Encyclopedia
Ireland is the
third largest island in
Europe. It lies in between the
Atlantic Ocean and
Irish Sea. Politically it is divided into the
Republic of Ireland , a state which covers five-sixths of the island , and
Northern Ireland, part of the
United Kingdom, which covers the northeastern sixth of the island. The name 'Ireland' derives from the name Ériu with the addition of the
Germanic word 'land'.
The
population of the island is just under 6 million people ; just over 4.2 million in the Republic of Ireland .
Politics
Politically, Ireland is divided into:
- The Republic of Ireland, with its capital Dublin. Ireland and "Éire" are the official names of the state - in English and Irish respectively - while the "Republic of Ireland" is its official description. It is colloquially called "the South" or "the Republic" by many residents of Northern Ireland, and sometimes "Southern Ireland" which had been, for a short time, intended as the official name of the state.
- Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, is unofficially known as "The North" , "the Six Counties," by nationalists, and "Ulster," by unionists .
Prior to the
Government of Ireland Act 1920 and Partition Ireland had been a unified political entity within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which came into being in 1801 as a result of the
Act of Union. From 1541, the
Kingdom of Ireland was established by the
King of England, though this realm did not cover the whole island till the early 17th century. Up to then, Ireland had been politically divided into a number of different Irish kingdoms . Before the advent of the Normans the different kingdoms were augmented by a High Kingship. The extent of power or influence of the High Kings throughout the entire country varied from reign to reign.
In a number of respects the island operates officially as a single entity, for example, in most kinds of sports. The major religious bodies, the
Catholic Church, the
Church of Ireland and the
Presbyterian Church in Ireland, are organized on an all-island basis. 88% of the population of the Republic of Ireland and about 44% of Northern Ireland are Catholic. Some
trade unions are also organised on an all-Irish basis and associated with the
Irish Congress of Trades Unions in Dublin, while others in Northern Ireland are affiliated with the
Trades Union Congress in the United Kingdom — though such unions may organise in both parts of the island as well as in Britain. The island also has a shared culture in many other ways. Traditional
Irish music, for example, though showing some variance in all geographical areas, is, broadly speaking, the same on both sides of the border. Irish and
Scottish traditional music have many similarities.
The island is sometimes referred to as being part of the
British Isles. However, notwithstanding the level of acceptance of the term within Northern Ireland, exception is taken by many Irish people to the extension of this nomenclature to include Ireland, as it infers an identity at odds with historical, cultural and political reality. For this reason, "Britain and Ireland" is sometimes used as a more neutral way of alluding to the archipelago of which the two islands are the essential constituents. Another suggestion, although much less frequently used, is the Islands of the North Atlantic .
Geography
A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central
plains. The highest peak is Carrauntuohill , which is 1,041 m . The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent but soft rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". The island's area is 84,412 km² .
Ireland is divided into four
provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. In Irish these are referred to as
cúigí . Previously there were five provinces - Connacht, Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Meath, comprising the counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford. These were further divided into
32 counties for administrative purposes. Six of the Ulster counties remain under
British sovereignty as
Northern Ireland following Ireland's partition in 1922 ; since the
UK's 1974 reshuffle these county boundaries no longer exist in Northern Ireland for administrative purposes, although
Fermanagh District Council is almost identical to the county. In the Republic, the county boundaries are still adhered to for local government, albeit with Tipperary and
Dublin subdivided . For election constituencies, some counties are merged or divided, but constitutionally the boundaries have to be observed. Across Ireland, the 32 counties are still used in sports and in some other cultural areas and retain a strong sense of local identity.
Ireland's least arable land lies in the south-western and western counties. These areas are largely spectacularly mountainous and rocky, with beautiful green vistas.
Geologically, the island consists of a number of provinces - in the far west around Galway and Donegal is a medium to high grade metamorphic and igneous complex of Caledonide affinity. Across SE Ulster and extending SW to Longford and S to Navan is a province of Ordovician and Silurian rocks with more affinities with the
Southern Uplands province of Scotland. Further south, there is an area along the Wexford coast of granite intrusives into more Ordovician and Silurian rocks with a more Welsh affinity.
In the SW, around
Bantry Bay and the mountains of
Macgillicuddy's Reeks, is an area of substantially deformed but only lightly
metamorphosed Devonian-aged rocks with a more Cornish affinity.
This partial ring of "hard rock" geology is covered by a blanket of Carboniferous limestones over the centre of the country, giving rise to the comparatively fertile and famously "lush" landscape of the country. The west coast district of the Burren around Lisdoonvarna has well developed
karst features. Elsewhere, significant stratiform lead-zinc mineralisation is found in the limestones
.
Hydrocarbon exploration is continuing. The first major find was the
Kinsale Head gas field off
Cork/
Cobh by
Marathon Oil in the mid-1970s. More recently, in 1999, Enterprise Oil announced the discovery of the Corrib gas field has increased activity off the west coast in parallel with the "
West of Shetland" step-out development form the
North Sea hydrocarbon province. Exploration continues, with a frontier well planned north of Donegal for August 2006 and continuing drilling of prospects in the Irish Sea and St Georges Channel.
Climate
Overall, Ireland has a mild, but changeable, climate all year. The island is not noted for its extremes. The warmest recorded air temperature was 33.3°C at
Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny on 26 June 1887. The coldest air temperature was -19.1°C at Markree Castle, County Sligo on 16 January 1881 . Precipitation falls throughout the year, but is light overall, particularly in the east of the country. The west of the country, however, tends to be wetter on average and prone to the full force of Atlantic storms, more especially in the late autumn and winter months, which occasionally bring destructive winds and high rainfall totals to these areas, as well as snow and hail. The regions of North Galway and East Mayo have the highest incidents of recorded lightning annually
Average temperatures in the island vary from -4°C to 11°C in January, and 9°C to 23°C in July.
Flora and fauna
Ireland has fewer animal and plant species than either Britain or mainland
Europe because it became an island very soon after the end of the last
Ice Age, about 8,000 years ago. Nevertheless, it is home to hundreds of plant species, some of them unique to the island. Many different habitat types are found in Ireland, including farmland, open woodland, temperate forests, conifer plantations, peat bogs, and various coastal habitats.
Fauna
Only 31 mammal species are native to Ireland, again because it was isolated from Europe by rising sea levels after the Ice Age. Some species, such as the
Red Fox,
Hedgehog,
Stoat, and
Badger are very common, whereas others, like the
Irish hare,
Red Deer and
Pine Marten are less common and generally seen only in certain national parks and nature reserves around the island. Some introduced species have become thoroughly naturalised, e.g.
rabbits and the
Brown Rat. See List of Irish Mammals.
About 400 bird species have been recorded in Ireland, many of which are migratory, either arctic birds who come in the winter, or birds such as the
Swallow which come from
Africa in the summer to breed. Ireland has a very rich marine avifauna, with many large
seabird colonies dotted around its coastline such as those on the Saltee Islands and
Skellig Michael. Also of note are
Golden Eagles, only recently reintroduced after decades of extinction.
There are no snakes and only one reptile native to Ireland, the
Common Lizard. There are three amphibians, the
Common Frog, the
Smooth Newt and the
Natterjack Toad. Certain marine turtle species appear regularly off the south west coast but do not come ashore.
Irish Wildlife Manuals is a series of contract reports relating to the conservation management of habitats and species in Ireland. The volumes are published on an irregular basis by Ireland's National Parks and Wildlife Service .
References
- Fairley, J.S. 1975. An Irish Beast Book. A Natural History of Ireland's Furred Wildlife. Blackstaff Press, Belfast.
Flora
- Knowles, M.C. 1929. The Lichens of Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Adademy. Vol. 38 :179 - 434.
- Seaward, M.R.D. 1984. Census Catalogue of Irish Lichens. Glasra 8: 1 - 32.
Flags of Ireland
The history of the
Irish Tricolour bearing the colours green for the Catholic majority, orange for William of Orange the Protestant King and white for the desired peace between them, goes back to the middle of the 19th century.
It 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 center 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."
Since its use in the
1916 Rising it became widely accepted as the national flag, being used officially by the
Irish Republic and the
Irish Free State .
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 as a state flag it does not apply to the entire island of Ireland.
Since Partition there is no universally agreed flag that represents 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
St. Patrick's cross, the flag sometimes used for the
Kingdom of Ireland and which represented Ireland on the
Union Flag after the Act of Union, a green flag with a harp , a blue flag with a harp used from the 18th century onwards by many nationalists , and the
Irish Tricolour. The state flag applying to
Northern Ireland is the Union Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
St Patrick's Saltire was formerly used to represent the island of Ireland by the all-island
Irish Rugby Football Union , before adoption of the four-provinces flag. The
Gaelic Athletic Association uses the Tricolour to represent the whole island.
Current Flags
History
Ireland was mostly ice-covered and joined by land to Britain and continental Europe during the last
ice age. It has been inhabited for about 9,000 years.
Stone age inhabitants arrived sometime after 8000 BC, with the culture progressing from Mesolithic to high
Neolithic over the course of three or four millennia. The
Bronze Age, which began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments and weapons. The
Iron Age in Ireland is associated with people now known as
Celts. They are traditionally thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of waves between the 8th and 1st centuries BC, with the Gael, the last wave of Celts, conquering the island and dividing it into five or more kingdoms. Many scholars, however, now favour a view that emphasises possible cultural diffusion from overseas over significant colonisation. The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia.
Ptolemy in AD 100 records Ireland's geography and tribes. Native accounts are confined to
Irish poetry, myth, and archaeology. The exact relationship between Rome and the tribes of Hibernia is unclear; the only references are a few Roman writings.
History maintains that in AD 432,
St. Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to
Christianity. The druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of the new faith. Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of
Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving Latin learning during the
Early Middle Ages. The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the
Book of Kells, ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. This era was interrupted in the 9th century by 200 years of intermittent warfare with waves of
Viking raiders who plundered monasteries and towns. Eventually they settled in Ireland and established many towns, including the modern day cities of
Dublin,
Cork,
Limerick and
Waterford.
In 1172, King
Henry II of England gained Irish lands by the granting of the 1155 Bull Laudibiliter to him by then English
Pope Adrian IV, and from the 13th century, English law began to be introduced. English rule was largely limited to the area around
Dublin, known as the Pale, and
Waterford, but this began to expand in the 16th century with the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th century, as a result of the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland and English and Scottish Protestant colonisation in the
Plantations of Ireland, which established English control over the whole island. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the
Irish Parliament. The new English Protestant ruling class was known as the
Protestant Ascendancy.
In 1800 the Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union which, in 1801, merged the
Kingdom of Ireland and the
Kingdom of Great Britain to create the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The whole island of Ireland became part of the United Kingdom, ruled directly by the
UK Parliament in
London. The 19th century saw the
Great Famine of the 1840's, during which one million Irish people died and over a million emigrated. Mass emigration became entrenched as a result of the famine and population continued to decline until late in the 20th century. The pre-famine peak was over 8 million recorded in the 1841 census. The population has never reached this level since then.
The 19th and early 20th century saw the rise of Irish Nationalism especially among the poorer Catholic population.
Daniel O'Connell led a successful non-violent campaign for
Catholic Emancipation. A subsequent campaign for Repeal of the Act of Union failed. Later in the century
Charles Stewart Parnell and others campaigned for self government within the Union or "Home Rule". This was also unsuccessful. These failures resulted in the eclipse of moderate nationalism by militant separatism. In 1921, following the
Easter Rising of 1916, and the subsequent
Anglo-Irish War, a treaty was concluded between the British Government and the leaders of the
Irish Republic. The Treaty recognised the two-state solution created in the
Government of Ireland Act 1920.
Northern Ireland was presumed to form a home rule state within the new
Irish Free State unless it opted out. Northern Ireland had a majority Protestant population which feared becoming a minority in a majority Catholic state. Not unexpectedly it opted out of the new state and chose instead to remain part of the United Kingdom. A Boundary Commission was set up to decide on the boundaries between the two Irish states, though it was subsequently abandoned after it recommended only minor adjustments to the border. Disagreements over some provisions of the treaty led to a split in the Nationalist movement and subsequently to the
Civil War. The civil war ended in 1923 with the defeat of the Anti-treaty forces.
History since partition
Irish Independence: The Irish Free State, Éire, Ireland
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was narrowly ratified by the Dáil in December 1921 but was rejected by a large minority, resulting in the
Irish Civil War which lasted until 1923. In 1922, in the middle of this civil war, the
Irish Free State came into being. For its first years the new state was governed by the victors of the Civil War. However in the 1930s Fianna Fáil, the party of the opponents of the treaty, were elected into government. The party introduced a new constitution in 1937 which renamed the state "
Éire or in the English language,
Ireland" '.
The state was neutral during
World War II which was known internally as
The Emergency, but offered some assistance to the Allies, especially in Northern Ireland. Indeed, more than 60,000 volunteers from the Republic fought in the British armed forces . In 1949 the state declared itself to be a republic and that henceforth it should be described as the
Republic of Ireland. The state was plagued by poverty and emigration until the mid-1970's. The 1990's saw the beginning of unprecedented economic success, in a phenomenon known as the "
Celtic Tiger". By the early 2000's, it had become one of the richest countries in the
European Union, moving from being a net recipient of the
budget to becoming a net contributor during the next Budget round , and from a country of net emigration to one of net immigration.
Northern Ireland
From its creation in 1921 until 1972, Northern Ireland enjoyed limited self-government within the United Kingdom, with its own parliament and prime minister. However the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland each voted almost entirely along sectarian lines, meaning that the government of Northern Ireland was always controlled by the
Ulster Unionist Party. Consequently, Catholics could not participate in the government, which at times openly encouraged discrimination in housing and employment.
Northern Ireland was largely spared the strife of the Civil War in the south but there were sporadic episodes of intercommunal violence between Catholics and Protestants during the decades that followed partition. Although the
Irish Free State was neutral during
World War II, Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom was not and Belfast suffered a bombing raid from the German
Luftwaffe in 1941.
Nationalist grievances at unionist discrimination within the state eventually led to large
civil rights protests in 1960s, which the government suppressed heavy-handedly, most notably on "Bloody Sunday". It was during this period of civil unrest that the paramilitary
Provisional IRA, who favoured the creation of a
united Ireland, began its campaign against what it called the British occupation of the six counties. Other groups, legal and illegal on the unionist side, and illegal on the nationalist side, began to participate in the violence and the period known as the "
Troubles" began. Owing to the civil unrest the British government suspended home rule in 1972 and imposed direct rule.
In 1998, following a Provisional IRA ceasefire and multi-party talks, the Good Friday Agreement was concluded and ratified by referendum in both the north and south. This agreement attempts to restore self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power sharing between the two communities. Violence has greatly decreased since the signing of the accord. The power-sharing assembly has only operated for brief periods and is currently suspended.
In 2001 the police force in Northern Ireland, the
Royal Ulster Constabulary, was replaced by the
Police Service of Northern Ireland.
On 28 July 2005, the Provisional IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and on 25 September 2005 international weapons inspectors supervised what they currently regard as the full decommissioning of the Provisional IRA's weapons.
Sport
Gaelic football and
hurling are the most popular sports in Ireland. Along with
Camogie,
Ladies' Gaelic football,
handball and
rounders, they make up the national sports of Ireland, collectively known as
Gaelic Games. All Gaelic games are governed by the
Gaelic Athletic Association , with the exception of Ladies' Gaelic Football, which is governed by a separate organisation. The GAA is organised on an all-Ireland basis with all 32 counties competing; traditionally, counties first compete within their
province, in the provincial championships, and the winners then compete in the All-Ireland senior
hurling or
football championships. The headquarters of the GAA is located at the 82,300 capacity
Croke Park in north Dublin. All major GAA games are played here, including the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland championships. All GAA players, even at the highest level, are amateurs and receive no wages.
The Irish
rugby team includes players from north and south, and the
Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport on both sides of the border. Consequently in international rugby, the Ireland team represents the whole island. The same is true of
cricket,
golf,
tennis 
