history of Ireland

Ireland, lying to the west of Britain, has always been to some extent cut off by it from direct contact with other European countries, especially those from Sweden to the Rhine River. Readier access has been through France, Spain, and Portugal and even

…that gave the government of Ireland an official consultative role in the affairs of Northern Ireland. Considered one of the most significant developments in British-Irish relations since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the agreement provided for regular meetings between ministers in the Irish and British governments…

The ties to Britain and Ireland were scarcely affected by immigration from other sources until then. The complex demographic textures in Australia at the beginning of the 21st century contrasted quite sharply with the homogeneity of the country during the first half of the 20th century. Although some nine-tenths of…

When Irish republican agitation intensified after World War I, giving rise to the Irish War of Independence, a large proportion of the Irish police resigned. They were replaced by these temporary English recruits—mostly jobless former soldiers—who were paid 10 shillings a day.

…from the organization, as did Ireland (1949), South Africa (1961), and Pakistan (1972), though both South Africa and Pakistan eventually rejoined (the former in 1994 and the latter in 1989).

…the Union of South Africa, Eire, and Newfoundland. Although there was no formal definition of dominion status, a pronouncement by the Imperial Conference of 1926 described Great Britain and the dominions as “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any…

New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, and Newfoundland.

…in the remote land of Ireland, introduced there initially by the patron saints of Ireland—Patrick, Bridget, and Columba—who established schools at Armagh, Kildare, and Iona. They were followed by a number of other native scholars, who also founded colleges—the most famous and greatest university being the one at Clonmacnois, on…

…1998, and ratified in both Ireland and Northern Ireland by popular vote on May 22 that called for devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Ireland like a bomb. Investigations uncovered widespread sexual and physical abuse of children in Irish schools, orphanages, and reformatories run by religious orders. Stories emerged of the thousands of girls and women who had been enslaved in the country’s Magdalene laundries throughout the 20th century.…

>Ireland in 1845–49 when the potato crop failed in successive years. The crop failures were caused by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant. The causative agent of late blight is the

…Ireland, and the reunification of Ireland.

…2008, but a referendum in Ireland—the only country that put the Lisbon agreement to a public vote—rejected it on June 12, 2008, thus jeopardizing the entire treaty. More than a year later, on October 2, 2009, Ireland held a second referendum, which passed. Poland’s government also had expressed reservations, but…

…5th century the conversion of Ireland, the first Christianized territory that had never been part of the Roman Empire, brought the particularly Irish ascetic practice of self-exile to bear on missionary work. In the 6th century the Irish monk Columba (c. 521–597) exiled himself to the island of Iona, from…

…Cork became a center of Irish nationalist resistance to British military and police repression, and parts of the city were burned by British forces in retaliation for an ambush on a convoy carrying members of the elite Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Two of the city’s lord…

In Britain and Ireland, forest clearance as early as 4700 bce may represent the beginnings of agriculture, but there is little evidence for settlements or monuments before 4000 bce, and hunting-and-gathering economies survived in places. The construction of large communal tombs and defended enclosures from 4000 bce may…

Irish Protestant and political society, named for the Protestant William of Orange, who, as King William III of Great Britain, had defeated the Roman Catholic king James II.

Hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants went to Scotland in the 19th century, beginning prior to but increasing in number during the Irish Potato Famine of 1845–49. In some country regions there was a population decrease as people moved to the towns, to England, or overseas. Part of the…

Scandinavian invasions of Ireland are recorded from 795, when Rechru, an island not identified, was ravaged. Thenceforth fighting was incessant, and, although the natives often more than held their own, Scandinavian kingdoms arose at Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford. The kings of Dublin for a time felt strong enough…

…conversion of the peoples of Ireland, Wales, and England to Christianity, the recording of their regal traditions began. It was natural for the first chroniclers, who were mostly monks, to write down the oral pedigrees of the kings in whose realms they lived. Students of the Irish regal pedigrees are…