspora (2014)
Jump up ^ Barry Crosbie, "Networks of Empire: Linkage and Reciprocity in Nineteenth‐Century Irish and Indian History." History Compass 7#3 (2009): 993-1007.
Jump up ^ Joe Cleary, "Amongst Empires: A Short History of Ireland and Empire Studies in International Context," Eire-Ireland (2007) 42#1 pp 11-57.
Jump up ^ Catriona Kennedy, "Women and Gender in Modern Ireland," in Bourke and McBride, eds. The Princeton History of Modern Ireland (2016) pp: 361+
Jump up ^ Claire Connolly, "Postcolonial Ireland: Posing the Question." European Journal of English Studies 3#3 (1999): 255-261.
Jump up ^ Patricia King, ed., Ireland and postcolonial theory (2003)
Jump up ^ Ellekje Boehmer, Empire, the national and postcolonial, 1890-1920: Resistance in Interaction (2002)
Irish History, Séamus Mac Annaidh, Bath: Parragon, 1999, ISBN 0-7525-6139-1
Irish Kings and High Kings, Francis John Byrne, Dublin, 1973, ISBN 0-7134-1304-2
A New History of Ireland: I – PreHistoric and Early Ireland, ed. Daibhi O Croinin. 2005, ISBN 0-19-821737-4
A New History of Ireland: II- Medieval Ireland 1169–1534, ed. Art Cosgrove. 1987.
Braudel, Fernand, The Perspective of the World, vol III of Civilization and Capitalism (1979, in English 1985), ISBN 0-06-015317-2
Plumb, J.H., England in the 18th Century, 1973: "The Irish Empire"
Further reading[edit]
Richard Bourke and Ian McBride, eds. (2016). The Princeton History of Modern Ireland. Princeton University Press. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
Brendan Bradshaw, 'Nationalism and Historical Scholarship in Modern Ireland' in Irish Historical Studies, XXVI, Nov. 1989
S. J. Connolly (editor) The Oxford Companion to Irish History (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Tim Pat Coogan De Valera (Hutchinson, 1993)
John Crowley et al. eds. , Atlas of the Irish Revolution (2017). excerpt
Norman Davies The Isles: A History (Macmillan, 1999)
Patrick J. Duffy, The Nature of the Medieval Frontier in Ireland, in Studia Hibernica 23 & 23, 1982–83, pp. 21–38; Gaelic Ireland c.1250-c.1650:Land, Lordship & Settlement, 2001
Nancy Edwards, The archaeology of early medieval Ireland (London, Batsford 1990)
Ruth Dudley Edwards, Patrick Pearse and the Triumph of Failure,1974
Marianne Eliot, Wolfe Tone, 1989
R. F. Foster Modern Ireland, 1600–1972 (1988)
B.J. Graham, Anglo-Norman settlement in County Meath, RIA Proc. 1975; Medieval Irish Settlement, Historical Geography Research Series, No. 3, Norwich, 1980
J. J. Lee The Modernisation of Irish Society 1848–1918 (Gill and Macmillan)
J.F. Lydon, The problem of the frontier in medieval Ireland, in Topic 13, 1967; The Lordship of Ireland in the Middle Ages, 1972
F. S. L. Lyons Ireland Since the Famine1976
F. S. L. Lyons, Culture and Anarchy in Ireland,
Nicholas Mansergh, Ireland in the Age of Reform and Revolution 1940
Dorothy McCardle The Irish Republic
R. B. McDowell, Ireland in the age of imperialism and revolution, 1760–1801 (1979)
T. W. Moody and F. X. Martin "The Course of Irish History" Fourth Edition (Lanham, Maryland: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2001)
Seán Farrell Moran, Patrick Pearse and the Politics of Redemption, 1994
Austen Morgan, James Connolly: A Political Biography, 1988
James H. Murphy Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria (Cork University Press, 2001)
the 1921 Treaty debates online
John A. Murphy Ireland in the Twentieth Century (Gill and Macmillan)
Kenneth Nicholls, Gaelic and gaelicised Ireland, 1972
Frank Pakenham, (Lord Longford) Peace by Ordeal
Alan J. Ward The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government & Modern Ireland 1782–1992 (Irish Academic Press, 1994)
Robert Kee The Green Flag Volumes 1–3 (The Most Distressful Country, The Bold Fenian Men, Ourselves Alone)
Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton In Search of Ancient Ireland: the origins of the Irish from Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English (Ivan R Dee, 2002)
Carmel McCaffrey In Search of Ireland's Heroes: the Story of the Irish from the English Invasion to the Present Day (Ivan R Dee, 2006)
Paolo Gheda, I cristiani d'Irlanda e la guerra civile (1968–1998), prefazione di Luca Riccardi, Guerini e Associati, Milano 2006, 294 pp., ISBN 88-8335-794-9
Hugh F. Kearney Ireland: Contested Ideas of Nationalism and History (NYU Press, 2007)
Nicholas Canny "The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland"(London, 1976) ISBN 0-85527-034-9
Waddell, John (1998). "The prehistoric archaeology of Ireland". Galway: Galway University Press. hdl:10379/1357. Alex vittum
Brown, T. 2004, Ireland: a social and cultural history, 1922-2001, Rev. edn, Harper Perennial, London.
Historiography[edit]
Bourke, Richard. "Historiography" in Bourke and Ian McBride, eds. The Princeton History of Modern Ireland (Princeton University Press, 2016), ch 11.
Boyce, D. George and Alan O'Day, eds, The Making of Modern Irish History: Revisionism and the Revisionist Controversy, 1996
Brady, Ciaran, Interpreting Irish History:The Debate On Irish Revisionism, 1994
Elton, G.R. Modern Historians on British History 1485-1945: A Critical Bibliography 1945-1969 (1969), annotated guide to 1000 history books on every major topic, plus book reviews and major scholarly articles. online pp 206–16
Frawley, Oona. Memory Ireland: History and Modernity (2011)
Gibney, John. The Shadow of a Year: The 1641 Rebellion in Irish History and Memory (2013)
King, Jason. "The Genealogy of Famine Diary in Ireland and Quebec: Ireland's Famine Migration in Historical Fiction, Historiography, and Memory." Éire-Ireland 47#1 (2012): 45-69. online
Louis, Wm Roger and Robin Winks, eds. The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume V: Historiography (2001)
McBride, Ian, History and Memory in Modern Ireland (2001)
McCarthy, Mark, ed. Ireland's Heritages: Critical Perspectives On Memory and Identity (2005)
McCarthy, Mark, ed. Ireland's 1916 Rising: Explorations of History-making, Commemoration & Heritage in Modern Times (2012)
Noack, Christian, Lindsay Janssen, and Vincent Comerford. Holodomor and Gorta Mór: histories, memories and representations of famine in Ukraine and Ireland (Anthem Press, 2012).
Quinn, James. Young Ireland And the Writing of Irish History (2015)
External links[edit]
Irish History Timeline at Irish History Links
History of Ireland: Primary Documents
History of Ireland guide
Irish History Digitized
Ireland Under Coercion – "The diary of an American", by William Henry Hurlbert, published 1888, from Project Gutenberg
The Story of Ireland by Emily Lawless, 1896 (Project Gutenberg)
Timeline of Irish History 1840–1916 (1916 Rebellion Walking Tour)
A Concise History of Ireland by P. W. Joyce
Sources: A National Library of Ireland database for Irish research
The Ireland of Yesterday – slideshow by Life magazine
Irish history stories recalled on dvd, free web videos online
The Irish Story – Irish History website
Historic Maps of Ireland from the Library of Congress, 1665 – 1797. A UCD Digital Library Collection
show
v
t
e
Ireland topics
Republic of Ireland topics
Northern Ireland topics
hide
History
Timeline
Prehistory
Protohistory
Early history
Gaelic Ireland / Lordship of Ireland
800–1169
1169–1536
Kingdom of Ireland
1536–1691
1691–1801
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1801–1923
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
since 1922
Irish Free State (1922–1937)
Ireland (since 1922)
Events
Battles of Tara / Glenmama / Clontarf
Norman invasion
Bruce campaign
Black Death
Tudor conquest
Desmond Rebellions
Spanish Armada
Tyrone's Rebellion
Flight of the Earls
Plantation of Ulster
1641 Rebellion / Confederate War
Cromwellian conquest / Settlement of 1652
Williamite War
Penal Laws
First Great Famine
1798 Rebellion
Act of Union (1800)
1803 Rebellion
Tithe War
Second Great Famine
Land War
Fenian Rising
Dublin Lock-out
Home Rule crisis
Easter Rising
War of Independence
Anglo-Irish Treaty
Civil War
The Emergency
IRA Northern Campaign
IRA Border Campaign
The Troubles
Peace process
Economy of the Republic of Ireland
Celtic Tiger
Post-2008 Irish economic downturn
Post-2008 Irish banking crisis
Other topics
List of conflicts in Ireland
List of Irish tribes
List of Irish kingdoms
List of High Kings
Gaelic clothing and fashion
List of World Heritage Sites in the Republic of Ireland
show
Geography
Natural
Climate
Coastline
Extreme points
Fauna
Islands
Loughs
Mountains
Rivers
list
List of national parks of the Republic of Ireland / in Northern Ireland
Human
Architecture
Notable buildings
Tallest buildings and structures
Cities
Counties
Demographics of the Republic of Ireland / of Northern Ireland
Ports
Provinces
ROI–UK border
Towns
Tourist attractions
Transport
show
Politics
Ideologies
Nationalism
Republicanism
Ulster loyalism
Unionism
Republic of Ireland
Constitution
Economy
Education
Foreign relations
Government
local
Oireachtas parliament
Dáil Éireann (lower house)
Seanad Éireann (upper house)
President
Northern Ireland
Assembly
D'Hondt method
Economy
Education
Government
local
Peace process
show
Culture
Cuisine
Food
List of dishes
Barmbrack
Boxty
Champ
Coddle
Colcannon
Drisheen
Goody
Skirts and kidneys
Soda bread
Stew
Ulster fry
Drinks
Coffee
Cream
Guinness
Mist
Poitín
Whiskey
Dance
Jig
Sean-nós
Set dancing
Stepdance
Festivals
Imbolc
Saint Patrick's Day
Bealtaine
The Twelfth
Lúnasa
Rose of Tralee
Samhain / Halloween
Wren Day
Languages
Hiberno-English
Irish
Shelta
Ulster Scots
Literature
Annals
Fiction
Gaeilge
Poetry
Theatre
Triads
Music
Ballads
Céilí
Folk music
session
Instruments
Rock music
Traditional singing
Mythology
Cycles
Fenian
Mythological
Ulster
Aos Sí
Echtrai
Immrama
Tuatha Dé Danann
Legendary creatures
People
Anglo-Irish
Gaels
Gaelic Ireland
Hiberno-Normans
Irish diaspora
List of Irish people
Travellers
Ulster Scots
Sport
Association football
Camogie
Gaelic football
Gaelic handball
Hurling
Martial arts
Road bowling
Rounders
Rugby union
Symbols
Brighid's Cross
Cláirseach
County coats of arms
Flags
N. Ireland flags issue
Irish Wolfhound
National coat of arms
Red Hand
Shamrock
Other
Calendar
Homelessness
Names
Place names in Ireland / outside Ireland
Prostitution (Republic) / in Northern Ireland
Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland / in Northern Ireland
Public houses
Ireland portal
show
v
t
e
History of Europe by country
Sovereign states
Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Kazakhstan
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Vatican City
States with limited
recognition
Abkhazia
Artsakh
Kosovo
Northern Cyprus
South Ossetia
Transnistria
Dependencies and
other entities
Åland
Faroe Islands
Gibraltar
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Svalbard
Other entities
European Union
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Ireland&oldid=854119996"
Categories:
History of Ireland
Hidden categories:
Webarchive template wayback links
CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list
EngvarB from October 2013
Use dmy dates from October 2013
Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from October 2012
All articles with unsourced statements
Articles with unsourced statements from May 2018
All accuracy disputes
Articles with disputed statements from May 2018
Articles with unsourced statements from August 2013
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
العربية
Brezhoneg
Català
Čeština
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
Français
Gaeilge
한국어
Հայերեն
Hrvatski
Ido
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
Kiswahili
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
Македонски
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Shqip
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
中文
Lingua Franca Nova
32 more
Edit links
This page was last edited on 9 August 2018, at 02:44 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

attrs: class href

values: mw-jump-link #mw-head

values: mw-jump-link #p-search

value: p

value: b

values: margin: -0.2em 0; font-size:65%; font-weight:normal;

value: span

attrs: class style

values: background: none; font-size: 145%;padding: 0.15em 0.1em;line-height: 1.2em;

values: HIBERNIAE REGNUM tam in praecipuas ULTONIAE, CONNACIAE, LAGENIAE, et MOMONIAE, quam in minores earundem Provincias, et Ditiones subjacentes peraccuraté divisum

attrs: href class title

values: padding: 0.2em; border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc;

attrs: class id href

values: NavToggle NavToggle1 #

values: font-size: 105%; padding: 0.2em 0px 0.4em; text-align: center; display: none;

values: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

values:
/wiki/List_of_Celtic_tribes#Ireland
mw-redirect
List of Celtic tribes

attrs: alt src width height class srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values: padding:0.3em 0.4em 0.3em;font-weight:bold;border-top: 1px solid #aaa; border-bottom: 1px solid #aaa;

values: float:right;clear:right;width:22.0em;margin:0 0 1.0em 1.0em;background:#f9f9f9;border:1px solid #aaa;padding:0.2em;border-spacing:0.4em 0;text-align:center;line-height:1.4em;font-size:88%

values: font-size: 105%; padding: 0.2em 0px 0.4em; text-align: left; display: none;

values: History of the United Kingdom during the First World War

values: Political history of the United Kingdom (1945–present)

values: Social history of the United Kingdom (1945–present)

values: Template talk:History of the British Isles

values:
/wiki/Christianization_of_Ireland
mw-redirect
Christianization of Ireland

values:
/wiki/Celtic_paganism
mw-redirect
Celtic paganism

values:
/wiki/John_Lackland
mw-redirect
John Lackland

values:
/wiki/Lord_of_Ireland
mw-redirect
Lord of Ireland

values:
/wiki/Earl_of_Kildare
mw-redirect
Earl of Kildare

values:
/wiki/King_of_Ireland
mw-redirect
King of Ireland

values:
/wiki/Catholicism_in_Ireland
mw-redirect
Catholicism in Ireland

values:
/wiki/Catholic_Emancipation
mw-redirect
Catholic Emancipation

values:
/wiki/Irish_Home_Rule_Bill
mw-redirect
Irish Home Rule Bill

values:
/wiki/Home_Rule_Act_1914
mw-redirect
Home Rule Act 1914

values:
/wiki/Physical_force_republicanism
mw-redirect
Physical force republicanism

values:
/wiki/Irish_Nationalism
mw-redirect
Irish Nationalism

values:
/wiki/Belfast_Agreement
mw-redirect
Belfast Agreement

values: checkbox button toctogglecheckbox toctogglecheckbox display:none

values: Edit section: Prehistory (10,500 BC–400 AD)

values:
/wiki/Passage_Tombs
mw-redirect
Passage Tombs

values:
/wiki/Irish_Megalithic_Tombs
mw-redirect
Irish Megalithic Tombs

values:
/wiki/Passage_tomb
mw-redirect
Passage tomb

values:
/wiki/Wedge-shaped_gallery_grave
mw-redirect
Wedge-shaped gallery grave

values:
/wiki/La_Tene_style
mw-redirect
La Tene style

values: Quotation needed from source to verify. (October 2012)

values:
/wiki/Satires_of_Juvenal
mw-redirect
Satires of Juvenal

values:
/wiki/Western_Isles
mw-redirect
Western Isles

values: Edit section: Early Christian Ireland (400–800)

values:
/wiki/St._Patrick
mw-redirect
St. Patrick

values:
/wiki/Roman_alphabet
mw-redirect
Roman alphabet

values:
/wiki/Ardagh_Chalice
mw-redirect
Ardagh Chalice

values:
/wiki/Abbey_of_Rathmelsigi
mw-redirect
Abbey of Rathmelsigi

values: Edit section: Early medieval and Viking era (800–1166)

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (May 2018)

values:
noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact
white-space:nowrap;

values: The material near this tag is possibly inaccurate or nonfactual. (May 2018)

values: Máel Finnia mac Flannacain (page does not exist)

values: Edit section: Norman Ireland (1168–1535)

values:
/wiki/Norman_Ireland
mw-redirect
Norman Ireland

attrs: alt src width height class data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/King_of_England
mw-redirect
King of England

values:
/wiki/John_of_England
mw-redirect
John of England

values:
float:left; width:222px;
thumb tleft thumbinner

values: Edit section: Gaelic resurgence and Norman decline

values: Edit section: Early modern Ireland (1536–1691)

values:
/wiki/Ireland_1536%E2%80%931691
mw-redirect
Ireland 1536–1691

values:
/wiki/Silken_Thomas
mw-redirect
Silken Thomas

values:
/wiki/James_I_of_England
mw-redirect
James I of England

values:
/wiki/Nine_Years_War_(Ireland)
mw-redirect
Nine Years War (Ireland)

values:
/wiki/English_Commonwealth
mw-redirect
English Commonwealth

values:
/wiki/Cromwellian_Plantation
mw-redirect
Cromwellian Plantation

values:
/wiki/Sir_Godfrey_Kneller
mw-redirect
Sir Godfrey Kneller

values:
/wiki/Williamite_war_in_Ireland
mw-redirect
Williamite war in Ireland

values: Edit section: Protestant ascendancy (1691–1801)

values:
/wiki/Ireland_1691%E2%80%931801
mw-redirect
Ireland 1691–1801

values:
/wiki/Irish_Famine_(1740%E2%80%931741)
mw-redirect
Irish Famine (1740–1741)

values:
/wiki/Society_of_the_United_Irishmen
mw-redirect
Society of the United Irishmen

values: Edit section: Union with Great Britain (1801–1912)

values:
/wiki/Ireland_1801%E2%80%931922
mw-redirect
Ireland 1801–1922

values:
/wiki/Henry_Addington
mw-redirect
Henry Addington

values:
/wiki/Catholic_Relief_Act_1829
mw-redirect
Catholic Relief Act 1829

values: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

values:
/wiki/Act_of_Union_1800
mw-redirect
Act of Union 1800

values:
/wiki/Potato_blight
mw-redirect
Potato blight

values:
/wiki/Great_Irish_Famine
mw-redirect
Great Irish Famine

values:
/wiki/Young_Irelanders
mw-redirect
Young Irelanders

values:
/wiki/Irish_Home_Rule_Movement
mw-redirect
Irish Home Rule Movement

values:
/wiki/Katherine_Parnell
mw-redirect
Katherine Parnell

values:
/wiki/Irish_nationalist
mw-redirect
Irish nationalist

values:
/wiki/Unionists_(Ireland)
mw-redirect
Unionists (Ireland)

values:
/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church
mw-redirect
Roman Catholic Church

values: Edit section: Home Rule, Easter Rising and War of Independence (1912–1922)

values:
/wiki/British_House_of_Commons
mw-redirect
British House of Commons

values:
/wiki/First_World_War
mw-redirect
First World War

values:
/wiki/Irish_(UK)_general_election,_1918
mw-redirect
Irish (UK) general election, 1918

values:
/wiki/Member_of_Parliament
mw-redirect
Member of Parliament

values:
navbox-title
padding: 0 5px 0 5px; txt-align: center

values: margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border: 1px solid #8888aa; background: #f7f8ff; clear:right; float:right;

values:
/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_Act
mw-redirect
Republic of Ireland Act

values: Edit section: Free State and Republic (1922–present)

values:
/wiki/Great_depression
mw-redirect
Great depression

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (August 2013)

values:
/wiki/B%C3%B3rd_na_M%C3%B3na
mw-redirect
Bórd na Móna

values:
/wiki/T.K._Whitaker
mw-redirect
T.K. Whitaker

values:
/wiki/European_Community
mw-redirect
European Community

values: Public inquiries in the Republic of Ireland

values:
/wiki/Celtic_Phoenix
mw-redirect
Celtic Phoenix

values: Edit section: Northern Ireland (1921–present)

values: Edit section: "A Protestant state" (1921–1972)

values:
/wiki/Stormont,_Belfast
mw-redirect
Stormont, Belfast

values:
/wiki/Majoritarian_system
mw-redirect
Majoritarian system

values: Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association

values:
/wiki/Official_IRA
mw-redirect
Official IRA

values:
/wiki/Ulster_Volunteer_Force_(1966)
mw-redirect
Ulster Volunteer Force (1966)

values:
/wiki/British_army
mw-redirect
British army

values: padding: 0 5px 0 5px; background:#ccccff; text-align:center;

values:
/wiki/Larne_Harbour_Police
mw-redirect
Larne Harbour Police

values: Belfast International Airport Constabulary

values:
/wiki/P%C3%B3il%C3%ADn%C3%AD_Airm
mw-redirect
Póilíní Airm

values:
/wiki/Direct_rule_over_Northern_Ireland
mw-redirect
Direct rule over Northern Ireland

values:
/wiki/Anglo_Irish_Agreement
mw-redirect
Anglo Irish Agreement

values: Edit section: Devolution and direct rule (1999–present)

values:
/wiki/Social_Democrat_and_Labour_Party
mw-redirect
Social Democrat and Labour Party

values:
/wiki/Bishop_of_Galway
mw-redirect
Bishop of Galway

values:
/wiki/1916_Rising
mw-redirect
1916 Rising

values:
/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Flag
mw-redirect
Saint Patrick's Flag

values:
/wiki/Irish_tricolour
mw-redirect
Irish tricolour

values:
/wiki/History_of_Ireland_(1801-1923)
mw-redirect
History of Ireland (1801-1923)

values:
/wiki/Irish_Historians
mw-redirect
Irish Historians

values: -moz-column-width: 22em; -webkit-column-width: 22em; column-width: 22em;

values:
reflist mw-references-wrap
list-style-type: decimal;

values:
nofollow
external text
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/7406.html

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2937974

values: Category:CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30008692

values:
/wiki/T._W._Moody
mw-redirect
T. W. Moody

values:
/wiki/Frank_Pakenham
mw-redirect
Frank Pakenham

values:
nofollow
external text
//hdl.handle.net/10379%2F1357

values:
nofollow
http://www.irelandhistory.org/
external text

values:
nofollow
http://greathunger.org/
external text

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14510

values:
nofollow
external text
http://sources.nli.ie

values:
/wiki/Life_magazine
mw-redirect
Life magazine

values:
nofollow
http://www.theirishstory.com/
external text

values:
/wiki/Irish_Rebellion_of_1803
mw-redirect
Irish Rebellion of 1803

values:
/wiki/Dublin_Lock-out
mw-redirect
Dublin Lock-out

values: Northern Campaign (Irish Republican Army)

values:
/wiki/Gaelic_clothing_and_fashion
mw-redirect
Gaelic clothing and fashion

values: List of World Heritage Sites in the Republic of Ireland

values: nowraplinks collapsible uncollapsed navbox-subgroup mw-collapsible mw-made-collapsible

values: List of national parks of the Republic of Ireland

values: Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border

values: nowraplinks collapsible collapsed navbox-subgroup mw-collapsible mw-collapsed mw-made-collapsible

values: Foreign relations of the Republic of Ireland

values: Local government in the Republic of Ireland

values:
/wiki/Set_dancing
mw-redirect
Set dancing

values:
/wiki/Irish_fiction
mw-redirect
Irish fiction

values:
/wiki/Folk_music_of_Ireland
mw-redirect
Folk music of Ireland

values: Association football in the Republic of Ireland

values: List of Irish place names in other countries

values: Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland

values:
/wiki/Public_houses_in_Ireland
mw-redirect
Public houses in Ireland

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner mw-collapsible mw-made-collapsible mw-collapsed

values: Template talk:European history by country

values:
/wiki/History_of_the_Czech_Republic
mw-redirect
History of the Czech Republic

values:
/wiki/History_of_Vatican_City
mw-redirect
History of Vatican City

values:
/wiki/History_of_Northern_Cyprus
mw-redirect
History of Northern Cyprus

values:
/wiki/History_of_South_Ossetia
mw-redirect
History of South Ossetia

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner mw-collapsible mw-made-collapsible mw-collapsed

values: Category:Webarchive template wayback links

values: Category:Use dmy dates from October 2013

values: Category:Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from October 2012

values: Category:All articles with unsourced statements

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from May 2018

values: Category:Articles with disputed statements from May 2018

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from August 2013

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/History_of_Ireland
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values: تاريخ أيرلندا – Arabic

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-br
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ca
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cs
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-cy
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-da
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-eo
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-eu
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ga
display: none;

values: 아일랜드의 역사 – Korean

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ko
display: none;

values: Իռլանդիայի պատմություն – Armenian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hy
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hr
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-io
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-it
display: none;

values: היסטוריה של אירלנד – Hebrew

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-he
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sw
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-lv
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-lt
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-hu
display: none;

values: Историја на Ирска – Macedonian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-mk
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nl
display: none;

values: アイルランドの歴史 – Japanese

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-no
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-nn
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-pl
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-ro
display: none;

values: История острова Ирландия – Russian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sq
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sh
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-fi
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-sv
display: none;

values: ประวัติศาสตร์ไอร์แลนด์ – Thai

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-th
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-tr
display: none;

values: Історія Ірландії – Ukrainian

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-uk
display: none;

values:
interlanguage-link interwiki-lfn
display: none;

values: All languages (initial selection from common choices by you and others)

values:
suggestions
display: none; font-size: 13px;

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-History_of_Ireland rootpage-History_of_Ireland skin-vector action-view