Regions of
Ireland
Landscape and people are what bring most visitors to
Ireland - the Republic and the North. And once there, few
are disappointed by the reality of the stock Irish images:
the green, rain-hazed loughs and wild, bluff coastlines, the
inspired talent for talk and conversation, the easy pace and
rhythms of life. What is perhaps more of a surprise is how
much variety this very small land packs into its
countryside. The limestone terraces of the stark, eerie
Burren seem separated from the fertile farmlands of
Tipperary by hundreds rather than tens of miles, and the
primitive beauty of the west coast, with its cliffs, coves
and strands, seems to belong in another country altogether
from the rolling plains of the central cattle-rearing
counties.
It's a place to explore slowly, roaming through
agricultural landscapes scattered with farmhouses, or along
the endlessly indented coastline. Spectacular seascapes
unfold from rocky headlands, and the crash of the sea
against the cliffs and myriad islands is often the only
sound. It is perfect if you want space to walk, bike or
(with a bit of bravado) swim; if you want to fish, sail, or
spend a week on inland waterways. In town, too, the
pleasures are unhurried: evenings over a Guinness or two in
the snug of a pub, listening to the chat around a
blood-orange turf fire.
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History
An understanding of Ireland's history is essential in
order to make sense of its troubled present. We cannot
do more than provide a brief outline of that history, in
the hope that it will serve as a starting point for
further reading and discussion
Earliest inhabitantsDuring the last Ice Age, when most of the country was
covered by an icecap, low sea levels meant that Ireland
was attached to Britain, and Britain to the European
continent. As the climate warmed (from about 13,000 BC),
and the ice gradually retreated,...
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The CeltsThe Celts were an Indo-European group called Keltoi by
the Greeks and Galli by the Romans, who spread south
from central Europe into Italy and Spain and west
through France and Britain. By 500 BC, Celtic language
and culture were dominant in...
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The coming of ChristianityThe Christianisation of Ireland began as early as the
fourth century AD, well before the arrival of St Patrick
(whose existence is now the subject of some
controversy). Vestiges did survive of the previous
religion of the Celts, but after the...
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Invasion: Vikings and NormansFrom 795, Ireland was increasingly plagued by
destructive Viking raids , in which many of the great
monasteries were plundered and burned (though many more
were destroyed as a result of indigenous intertribal
warfare in the eighth and ninth...
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The Tudors and the StuartsThe continued isolation of Irish politics from English
and Continental influence during the fifteenth century,
and England's preoccupation with the Wars of the Roses,
helped Ireland's most powerful Anglo-Norman family - the
FitzGeralds of...
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The penal laws to the Act of
UnionIn 1641, 59 percent of the land in Ireland was owned by
Catholics. In 1688, the figure was 22 percent, and by
1703 it was fourteen percent. The Protestant population,
about one-tenth of the total, lived in fear of an
uprising by the vast majority of...
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Daniel O'ConnellThe quest for Catholic emancipation by peaceful
constitutional means was the life's work of Daniel
O'Connell (1775-1847), the lawyer who became known as
"The Liberator" and whom Gladstone called "the greatest
popular leader the...
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The famineThe failure of the Irish potato crop from 1845 to 1849
plunged the island into appalling famine . Elsewhere in
Europe, the blight was a resolvable problem but Irish
subsistence farmers were utterly dependent on the crop.
No disease affected...
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Parnell and the Home RuleThe second half of the nineteenth century was
characterized by a complex interplay of political and
economic factors which contributed towards the
exacerbation of religious differences. The most
important of these was the struggle for land and for
the...
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Rebellion and civil warThe British parliament eventually passed the Home Rule
Bill of 1912, and for a while the conditions appeared to
exist for Ireland to erupt into civil war. Before this
could happen, however, the outbreak of World War I
dramatically altered the...
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The Irish Free StateWith the death of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith
during the civil war, the leadership of the Irish Free
State fell to William T. Cosgrave, and finally in the
summer of 1923 the new government began to reconstruct
Ireland as an independent nation. A...
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The RepublicIt took the Republic (which finally came into being in
1949) twenty years to recover from the economic
stagnation brought on by the war. Vast numbers of
people, disproportionately drawn from among the young
and talented, moved across to fill Britain's...
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Northern Ireland from 1921On June 22, 1921, the new political entity of Northern
Ireland came into existence with the opening of the
Northern Irish Parliament in Belfast's City Hall. In
order to understand the present situation in the North
it is necessary to grasp the...
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