View Leinster House and other buildings along the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Media Editor: Lee Goldstein

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Media Editor: Lauren Sims

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Media Editor: Lee Goldstein

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Overview of Dublin.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

So you're Irish! What does that mean?

Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

A discussion of English colonization of the vast estates in Munster, Ireland, that belonged to the 14th (or 15th) earl of Desmond, who died in 1583 while in rebellion against the English crown. Sir Walter Raleigh and the poet Edmund Spenser were among those who received some of the land.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

A brief overview of rural Ireland, its fields of heather and abandoned villages.