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Ireland - Wikipedia

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(Top)

1Etymology

2History

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2.1Prehistoric Ireland

2.1.1Emergence of Celtic Ireland

2.2Late antiquity and early medieval times

2.3Norman and English invasions

2.4Gaelicisation

2.5The Kingdom of Ireland

2.6Union with Great Britain

2.7Partition

2.7.1Independence

2.7.2Northern Ireland

3Politics

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3.1Republic of Ireland

3.2Northern Ireland

3.3All-island institutions

4Geography

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4.1Geology

4.2Climate

5Flora and fauna

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5.1Impact of agriculture

6Demographics

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6.1Divisions and settlements

6.2Migration

6.3Languages

7Culture

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7.1Arts

7.1.1Literature

7.1.2Music and dance

7.1.3Art

7.1.4Drama and theatre

7.2Science

7.3Sports

7.3.1Field sports

7.3.2Boxing

7.3.3Other sports

7.3.4Recreation

7.4Food and drink

8Economy

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8.1Regional economics

8.2Northern Ireland trade comparison

8.3Cost of living comparison

8.4Economic history

8.5Major industries

8.5.1Tourism

8.5.2Energy

9Explanatory notes

10Notes

11References

12Bibliography

13External links

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Ireland

142 languages

AfrikaansአማርኛअंगिकाÆngliscالعربيةAragonésܐܪܡܝܐAsturianuAvañe'ẽAzərbaycancaবাংলাBân-lâm-gúБашҡортсаБеларускаяБеларуская (тарашкевіца)БългарскиBosanskiBrezhonegCatalàCebuanoČeštinaChiTumbukaCymraegDanskالدارجةDeutschDolnoserbskiཇོང་ཁEestiΕλληνικάEspañolEsperantoEuskaraفارسیFøroysktFrançaisFryskGaeilgeGaelgGàidhligGalegoગુજરાતી客家語/Hak-kâ-ngî한국어HawaiʻiՀայերենहिन्दीHornjoserbsceHrvatskiIdoIlokanoBahasa IndonesiaInterlinguaÍslenskaItalianoעבריתJawaಕನ್ನಡქართულიҚазақшаKernowekKongoKurdîLadinLatinaLatviešuLëtzebuergeschLietuviųLigureLingua Franca NovaLombardMagyarМакедонскиമലയാളംMāoriमराठीمصرىمازِرونیBahasa Melayuꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯂꯣꯟNederlandsNedersaksies日本語NordfriiskNorsk bokmålNorsk nynorskNouormandOccitanOʻzbekcha / ўзбекчаਪੰਜਾਬੀपालिPälzischPangcahپنجابیPicardPiemontèisTok PisinPolskiPortuguêsRomânăRomani čhibRumantschRuna SimiРусскийSakizayaGagana Samoaसंस्कृतम्SarduScotsSeediqShqipසිංහලSimple EnglishسنڌيSlovenčinaSlovenščinaŚlůnskiکوردیСрпски / srpskiSrpskohrvatski / српскохрватскиSuomiSvenskaTagalogதமிழ்TaclḥitTaqbaylitతెలుగుไทยTürkçeУдмуртУкраїнськаاردوئۇيغۇرچە / UyghurcheVènetoTiếng ViệtWest-VlamsWinaray吴语ייִדיש粵語中文ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ ⵜⴰⵏⴰⵡⴰⵢⵜ

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Coordinates: 53°26′58″N 07°30′11″W / 53.44944°N 7.50306°W / 53.44944; -7.50306

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Island in the North Atlantic Ocean

This article is about the island. For the sovereign state, see Republic of Ireland. For the part of the United Kingdom, see Northern Ireland. For other uses, see Ireland (disambiguation).

IrelandÉire (Irish)Airlann  (Ulster Scots)Satellite image, October 2010Location of Ireland (dark green)in Europe (dark grey)GeographyLocationNorthwestern EuropeCoordinates53°26′58″N 07°30′11″W / 53.44944°N 7.50306°W / 53.44944; -7.50306Adjacent toAtlantic OceanArea84,421 km2 (32,595 sq mi)[1]Area rank20th[2]Coastline7,527 km (4677.1 mi)[3][4]Highest elevation1,041 m (3415 ft)Highest pointCarrauntoohilAdministrationRepublic of IrelandLargest cityDublin, pop. 1,458,154 Metropolitan Area (2022)[5]United KingdomCountryNorthern IrelandLargest cityBelfast, pop. 671,559 Metropolitan Area (2011)[6]DemographicsDemonymIrishPopulation7,185,600 (2023 estimate)[a][7]Population rank19thPop. density82.2/km2 (212.9/sq mi)Languages

English

Irish

ISL

Ulster Scots

NISL

Shelta

Ethnic groups90.0% White2.8% Asian1.2% Black0.3% Arab1.2% other (inc. Mixed)4.5% not stated[8][9]Additional informationTime zoneGreenwich Mean Time (UTC) • Summer (DST)

Irish Standard Time

British Summer Time

(UTC+1)Patron saints

Saint Patrick

Saint Brigid

Saint Colmcille

^ Including surrounding islands.

Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ ⓘ YRE-lənd; Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ⓘ; Ulster-Scots: Airlann [ˈɑːrlən]) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world.[10]

Geopolitically, the island of Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), an independent state covering five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. As of 2022, the population of the entire island is just over 7 million, with 5.1 million living in the Republic of Ireland and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain.[11]

The geography of Ireland comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. Its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate which is free of extremes in temperature. Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%,[12] with most of it being non-native conifer plantations.[13][14] The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate,[15] and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant.

Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD. The island was Christianised from the 5th century onwards. Following the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th century. With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, leading to the creation of the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In 1973, both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, with Northern Ireland as part of it, joined the European Economic Community. Following a referendum vote in 2016, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland included, left the European Union (EU) in 2020. Northern Ireland was granted a limited special status and allowed to operate within the EU single market for goods without being in the European Union;[16] the economy has subsequently grown faster than the rest of the UK.[17]

Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the field of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, a strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music, Irish language, and Irish dance. The island's culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing, golf, and boxing.

Etymology

The names Ireland and Éire derive from Old Irish Ériu, a goddess in Irish mythology first recorded in the ninth century. The etymology of Ériu is disputed but may derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *h2uer, referring to flowing water.[18]

History

Main article: History of Ireland

Prehistoric Ireland

Main article: Prehistoric Ireland

During the last glacial period, and until about 16,000 BC, much of Ireland was periodically covered in ice.[19] The relative sea level was less than 50m lower resulting in an ice bridge (but not a land bridge) forming between Ireland and Great Britain.[20] By 14,000 BC this ice bridge existed only between Northern Ireland and Scotland and by 12,000 BC Ireland was completely separated from Great Britain.[21] Later, around 6100 BC, Great Britain became separated from continental Europe.[22] Until recently, the earliest evidence of human activity in Ireland was dated at 12,500 years ago, demonstrated by a butchered bear bone found in a cave in County Clare.[23] Since 2021, the earliest evidence of human activity in Ireland is dated to 33,000 years ago.[24]

By about 8000 BC, more sustained occupation of the island has been shown, with evidence for Mesolithic communities around the island.[25]

Some time before 4000 BC, Neolithic settlers introduced cereal cultivars, domesticated animals such as cattle and sheep, built large timber buildings, and stone monuments.[26][19] The earliest evidence for farming in Ireland or Great Britain is from Ferriter's Cove, County Kerry, where a flint knife, cattle bones and a sheep's tooth were carbon-dated to c. 4350 BC.[27] Field systems were developed in different parts of Ireland, including at the Céide Fields, that has been preserved beneath a blanket of peat in present-day Tyrawley. An extensive field system, arguably the oldest in the world,[28] consisted of small divisions separated by dry-stone walls. The fields were farmed for several centuries between 3500 BC and 3000 BC. Wheat and barley were the principal crops.[19]

The Bronze Age began around 2500 BC, with technology changing people's everyday lives during this period through innovations such as the wheel; harnessing oxen; weaving textiles; brewing alcohol; and skillful metalworking,[19] which produced new weapons and tools, along with fine gold decoration and jewellery, such as brooches and torcs.

Emergence of Celtic Ireland

How and when the island became Celtic has been debated for close to a century, with the migrations of the Celts being one of the more enduring themes of archaeological and linguistic studies. The most recent genetic research strongly associates the spread of Indo-European languages (including Celtic) through Western Europe with a people bringing a composite Beaker culture, with its arrival in Britain and Ireland dated to around the middle of the third millennium BC.[29] According to John T. Koch and others, Ireland in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-network culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that also included Britain, western France and Iberia, and that this is where Celtic languages developed.[30][31][32][33] This contrasts with the traditional view that their origin lies in mainland Europe with the Hallstatt culture.[34]

The Uragh Stone Circle, a Neolithic stone circle in Tuosist, close to Gleninchaquin Park, County Kerry

The long-standing traditional view is that the Celtic language, Ogham script and culture were brought to Ireland by waves of invading or migrating Celts from mainland Europe. This theory draws on the Lebor Gabála Érenn, a medieval Christian pseudo-history of Ireland, along with the presence of Celtic culture, language and artefacts found in Ireland such as Celtic bronze spears, shields, torcs and other finely crafted Celtic associated possessions. The theory holds that there were four separate Celtic invasions of Ireland. The Priteni were said to be the first, followed by the Belgae from northern Gaul and Britain. Later, Laighin tribes from Armorica (present-day Brittany) were said to have invaded Ireland and Britain more or less simultaneously. Lastly, the Milesians (Gaels) were said to have reached Ireland from either northern Iberia or southern Gaul.[35] It was claimed that a second wave named the Euerni, belonging to the Belgae people of northern Gaul, began arriving about the sixth century BC. They were said to have given their name to the island.[36][37]

The theory was advanced in part because of the lack of archaeological evidence for large-scale Celtic immigration, though it is accepted that such movements are notoriously difficult to identify. Historical linguists are skeptical that this method alone could account for the absorption of Celtic language, with some saying that an assumed processual view of Celtic linguistic formation is 'an especially hazardous exercise'.[38][39] Genetic lineage investigation into the area of Celtic migration to Ireland has led to findings that showed no significant differences in mitochondrial DNA between Ireland and large areas of continental Europe, in contrast to parts of the Y-chromosome pattern. When taking both into account, a study concluded that modern Celtic speakers in Ireland could be thought of as European "Atlantic Celts" showing a shared ancestry throughout the Atlantic zone from northern Iberia to western Scandinavia rather than substantially central European.[40]

In 2012, research showed that the occurrence of genetic markers for the earliest farmers was almost eliminated by Beaker-culture immigrants: they carried what was then a new Y-chromosome R1b marker, believed to have originated in Iberia about 2500 BC. The prevalence amongst modern Irish men of this mutation is a remarkable 84%, the highest in the world, and closely matched in other populations along the Atlantic fringes down to Spain. A similar genetic replacement happened with lineages in mitochondrial DNA.[27][41] This conclusion is supported by recent research carried out by the geneticist David Reich, who says: "British and Irish skeletons from the Bronze Age that followed the Beaker period had at most 10 per cent ancestry from the first farmers of these islands, with other 90 per cent from people like those associated with the Bell Beaker culture in the Netherlands." He suggests that it was Beaker users who introduced an Indo-European language, represented here by Celtic (i.e. a new language and culture introduced directly by migration and genetic replacement).[29]

Late antiquity and early medieval times

Main article: History of Ireland (800–1169)

The Scoti were Gaelic-speaking people from Ireland who settled in western Scotland in the 6th century or before.

The earliest written records of Ireland come from classical Greco-Roman geographers. Ptolemy in his Almagest refers to Ireland as Mikra Brettania ("Little Britain"), in contrast to the larger island, which he called Megale Brettania ("Great Britain").[42] In his later work, Geography, Ptolemy refers to Ireland as Iouernia and to Great Britain as Albion. These 'new' names were likely to have been the local names for the islands at the time. The earlier names, in contrast, were likely to have been coined before direct contact with local peoples was made.[43]

The Romans referred to Ireland by this name too in its Latinised form, Hibernia, or Scotia.[44][45] Ptolemy records sixteen nations inhabiting every part of Ireland in 100 AD.[46] The relationship between the Roman Empire and the kingdoms of ancient Ireland is unclear. However, a number of finds of Roman coins have been made, for example at the Iron Age settlement of Freestone Hill near Gowran and Newgrange.[47]

Ireland continued as a patchwork of rival kingdoms; however, beginning in the 7th century, a concept of national kingship gradually became articulated through the concept of a High King of Ireland. Medieval Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of high kings stretching back thousands of years, but modern historians believe the scheme was constructed in the 8th century to justify the status of powerful political groupings by projecting the origins of their rule into the remote past.[48]

All of the Irish kingdoms had their own kings but were nominally subject to the high king. The high king was drawn from the ranks of the provincial kings and ruled also the royal kingdom of Meath, with a ceremonial capital at the Hill of Tara. The concept did not become a political reality until the Viking Age and even then was not a consistent one.[49] Ireland did have a culturally unifying rule of law: the early written judicial system, the Brehon Laws, administered by a professional class of jurists known as the brehons.[50]

The Chronicle of Ireland records that in 431, Bishop Palladius arrived in Ireland on a mission from Pope Celestine I to minister to the Irish "already believing in Christ".[51] The same chronicle records that Saint Patrick, Ireland's best known patron saint, arrived the following year. There is continued debate over the missions of Palladius and Patrick, but the consensus is that they both took place[52] and that the older druid tradition collapsed in the face of the new religion.[53] Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin and Greek learning and Christian theology. In the monastic culture that followed the Christianisation of Ireland, Latin and Greek learning was preserved in Ireland during the Early Middle Ages in contrast to elsewhere in Western Europe, where the Dark Ages followed the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.[53][54][page needed]

A folio of the Book of Kells showing Christ enthroned

The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking and sculpture flourished and produced treasures such as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery and the many carved stone crosses[55] that still dot the island today. A mission founded in 563 on Iona by the Irish monk Saint Columba began a tradition of Irish missionary work that spread Celtic Christianity and learning to Scotland, England and the Frankish Empire on continental Europe after the fall of Rome.[56] These missions continued until the late Middle Ages, establishing monasteries and centres of learning, producing scholars such as Sedulius Scottus and Johannes Eriugena and exerting much influence in Europe.[citation needed]

From the 9th century, waves of Viking raiders plundered Irish monasteries and towns.[57] These raids added to a pattern of raiding and endemic warfare that was already deep-seated in Ireland. The Vikings were involved in establishing most of the major coastal settlements in Ireland: Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Wexford, Waterford, as well as other smaller settlements.[58][unreliable source?]

Norman and English invasions

Main articles: Norman invasion of Ireland, History of Ireland (1169–1536), and Tudor conquest of Ireland

See also: Bruce campaign in Ireland

Remains of the 12th-century Trim Castle in County Meath, the largest Norman castle in Ireland

On 1 May 1169, an expedition of Cambro-Norman knights, with an army of about 600 men, landed at Bannow Strand in present-day County Wexford. It was led by Richard de Clare, known as 'Strongbow' owing to his prowess as an archer.[59] The invasion, which coincided with a period of renewed Norman expansion, was at the invitation of Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster.[60]

In 1166, Mac Murrough had fled to Anjou, France, following a war involving Tighearnán Ua Ruairc, of Breifne, and sought the assistance of the Angevin King Henry II, in recapturing his kingdom. In 1171, Henry arrived in Ireland in order to review the general progress of the expedition. He wanted to re-exert royal authority over the invasion which was expanding beyond his control. Henry successfully re-imposed his authority over Strongbow and the Cambro-Norman warlords and persuaded many of the Irish kings to accept him as their overlord, an arrangement confirmed in the 1175 Treaty of Windsor.

The invasion was legitimised by reference to provisions of the alleged Papal Bull Laudabiliter, issued by an Englishman, Adrian IV, in 1155. The document apparently encouraged Henry to take control in Ireland in order to oversee the financial and administrative reorganisation of the Irish Church and its integration into the Roman Church system.[61] Some restructuring had already begun at the ecclesiastical level following the Synod of Kells in 1152.[62] There has been significant controversy regarding the authenticity of Laudabiliter,[63] and there is no general agreement as to whether the bull was genuine or a forgery.[64][65] Further, it had no standing in the Irish legal system.

Political boundaries in Ireland in 1450, before the plantations

In 1172, Pope Alexander III further encouraged Henry to advance the integration of the Irish Church with Rome. Henry was authorised to impose a tithe of one penny per hearth as an annual contribution. This church levy called Peter's Pence, is extant in Ireland as a voluntary donation. In turn, Henry assumed the title of Lord of Ireland which Henry conferred on his younger son, John Lackland, in 1185. This defined the Anglo-Norman administration in Ireland as the Lordship of Ireland.[citation needed] When Henry's successor died unexpectedly in 1199, John inherited the crown of England and retained the Lordship of Ireland. Over the century that followed, Norman feudal law gradually replaced the Gaelic Brehon Law across large areas, so that by the late 13th century the Norman-Irish had established a feudal system throughout much of Ireland. Norman settlements were characterised by the establishment of baronies, manors, towns and the seeds of the modern county system. A version of the Magna Carta (the Great Charter of Ireland), substituting Dublin for London and the Irish Church for, the English church at the time, the Catholic Church, was published in 1216 and the Parliament of Ireland was founded in 1297.

Gaelicisation

From the mid-14th century, after the Black Death, Norman settlements in Ireland went into a period of decline. The Norman rulers and the Gaelic Irish elites intermarried and the areas under Norman rule became Gaelicised. In some parts, a hybrid Hiberno-Norman culture emerged. In response, the Irish parliament passed the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1367. These were a set of laws designed to prevent the assimilation of the Normans into Irish society by requiring English subjects in Ireland to speak English, follow English customs and abide by English law.[66]

By the end of the 15th century, central English authority in Ireland had all but disappeared, and a renewed Irish culture and language, albeit with Norman influences, was again dominant. English Crown control remained relatively unshaken in an amorphous foothold around Dublin known as The Pale, and under the provisions of Poynings' Law of 1494, Irish Parliamentary legislation was subject to the approval of the English Privy Council.[67]

The Kingdom of Ireland

Main article: Kingdom of Ireland

A 16th-century perception of Irish women and girls, illustrated in the manuscript "Théâtre de tous les peuples et nations de la terre avec leurs habits et ornemens divers, tant anciens que modernes, diligemment depeints au naturel". Painted by Lucas d'Heere in the 2nd half of the 16th century. Preserved in the Ghent University Library.[68]

The title of King of Ireland was re-created in 1542 by Henry VIII, the then King of England, of the Tudor dynasty. English rule was reinforced and expanded in Ireland during the latter part of the 16th century, leading to the Tudor conquest of Ireland. A near-complete conquest was achieved by the turn of the 17th century, following the Nine Years' War and the Flight of the Earls.

This control was consolidated during the wars and conflicts of the 17th century, including the English and Scottish colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Williamite War. Irish losses during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (which, in Ireland, included the Irish Confederacy and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland) are estimated to include 20,000 battlefield casualties. 200,000 civilians are estimated to have died as a result of a combination of war-related famine, displacement, guerrilla activity and pestilence throughout the war. A further 50,000[Note 1] were sent into indentured servitude in the West Indies. Physician-general William Petty estimated that 504,000 Catholic Irish and 112,000 Protestant settlers died, and 100,000 people were transported, as a result of the war.[71] If a prewar population of 1.5 million is assumed, this would mean that the population was reduced by almost half.

The religious struggles of the 17th century left a deep sectarian division in Ireland. Religious allegiance now determined the perception in law of loyalty to the Irish King and Parliament. After the passing of the Test Act 1672, and the victory of the forces of the dual monarchy of William and Mary over the Jacobites, Roman Catholics and nonconforming Protestant Dissenters were barred from sitting as members in the Irish Parliament. Under the emerging Penal Laws, Irish Roman Catholics and Dissenters were increasingly deprived of various civil rights, even the ownership of hereditary property. Additional regressive punitive legislation followed in 1703, 1709 and 1728. This completed a comprehensive systemic effort to materially disadvantage Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters while enriching a new ruling class of Anglican conformists.[72] The new Anglo-Irish ruling class became known as the Protestant Ascendancy.

Half-hanging of suspected United Irishmen

The "Great Frost" struck Ireland and the rest of Europe between December 1739 and September 1741, after a decade of relatively mild winters. The winters destroyed stored crops of potatoes and other staples, and the poor summers severely damaged harvests.[73][page needed] This resulted in the famine of 1740. An estimated 250,000 people (about one in eight of the population) died from the ensuing pestilence and disease.[74] The Irish government halted export of corn and kept the army in quarters but did little more.[74][75] Local gentry and charitable organisations provided relief but could do little to prevent the ensuing mortality.[74][75]

In the aftermath of the famine, an increase in industrial production and a surge in trade brought a succession of construction booms. The population soared in the latter part of this century and the architectural legacy of Georgian Ireland was built. In 1782, Poynings' Law was repealed, giving Ireland legislative independence from Great Britain for the first time since 1495. The British government, however, still retained the right to nominate the government of Ireland without the consent of the Irish parliament.

Union with Great Britain

Main article: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

In 1798, members of the Protestant Dissenter tradition (mainly Presbyterian) made common cause with Roman Catholics in a republican rebellion inspired and led by the Society of United Irishmen, with the aim of creating an independent Ireland. Despite assistance from France the rebellion was put down by British and Irish government and yeomanry forces. In 1800, the British and Irish parliaments both passed Acts of Union that, with effect from 1 January 1801, merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain to create a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.[76]

The passage of the Act in the Irish Parliament was ultimately achieved with substantial majorities, having failed on the first attempt in 1799. According to contemporary documents and historical analysis, this was achieved through a considerable degree of bribery, with funding provided by the British Secret Service Office, and the awarding of peerages, places and honours to secure votes.[76] Thus, the parliament in Ireland was abolished and replaced by a united parliament at Westminster in London, though resistance remained, as evidenced by Robert Emmet's failed Irish Rebellion of 1803.

Aside from the development of the linen industry, Ireland was largely passed over by the industrial revolution, partly because it lacked coal and iron resources[77][78] and partly because of the impact of the sudden union with the structurally superior economy of England,[79] which saw Ireland as a source of agricultural produce and capital.[80][81]

A depiction of the Great Famine from Our Boys in Ireland by Henry Willard French (1891)

The Great Famine of 1845–1851 devastated Ireland, as in those years Ireland's population fell by one-third. More than one million people died from starvation and disease, with an additional million people emigrating during the famine, mostly to the United States and Canada.[82] In the century that followed, an economic depression caused by the famine resulted in a further million people emigrating.[83] By the end of the decade, half of all immigration to the United States was from Ireland. The period of civil unrest that followed until the end of the 19th century is referred to as the Land War. Mass emigration became deeply entrenched and the population continued to decline until the mid-20th century. Immediately prior to the famine the population was recorded as 8.2 million by the 1841 census.[84] The population has never returned to this level since.[85] The population continued to fall until 1961; County Leitrim was the final Irish county to record a population increase post-famine, in 2006.

The 19th and early 20th centuries saw the rise of modern Irish nationalism, primarily among the Roman Catholic population. The pre-eminent Irish political figure after the Union was Daniel O'Connell. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Ennis in a surprise result and despite being unable to take his seat as a Roman Catholic. O'Connell spearheaded a vigorous campaign that was taken up by the Prime Minister, the Irish-born soldier and statesman, the Duke of Wellington. Steering the Catholic Relief Bill through Parliament, aided by future prime minister Robert Peel, Wellington prevailed upon a reluctant George IV to sign the Bill and proclaim it into law. George's father had opposed the plan of the earlier Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger, to introduce such a bill following the Union of 1801, fearing Catholic Emancipation to be in conflict with the Act of Settlement 1701.

Daniel O'Connell led a subsequent campaign, for the repeal of the Act of Union, which failed. Later in the century, Charles Stewart Parnell and others campaigned for autonomy within the Union, or "Home Rule". Unionists, especially those located in Ulster, were strongly opposed to Home Rule, which they thought would be dominated by Catholic interests.[86] After several attempts to pass a Home Rule bill through parliament, it looked certain that one would finally pass in 1914. To prevent this from happening, the Ulster Volunteers were formed in 1913 under the leadership of Edward Carson.[87]

Their formation was followed in 1914 by the establishment of the Irish Volunteers, whose aim was to ensure that the Home Rule Bill was passed. The Act was passed but with the "temporary" exclusion of the six counties of Ulster, which later became Northern Ireland. Before it could be implemented, however, the Act was suspended for the duration of the First World War. The Irish Volunteers split into two groups. The majority, approximately 175,000 in number, under John Redmond, took the name National Volunteers and supported Irish involvement in the war. A minority, approximately 13,000, retained the Irish Volunteers' name and opposed Ireland's involvement in the war.[87]

Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street), Dublin, after the 1916 Easter Rising

The Easter Rising of 1916 was carried out by the latter group together with a smaller socialist militia, the Irish Citizen Army. The British response, executing fifteen leaders of the Rising over a period of ten days and imprisoning or interning more than a thousand people, turned the mood of the country in favour of the rebels. Support for Irish republicanism increased further due to the ongoing war in Europe, as well as the Conscription Crisis of 1918.[88]

The pro-independence republican party, Sinn Féin, received overwhelming endorsement in the general election of 1918, and in 1919 proclaimed an Irish Republic, setting up its own parliament (Dáil Éireann) and government. Simultaneously the Volunteers, which became known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), launched a three-year guerrilla war, which ended in a truce in July 1921 (although violence continued until June 1922, mostly in Northern Ireland).[88]

Partition

Main article: Partition of Ireland

In December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was concluded between the British government and representatives of the Second Dáil. It gave Ireland complete independence in its home affairs and practical independence for foreign policy, but an opt-out clause allowed Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom, which it immediately exercised. Additionally, Members of the Free State Parliament were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State and make a statement of faithfulness to the king.[89] Disagreements over these provisions led to a split in the nationalist movement and a subsequent Irish Civil War between the new government of the Irish Free State and those opposed to the treaty, led by Éamon de Valera. The civil war officially ended in May 1923 when de Valera issued a cease-fire order.[90]

Independence

Main articles: History of the Republic of Ireland and Economy of the Republic of Ireland

Annotated page from the Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the Irish Free State and independence for 26 out of 32 Irish counties

During its first decade, the newly formed Irish Free State was governed by the victors of the civil war. When de Valera achieved power, he took advantage of the Statute of Westminster and political circumstances to build upon inroads to greater sovereignty made by the previous government. The oath was abolished and in 1937 a new constitution was adopted.[88] This completed a process of gradual separation from the British Empire that governments had pursued since independence. However, it was not until 1949 that the state was declared, officially, to be the Republic of Ireland.

The state was neutral during World War II, but offered clandestine assistance to the Allies, particularly in the potential defence of Northern Ireland. Despite their country's neutrality, approximately 50,000[91] volunteers from independent Ireland joined the British forces during the war, four being awarded Victoria Crosses.

The German intelligence was also active in Ireland.[92] Its operations ended in September 1941 when police made arrests based on surveillance carried out on the key diplomatic legations in Dublin. To the authorities, counterintelligence was a fundamental line of defence. With a regular army of only slightly over seven thousand men at the start of the war, and with limited supplies of modern weapons, the state would have had great difficulty in defending itself from invasion from either side in the conflict.[92][93]

Large-scale emigration marked most of the post-WWII period (particularly during the 1950s and 1980s), but beginning in 1987 the economy improved, and the 1990s saw the beginning of substantial economic growth. This period of growth became known as the Celtic Tiger.[94] The Republic's real GDP grew by an average of 9.6% per annum between 1995 and 1999,[95] in which year the Republic joined the euro. In 2000, it was the sixth-richest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita.[96] Historian R. F. Foster argues the cause was a combination of a new sense of initiative and the entry of American corporations. He concludes the chief factors were low taxation, pro-business regulatory policies, and a young, tech-savvy workforce. For many multinationals, the decision to do business in Ireland was made easier still by generous incentives from the Industrial Development Authority. In addition European Union membership was helpful, giving the country lucrative access to markets that it had previously reached only through the United Kingdom, and pumping huge subsidies and investment capital into the Irish economy.[97]

Modernisation brought secularisation in its wake. The traditionally high levels of religiosity have sharply declined. Foster points to three factors: First, Irish feminism, largely imported from America with liberal stances on contraception, abortion and divorce, undermined the authority of bishops and priests. Second, the mishandling of the paedophile scandals humiliated the Church, whose bishops seemed less concerned with the victims and more concerned with covering up for errant priests. Third, prosperity brought hedonism and materialism that undercut the ideals of saintly poverty.[98]

The financial crisis that began in 2008 dramatically ended this period of boom. GDP fell by 3% in 2008 and by 7.1% in 2009, the worst year since records began (although earnings by foreign-owned businesses continued to grow).[99] The state has since experienced deep recession, with unemployment, which doubled during 2009, remaining above 14% in 2012.[100]

Northern Ireland

Main articles: History of Northern Ireland and Economy of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland resulted from the division of the United Kingdom by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and until 1972 was a self-governing jurisdiction within the United Kingdom with its own parliament and prime minister. Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, was not neutral during the Second World War, and Belfast suffered four bombing raids in 1941. Conscription was not extended to Northern Ireland, and roughly an equal number volunteered from Northern Ireland as volunteered from the Republic of Ireland.

Edward Carson signing the Solemn League and Covenant in 1912, declaring opposition to Home Rule "using all means which may be found necessary"

Although Northern Ireland was largely spared the strife of the civil war, in the decades that followed partition there were sporadic episodes of inter-communal violence. Nationalists, mainly Roman Catholic, wanted to unite Ireland as an independent republic, whereas unionists, mainly Protestant, wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the United Kingdom. The Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland voted largely along sectarian lines, meaning that the government of Northern Ireland (elected by "first-past-the-post" from 1929) was controlled by the Ulster Unionist Party. Over time, the minority Catholic community felt increasingly alienated with further disaffection fuelled by practices such as gerrymandering and discrimination in housing and employment.[101][102][103]

In the late 1960s, nationalist grievances were aired publicly in mass civil rights protests, which were often confronted by loyalist counter-protests.[104] The government's reaction to confrontations was seen to be one-sided and heavy-handed in favour of unionists. Law and order broke down as unrest and inter-communal violence increased.[105] The Northern Ireland government requested the British Army to aid the police and protect the Irish Nationalist population. In 1969, the paramilitary Provisional IRA, which favoured the creation of a united Ireland, emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army and began a campaign against what it called the "British occupation of the six counties".[citation needed]

Other groups, both the unionist and nationalist participated in violence, and a period known as "the Troubles" began. Over 3,600 deaths resulted over the subsequent three decades of conflict.[106] Owing to the civil unrest during the Troubles, the British government suspended home rule in 1972 and imposed direct rule. There were several unsuccessful attempts to end the Troubles politically, such as the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973. In 1998, following a ceasefire by the Provisional IRA and multi-party talks, the Good Friday Agreement was concluded as a treaty between the British and Irish governments, annexing the text agreed in the multi-party talks.

The substance of the Agreement (formally referred to as the Belfast Agreement) was later endorsed by referendums in both parts of Ireland. The Agreement restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power-sharing in a regional Executive drawn from the major parties in a new Northern Ireland Assembly, with entrenched protections for the two main communities. The Executive is jointly headed by a First Minister and deputy First Minister drawn from the unionist and nationalist parties. Violence had decreased greatly after the Provisional IRA and loyalist ceasefires in 1994 and in 2005 the Provisional IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and an independent commission supervised its disarmament and that of other nationalist and unionist paramilitary organisations.[107]

The Assembly and power-sharing Executive were suspended several times but were restored again in 2007. In that year the British government officially ended its military support of the police in Northern Ireland (Operation Banner) and began withdrawing troops. On 27 June 2012, Northern Ireland's deputy first minister and former IRA commander, Martin McGuinness, shook hands with Queen Elizabeth II in Belfast, symbolising reconciliation between the two sides.[108]

Politics

Political entities on the island of Ireland

The island is divided between the Republic of Ireland, an independent state, and Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. They share an open border and both are part of the Common Travel Area and as a consequence, there is free movement of people, goods, services and capital across the border.

The Republic of Ireland is a member state of the European Union while the United Kingdom is a former member state, having both acceded to its precursor entity, the European Economic Community (EEC), in 1973 but the UK left the European Union in 2020 after a referendum on EU membership was held in 2016 which resulted in 51.9% of UK voters choosing to leave the bloc.

Republic of Ireland

Main article: Republic of Ireland

Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland is a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, with a written constitution and a popularly elected president whose role is mostly ceremonial. The Oireachtas is a bicameral parliament, composed of Dáil Éireann (the Dáil), a house of representatives, and Seanad Éireann (the Seanad), an upper house. The government is headed by a prime minister, the Taoiseach, who is appointed by the president on the nomination of the Dáil. Its capital is Dublin.

The Republic of Ireland today ranks among the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita[109] and in 2015 was ranked the sixth most developed nation in the world by the United Nations' Human Development Index.[110] A period of rapid economic expansion from 1995 onwards became known as the Celtic Tiger period, was brought to an end in 2008 with an unprecedented financial crisis and an economic depression in 2009.

Northern Ireland

Main article: Northern Ireland

Parliament Buildings, in Stormont Estate, seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly

Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom with a local executive and assembly which exercise devolved powers. The executive is jointly headed by the first and deputy first minister, with the ministries being allocated in proportion to each party's representation in the assembly. Its capital is Belfast.

Ultimately political power is held by the UK government, from which Northern Ireland has gone through intermittent periods of direct rule during which devolved powers have been suspended. Northern Ireland elects 18 of the UK House of Commons' 650 MPs. The Northern Ireland Secretary is a cabinet-level post in the British government.

Along with England and Wales and with Scotland, Northern Ireland forms one of the three separate legal jurisdictions of the UK, all of which share the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom as their court of final appeal.

All-island institutions

As part of the Good Friday Agreement, the British and Irish governments agreed on the creation of all-island institutions and areas of cooperation. The North/South Ministerial Council is an institution through which ministers from the Government of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Executive agree all-island policies. At least six of these policy areas must have an associated all-island "implementation body," and at least six others must be implemented separately in each jurisdiction. The implementation bodies are: Waterways Ireland, the Food Safety Promotion Board, InterTradeIreland, the Special European Union Programmes Body, the North/South Language Body and the Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission.

The British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference provides for co-operation between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom on all matters of mutual interest, especially Northern Ireland. In light of the Republic's particular interest in the governance of Northern Ireland, "regular and frequent" meetings co-chaired by the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, dealing with non-devolved matters to do with Northern Ireland and non-devolved all-Ireland issues, are required to take place under the establishing treaty.

The North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association is a joint parliamentary forum for the island of Ireland. It has no formal powers but operates as a forum for discussing matters of common concern between the respective legislatures.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Ireland

Physical features of Ireland

Ireland is located in the north-west of Europe, between latitudes 51° and 56° N, and longitudes 11° and 5° W. It is separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea and the North Channel, which has a width of 23 kilometres (14 mi)[111] at its narrowest point. To the west is the northern Atlantic Ocean and to the south is the Celtic Sea, which lies between Ireland and Brittany, in France. Ireland has a total area of 84,421 km2 (32,595 sq mi),[1][2][112] of which the Republic of Ireland occupies 83 percent.[113] Ireland and Great Britain, together with many nearby smaller islands, are known collectively as the British Isles. As the term British Isles can be controversial in relation to Ireland, the alternate term Britain and Ireland is sometimes used as a neutral term for the islands.[114]

A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low plains at the centre of the island. The highest of these is Carrauntoohil (Irish: Corrán Tuathail) in County Kerry, which rises to 1,039 m (3,409 ft) above sea level.[115] The most arable land lies in the province of Leinster.[116] Western areas are mainly mountainous and rocky with green panoramic vistas. River Shannon, the island's longest river at 360.5 km (224 mi) long, rises in County Cavan in the north-west and flows through Limerick in the midwest.[115][117]

Geology

Main article: Geology of Ireland

Topography of Ireland

The island consists of varied geological provinces. In the west, around County Galway and County Donegal, is a medium to high grade metamorphic and igneous complex of Caledonide affinity, similar to the Scottish Highlands. Across southeast Ulster and extending southwest to Longford and south to Navan is a province of Ordovician and Silurian rocks, with similarities to the Southern Uplands province of Scotland. Further south, along the County Wexford coastline, is an area of granite intrusives into more Ordovician and Silurian rocks, like that found in Wales.[118][119]

In the southwest, around Bantry Bay and the mountains of MacGillycuddy's Reeks, is an area of substantially deformed, lightly metamorphosed Devonian-aged rocks.[120] This partial ring of "hard rock" geology is covered by a blanket of Carboniferous limestone over the centre of the country, giving rise to a comparatively fertile and lush landscape. The west-coast district of the Burren around Lisdoonvarna has well-developed karst features.[121] Significant stratiform lead-zinc mineralisation is found in the limestones around Silvermines and Tynagh.

Hydrocarbon exploration is ongoing following the first major find at the Kinsale Head gas field off Cork in the mid-1970s.[122][123] In 1999, economically significant finds of natural gas were made in the Corrib Gas Field off the County Mayo coast. This has increased activity off the west coast in parallel with the "West of Shetland" step-out development from the North Sea hydrocarbon province. In 2000, the Helvick oil field was discovered, which was estimated to contain over 28 million barrels (4,500,000 m3) of oil.[124]

Climate

Main article: Climate of Ireland

The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent rainfall, earns it the sobriquet the Emerald Isle. Overall, Ireland has a mild but changeable oceanic climate with few extremes. The climate is typically insular and temperate, avoiding the extremes in temperature of many other areas in the world at similar latitudes.[125] This is a result of the moist winds which ordinarily prevail from the southwestern Atlantic.

Precipitation falls throughout the year but is light overall, particularly in the east. The west tends to be wetter on average and prone to Atlantic storms, especially in the late autumn and winter months. These occasionally bring destructive winds and higher total rainfall to these areas, as well as sometimes snow and hail. The regions of north County Galway and east County Mayo have the highest incidents of recorded lightning annually for the island, with lightning occurring approximately five to ten days per year in these areas.[126] Munster, in the south, records the least snow whereas Ulster, in the north, records the most.

Inland areas are warmer in summer and colder in winter. Usually around 40 days of the year are below freezing 0 °C (32 °F) at inland weather stations, compared to 10 days at coastal stations. Ireland is sometimes affected by heat waves, most recently in 1995, 2003, 2006, 2013 and 2018. In common with the rest of Europe, Ireland experienced unusually cold weather during the winter of 2010–11. Temperatures fell as low as −17.2 °C (1 °F) in County Mayo on 20 December[127] and up to a metre (3 ft) of snow fell in mountainous areas.

Climate data for Ireland

Month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Year

Record high °C (°F)

18.5(65.3)

18.1(64.6)

23.6(74.5)

25.8(78.4)

28.4(83.1)

33.3(91.9)

33.0(91.4)

32.1(89.8)

29.1(84.4)

25.2(77.4)

20.1(68.2)

18.1(64.6)

33.3(91.9)

Record low °C (°F)

−19.1(−2.4)

−17.8(0.0)

−17.2(1.0)

−7.7(18.1)

−5.6(21.9)

−3.3(26.1)

−0.3(31.5)

−2.7(27.1)

−3(27)

−8.3(17.1)

−11.5(11.3)

−17.5(0.5)

−19.1(−2.4)

Source 1: Met Éireann[128]

Source 2: The Irish Times (November record high)[129]

Flora and fauna

Main articles: Fauna of Ireland, Flora of Ireland, and Trees of Britain and Ireland

Two red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Gubbeen, County Cork

Unlike Great Britain which had a land bridge with mainland Europe, Ireland only had an ice bridge ending around 14,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age and as a result, it has fewer land animal and plant species than Great Britain or mainland Europe.[20][21] There are 55 mammal species in Ireland, and of them, only 26 land mammal species are considered native to Ireland.[130] Some species, such as, the red fox, hedgehog and badger, are very common, whereas others, like the Irish hare, red deer and pine marten are less so. Aquatic wildlife, such as species of sea turtle, shark, seal, whale, and dolphin, are common off the coast. About 400 species of birds have been recorded in Ireland. Many of these are migratory, including the barn swallow.

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Killarney National Park

Several different habitat types are found in Ireland, including farmland, open woodland, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, conifer plantations, peat bogs and a variety of coastal habitats. However, agriculture drives current land use patterns in Ireland, limiting natural habitat preserves,[131] particularly for larger wild mammals with greater territorial needs. With no large apex predators in Ireland other than humans and dogs, such populations of animals as semi-wild deer that cannot be controlled by smaller predators, such as the fox, are controlled by annual culling.

There are no snakes in Ireland, and only one species of reptile (the common lizard) is native to the island. Extinct species include the Irish elk, the great auk, brown bear and the wolf. Some previously extinct birds, such as the golden eagle, have been reintroduced after decades of extirpation.[132]

Ireland is now one of the least forested countries in Europe.[133][134] Until the end of the Middle Ages, Ireland was heavily forested. Native species include deciduous trees such as oak, ash, hazel, birch, alder, willow, aspen, rowan and hawthorn, as well as evergreen trees such Scots pine, yew, holly and strawberry trees.[135] Only about 10% of Ireland today is woodland;[12] most of this is non-native conifer plantations, and only 2% is native woodland.[13][14] The average woodland cover of European countries is over 33%.[12] In the Republic, about 389,356 hectares (3,893.56 km2) is owned by the state, mainly by the forestry service Coillte.[12] Remnants of native forest can be found scattered around the island, in particular in the Killarney National Park.

Furze (Ulex europaeus)

Much of the land is now covered with pasture and there are many species of wild-flower. Gorse (Ulex europaeus), a wild furze, is commonly found growing in the uplands and ferns are plentiful in the more moist regions, especially in the western parts. It is home to hundreds of plant species, some of them unique to the island, and has been "invaded" by some grasses, such as Spartina anglica.[136]

The algal and seaweed flora is that of the cold-temperate variety. The total number of species is 574[137] The island has been invaded by some algae, some of which are now well established.[138]

Because of its mild climate, many species, including sub-tropical species such as palm trees, are grown in Ireland. Phytogeographically, Ireland belongs to the Atlantic European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. The island can be subdivided into two ecoregions: the Celtic broadleaf forests and North Atlantic moist mixed forests.

Impact of agriculture

Silage harvesting in Clonard, County Meath

The long history of agricultural production, coupled with modern intensive agricultural methods such as pesticide and fertiliser use and runoff from contaminants into streams, rivers and lakes, has placed pressure on biodiversity in Ireland.[139][140] A land of green fields for crop cultivation and cattle rearing limits the space available for the establishment of native wild species. Hedgerows, however, traditionally used for maintaining and demarcating land boundaries, act as a refuge for native wild flora. This ecosystem stretches across the countryside and acts as a network of connections to preserve remnants of the ecosystem that once covered the island. Subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy, which supported agricultural practices that preserved hedgerow environments, are undergoing reforms. The Common Agricultural Policy had in the past subsidised potentially destructive agricultural practices, for example by emphasising production without placing limits on indiscriminate use of fertilisers and pesticides; but reforms have gradually decoupled subsidies from production levels and introduced environmental and other requirements.[141] 32% of Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions are correlated to agriculture.[142] Forested areas typically consist of monoculture plantations of non-native species, which may result in habitats that are not suitable for supporting native species of invertebrates. Natural areas require fencing to prevent over-grazing by deer and sheep that roam over uncultivated areas. Grazing in this manner is one of the main factors preventing the natural regeneration of forests across many regions of the country.[143]

Demographics

Main articles: Irish people, Demographics of the Republic of Ireland, and Demography of Northern Ireland

Proportion of respondents to the Ireland census 2011 or the Northern Ireland census 2011 who stated they were Catholic. Areas in which Catholics are in the majority are blue. Areas in which Catholics are in a minority are red.

The population of Ireland is just over 7 million, of which approximately 5.1 million reside in the Republic of Ireland and 1.9 million reside in Northern Ireland.[11]

People have lived in Ireland for over 9,000 years. Early historical and genealogical records note the existence of major groups such as the Cruthin, Corcu Loígde, Dál Riata, Dáirine, Deirgtine, Delbhna, Érainn, Laigin, Ulaid. Later major groups included the Connachta, Ciannachta, Eóganachta. Smaller groups included the aithechthúatha (see Attacotti), Cálraighe, Cíarraige, Conmaicne, Dartraighe, Déisi, Éile, Fir Bolg, Fortuatha, Gailenga, Gamanraige, Mairtine, Múscraige, Partraige, Soghain, Uaithni, Uí Maine, Uí Liatháin. Many survived into late medieval times, others vanished as they became politically unimportant. Over the past 1,200 years, Vikings, Normans, Welsh, Flemings, Scots, English, Africans and Eastern Europeans have all added to the population and have had significant influences on Irish culture.

The population of Ireland rose rapidly from the 16th century until the mid-19th century, interrupted briefly by the Famine of 1740–41, which killed roughly two-fifths of the island's population. The population rebounded and multiplied over the next century, but the Great Famine of the 1840s caused one million deaths and forced over one million more to emigrate in its immediate wake. Over the following century, the population was reduced by over half, at a time when the general trend in European countries was for populations to rise by an average of three-fold.

Ireland's largest religious group is Christianity. The largest denomination is Roman Catholicism, representing over 73% of the island (and about 87% of the Republic of Ireland). Most of the rest of the population adhere to one of the various Protestant denominations (about 48% of Northern Ireland).[144] The largest is the Anglican Church of Ireland. The Muslim community is growing in Ireland, mostly through increased immigration, with a 50% increase in the republic between the 2006 and 2011 census.[145] The island has a small Jewish community. About 4% of the Republic's population and about 14% of the Northern Ireland population[144] describe themselves as of no religion. In a 2010 survey conducted on behalf of the Irish Times, 32% of respondents said they went to a religious service more than once per week.

Divisions and settlements

Further information: Provinces of Ireland, Counties of Ireland, and City status in Ireland

LeinsterConnachtUlsterMunsterclass=notpageimage| Provinces of Ireland

Traditionally, Ireland is subdivided into four provinces: Connacht (west), Leinster (east), Munster (south), and Ulster (north). In a system that developed between the 13th and 17th centuries,[146] Ireland has 32 traditional counties. Twenty-six of these counties are in the Republic of Ireland, and six are in Northern Ireland. The six counties that constitute Northern Ireland are all in the province of Ulster (which has nine counties in total). As such, Ulster is often used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, although the two are not coterminous. In the Republic of Ireland, counties form the basis of the system of local government. Counties Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Tipperary have been broken up into smaller administrative areas. However, they are still treated as counties for cultural and some official purposes, for example, postal addresses and by the Ordnance Survey Ireland. Counties in Northern Ireland are no longer used for local governmental purposes,[147] but, as in the Republic, their traditional boundaries are still used for informal purposes such as sports leagues and in cultural or tourism contexts.[148]

City status in Ireland is decided by legislative or royal charter. Dublin, with over one million residents in the Greater Dublin Area, is the largest city on the island. Belfast, with 579,726 residents, is the largest city in Northern Ireland. City status does not directly equate with population size. For example, Armagh, with 14,590 is the seat of the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland and was re-granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 (having lost that status in local government reforms of 1840). In the Republic of Ireland, Kilkenny, the seat of the Butler dynasty, while no longer a city for administrative purposes (since the 2001 Local Government Act), is entitled by law to continue to use the description.

Cities and towns by population[149][150]

DublinBelfast

#

Settlement

CityPopu­lation

Urbanpopu­lation

Metropopu­lation

CorkLimerick

1

Dublin

592,713

1,263,219

1,458,154

2

Belfast

293,298

639,000

3

Cork

222,333

305,222

4

Limerick

102,287

5

Galway

85,910

6

Derry

85,279

7

Greater Craigavon

72,301

8

Newtownabbey[a]

67,599

9

Bangor[a]

64,596

10

Waterford

60,079

Further information: List of metropolitan areas in Ireland

Migration

The population of Ireland collapsed dramatically during the second half of the 19th century. A population of over eight million in 1841 was reduced to slightly over four million by 1921. In part, the fall in population was caused by death from the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, which took roughly one million lives. The remaining decline of around three million was due to the entrenched culture of emigration caused by the dire economic state of the country, lasting until the late 20th century.

Emigration from Ireland in the 19th century contributed to the populations of England, the United States, Canada and Australia, in all of which a large Irish diaspora lives. As of 2006[update], 4.3 million Canadians, or 14% of the population, were of Irish descent,[151] while around one-third of the Australian population had an element of Irish descent.[152] As of 2013[update], there were 40 million Irish-Americans[153] and 33 million Americans who claimed Irish ancestry.[154]

With growing prosperity since the last decade of the 20th century, Ireland became a destination for immigrants. Since the European Union expanded to include Poland in 2004, Polish people have comprised the largest number of immigrants (over 150,000)[155] from Central Europe. There has also been significant immigration from Lithuania, Czech Republic and Latvia.[156]

The Republic of Ireland in particular has seen large-scale immigration, with 420,000 foreign nationals as of 2006, about 10% of the population.[157] Nearly a quarter of births (24 percent) in 2009 were to mothers born outside of Ireland.[158] Up to 50,000 eastern and central European migrant workers left Ireland in response to the Irish financial crisis.[159]

Languages

Main article: Languages of Ireland

Proportion of respondents who said they could speak Irish in the Ireland census in 2011 or the Northern Ireland census in 2011

The two official languages of the Republic of Ireland are Irish and English. Each language has produced noteworthy literature. Irish, though now only the language of a minority, was the vernacular of the Irish people for thousands of years and was possibly introduced during the Iron Age. It began to be written down after Christianisation in the 5th century and spread to Scotland and the Isle of Man, where it evolved into the Scottish Gaelic and Manx languages respectively.

The Irish language has a vast treasury of written texts from many centuries and is divided by linguists into Old Irish from the 6th to 10th century, Middle Irish from the 10th to 13th century, Early Modern Irish until the 17th century, and the Modern Irish spoken today. It remained the dominant language of Ireland for most of those periods, having influences from Latin, Old Norse, French and English. It declined under British rule but remained the majority tongue until the early 19th century, and since then has been a minority language.

The Gaelic Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries had a long-term influence. Irish is taught in mainstream Irish schools as a compulsory subject, but teaching methods have been criticised for their ineffectiveness, with most students showing little evidence of fluency even after fourteen years of instruction.[160]

There is now a growing population of urban Irish speakers in both the Republic and Northern Ireland, especially in Dublin[161][162] and Belfast,[163] with the children of such Irish speakers sometimes attending Irish-medium schools (Gaelscoil). It has been argued that they tend to be more highly educated than monolingual English speakers.[164] Recent research suggests that urban Irish is developing in a direction of its own, both in pronunciation and grammar.[165]

Traditional rural Irish-speaking areas, known collectively as the Gaeltacht, are in linguistic decline. The main Gaeltacht areas are in the west, south-west and north-west, in Galway, Mayo, Donegal, western Cork and Kerry with smaller Gaeltacht areas near Dungarvan in Waterford and in Meath.[166]

English in Ireland was first introduced during the Norman invasion. It was spoken by a few peasants and merchants brought over from England and was largely replaced by Irish before the Tudor conquest of Ireland. It was introduced as the official language during the Tudor and Cromwellian conquests. The Ulster plantations gave it a permanent foothold in Ulster, and it remained the official and upper-class language elsewhere, the Irish-speaking chieftains and nobility having been deposed. Language shift during the 19th century replaced Irish with English as the first language for a vast majority of the population.[167]

Fewer than 2% of the population of the Republic of Ireland today speak Irish on a daily basis, and under 10% regularly, outside of the education system[168] and 38% of those over 15 years are classified as "Irish speakers". In Northern Ireland, English is the de facto official language, but official recognition is afforded to Irish, including specific protective measures under Part III of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. A lesser status (including recognition under Part II of the Charter) is given to Ulster Scots dialects, which are spoken by roughly 2% of Northern Ireland residents, and also spoken by some in the Republic of Ireland.[169] Since the 1960s with the increase in immigration, many more languages have been introduced, particularly deriving from Asia and Eastern Europe.

Also native to Ireland are Shelta, the language of the nomadic Irish Travellers,[170] Irish Sign Language, and Northern Ireland Sign Language.

Culture

Main articles: Culture of Ireland and Culture of Northern Ireland

Ardboe High Cross, County Tyrone

Ireland's culture comprises elements of the culture of ancient peoples, later immigrant and broadcast cultural influences (chiefly Gaelic culture, Anglicisation, Americanisation and aspects of broader European culture). In broad terms, Ireland is regarded as one of the Celtic nations of Europe, alongside Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Brittany. This combination of cultural influences is visible in the intricate designs termed Irish interlace or Celtic knotwork. These can be seen in the ornamentation of medieval religious and secular works. The style is still popular today in jewellery and graphic art,[171] as is the distinctive style of traditional Irish music and dance, and has become indicative of modern "Celtic" culture in general.

Religion has played a significant role in the cultural life of the island since ancient times (and since the 17th century plantations, has been the focus of political identity and divisions on the island). Ireland's pre-Christian heritage fused with the Celtic Church following the missions of Saint Patrick in the fifth century. The Hiberno-Scottish missions, begun by the Irish monk Saint Columba, spread the Irish vision of Christianity to pagan England and the Frankish Empire. These missions brought written language to an illiterate population of Europe during the Dark Ages that followed the fall of Rome, earning Ireland the sobriquet, "the island of saints and scholars".

Since the 20th century Irish pubs worldwide have become outposts of Irish culture, especially those with a full range of cultural and gastronomic offerings.

Arts

Illuminated page from Book of Kells

Literature

Main article: Literature of Ireland

Ireland has made a substantial contribution to world literature in all its branches, both in Irish and English. Poetry in Irish is among the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century.[citation needed]

Irish remained the dominant literary language down to the nineteenth century, despite the spread of English from the seventeenth century on. Prominent names from the medieval period and later include Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh (fourteenth century), Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (seventeenth century) and Aogán Ó Rathaille (eighteenth century). Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (c. 1743 – c. 1800) was an outstanding poet in the oral tradition. The latter part of the nineteenth century saw a rapid replacement of Irish by English.[citation needed] By 1900, however, cultural nationalists had begun the Gaelic revival, which saw the beginnings of modern literature in Irish. This was to produce a number of notable writers, including Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and others. Irish-language publishers such as Coiscéim and Cló Iar-Chonnacht continue to produce scores of titles every year.

In English, Jonathan Swift, often called the foremost satirist in the English language, gained fame for works such as Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal. Other notable 18th-century writers of Irish origin included Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, though they spent most of their lives in England. The Anglo-Irish novel came to the fore in the nineteenth century, featuring such writers as Charles Kickham, William Carleton, and (in collaboration) Edith Somerville and Violet Florence Martin. The playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, noted for his epigrams, was born in Ireland.

In the 20th century, Ireland produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered to be one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses is considered one of the most important works of Modernist literature and his life is celebrated annually on 16 June in Dublin as "Bloomsday".[172] A comparable writer in Irish is Máirtín Ó Cadhain, whose 1949 novel Cré na Cille is regarded as a modernist masterpiece and has been translated into several languages.

Modern Irish literature is often connected with its rural heritage[173] through English-language writers such as John McGahern and Seamus Heaney and Irish-language writers such as Máirtín Ó Direáin and others from the Gaeltacht.

James Joyce, one of the most significant writers of the 20th century

Music and dance

Main articles: Music of Ireland and Irish dance

Music has been in evidence in Ireland since prehistoric times.[174] Although in the early Middle Ages the church was "quite unlike its counterpart in continental Europe",[175] there was a considerable interchange between monastic settlements in Ireland and the rest of Europe that contributed to what is known as Gregorian chant. Outside religious establishments, musical genres in early Gaelic Ireland are referred to as a triad of weeping music (goltraige), laughing music (geantraige) and sleeping music (suantraige).[176] Vocal and instrumental music (e.g. for the harp, pipes, and various string instruments) was transmitted orally, but the Irish harp, in particular, was of such significance that it became Ireland's national symbol. Classical music following European models first developed in urban areas, in establishments of Anglo-Irish rule such as Dublin Castle, St Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church as well as the country houses of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, with the first performance of Handel's Messiah (1742) being among the highlights of the baroque era. In the 19th century, public concerts provided access to classical music to all classes of society. Yet, for political and financial reasons Ireland has been too small to provide a living to many musicians, so the names of the better-known Irish composers of this time belong to emigrants.

Irish traditional music and dance have seen a surge in popularity and global coverage since the 1960s. In the middle years of the 20th century, as Irish society was modernising, traditional music had fallen out of favour, especially in urban areas.[177] However during the 1960s, there was a revival of interest in Irish traditional music led by groups such as the Dubliners, the Chieftains, the Wolfe Tones, the Clancy Brothers, Sweeney's Men and individuals like Seán Ó Riada and Christy Moore. Groups and musicians including Horslips, Van Morrison and Thin Lizzy incorporated elements of Irish traditional music into contemporary rock music and, during the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction between traditional and rock musicians became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing over between these styles of playing. This trend can be seen more recently in the work of artists like Enya, the Saw Doctors, the Corrs, Sinéad O'Connor, Clannad, the Cranberries and the Pogues among others.

Art

Main articles: Art of Ireland and Architecture of Ireland

The earliest known Irish graphic art and sculpture are Neolithic carvings found at sites such as Newgrange[178] and is traced through Bronze Age artefacts and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the medieval period. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong tradition of painting emerged, including such figures as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy. Contemporary Irish visual artists of note include Sean Scully, Kevin Abosch, and Alice Maher.

Drama and theatre

Main article: Irish theatre

The Republic of Ireland's national theatre is the Abbey Theatre, which was founded in 1904, and the national Irish-language theatre is An Taibhdhearc, which was established in 1928 in Galway.[179][180] Playwrights such as Seán O'Casey, Brian Friel, Sebastian Barry, Conor McPherson and Billy Roche are internationally renowned.[181]

Science

Robert Boyle formulated Boyle's Law.

The Irish philosopher and theologian Johannes Scotus Eriugena was considered one of the leading intellectuals of the early Middle Ages. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, an Irish explorer, was one of the principal figures of Antarctic exploration. He, along with his expedition, made the first ascent of Mount Erebus and the discovery of the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole. Robert Boyle was a 17th-century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor and early gentleman scientist. He is largely regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry and is best known for the formulation of Boyle's law.[182]

19th-century physicist, John Tyndall, discovered the Tyndall effect. Father Nicholas Joseph Callan, professor of natural philosophy in Maynooth College, is best known for his invention of the induction coil, transformer and he discovered an early method of galvanisation in the 19th century.

Other notable Irish physicists include Ernest Walton, winner of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics. With Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, he was the first to split the nucleus of the atom by artificial means and made contributions to the development of a new theory of wave equation.[183] William Thomson, or Lord Kelvin, is the person whom the absolute temperature unit, the kelvin, is named after. Sir Joseph Larmor, a physicist and mathematician, made innovations in the understanding of electricity, dynamics, thermodynamics and the electron theory of matter. His most influential work was Aether and Matter, a book on theoretical physics published in 1900.[184]

George Johnstone Stoney introduced the term electron in 1891. John Stewart Bell was the originator of Bell's Theorem and a paper concerning the discovery of the Bell-Jackiw-Adler anomaly and was nominated for a Nobel prize.[185] The astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell, from Lurgan, County Armagh, discovered pulsars in 1967. Notable mathematicians include Sir William Rowan Hamilton, famous for work in classical mechanics and the invention of quaternions. Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's contribution, the Edgeworth Box. remains influential in neo-classical microeconomic theory to this day; while Richard Cantillon inspired Adam Smith, among others. John B. Cosgrave was a specialist in number theory and discovered a 2000-digit prime number in 1999 and a record composite Fermat number in 2003. John Lighton Synge made progress in different fields of science, including mechanics and geometrical methods in general relativity. He had mathematician John Nash as one of his students. Kathleen Lonsdale, born in Ireland and most known for her work with crystallography, became the first female president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.[186]

Ireland has nine universities, seven in the Republic of Ireland and two in Northern Ireland, including Trinity College Dublin and the University College Dublin, as well as numerous third-level colleges and institutes and a branch of the Open University, the Open University in Ireland. Ireland was ranked 22nd in the Global Innovation Index in 2023, down from 12th in 2019.[187][188]

Sports

Main article: Sport in Ireland

See also: List of Irish sports people

Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland in terms of match attendance and community involvement, with about 2,600 clubs on the island. In 2003 it represented 34% of total sports attendances at events in Ireland and abroad, followed by hurling at 23%, soccer at 16% and rugby at 8%.[189] The All-Ireland Football Final is the most watched event in the sporting calendar.[190] Soccer is the most widely played team game on the island and the most popular in Northern Ireland.[189][191]

Other sporting activities with the highest levels of playing participation include swimming, golf, aerobics, cycling, and billiards/snooker.[192] Many other sports are also played and followed, including boxing, cricket, fishing, greyhound racing, handball, hockey, horse racing, motor sport, show jumping and tennis.

The island fields a single international team in most sports. One notable exception to this is association football, although both associations continued to field international teams under the name "Ireland" until the 1950s. The sport is also the most notable exception where the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland field separate international teams. Northern Ireland has produced two World Snooker Champions.

Field sports

Main articles: Gaelic games, Rugby union in Ireland, Rugby league in Ireland, Association football in the Republic of Ireland, and Association football in Northern Ireland

Tyrone v Kerry in the 2005 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final

Gaelic football, hurling and Gaelic handball are the best-known Irish traditional sports, collectively known as Gaelic games. Gaelic games are governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), with the exception of women's Gaelic football and camogie (women's variant of hurling), which are governed by separate organisations. The headquarters of the GAA (and the main stadium) is located at [193] Croke Park in north Dublin and has a capacity of 82,500. Many major GAA games are played there, including the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. During the redevelopment of the Lansdowne Road stadium in 2007–2010, international rugby and soccer were played there.[194] All GAA players, even at the highest level, are amateurs, receiving no wages, although they are permitted to receive a limited amount of sport-related income from commercial sponsorship.

The Irish Football Association (IFA) was originally the governing body for soccer across the island. The game has been played in an organised fashion in Ireland since the 1870s, with Cliftonville F.C. in Belfast being Ireland's oldest club. It was most popular, especially in its first decades, around Belfast and in Ulster. However, some clubs based outside Belfast thought that the IFA largely favoured Ulster-based clubs in such matters as selection for the national team. In 1921, following an incident in which, despite an earlier promise, the IFA moved an Irish Cup semi-final replay from Dublin to Belfast,[195] Dublin-based clubs broke away to form the Football Association of the Irish Free State. Today the southern association is known as the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). Despite being initially blacklisted by the Home Nations' associations, the FAI was recognised by FIFA in 1923 and organised its first international fixture in 1926 (against Italy). However, both the IFA and FAI continued to select their teams from the whole of Ireland, with some players earning international caps for matches with both teams. Both also referred to their respective teams as Ireland.

Paul O'Connell reaching for the ball during a line out against Argentina in 2007

In 1950, FIFA directed the associations only to select players from within their respective territories and, in 1953, directed that the FAI's team be known only as "Republic of Ireland" and that the IFA's team be known as "Northern Ireland" (with certain exceptions). Northern Ireland qualified for the World Cup finals in 1958 (reaching the quarter-finals), 1982 and 1986 and the European Championship in 2016. The Republic qualified for the World Cup finals in 1990 (reaching the quarter-finals), 1994, 2002 and the European Championship in 1988, 2012 and 2016. Across Ireland, there is significant interest in the English and, to a lesser extent, Scottish soccer leagues.

Ireland fields a single national rugby team and a single association, the Irish Rugby Football Union, governs the sport across the island. The Irish rugby team have played in every Rugby World Cup, making the quarter-finals in eight of them.[196] Ireland also hosted games during the 1991 and the 1999 Rugby World Cups (including a quarter-final). There are four professional Irish teams; all four play in the Pro14 and at least three compete for the Heineken Cup. Irish rugby has become increasingly competitive at both the international and provincial levels since the sport went professional in 1994. During that time, Ulster (1999),[197] Munster (2006[198] and 2008)[197] and Leinster (2009, 2011 and 2012)[197] have won the Heineken Cup. In addition to this, the Irish International side has had increased success in the Six Nations Championship against the other European elite sides. This success, including Triple Crowns in 2004, 2006 and 2007, culminated with a clean sweep of victories, known as a Grand Slam, in 2009 and 2018.[199]

Boxing

Main article: Boxing in Ireland

Amateur boxing on the island of Ireland is governed by the Irish Athletic Boxing Association. Ireland has won more medals in boxing than in any other Olympic sport. Michael Carruth won a gold medal and Wayne McCullough won a silver medal in the Barcelona Olympic Games. In 2008 Kenneth Egan won a silver medal in the Beijing Games.[200] Paddy Barnes secured bronze in those games and gold in the 2010 European Amateur Boxing Championships (where Ireland came 2nd in the overall medal table) and 2010 Commonwealth Games. Katie Taylor has won gold in every European and World championship since 2005. In August 2012 at the Olympic Games in London, Taylor created history by becoming the first Irish woman to win a gold medal in boxing in the 60 kg lightweight.[201] More recently, Kellie Harrington won a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[202]

Other sports

Main articles: Horse racing in Ireland, Athletics in Ireland, and Golf in Ireland

Horse racing in Sligo

Horse racing and greyhound racing are both popular in Ireland. There are frequent horse race meetings and greyhound stadiums are well-attended. The island is noted for the breeding and training of race horses and is also a large exporter of racing dogs.[203] The horse racing sector is largely concentrated in the County Kildare.[204]

Irish athletics is an all-Ireland sport governed by Athletics Ireland. Sonia O'Sullivan won two medals at 5,000 metres on the track; gold at the 1995 World Championships and silver at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Gillian O'Sullivan won silver in the 20k walk at the 2003 World Championships, while sprint hurdler Derval O'Rourke won gold at the 2006 World Indoor Championship in Moscow. Olive Loughnane won a silver medal in the 20k walk at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009.[205]

Golf is very popular, and golf tourism is a major industry attracting more than 240,000 golfing visitors annually.[206] The 2006 Ryder Cup was held at The K Club in County Kildare.[207] Pádraig Harrington became the first Irishman since Fred Daly in 1947 to win the British Open at Carnoustie in July 2007.[208] He successfully defended his title in July 2008[209] before going on to win the PGA Championship in August.[210] Harrington became the first European to win the PGA Championship in 78 years and was the first winner from Ireland. Three golfers from Northern Ireland have been particularly successful. In 2010, Graeme McDowell became the first Irish golfer to win the U.S. Open, and the first European to win that tournament since 1970. Rory McIlroy, at the age of 22, won the 2011 U.S. Open, while Darren Clarke's latest victory was the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St. George's. In August 2012, McIlroy won his 2nd major championship by winning the USPGA Championship by a record margin of 8 shots.

Recreation

The west coast of Ireland, Lahinch and Donegal Bay in particular, have popular surfing beaches, being fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean. Donegal Bay is shaped like a funnel and catches west/south-west Atlantic winds, creating good surf, especially in winter. Since just before the year 2010, Bundoran has hosted European championship surfing. Scuba diving is increasingly popular in Ireland with clear waters and large populations of sea life, particularly along the western seaboard. There are also many shipwrecks along the coast of Ireland, with some of the best wreck dives being in Malin Head and off the County Cork coast.[211]

With thousands of lakes, over 14,000 kilometres (8,700 mi) of fish-bearing rivers and over 7,500 kilometres (4,660 mi) of coastline, Ireland is a popular angling destination. The temperate Irish climate is suited to sport angling. While salmon and trout fishing remain popular with anglers, salmon fishing, in particular, received a boost in 2006 with the closing of the salmon driftnet fishery. Coarse fishing continues to increase its profile. Sea angling is developed with many beaches mapped and signposted,[212] and the range of sea angling species is around 80.[213]

Food and drink

Main article: Irish cuisine

Gubbeen cheese, an example of the resurgence in Irish cheese making

Food and cuisine in Ireland take their influence from the crops grown and animals farmed in the island's temperate climate and from the social and political circumstances of Irish history. For example, whilst from the Middle Ages until the arrival of the potato in the 16th century the dominant feature of the Irish economy was the herding of cattle, the number of cattle a person owned was equated to their social standing.[214] Thus herders would avoid slaughtering a milk-producing cow.[214]

For this reason, pork and white meat were more common than beef, and thick fatty strips of salted bacon (known as rashers) and the eating of salted butter (i.e. a dairy product rather than beef itself) have been a central feature of the diet in Ireland since the Middle Ages.[214] The practice of bleeding cattle and mixing the blood with milk and butter (not unlike the practice of the Maasai) was common[215] and black pudding, made from blood, grain (usually barley) and seasoning, remains a breakfast staple in Ireland. All of these influences can be seen today in the phenomenon of the "breakfast roll".

The introduction of the potato in the second half of the 16th century heavily influenced cuisine thereafter. Great poverty encouraged a subsistence approach to food, and by the mid-19th century, the vast majority of the population sufficed with a diet of potatoes and milk.[216] A typical family, consisting of a man, a woman and four children, would eat 18 stone (110 kg) of potatoes per week.[214] Consequently, dishes that are considered as national dishes represent a fundamental simplicity to cooking, such as the Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, boxty, a type of potato pancake, or colcannon, a dish of mashed potatoes and kale or cabbage.[214]

Since the last quarter of the 20th century, with a re-emergence of wealth in Ireland, a "New Irish Cuisine" based on traditional ingredients incorporating international influences[217] has emerged.[218] This cuisine is based on fresh vegetables, fish (especially salmon, trout, oysters, mussels and other shellfish), as well as traditional soda breads and the wide range of hand-made cheeses that are now being produced across the country. An example of this new cuisine is "Dublin Lawyer": lobster cooked in whiskey and cream.[219] The potato remains however a fundamental feature of this cuisine and the Irish remain the highest per capita[214] consumers of potatoes in Europe. Traditional regional foods can be found throughout the country, for example coddle in Dublin or drisheen in Cork, both a type of sausage, or blaa, a doughy white bread particular to Waterford.

The Old Bushmills Distillery in County Antrim

Ireland once dominated the world's market for whiskey, producing 90% of the world's whiskey at the start of the 20th century. However, as a consequence of bootleggers during the prohibition in the United States (who sold poor-quality whiskey bearing Irish-sounding names thus eroding the pre-prohibition popularity for Irish brands)[220] and tariffs on Irish whiskey across the British Empire during the Anglo-Irish Trade War of the 1930s,[221] sales of Irish whiskey worldwide fell to a mere 2% by the mid-20th century.[222] In 1953, an Irish government survey, found that 50% of whiskey drinkers in the United States had never heard of Irish whiskey.[223]

Irish whiskey, as researched in 2009 by the CNBC American broadcaster, remains popular domestically and has grown in international sales steadily over a few decades.[224] Typically CNBC states Irish whiskey is not as smoky as a Scotch whisky, but not as sweet as American or Canadian whiskies.[224] Whiskey forms the basis of cream liqueurs, such as Baileys, and the "Irish coffee" (a cocktail of coffee and whiskey reputedly invented at Foynes flying-boat station) is probably the best-known Irish cocktail.

Stout, a kind of porter beer, particularly Guinness, is typically associated with Ireland, although historically it was more closely associated with London. Porter remains very popular, although it has lost sales since the mid-20th century to lager. Cider, particularly Magners (marketed in the Republic of Ireland as Bulmers), is also a popular drink. Red lemonade, a soft-drink, is consumed on its own and as a mixer, particularly with whiskey.[225]

Economy

Main articles: Economy of the Republic of Ireland and Economy of Northern Ireland

See also: International Financial Services Centre, Dublin

The GDP of the Republic of Ireland as of 2021[update] was €423.5 billion (nominal),[226] and in Northern Ireland in 2021, it was £52 billion (GVA Balanced).[227] The GDP per capita in the Republic of Ireland was €84,049.9 (nominal) as of 2021[update],[226] and in Northern Ireland 2021 was £27,154 (GVA Balanced).[227] The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom measure these numbers differently.

Despite the two jurisdictions using two distinct currencies (the euro and pound sterling), a growing amount of commercial activity is carried out on an all-Ireland basis. This has been facilitated by the two jurisdictions' former shared membership of the European Union, and there have been calls from members of the business community and policymakers for the creation of an "all-Ireland economy" to take advantage of economies of scale and boost competitiveness.[228]

Regional economics

Below is a comparison of the regional GDP on the island of Ireland.

Republic of Ireland: Northern and Western

Republic of Ireland: Eastern and Midland

Republic of Ireland: Southern

United Kingdom: Northern Ireland

GDP (2018[update]): €22 bn[229]

GDP (2018[update]): €175 bn[229]

GDP (2018[update]): €127 bn[229]

GDP (2021[update]): £52 bn[227]

€24,926 per person[230]

€74,824 per person[230]

€77,794 per person[230]

£27,154 per person[227]

Northern Ireland trade comparison

Below is a comparison of the goods being sold and purchased between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, compared with the goods being exported and imported between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland:

Northern Ireland Sales/Exports[231]

United Kingdom

Republic of Ireland

2020

£11.3 billion

£4.2 billion

2021

£12.8 billion

£5.2 billion

Northern Ireland Purchases/Imports[231]

United Kingdom

Republic of Ireland

2020

£13.4 billion

£2.5 billion

2021

£14.4 billion

£3.1 billion

Cost of living comparison

Below is a comparison of the monthly cost of living and average wage after tax in Northern Ireland versus those in the Republic of Ireland in 2023:

Monthly Cost of Living Comparison[232][233]

Northern Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Cost of living (1 person)

$1459

$2198

Average wage after tax

$2393

$3010

Economic history

Main article: Economic history of Ireland

Prior to partition in 1921, Ireland had a long history as an economic colony – first, partially, of the Norse, via their cities (9th to 10th centuries CE), and later, to varying extents, of polities related to England. Though the climate and soil favoured certain forms of agriculture,[234] trade barriers frequently hobbled its development. Repeated invasions and plantations disrupted land-ownership, and multiple failed uprisings also contributed to repeated phases of deportation and of emigration.

Salient events in the economic history of Ireland include:

16th and 17th centuries: confiscation and redistribution of land in the Plantations of Ireland

1845–1849: The Great Famine occasioned depopulation and mass emigration

1846: Westminster's repeal of the Corn Laws disrupted Irish agriculture[235]

Major industries

Tourism

Main article: Tourist destinations in Ireland

Inisheer (Inis Oírr), Aran Islands

There are three World Heritage Sites on the island: the Brú na Bóinne complex, Skellig Michael and the Giant's Causeway.[236] Several other places are on the tentative list, for example the Burren, the Ceide Fields[237] and Mount Stewart.[238]

Some of the most visited sites in Ireland include Bunratty Castle, the Rock of Cashel, the Cliffs of Moher, Holy Cross Abbey and Blarney Castle.[239] Historically important monastic sites include Glendalough and Clonmacnoise, which are maintained as national monuments in the Republic of Ireland.[240]

The Dublin region receives the most tourists[239] and is home to several of the most popular attractions such as the Guinness Storehouse and Book of Kells.[239] The west and south west, which includes the Lakes of Killarney and the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry and Connemara and the Aran Islands in County Galway, are also popular tourist destinations.[239]

Achill Island lies off the coast of County Mayo and is Ireland's largest island. It is a popular tourist destination for surfing and contains 5 Blue Flag beaches and Croaghaun one of the world's highest sea cliffs. Stately homes, built during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in Palladian, Neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles, such as Castle Ward, Castletown House, Bantry House, Strokestown Park and Glenveagh Castle are also of interest to tourists. Some have been converted into hotels, such as Ashford Castle,[241] Castle Leslie[242] and Dromoland Castle.[243]

Energy

Main article: Energy in Ireland

Although for most of their existence electricity networks in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were entirely separate, the island has operated for some time as a single market for electricity.[244] Both networks were designed and constructed independently post-partition but they are now connected with three interlinks[245] and are also connected through Great Britain to mainland Europe. The situation in Northern Ireland is complicated by the issue of private companies not supplying Northern Ireland Electricity with enough power. In the Republic of Ireland, the ESB has failed to modernise its power stations, and the availability of power plants has recently averaged only 66%, one of the worst such rates in Western Europe. EirGrid has started building a HVDC transmission line between Ireland and Great Britain with a capacity of 500 MW,[246] about 10% of Ireland's peak demand.

As with electricity, the natural gas distribution network is also now all-island, with a pipeline linking Gormanston, County Meath, and Ballyclare, County Antrim.[247] Most of Ireland's gas comes through interconnectors between Twynholm in Scotland and Ballylumford, County Antrim and Loughshinny, County Dublin. Supplies come from the Corrib Gas Field, off the coast of County Mayo, with a supply previously also coming from the Kinsale gas field off the County Cork coast.[248][249] The County Mayo field faces some localised opposition over a controversial decision to refine the gas onshore.

Turf-cutting near Maam Cross by the road to Leenane, County Galway

Ireland has an ancient industry based on peat (known locally as "turf") as a source of energy for home fires. A form of biomass energy, this source of heat is still widely used in rural areas. However, because of the ecological importance of peatlands in storing carbon and their rarity, the EU is attempting to protect this habitat by fining Ireland for digging up peat. In cities, heat is generally supplied by natural gas or heating oil, although some urban suppliers distribute sods of turf as "smokeless fuel" for domestic use.

The Republic has a strong commitment to renewable energy and ranks as one of the top 10 markets for clean-technology investment in the 2014 Global Green Economy Index.[250] Research and development in renewable energy (such as wind power) has increased since 2004. Large wind farms have been constructed in Cork, Donegal, Mayo and Antrim. The construction of wind farms has in some cases been delayed by opposition from local communities, some of whom regard the wind turbines as unsightly. The Republic is hindered by an ageing network that was not designed to handle the varying availability of power that comes from wind farms. The ESB's Turlough Hill facility is the only power-storage facility in the state.[251]

Explanatory notes

^ Numbers vary, from a low of 12,000.[69] Giovanni Battista Rinuccini wrote 50,000,[70] T. N. Burke said 80,000 to 100,000.[70]

Notes

^ a b Part of Belfast metropolitan area

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Ireland

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Ireland

Table of Contents

Introduction & Quick FactsLandReliefDrainageSoilsClimatePlant and animal lifePeopleEthnic groups, language, and religionSettlement patternsDemographic trendsEconomyAgriculture, forestry, and fishingAgricultureForestry and fishingResources and powerManufacturingFinanceTradeServicesLabour and taxationTransportation and telecommunicationsRoads and railwaysWaterborne trafficAir facilitiesTelecommunicationsGovernment and societyConstitutional frameworkLocal governmentJusticePolitical processSecurityHealth and welfareHousingEducationCultural lifeDaily life and social customsThe artsLiterature: Prose and poetryTheatreMusic and danceVisual artsCultural institutionsSports and recreationMedia and publishingHistoryEarly IrelandNeolithic PeriodBronze AgeIron AgeEarly Celtic IrelandPolitical and social organizationRural economy and living conditionsEarly political historyIrish raids and migrationsEarly ChristianityConversionIrish monasticismLearning and artThe Norse invasions and their aftermathFirst centuries of English rule (c. 1166–c. 1600)The Anglo-Norman invasionThe 14th and 15th centuriesThe Kildare ascendancyThe Reformation periodIreland under Elizabeth IThe Shane O’Neill rebellionThe Desmond rebellionThe Tyrone rebellionModern Ireland under British ruleThe 17th centuryJames I (1603–25)Charles I (1625–49) and the Commonwealth (1649–60)The Restoration period and the Jacobite warThe 18th centurySocial, economic, and cultural life in the 17th and 18th centuriesThe 19th and early 20th centuriesPolitical discontentThe rise of FenianismThe Home Rule movement and the Land LeagueThe 20th-century crisisIndependent Ireland to 1959The Irish Free State, 1922–32De Valera’s governments (1932–48) and the quest for sovereigntyThe Republic of IrelandDevelopments since 1959Economic and political developmentsIntegration in EuropeThe rough road to prosperityThe debt crisis and beyondSocial and religious changesRelations with Northern IrelandLeaders of Ireland since 1922

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Also known as: Éire, Irish Free State

Written by

John O'Beirne Ranelagh

Television consultant. Member, Independent Television Commission. Commissioning Editor, Channel Four Television, London, 1981–87. Author of A Short History of Ireland and others.

John O'Beirne Ranelagh,

Frederick Henry Boland

Chancellor, University of Dublin, 1964–82. Representative of Ireland to the United Nations, 1956–64.

Frederick Henry Boland,

Ronan Fanning

(d. 2017) Professor of Modern History (1968-2006) and Director of Archives Acquisitions, University College Dublin, and Joint Editor, Irish Historical Studies (1976-87). Author of Idependent...

Ronan FanningSee All

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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.

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Last Updated:

Mar 9, 2024

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flag of Ireland

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Irish:

Éire

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Head Of Government:

Prime Minister: Leo Varadkar

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Capital:

Dublin

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Population:

(2024 est.) 5,304,000

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Currency Exchange Rate:

1 USD equals 0.932 euro

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Head Of State:

President: Michael D. Higgins

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Recent News

Mar. 9, 2024, 3:25 PM ET (AP)

Irish prime minister concedes defeat in a vote over constitutional amendments about family and women

Mar. 8, 2024, 1:52 PM ET (AP)

Ireland's Constitution says a woman's place is in the home. Voters are being asked to change that

IrelandCliffs of Moher, County Clare, IrelandThe Cliffs of Moher on the coast of County Clare, Ireland, just south of Galway Bay.(more)Ireland, country of western Europe occupying five-sixths of the westernmost major island of the British Isles.IrelandThe magnificent scenery of Ireland’s Atlantic coastline faces a 2,000-mile- (3,200-km-) wide expanse of ocean, and its geographic isolation has helped it to develop a rich heritage of culture and tradition that was linked initially to the Gaelic language. Washed by abundant rain, the country’s pervasive grasslands create a green-hued landscape that is responsible for the popular sobriquet Emerald Isle. Ireland is also renowned for its wealth of folklore, from tales of tiny leprechauns with hidden pots of gold to that of the patron saint, Patrick, with his legendary ridding the island of snakes and his reputed use of the three-leaved shamrock as a symbol for the Christian Trinity. But while many may think of Ireland as an enchanted land, the republic has been beset with perennial concerns—emigration, cultural and political identity, and relations with Northern Ireland (comprising the 6 of Ireland’s 32 counties within the province of Ulster that remain part of the United Kingdom). At the beginning of the 21st century, Ireland’s long-standing economic problems were abating, owing to its diverse export-driven economy, but calamity struck again in 2008 when a new financial and economic crisis befell the country, culminating in a very costly bailout of the Irish economy by the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund.The emergence of Ireland as an independent country is a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the 17th century, political power was widely shared among a rather loosely constructed network of small earldoms in often-shifting alliances. Following the so-called “Flight of the Earls” after an unsuccessful uprising in the early 17th century, Ireland effectively became an English colony. It was formally incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801. A 1914 Home Rule Act was passed but never implemented due to pro-union militancy in the north, the onset of World War I, and the subsequent Irish War of Independence. In 1920 the island was effectively partitioned with the creation of Northern Ireland, a six-county area with devolved powers within the United Kingdom, whereas under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921, the other 26 counties became the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth and Empire. In 1937 the southern state passed a new constitution that offered a more robust expression of sovereignty, and in 1949 it formally left the Commonwealth as the Republic of Ireland.Since then Ireland has become integrated with the rest of western Europe. It joined the European Economic Community (forerunner of the EU) in 1973. Though the country generally retained a neutral role in international affairs, in 2008 Ireland became an impediment to the enactment of the Lisbon Treaty—an agreement aimed at streamlining the EU’s processes and giving it a higher international profile—when the Irish voted against the passage of the treaty in a national referendum. The treaty, however, was approved by Irish voters in a second referendum, held the following year.

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How many Americans have Irish ancestry?Overview of the people of Ireland, with a focus on the impact of the mass emigration to the United States during the 19th century.(more)See all videos for this articleDependent on agriculture, Ireland was long among Europe’s poorest regions, a principal cause of mass migration from Ireland, especially during the cycle of famine in the 19th century. Some 40 million Americans trace their ancestry to Ireland as a result of that traumatic exodus, as do millions of others throughout the world. Every year members of this diaspora visit their ancestral homeland and forge connections with long-lost family.River Liffey, DublinView of Dublin from the River Liffey.(more)Ireland’s capital is Dublin, a populous and affluent city whose metropolitan area is home to more than one-fourth of the country’s total population. The city’s old dockside neighbourhoods have given way to new residential and commercial development. Cork, Ireland’s second largest city, is a handsome cathedral city and port in the southwest. Other principal centres include Waterford, Wexford, and Drogheda on the east coast, Sligo in the northwest, and Limerick and Galway in the west.

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Although Ireland is now both urbanized and Europeanized, its culture retains many unique characteristics, and its people prize folkloric and social traditions that largely derive from and celebrate the country’s rural past. In “Meditations in Time of Civil War” William Butler Yeats, perhaps Ireland’s best-known poet, evokes the idyllic and idealized countryside, a place central to the memories of the country’s millions of expatriates and their descendants: An acre of stony ground, Where the symbolic rose can break in flower, Old ragged elms, old thorns innumerable, The sound of the rain or sound Of every wind that blows; The stilted water-hen Crossing stream again Scared by the splashing of a dozen cows. Land Ireland's coastlineAerial view of Ireland's coastline.(more)The republic of Ireland occupies the greater part of an island lying to the west of Great Britain, from which it is separated—at distances ranging from 11 to 120 miles (18 to 193 km)—by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St. George’s Channel. Located in the temperate zone between latitudes 51°30′ and 55°30′ N and longitudes 6°00′ and 10°30′ W—as far north as Labrador or British Columbia in Canada and as far west as the West African state of Liberia—it constitutes the westernmost outpost of the Atlantic fringe of the Eurasian landmass (the absolute extreme of which is Tearaght Island, the westernmost member of the Blasket Islands, which lie off the Dingle Peninsula and are part of County Kerry). Ireland, which, like Great Britain, once formed part of this landmass, lies on the European continental shelf, surrounded by seas that are generally less than 650 feet (200 metres) deep. The greatest distance from north to south in the island is 302 miles (486 km), and from east to west it is 171 miles (275 km). Relief The territory of the republic consists of a broad and undulating central plain underlain by limestone. This plain is ringed almost completely by coastal highlands, which vary considerably in geologic structure. The flatness of the central lowland—which lies for the most part between 200 and 400 feet (60 and 120 metres) above sea level—is relieved in many places by low hills between 600 and 1,000 feet (180 to 300 metres) in elevation. With many lakes, large bog areas, and low ridges, the lowland is very scenic. The principal mountain ranges are the Blue Stack Mountains in the north, the Wicklow Mountains in the east (topped by Lugnaquillia, at 3,039 feet [926 metres]), the Knockmealdown and Comeragh mountains in the south, the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks in the southwest, and the Twelve Pins in the west. Carrantuohill, at 3,414 feet (1,041 metres) in the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, is the highest point in the republic. In the west and southwest the wild and beautiful coast is heavily indented where the mountains of Donegal, Mayo, Galway, and Kerry thrust out into the Atlantic, separated by deep wide-mouthed bays, some of which—Bantry Bay and Dingle Bay, for example—are, in fact, drowned river valleys. By contrast, the east coast is little indented, but most of the country’s trade passes through its ports because of their proximity to British and Continental markets.

The coastal mountain fringe illustrates the country’s complex geologic history. In the west and northwest as well as in the east, the mountains are composed mainly of granite. Old Red Sandstone predominates in the south, where the parallel folded mountain ridges trend east-west, separated by limestone river valleys. Ireland experienced at least two general glaciations—one covering most of the country and the other extending as far south as a line linking Limerick, Cashel, and Dublin—and the characteristic diversity of Irish scenery owes much to this glacial influence. The large areas of peat bog to be found throughout the country are a notable feature of the landscape.

Republic of Ireland - Wikipedia

Republic of Ireland - Wikipedia

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(Top)

1Name

2History

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2.1Home-rule movement

2.2Revolution and steps to independence

2.3Irish Civil War

2.4Constitution of Ireland 1937

2.5Recent history

3Geography

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3.1Climate

4Politics

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4.1Local government

4.2Law

4.3Foreign relations

4.4Military

5Economy

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5.1Taxation policy

5.2Trade

5.3Energy

5.4Transport

6Demographics

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6.1Languages

6.2Healthcare

6.3Education

6.4Religion

7Culture

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7.1Literature

7.2Music and dance

7.3Architecture

7.4Media

7.5Cuisine

7.6Sports

7.7Society

7.8State symbols

8See also

9Notes

10References

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10.1Bibliography

11Further reading

12External links

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12.1Government

12.2General information

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Republic of Ireland

266 languages

AcèhАдыгэбзэАдыгабзэAfrikaansAlemannischአማርኛAnarâškielâÆngliscАԥсшәаالعربيةAragonésܐܪܡܝܐԱրեւմտահայերէնArmãneashtiArpetanAsturianuअवधीAvañe'ẽАварAymar aruAzərbaycancaتۆرکجهBasa BaliবাংলাBân-lâm-gúBasa BanyumasanБашҡортсаБеларускаяБеларуская (тарашкевіца)भोजपुरीBikol CentralBislamaБългарскиBoarischབོད་ཡིགBosanskiBrezhonegБуряадCatalàЧӑвашлаCebuanoČeštinaChamoruChavacano de ZamboangaChiShonaCorsuCymraegDagbanliDanskالدارجةDavvisámegiellaDeitschDeutschދިވެހިބަސްDiné bizaadDolnoserbskiडोटेलीཇོང་ཁEestiΕλληνικάEmiliàn e rumagnòlЭрзяньEspañolEsperantoEstremeñuEuskaraEʋegbeفارسیFiji HindiFøroysktFrançaisFryskFulfuldeFurlanGaeilgeGaelgGagauzGàidhligGalego贛語गोंयची कोंकणी / Gõychi Konknni客家語/Hak-kâ-ngîХальмг한국어HausaHawaiʻiՀայերենहिन्दीHornjoserbsceHrvatskiIdoIgboIlokanoবিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরীBahasa IndonesiaInterlinguaInterlingueИронIsiZuluÍslenskaItalianoעבריתJawaKabɩyɛಕನ್ನಡKapampanganКъарачай-малкъарქართულიKaszëbscziҚазақшаKernowekIkinyarwandaIkirundiKiswahiliКомиKotavaKreyòl ayisyenKriyòl gwiyannenKurdîКыргызчаКырык марыLadinLadinoລາວLatgaļuLatinaLatviešuLëtzebuergeschЛезгиLietuviųLigureLimburgsLingálaLivvinkarjalaLa .lojban.LombardMagyarMadhurâМакедонскиMalagasyമലയാളംMaltiMāoriमराठीმარგალურიمصرىمازِرونیBahasa MelayuMinangkabau閩東語 / Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄MirandésМокшеньМонголမြန်မာဘာသာNa Vosa VakavitiNederlandsNedersaksiesनेपालीनेपाल भाषा日本語НохчийнNordfriiskNorfuk / PitkernNorsk bokmålNorsk nynorskNouormandNovialOccitanОлык марийଓଡ଼ିଆOromooOʻzbekcha / ўзбекчаਪੰਜਾਬੀPangasinanپنجابیပအိုဝ်ႏဘာႏသာႏPapiamentuپښتوPatoisПерем комиភាសាខ្មែរPicardPiemontèisTok PisinPlattdüütschPolskiΠοντιακάPortuguêsQaraqalpaqshaQırımtatarcaRipoarischRomânăRomani čhibRumantschRuna SimiРусиньскыйРусскийСаха тылаGagana Samoaसंस्कृतम्ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤسرائیکیSarduScotsSeelterskSesotho sa LeboaShqipSicilianuසිංහලSimple EnglishسنڌيSiSwatiSlovenčinaSlovenščinaСловѣньскъ / ⰔⰎⰑⰂⰡⰐⰠⰔⰍⰟŚlůnskiSoomaaligaکوردیSranantongoСрпски / srpskiSrpskohrvatski / српскохрватскиSuomiSvenskaTagalogதமிழ்TaqbaylitTarandíneТатарча / tatarçaၽႃႇသႃႇတႆး TayalతెలుగుTetunไทยТоҷикӣLea faka-TongaᏣᎳᎩTsetsêhestâheseTshivendaTürkçeTürkmençeУдмуртBasa UgiУкраїнськаاردوVahcuenghVènetoVepsän kel’Tiếng ViệtVolapükVõroWalon文言West-VlamsWinarayWolof吴语XitsongaייִדישYorùbá粵語ZazakiZeêuwsŽemaitėška中文Tolışi

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Coordinates: 53°20.65′N 6°16.05′W / 53.34417°N 6.26750°W / 53.34417; -6.2675053°N 8°W / 53°N 8°W / 53; -8

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Country in north-western Europe

This article is about the sovereign state. For other uses, see Ireland (disambiguation).

Ireland[a]Éire (Irish)

Flag

Coat of arms

Anthem: Amhrán na bhFiann"The Soldiers' Song"Location of Ireland (dark green)– in Europe (green & dark grey)– in the European Union (green)Capitaland largest cityDublin53°20.65′N 6°16.05′W / 53.34417°N 6.26750°W / 53.34417; -6.2675053°N 8°W / 53°N 8°W / 53; -8Official languagesIrish[b]English[1]Ethnic groups (2022[2])76.6% White Irish10.8% Other White3.3% Asian1.5% Black1.7% other6.2% not statedReligion (2022[3])

75.7% Christianity

69.1% Catholicism

2.5% Anglicanism

4.1% other Christian

14.5% no religion

3.1% other

6.7% not stated

Demonym(s)IrishGovernmentUnitary parliamentary republic• President Michael D. Higgins• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar• Tánaiste Micheál Martin• Chief Justice Donal O'Donnell

LegislatureOireachtas• Upper houseSeanad• Lower houseDáilIndependence from the United Kingdom• Proclamation 24 April 1916• Declaration 21 January 1919• Anglo-Irish Treaty 6 December 1921• 1922 constitution 6 December 1922• 1937 constitution 29 December 1937• Republic Act 18 April 1949

Area • Total70,273 km2 (27,133 sq mi) (118th)• Water (%)2.0%Population• 2022 estimate 5,281,600[4] (122nd)• 2022 census5,149,139[5]• Density71.3/km2 (184.7/sq mi) (113th)GDP (PPP)2023 estimate• Total $722.929 billion[6] (40th)• Per capita $137,638[6] (3rd)GDP (nominal)2023 estimate• Total $589.569 billion[6] (30th)• Per capita $112,247[6] (2nd)Gini (2022) 27.9[7]lowHDI (2021) 0.945[8]very high (8th)CurrencyEuro (€)[c] (EUR)Time zoneUTC (GMT)• Summer (DST)UTC+1 (IST)Date formatdd/mm/yyyyDriving sideleftCalling code+353ISO 3166 codeIEInternet TLD.ie[d]

Ireland (Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ⓘ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (Poblacht na hÉireann),[a] is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. Around 2.1 million of the country's population of 5.15 million people reside in the Greater Dublin Area.[9] The sovereign state shares its only land border with Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south-east, and the Irish Sea to the east. It is a unitary, parliamentary republic.[10] The legislature, the Oireachtas, consists of a lower house, Dáil Éireann; an upper house, Seanad Éireann; and an elected president (Uachtarán) who serves as the largely ceremonial head of state, but with some important powers and duties. The head of government is the Taoiseach (Prime Minister, literally "Chief"), who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President, who appoints other government ministers.

The Irish Free State was created with Dominion status in 1922, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In 1937, a new constitution was adopted, in which the state was named "Ireland" and effectively became a republic, with an elected non-executive president. It was officially declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948. Ireland became a member of the United Nations in 1955. It joined the European Communities (EC), the predecessor of the European Union (EU), in 1973. The state had no formal relations with Northern Ireland for most of the 20th century, but the 1980s and 1990s saw the British and Irish governments working with Northern Irish parties to resolve the conflict that had become known as the Troubles. Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the Irish government and Northern Irish government have co-operated on a number of policy areas under the North/South Ministerial Council created by the Agreement.

Ireland is a developed country with a quality of life that ranks amongst the highest in the world; after adjustments for inequality, the 2021 Human Development Index listing ranked it the sixth-highest in the world.[11] It also ranks highly in healthcare, economic freedom, and freedom of the press.[12][13] It is a member of the EU and a founding member of the Council of Europe and the OECD. The Irish government has followed a policy of military neutrality through non-alignment since before World War II, and the country is consequently not a member of NATO,[14] although it is a member of Partnership for Peace and certain aspects of PESCO. Ireland's economy is advanced,[15] with one of Europe's major financial hubs being centred around Dublin. It ranks among the top ten wealthiest countries in the world in terms of both GDP and GNI per capita.[16][17][18][19] After joining the EC, the country's government enacted a series of liberal economic policies that helped to boost economic growth between 1995 and 2007, a time now often referred to as the Celtic Tiger period. A recession and reversal in growth then followed during the Great Recession, which was exacerbated by the bursting of the Irish property bubble.[20]

Name

Main article: Names of the Irish state

The Irish name for Ireland is Éire, deriving from Ériu, a goddess in Irish mythology.[21] The state created in 1922, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was "styled and known as the Irish Free State" (Saorstát Éireann).[22] The Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, says that "the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland". Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, "It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland." The 1948 Act does not name the state "Republic of Ireland", because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution.[23]

The government of the United Kingdom used the name "Eire" (without the diacritic) and, from 1949, "Republic of Ireland", for the state.[24] It was not until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, when the state dropped its claim to Northern Ireland, that it began calling the state "Ireland".[25][26]

The state is also informally called "the Republic", "Southern Ireland" or "the South";[27] especially when distinguishing the state from the island or when discussing Northern Ireland ("the North"). Irish republicans reserve the name "Ireland" for the whole island[26] and often refer to the state as "the Free State", "the 26 Counties",[26][28] or "the South of Ireland".[29] This is a "response to the partitionist view [...] that Ireland stops at the border".[30]

History

Main article: History of the Republic of Ireland

For the history of the entire island, see History of Ireland.

Home-rule movement

Main article: Home Rule movement

From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, the island of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the island's population of over 8 million fell by 30%. One million Irish died of starvation and disease and another 1.5 million emigrated, mostly to the United States.[31] This set the pattern of emigration for the century to come, resulting in constant population decline up to the 1960s.[32][33][34]

The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891). Charles Stewart Parnell addressing a meeting.

From 1874, and particularly under Charles Stewart Parnell from 1880, the Irish Parliamentary Party gained prominence. This was firstly through widespread agrarian agitation via the Irish Land League, which won land reforms for tenants in the form of the Irish Land Acts, and secondly through its attempts to achieve Home Rule, via two unsuccessful bills which would have granted Ireland limited national autonomy. These led to "grass-roots" control of national affairs, under the Local Government Act 1898, that had been in the hands of landlord-dominated grand juries of the Protestant Ascendancy.

Home Rule seemed certain when the Parliament Act 1911 abolished the veto of the House of Lords, and John Redmond secured the Third Home Rule Act in 1914. However, the Unionist movement had been growing since 1886 among Irish Protestants after the introduction of the first home rule bill, fearing discrimination and loss of economic and social privileges if Irish Catholics achieved real political power. In the late 19th and early 20th-century unionism was particularly strong in parts of Ulster, where industrialisation was more common in contrast to the more agrarian rest of the island, and where the Protestant population was more prominent, with a majority in four counties.[35] Under the leadership of the Dublin-born Sir Edward Carson of the Irish Unionist Party and the Ulsterman Sir James Craig of the Ulster Unionist Party, unionists became strongly militant, forming Ulster Volunteers in order to oppose "the Coercion of Ulster".[36] After the Home Rule Bill passed parliament in May 1914, to avoid rebellion with Ulster, the British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced an Amending Bill reluctantly conceded to by the Irish Party leadership. This provided for the temporary exclusion of Ulster from the workings of the bill for a trial period of six years, with an as yet undecided new set of measures to be introduced for the area to be temporarily excluded.

Revolution and steps to independence

Damage in Dublin city centre following the 1916 Easter Rising

Though it received the Royal Assent and was placed on the statute books in 1914, the implementation of the Third Home Rule Act was suspended until after the First World War which defused the threat of civil war in Ireland. With the hope of ensuring the implementation of the Act at the end of the war through Ireland's engagement in the war, Redmond and the Irish National Volunteers supported the UK and its Allies. 175,000 men joined Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) and 16th (Irish) divisions of the New British Army, while Unionists joined the 36th (Ulster) divisions.[37]

The remainder of the Irish Volunteers, who refused Redmond and opposed any support of the UK, launched an armed insurrection against British rule in the 1916 Easter Rising, together with the Irish Citizen Army. This commenced on 24 April 1916 with the declaration of independence. After a week of heavy fighting, primarily in Dublin, the surviving rebels were forced to surrender their positions. The majority were imprisoned, with fifteen of the prisoners (including most of the leaders) were executed as traitors to the UK. This included Patrick Pearse, the spokesman for the rising and who provided the signal to the volunteers to start the rising, as well as James Connolly, socialist and founder of the Industrial Workers of the World union and both the Irish and Scottish Labour movements. These events, together with the Conscription Crisis of 1918, had a profound effect on changing public opinion in Ireland against the British Government.[38]

In January 1919, after the December 1918 general election, 73 of Ireland's 105 Members of Parliament (MPs) elected were Sinn Féin members who were elected on a platform of abstentionism from the British House of Commons. In January 1919, they set up an Irish parliament called Dáil Éireann. This first Dáil issued a declaration of independence and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The declaration was mainly a restatement of the 1916 Proclamation with the additional provision that Ireland was no longer a part of the United Kingdom. The Irish Republic's Ministry of Dáil Éireann sent a delegation under Ceann Comhairle (Head of Council, or Speaker, of the Daíl) Seán T. O'Kelly to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, but it was not admitted.

Leinster House , Dublin. In 1922 a new parliament called the Oireachtas was established, of which Dáil Éireann became the lower house.

After the War of Independence and truce called in July 1921, representatives of the British government and the five Irish treaty delegates, led by Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton and Michael Collins, negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London from 11 October to 6 December 1921. The Irish delegates set up headquarters at Hans Place in Knightsbridge, and it was here in private discussions that the decision was taken on 5 December to recommend the treaty to Dáil Éireann. On 7 January 1922, the Second Dáil ratified the Treaty by 64 votes to 57.[39]

In accordance with the treaty, on 6 December 1922 the entire island of Ireland became a self-governing Dominion called the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann). Under the Constitution of the Irish Free State, the Parliament of Northern Ireland had the option to leave the Irish Free State one month later and return to the United Kingdom. During the intervening period, the powers of the Parliament of the Irish Free State and Executive Council of the Irish Free State did not extend to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland exercised its right under the treaty to leave the new Dominion and rejoined the United Kingdom on 8 December 1922. It did so by making an address to the King requesting, "that the powers of the Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland."[40] The Irish Free State was a constitutional monarchy sharing a monarch with the United Kingdom and other Dominions of the British Commonwealth. The country had a governor-general (representing the monarch), a bicameral parliament, a cabinet called the "Executive Council", and a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council.

Irish Civil War

Main article: Irish Civil War

Éamon de Valera, Irish political leader, pictured outside Ennis Courthouse in 1917. He who later be involved in introducing the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.

The Irish Civil War (June 1922 – May 1923) was the consequence of the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State.[41] Anti-treaty forces, led by Éamon de Valera, objected to the fact that acceptance of the treaty abolished the Irish Republic of 1919 to which they had sworn loyalty, arguing in the face of public support for the settlement that the "people have no right to do wrong".[42] They objected most to the fact that the state would remain part of the British Empire and that members of the Free State Parliament would have to swear what the anti-treaty side saw as an oath of fidelity to the British king. Pro-treaty forces, led by Michael Collins, argued that the treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire to and develop, but the freedom to achieve it".[43]

At the start of the war, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) split into two opposing camps: a pro-treaty IRA and an anti-treaty IRA. The pro-treaty IRA disbanded and joined the new National Army. However, because the anti-treaty IRA lacked an effective command structure and because of the pro-treaty forces' defensive tactics throughout the war, Michael Collins and his pro-treaty forces were able to build up an army with many tens of thousands of World War I veterans from the 1922 disbanded Irish regiments of the British Army, capable of overwhelming the anti-treatyists. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, machine-guns and ammunition boosted pro-treaty forces, and the threat of a return of Crown forces to the Free State removed any doubts about the necessity of enforcing the treaty. Lack of public support for the anti-treaty forces (often called the Irregulars) and the determination of the government to overcome the Irregulars contributed significantly to their defeat.[citation needed]

Constitution of Ireland 1937

The Constitution Committee meeting at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin.

Following a national plebiscite in July 1937, the new Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) came into force on 29 December 1937.[44] This replaced the Constitution of the Irish Free State and declared that the name of the state is Éire, or "Ireland" in the English language.[45] While Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution defined the national territory to be the whole island, they also confined the state's jurisdiction to the area that had been the Irish Free State. The former Irish Free State government had abolished the Office of Governor-General in December 1936. Although the constitution established the office of President of Ireland, the question over whether Ireland was a republic remained open. Diplomats were accredited to the king, but the president exercised all internal functions of a head of state.[46] For instance, the President gave assent to new laws with his own authority, without reference to King George VI who was only an "organ", that was provided for by statute law.

Ireland remained neutral during World War II, a period it described as The Emergency.[47] Ireland's Dominion status was terminated with the passage of The Republic of Ireland Act 1948, which came into force on 18 April 1949 and declared that the state was a republic.[48][49] At the time, a declaration of a republic terminated Commonwealth membership. This rule was changed 10 days after Ireland declared itself a republic, with the London Declaration of 28 April 1949. Ireland did not reapply when the rules were altered to permit republics to join. Later, the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 was repealed in Ireland by the Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act 1962.[50]

Recent history

In 1973 Ireland joined the European Economic Community along with the United Kingdom and Denmark. The country signed the Lisbon Treaty in 2007.

Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955, after having been denied membership because of its neutral stance during the Second World War and not supporting the Allied cause.[51] At the time, joining the UN involved a commitment to using force to deter aggression by one state against another if the UN thought it was necessary.[52]

Interest towards membership of the European Communities (EC) developed in Ireland during the 1950s, with consideration also given to membership of the European Free Trade Area. As the United Kingdom intended on EC membership, Ireland applied for membership in July 1961 due to the substantial economic linkages with the United Kingdom. The founding EC members remained sceptical regarding Ireland's economic capacity, neutrality, and unattractive protectionist policy.[53] Many Irish economists and politicians realised that economic policy reform was necessary. The prospect of EC membership became doubtful in 1963 when French President General Charles de Gaulle stated that France opposed Britain's accession, which ceased negotiations with all other candidate countries. In 1969 his successor, Georges Pompidou, was not opposed to British and Irish membership. Negotiations began and in 1972 the Treaty of Accession was signed. A referendum was held later that year which confirmed Ireland's entry into the bloc, and it finally joined the EC as a member state on 1 January 1973.[54]

The economic crisis of the late 1970s was fuelled by the Fianna Fáil government's budget, the abolition of the car tax, excessive borrowing, and global economic instability including the 1979 oil crisis.[55] There were significant policy changes from 1989 onwards, with economic reform, tax cuts, welfare reform, an increase in competition, and a ban on borrowing to fund current spending. This policy began in 1989–1992 by the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats government, and continued by the subsequent Fianna Fáil/Labour government and Fine Gael/Labour/Democratic Left government. Ireland became one of the world's fastest growing economies by the late 1990s in what was known as the Celtic Tiger period, which lasted until the Great Recession. Since 2014, Ireland has experienced increased economic activity.[56]

In the Northern Ireland question, the British and Irish governments started to seek a peaceful resolution to the violent conflict involving many paramilitaries and the British Army in Northern Ireland known as "The Troubles". A peace settlement for Northern Ireland, known as the Good Friday Agreement, was approved in 1998 in referendums north and south of the border. As part of the peace settlement, the territorial claim to Northern Ireland in Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland was removed by referendum. In its white paper on Brexit the United Kingdom government reiterated its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. With regard to Northern Ireland's status, it said that the UK Government's "clearly-stated preference is to retain Northern Ireland's current constitutional position: as part of the UK, but with strong links to Ireland".[57]

Geography

Main article: Geography of IrelandIreland from space

The state extends over an area of about five-sixths (70,273 km2 or 27,133 sq mi) of the island of Ireland (84,421 km2 or 32,595 sq mi), with Northern Ireland constituting the remainder. The island is bounded to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the northeast by the North Channel. To the east, the Irish Sea connects to the Atlantic Ocean via St George's Channel and the Celtic Sea to the southwest.

The Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic coast MacGillycuddy's Reeks, Ireland's highest mountain range

The western landscape mostly consists of rugged cliffs, hills and mountains. The central lowlands are extensively covered with glacial deposits of clay and sand, as well as significant areas of bogland and several lakes. The highest point is Carrauntoohil (1,038.6 m or 3,407 ft), located in the MacGillycuddy's Reeks mountain range in the southwest. River Shannon, which traverses the central lowlands, is the longest river in Ireland at 386 kilometres or 240 miles in length. The west coast is more rugged than the east, with numerous islands, peninsulas, headlands and bays.

Ireland is one of the least forested countries in Europe.[58] Until the end of the Middle Ages, the land was heavily forested. Native species include deciduous trees such as oak, ash, hazel, birch, alder, willow, aspen, elm, rowan and hawthorn, as well as evergreen trees such Scots pine, yew, holly and strawberry trees.[59] The growth of blanket bog and the extensive clearing of woodland for farming are believed to be the main causes of deforestation.[60] Today, only about 10% of Ireland is woodland,[61] most of which is non-native conifer plantations, and only 2% of which is native woodland.[62][63] The average woodland cover in European countries is over 33%.[61] According to Coillte, a state-owned forestry business, the country's climate gives Ireland one of the fastest growth rates for forests in Europe.[64] Hedgerows, which are traditionally used to define land boundaries, are an important substitute for woodland habitat, providing refuge for native wild flora and a wide range of insect, bird and mammal species.[65] It is home to two terrestrial ecoregions: Celtic broadleaf forests and North Atlantic moist mixed forests.[66]

Agriculture accounts for about 64% of the total land area.[67] This has resulted in limited land to preserve natural habitats, in particular for larger wild mammals with greater territorial requirements.[68] The long history of agricultural production coupled with modern agricultural methods, such as pesticide and fertiliser use, has placed pressure on biodiversity.[69]

Climate

Main article: Climate of Ireland

Wicklow Mountains National Park

The Atlantic Ocean and the warming influence of the Gulf Stream affect weather patterns in Ireland.[70] Temperatures differ regionally, with central and eastern areas tending to be more extreme. However, due to a temperate oceanic climate, temperatures are seldom lower than −5 °C (23 °F) in winter or higher than 26 °C (79 °F) in summer.[71] The highest temperature recorded in Ireland was 33.3 °C (91.9 °F) on 26 June 1887 at Kilkenny Castle in Kilkenny, while the lowest temperature recorded was −19.1 °C (−2.4 °F) at Markree Castle in Sligo.[72] Rainfall is more prevalent during winter months and less so during the early months of summer. Southwestern areas experience the most rainfall as a result of south westerly winds, while Dublin receives the least. Sunshine duration is highest in the southeast of the country.[70] The far north and west are two of the windiest regions in Europe, with great potential for wind energy generation.[73]

Ireland normally gets between 1100 and 1600 hours of sunshine each year, most areas averaging between 3.25 and 3.75 hours a day. The sunniest months are May and June, which average between 5 and 6.5 hours per day over most of the country. The extreme southeast gets most sunshine, averaging over 7 hours a day in early summer. December is the dullest month, with an average daily sunshine ranging from about 1 hour in the north to almost 2 hours in the extreme southeast. The sunniest summer in the 100 years from 1881 to 1980 was 1887, according to measurements made at the Phoenix Park in Dublin; 1980 was the dullest.[74]

Politics

Main article: Politics of the Republic of Ireland

Ireland is a constitutional republic with a parliamentary system of government. The Oireachtas is the bicameral national parliament composed of the President of Ireland and the two Houses of the Oireachtas: Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (Senate).[75] Áras an Uachtaráin is the official residence of the President of Ireland, while the houses of the Oireachtas meet at Leinster House in Dublin.Michael D. HigginsPresidentLeo VaradkarTaoiseachThe President serves as head of state, is elected for a seven-year term, and may be re-elected once. The President is primarily a figurehead, but is entrusted with certain constitutional powers with the advice of the Council of State. The office has absolute discretion in some areas, such as referring a bill to the Supreme Court for a judgment on its constitutionality.[76] Michael D. Higgins became the ninth President of Ireland on 11 November 2011.[77]

The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) serves as the head of government and is appointed by the President upon the nomination of the Dáil. Most Taoisigh have served as the leader of the political party that gains the most seats in national elections. It has become customary for coalitions to form a government, as there has not been a single-party government since 1989.[78]

The Dáil has 160 members (Teachtaí Dála) elected to represent multi-seat constituencies under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The Seanad is composed of sixty members, with eleven nominated by the Taoiseach, six elected by two university constituencies, and 43 elected by public representatives from panels of candidates established on a vocational basis.

The government is constitutionally limited to fifteen members. No more than two members can be selected from the Seanad, and the Taoiseach, Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Finance must be members of the Dáil. The Dáil must be dissolved within five years of its first meeting following the previous election,[79] and a general election for members of the Dáil must take place no later than thirty days after the dissolution. In accordance with the Constitution of Ireland, parliamentary elections must be held at least every seven years, though a lower limit may be set by statute law. The current government is a coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party with Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael as Taoiseach and Micheál Martin of Fianna Fáil as Tánaiste. Opposition parties in the current Dáil are Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, People Before Profit–Solidarity, Social Democrats, Aontú, as well as a number of independents.

Ireland has been a member state of the European Union since 1973. Citizens of the United Kingdom can freely enter the country without a passport due to the Common Travel Area, which is a passport-free zone comprising the islands of Ireland, Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. However, some identification is required at airports and seaports.

Local government

Main article: Local government in the Republic of Ireland

Government Buildings DublinDáil Éireann, lower house Chamber

The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 was the founding statute of the present system of local government, while the Twentieth Amendment to the constitution of 1999 provided for its constitutional recognition. The twenty-six traditional counties of Ireland are the basis of the local government areas, with the traditional counties of Cork, Dublin and Galway containing two or more local government areas. The Local Government Act 2001, as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014,[80] provides for a system of thirty-one local authorities – twenty-six county councils, two city and county councils, and three city councils.[80] Counties (with the exception of the three counties in Dublin) are divided into municipal districts. A second local government tier of town councils was abolished in 2014.

Fingal

Dublin City

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown

South Dublin

Wicklow

Wexford

Carlow

Kildare

Meath

Louth

Monaghan

Cavan

Longford

Westmeath

Offaly

Laois

Kilkenny

Waterford

Cork City

Cork

Kerry

Limerick

Tipperary

Clare

Galway

Galway City

Mayo

Roscommon

Sligo

Leitrim

Donegal

Local authorities are responsible for matters such as planning, local roads, sanitation, and libraries. The breaching of county boundaries should be avoided as far as practicable in drawing Dáil constituencies. Counties with greater populations have multiple constituencies, some of more than one county, but generally do not cross county boundaries. The counties are grouped into three regions, each with a Regional Assembly composed of members delegated by the various county and city councils in the region. The regions do not have any direct administrative role as such, but they serve for planning, coordination and statistical purposes.

Law

Main articles: Law of the Republic of Ireland, Courts of the Republic of Ireland, and Law enforcement in the Republic of Ireland

The Four Courts, completed in 1802, is the principal building for civil courts.

Ireland has a common law legal system with a written constitution that provides for a parliamentary democracy. The court system consists of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Circuit Court and the District Court, all of which apply the Irish law and hear both civil and criminal matters. Trials for serious offences must usually be held before a jury. The High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have authority, by means of judicial review, to determine the compatibility of laws and activities of other institutions of the state with the constitution and the law. Except in exceptional circumstances, court hearings must occur in public.[81][82]

The Criminal Courts of Justice is the principal building for criminal courts.

The Garda Síochána (lit. Guardians of the Peace), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí, is the state's civilian police force. The force is responsible for all aspects of civil policing, both in terms of territory and infrastructure. It is headed by the Garda Commissioner, who is appointed by the Government. Most uniformed members do not routinely carry firearms. Standard policing is traditionally carried out by uniformed officers equipped only with a baton and pepper spray.[83]

The Military Police is the corps of the Irish Army responsible for the provision of policing service personnel and providing a military police presence to forces while on exercise and deployment. In wartime, additional tasks include the provision of a traffic control organisation to allow rapid movement of military formations to their mission areas. Other wartime roles include control of prisoners of war and refugees.[84]

Ireland's citizenship laws relate to "the island of Ireland", including islands and seas, thereby extending them to Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Therefore, anyone born in Northern Ireland who meets the requirements for being an Irish citizen, such as birth on the island of Ireland to an Irish or British citizen parent or a parent who is entitled to live in Northern Ireland or the Republic without restriction on their residency,[85] may exercise an entitlement to Irish citizenship, such as an Irish passport.[86]

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Ireland

See also: Ireland–NATO relations

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and US President Joe Biden, at the White House, Washington, D.C., on 17 March 2023

Foreign relations are substantially influenced by membership of the European Union, although bilateral relations with the United Kingdom and United States are also important.[87] It held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on six occasions, most recently from January to June 2013.[88]

Ireland tends towards independence in foreign policy; thus the country is not a member of NATO and has a longstanding policy of military neutrality. This policy has led to the Irish Defence Forces contributing to peace-keeping missions with the United Nations since 1960, including during the Congo Crisis and subsequently in Cyprus, Lebanon and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[89]

Despite Irish neutrality during World War II, Ireland had more than 50,000 participants in the war through enlistment in the British armed forces. During the Cold War, Irish military policy, while ostensibly neutral, was biased towards NATO.[90] During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Seán Lemass authorised the search of Cuban and Czechoslovak aircraft passing through Shannon and passed the information to the CIA.[91] Ireland's air facilities were used by the United States military for the delivery of military personnel involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq through Shannon Airport. The airport had previously been used for the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, as well as the First Gulf War.[92]

Since 1999, Ireland has been a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and NATO's Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), which is aimed at creating trust between NATO and other states in Europe and the former Soviet Union.[93][94]

Military

Main article: Defence Forces (Ireland)

See also: Irish neutrality

Irish Army soldiers as part of Kosovo Force, 2010

Ireland is a neutral country,[95] and has "triple-lock" rules governing the participation of Irish troops in conflict zones, whereby approval must be given by the UN, the Dáil and Government.[96] Accordingly, its military role is limited to national self-defence and participation in United Nations peacekeeping.

The Irish Defence Forces (Óglaigh na hÉireann) are made up of the Army, Naval Service, Air Corps and Reserve Defence Force. It is small but well equipped, with almost 10,000 full-time military personnel and over 2,000 in reserve.[97][98] Daily deployments of the Defence Forces cover aid to civil power operations, protection and patrol of Irish territorial waters and EEZ by the Irish Naval Service, and UN, EU and PfP peace-keeping missions. By 1996, over 40,000 Irish service personnel had served in international UN peacekeeping missions.[99]

The Irish Air Corps is the air component of the Defence Forces and operates sixteen fixed wing aircraft and eight helicopters. The Irish Naval Service is Ireland's navy, and operates six patrol ships, and smaller numbers of inflatable boats and training vessels, and has armed boarding parties capable of seizing a ship and a special unit of frogmen. The military includes the Reserve Defence Forces (Army Reserve and Naval Service Reserve) for part-time reservists. Ireland's special forces include the Army Ranger Wing, which trains and operates with international special operations units. The President is the formal Supreme Commander of the Defence Forces, but in practice these Forces answer to the Government via the Minister for Defence.[100]

In 2017, Ireland signed the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[101]

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Republic of Ireland

Ireland is an open economy and ranks first for "high-value" foreign direct investment (FDI) flows.[102] Ireland ranks 5th of 187 (IMF) and 6th of 175 (World Bank) in GDP per capita as well as ranking in the top ten for GNI per capita. An alternative metric, known as modified Gross National Income (GNI), was created by the Central Statistics Office and is used by the Irish government to give a view of activity in the domestic economy after stripping out large multinational export movements which can often relate to intangible assets.[103] This is particularly relevant in Ireland's economy, as GDP disproportionately includes income from non-Irish owned companies, which often flows out of Ireland.[104] Foreign multinationals are the main driver of Ireland's economy, employing a quarter of the private sector workforce,[105] and paying 80% of Irish corporate taxes.[106][107][108] 14 of Ireland's top 20 firms (by 2017 turnover) are US-based multinationals[109] and 80% of foreign multinationals in Ireland are from the US.[110][111][109]

Ireland is part of the EU (dark blue & light blue) and Eurozone (dark blue).

Ireland adopted the euro currency in 2002 along with eleven other EU member states.[69] As of January 2023 there are 20 EU member states using the euro currency with Croatia the most recent member to join on 1 January 2023.[112]

Following the Great Recession and the bursting of the Irish property bubble, the country officially exited recession in 2010, driven by a growth in exports from US multinationals in Ireland.[113] However, due to a rise in the cost of public borrowing due to government guarantees of private banking debt, the Irish government accepted an €85 billion programme of assistance from the EU, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and bilateral loans from the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark.[114] Following three years of contraction, the economy grew by 0.7% in 2011 and 0.9% in 2012.[115] The unemployment rate was 14.7% in 2012, including 18.5% among recent immigrants.[116] In March 2016 the unemployment rate was reported by the CSO to be 8.6%, down from a peak unemployment rate of 15.1% in February 2012.[117] In addition to unemployment, net emigration from Ireland between 2008 and 2013 totalled 120,100,[118] or some 2.6% of the total population according to the Census of Ireland 2011. One-third of the emigrants were aged between 15 and 24.[118] As of November 2022, unemployment had fallen back to 4.4%.[119][needs update]

Ireland exited its EU-IMF bailout programme on 15 December 2013.[120] Having implemented budget cuts, reforms and sold assets, Ireland was again able to access debt markets. Since then, Ireland has been able to sell long term bonds at record rates.[121] However, the stabilisation of the Irish credit bubble required a large transfer of debt from the private sector balance sheet (highest OECD leverage), to the public sector balance sheet (almost unleveraged, pre-crisis), via Irish bank bailouts and public deficit spending.[122][123] The transfer of this debt means that Ireland, in 2017, still has one of the highest levels of both public sector indebtedness, and private sector indebtedness, in the EU-28/OECD.[124][125][126][127][128][129]

Ireland became one of the main destinations for US pharmaceutical corporate tax inversions from 2009 to 2016.[130][131] The country has also became the largest foreign location for large US technology multinationals (i.e. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook), which delivered a GDP growth rate of 26.3% (and GNP growth rate of 18.7%) in 2015. This growth was subsequently shown to be due to Apple restructuring its "double Irish" subsidiary (Apple Sales International, currently under threat of a €13bn EU "illegal state aid" fine for preferential tax treatment).

Taxation policy

The transformation of Ireland's tax policy started with the creation of a 10% low-tax "special economic zone", called the International Financial Services Centre (or "IFSC"), in 1987.[132] In 1999, the entire country was effectively "turned into an IFSC" with the reduction of Irish corporation tax from 32% to 12.5%.[133][134] This accelerated the later stages of Ireland's transition from a predominantly agricultural economy into a knowledge and service economy initially focused on property and construction and later focused on attracting mainly US multinationals from high-tech, life sciences, and financial services industries seeking to avail of Ireland's low corporation tax rates and favourable corporate tax system.

The multinational tax schemes foreign firms use in Ireland materially distort Irish economic statistics. This reached a climax with the "leprechaun economics" GDP/GNP growth rates of 2015 (as Apple restructured its Irish subsidiaries in 2015). The Central Bank of Ireland introduced a new statistic, Modified gross national income, to remove these distortions. GNI* is 30% below GDP (or, GDP is 143% of GNI).[135][136][137][138][139]

From the creation of the IFSC, the country experienced strong and sustained economic growth which fuelled a dramatic rise in Irish consumer borrowing and spending, and Irish construction and investment, which became known as the Celtic Tiger period.[140][141] By 2007, Ireland had the highest private sector debt in the OECD with a household debt-to-disposable income ratio of 190%. Global capital markets, who had financed Ireland's build-up of debt in the Celtic Tiger period by enabling Irish banks to borrow in excess of the domestic deposit base (to over 180% at peak[142]), withdrew support in the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Their withdrawal from the over-borrowed Irish credit system would precipitate a deep Irish property correction which then led to the Post-2008 Irish banking crisis.[143][140]

Ireland's successful "low-tax" economy opens it to accusations of being a "corporate tax haven",[144][145][146] and led to it being "blacklisted" by Brazil.[147][148] A 2017 study ranks Ireland as the 5th largest global Conduit OFC, which legally route funds to tax havens. A serious challenge is the passing of the US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (whose FDII and GILTI regimes target Ireland's multinational tax schemes).[149][150][151][152] The EU's 2018 Digital Sales Tax (DST)[153] (and desire for a CCCTB[154]) is also seen as an attempt to restrict Irish "multinational tax schemes" by US technology firms.[155][156][157]

Trade

The International Financial Services Centre in Dublin

Although multinational corporations dominate Ireland's export sector, exports from other sources also contribute significantly to the national income. The activities of multinational companies based in Ireland have made it one of the largest exporters of pharmaceutical agents, medical devices and software-related goods and services in the world. Ireland's exports also relate to the activities of large Irish companies (such as Ryanair, Kerry Group and Smurfit Kappa) and exports of mineral resources including zinc and lead concentrates. The country also has significant deposits of gypsum and smaller quantities of copper, silver, gold, barite, and dolomite.[69] Tourism in Ireland contributes about 4% of GDP and is a significant source of employment.

Other goods exports include agri-food, cattle, beef, dairy products, and aluminum. Ireland's major imports include data processing equipment, chemicals, petroleum and petroleum products, textiles, and clothing. Financial services provided by multinational corporations based at the Irish Financial Services Centre also contribute to Irish exports. The difference between exports (€89.4 billion) and imports (€45.5 billion) resulted an annual trade surplus of €43.9 billion in 2010,[158] which is the highest trade surplus relative to GDP achieved by any EU member state.

The EU is by far the country's largest trading partner, accounting for 57.9% of exports and 60.7% of imports. Prior to Brexit, the United Kingdom was the most important trading partner within the EU, accounting for 15.4% of exports and 32.1% of imports. Outside the EU, the United States accounted for 23.2% of exports and 14.1% of imports in 2010.[158]

Energy

Main article: Energy in Ireland

A wind farm in County Wexford

ESB, Bord Gáis Energy and Airtricity are the three main electricity and gas suppliers in Ireland. There are 19.82 billion cubic metres of proven reserves of gas.[69][159] Natural gas extraction previously occurred at the Kinsale Head until its exhaustion. The Corrib gas field was due to come on stream in 2013/14. In 2012, the Barryroe field was confirmed to have up to 1.6 billion barrels of oil in reserve, with between 160 and 600 million recoverable.[160] That could provide for Ireland's entire energy needs for up to 13 years, when it is developed in 2015/16.

There have been significant efforts to increase the use of renewable and sustainable forms of energy in Ireland, particularly in wind power, with 3,000 MegaWatts[161] of wind farms being constructed, some for the purpose of export.[162] The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has estimated that 6.5% of Ireland's 2011 energy requirements were produced by renewable sources.[163] The SEAI has also reported an increase in energy efficiency in Ireland with a 28% reduction in carbon emissions per house from 2005 to 2013.[164]

As of 2021, Ireland was the 24th largest wind energy producer in the world and the 3rd ranked in 2020 on a per capita basis.[165]

Transport

Main articles: Transport in Ireland, Rail transport in Ireland, and Roads in Ireland

The country's three main international airports at Dublin, Shannon and Cork serve many European and intercontinental routes with scheduled and chartered flights. The London to Dublin air route is the ninth busiest international air route in the world, and also the busiest international air route in Europe, with 14,500 flights between the two in 2017.[166][167] In 2015, 4.5 million people took the route, at that time, the world's second-busiest.[166] Aer Lingus is the flag carrier of Ireland, although Ryanair is the country's largest airline. Ryanair is Europe's largest low-cost carrier,[168] the second largest in terms of passenger numbers, and the world's largest in terms of international passenger numbers.[169]

Iarnród Éireann trains at Heuston station

Railway services are provided by Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail), which operates all internal intercity, commuter and freight railway services in the country. Dublin is the centre of the network with two main stations, Heuston station and Connolly station, linking to the country's cities and main towns. The Enterprise service, which runs jointly with Northern Ireland Railways, connects Dublin and Belfast. The whole of Ireland's mainline network operates on track with a gauge of 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm), which is unique in Europe and has resulted in distinct rolling stock designs. Dublin's public transport network includes the DART, Luas, Dublin Bus, and dublinbikes.[170]

Motorways, national primary roads and national secondary roads are managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, while regional roads and local roads are managed by the local authorities in each of their respective areas. The road network is primarily focused on the capital, but motorways connect it to other major Irish cities including Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway.[171]

Dublin is served by major infrastructure such as the East-Link and West-Link toll-bridges, as well as the Dublin Port Tunnel. The Jack Lynch Tunnel, under the River Lee in Cork, and the Limerick Tunnel, under the River Shannon, were two major projects outside Dublin.[172]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the Republic of Ireland

See also: Historical population of Ireland

Population of Ireland since 1951

Genetic research suggests that the earliest settlers migrated from Iberia following the most recent ice age.[173] After the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age, migrants introduced a Celtic language and culture. Migrants from the two latter eras still represent the genetic heritage of most Irish people.[174][175] Gaelic tradition expanded and became the dominant form over time. Irish people are a combination of Gaelic, Norse, Anglo-Norman, French, and British ancestry.

The population of Ireland stood at 5,149,139 in 2022, an increase of 8% since 2016.[176] As of 2011[update], Ireland had the highest birth rate in the European Union (16 births per 1,000 of population).[177] In 2014, 36.3% of births were to unmarried women.[178] Annual population growth rates exceeded 2% during the 2002–2006 intercensal period, which was attributed to high rates of natural increase and immigration.[179] This rate declined somewhat during the subsequent 2006–2011 intercensal period, with an average annual percentage change of 1.6%. The total fertility rate (TFR) in 2017 was estimated at 1.80 children born per woman, below the replacement rate of 2.1, it remains considerably below the high of 4.2 children born per woman in 1850.[180] In 2018 the median age of the Irish population was 37.1 years.[181]

At the time of the 2022 census, the number of non-Irish nationals was recorded at 631,785. This represents an 8% increase from the 2016 census figure of 535,475.[182] The five largest sources of non-Irish nationals were Poland (93,680), the UK (83,347), India (45,449), Romania (43,323), Lithuania (31,177), and Latvia (27,338) respectively. The non-Irish nationalities which saw the largest increase from 2016 were India (+33,984), Romania (+14,137), Brazil (+13,698), Ukraine (+10,006). The non-Irish nationalities which saw the largest decrease from 2016 were Poland (-28,835), UK (-19,766), Lithuania (-5,375), Latvia (-1,633), and Slovakia (-1,117).[183]

See also: List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland

Largest urban centres by population (2022 census)[184]

DublinCork

#

Settlement

Population

#

Settlement

Population

LimerickGalway

1

Dublin

1,263,219

11

Ennis

27,923

2

Cork

222,526

12

Carlow

27,351

3

Limerick

102,287

13

Kilkenny

27,184

4

Galway

85,910

14

Naas

26,180

5

Waterford

60,079

15

Tralee

26,079

6

Drogheda

44,135

16

Newbridge

24,366

8

Dundalk

43,112

17

Balbriggan

24,322

7

Swords

40,776

18

Portlaoise

23,494

9

Navan

33,886

19

Athlone

22,869

10

Bray

33,512

20

Mullingar

22,667

Languages

Main articles: Languages of Ireland, Irish language, Hiberno-English, and Mid Ulster English

Percentage of population speaking Irish daily (outside the education system) in the 2011 census

The Irish Constitution describes Irish as the "national language" and the "first official language", but English (the "second official language") is the dominant language. In the 2016 census, about 1.75 million people (40% of the population) said they were able to speak Irish but, of those, under 74,000 spoke it on a daily basis.[185] Irish is spoken as a community language only in a small number of rural areas mostly in the west and south of the country, collectively known as the Gaeltacht. Except in Gaeltacht regions, road signs are usually bilingual.[186] Most public notices and print media are in English only. While the state is officially bilingual, citizens can often struggle to access state services in Irish and most government publications are not available in both languages, even though citizens have the right to deal with the state in Irish. Irish language media include the TV channel TG4, the radio station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and online newspaper Tuairisc.ie. In the Irish Defence Forces, all foot and arms drill commands are given in the Irish language.

As a result of immigration, Polish is the most widely spoken language in Ireland after English, with Irish as the third most spoken.[187] Several other Central European languages (namely Czech, Hungarian and Slovak), as well as Baltic languages (Lithuanian and Latvian) are also spoken on a day-to-day basis. Other languages spoken in Ireland include Shelta, spoken by Irish Travellers, and a dialect of Scots is spoken by some Ulster Scots people in Donegal.[188] Most secondary school students choose to learn one or two foreign languages. Languages available for the Junior Certificate and the Leaving Certificate include French, German, Italian and Spanish; Leaving Certificate students can also study Arabic, Japanese and Russian. Some secondary schools also offer Ancient Greek, Hebrew and Latin. The study of Irish is generally compulsory for Leaving Certificate students, but some may qualify for an exemption in some circumstances, such as learning difficulties or entering the country after age 11.[189]

Healthcare

Main article: Healthcare in the Republic of Ireland

RCSI Disease and Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin

Healthcare in Ireland is provided by both public and private healthcare providers.[190] The Minister for Health has responsibility for setting overall health service policy. Every resident of Ireland is entitled to receive health care through the public health care system, which is managed by the Health Service Executive and funded by general taxation. A person may be required to pay a subsidised fee for certain health care received; this depends on income, age, illness or disability. All maternity services are provided free of charge and children up to the age of 6 months. Emergency care is provided to patients who present to a hospital emergency department. However, visitors to emergency departments in non-emergency situations who are not referred by their GP may incur a fee of €100. In some circumstances this fee is not payable or may be waived.[191]

Anyone holding a European Health Insurance Card is entitled to free maintenance and treatment in public beds in Health Service Executive and voluntary hospitals. Outpatient services are also provided for free. However, the majority of patients on median incomes or above are required to pay subsidised hospital charges. Private health insurance is available to the population for those who want to avail of it.

The average life expectancy in Ireland in 2016 was 81.8 years (OECD 2016 list), with 79.9 years for men and 83.6 years for women.[192] It has the highest birth rate in the EU (16.8 births per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to an EU average of 10.7)[193] and a very low infant mortality rate (3.5 per 1,000 live births). The Irish healthcare system ranked 13th out of 34 European countries in 2012 according to the European Health Consumer Index produced by Health Consumer Powerhouse.[194] The same report ranked the Irish healthcare system as having the 8th best health outcomes but only the 21st most accessible system in Europe.

Education

Main article: Education in the Republic of Ireland

University College Cork was founded in 1845 and is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland.

Ireland has three levels of education: primary, secondary and higher education. The education systems are largely under the direction of the Government via the Minister for Education. Recognised primary and secondary schools must adhere to the curriculum established by the relevant authorities. Education is compulsory between the ages of six and fifteen years, and all children up to the age of eighteen must complete the first three years of secondary, including one sitting of the Junior Certificate examination.[195]

There are approximately 3,300 primary schools in Ireland.[196] The vast majority (92%) are under the patronage of the Catholic Church. Schools run by religious organisations, but receiving public money and recognition, cannot discriminate against pupils based upon religion or lack thereof. A sanctioned system of preference does exist, where students of a particular religion may be accepted before those who do not share the ethos of the school, in a case where a school's quota has already been reached.

The longroom at the Trinity College Library

The Leaving Certificate, which is taken after two years of study, is the final examination in the secondary school system. Those intending to pursue higher education normally take this examination, with access to third-level courses generally depending on results obtained from the best six subjects taken, on a competitive basis.[197] Third-level education awards are conferred by at least 38 Higher Education Institutions – this includes the constituent or linked colleges of seven universities, plus other designated institutions of the Higher Education and Training Awards Council. According to the 2022 US News rankings, Ireland is among the top twenty best countries for education.[198]

The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Ireland as having the fourth highest reading score, ninth highest science score and thirteenth highest mathematics score, among OECD countries, in its 2012 assessment.[199] In 2012, Irish students aged 15 years had the second highest levels of reading literacy in the EU.[200] Ireland also has 0.747 of the World's top 500 Universities per capita, which ranks the country in 8th place in the world.[201] Primary, secondary and higher (university/college) level education are all free in Ireland for all EU citizens.[202] There are charges to cover student services and examinations.

In addition, 37 percent of Ireland's population has a university or college degree, which is among the highest percentages in the world.[203][204]

Religion

Main article: Religion in the Republic of Ireland

Religion in the Republic of Ireland[3]

Religion

Percent

Catholic Church

 

69.1%

Non-religious

 

14.5%

Protestant

 

4.0%

Muslim

 

1.6%

Not Stated

 

6.7%

Other

 

4.1%

Religious freedom is constitutionally provided for in Ireland, and the country's constitution has been secular since 1973. Christianity is the predominant religion, and while Ireland remains a predominantly Catholic country, the percentage of the population who identified as Catholic on the census has fallen sharply from 84.2 percent in the 2011 census to 78.3 percent in the most recent 2016 census. Other results from the 2016 census are: 4.2% Protestant, 1.3% Orthodox, 1.3% as Muslim, and 9.8% as having no religion.[205] According to a Georgetown University study, before 2000 the country had one of the highest rates of regular mass attendance in the Western world.[206]

While daily attendance was 13% in 2006, there was a reduction in weekly attendance from 81% in 1990 to 48% in 2006, although the decline was reported as stabilising.[207] In 2011, it was reported that weekly Mass attendance in Dublin was just 18%, and was even lower among younger generations.[208]

St Mary's Pro-Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Church in Dublin.

St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, is the national Cathedral of the Church of Ireland.

The Church of Ireland, at 2.7% of the population, is the second largest Christian denomination. Membership declined throughout the twentieth century, but experienced an increase early in the 21st century, as have other small Christian denominations. Other significant Protestant denominations are the Presbyterian Church and Methodist Church. Immigration has contributed to a growth in Hindu and Muslim populations. In percentage terms, Orthodox Christianity and Islam were the fastest growing religions, with increases of 100% and 70% respectively.[209]

Ireland's patron saints are Saint Patrick, Saint Bridget and Saint Columba, with Saint Patrick commonly recognised as the patron saint. Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated on 17 March in Ireland and abroad as the Irish national day, with parades and other celebrations.

As with other predominantly Catholic European states, Ireland underwent a period of legal secularisation in the late twentieth century. In 1972, the article of the Constitution naming specific religious groups was deleted by the Fifth Amendment in a referendum. Article 44 remains in the Constitution: "The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion." The article also establishes freedom of religion, prohibits endowment of any religion, prohibits the state from religious discrimination, and requires the state to treat religious and non-religious schools in a non-prejudicial manner.

Religious studies was introduced as an optional Junior Certificate subject in 2001. Although most schools are run by religious organisations, a secularist trend is occurring among younger generations.[210]

Culture

Main article: Culture of Ireland

Ireland's culture was for centuries predominantly Gaelic, and it remains one of the six principal Celtic nations. Following the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 12th century, and gradual British conquest and colonisation beginning in the 16th century, Ireland became influenced by English and Scottish culture. Subsequently, Irish culture, though distinct in many aspects, shares characteristics with the rest of the Anglosphere, Catholic Europe, and other Celtic regions. The Irish diaspora, one of the world's largest and most dispersed, has contributed to the globalisation of Irish culture, producing many prominent figures in art, music, and science.

Literature

Main article: Irish literature

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

Ireland has made a significant contribution to world literature in both the English and Irish languages. Modern Irish fiction began with the publishing of the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Other writers of importance during the 18th century and their most notable works include Laurence Sterne with the publication of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. Numerous Irish novelists emerged during the 19th century, including Maria Edgeworth, John Banim, Gerald Griffin, Charles Kickham, William Carleton, George Moore, and Somerville and Ross. Bram Stoker is best known as the author of the 1897 novel Dracula.

James Joyce (1882–1941) published his most famous work Ulysses in 1922, which is an interpretation of the Odyssey set in Dublin. Edith Somerville continued writing after the death of her partner Martin Ross in 1915. Dublin's Annie M. P. Smithson was one of several authors catering for fans of romantic fiction in the 1920s and 1930s. After the Second World War, popular novels were published by, among others, Brian O'Nolan, who published as Flann O'Brien, Elizabeth Bowen, and Kate O'Brien. During the final decades of the 20th century, Edna O'Brien, John McGahern, Maeve Binchy, Joseph O'Connor, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, and John Banville came to the fore as novelists.

W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)

Patricia Lynch was a prolific children's author in the 20th century, while Eoin Colfer's works were NYT Best Sellers in this genre in the early 21st century.[211] In the genre of the short story, which is a form favoured by many Irish writers, the most prominent figures include Seán Ó Faoláin, Frank O'Connor and William Trevor. Well known Irish poets include Patrick Kavanagh, Thomas McCarthy, Dermot Bolger, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureates William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney (born in Northern Ireland but resided in Dublin). Prominent writers in the Irish language are Pádraic Ó Conaire, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Séamus Ó Grianna, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.

The history of Irish theatre begins with the expansion of the English administration in Dublin during the early 17th century, and since then, Ireland has significantly contributed to English drama. In its early history, theatrical productions in Ireland tended to serve political purposes, but as more theatres opened and the popular audience grew, a more diverse range of entertainments were staged. Many Dublin-based theatres developed links with their London equivalents, and British productions frequently found their way to the Irish stage. However, most Irish playwrights went abroad to establish themselves. In the 18th century, Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan were two of the most successful playwrights on the London stage at that time. At the beginning of the 20th century, theatre companies dedicated to the staging of Irish plays and the development of writers, directors and performers began to emerge, which allowed many Irish playwrights to learn their trade and establish their reputations in Ireland rather than in Britain or the United States. Following in the tradition of acclaimed practitioners, principally Oscar Wilde, Literature Nobel Prize laureates George Bernard Shaw (1925) and Samuel Beckett (1969), playwrights such as Seán O'Casey, Brian Friel, Sebastian Barry, Brendan Behan, Conor McPherson and Billy Roche have gained popular success.[212] Other Irish playwrights of the 20th century include Denis Johnston, Thomas Kilroy, Tom Murphy, Hugh Leonard, Frank McGuinness, and John B. Keane.

Music and dance

Main articles: Irish music and Irish dance

Irish traditional music has remained vibrant, despite globalising cultural forces, and retains many traditional aspects. It has influenced various music genres, such as American country and roots music, and to some extent modern rock. It has occasionally been blended with styles such as rock and roll and punk rock. Ireland has also produced many internationally known artists in other genres, such as rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Ireland's best selling musical act is the rock band U2, who have sold 170 million copies of their albums worldwide since their formation in 1976.[213]

Dublin-based rock group U2

There are a number of classical music ensembles around the country, such as the RTÉ Performing Groups.[214] Ireland also has two opera organisations: Irish National Opera in Dublin, and the annual Wexford Opera Festival, which promotes lesser-known operas, takes place during October and November.

Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1965.[215] Its first win was in 1970, when Dana won with All Kinds of Everything.[216] It has subsequently won the competition six more times,[217][218] the highest number of wins by any competing country. The phenomenon Riverdance originated as an interval performance during the 1994 contest.[219]

Irish dance can broadly be divided into social dance and performance dance. Irish social dance can be divided into céilí and set dancing. Irish set dances are quadrilles, danced by 4 couples arranged in a square, while céilí dances are danced by varied formations of couples of 2 to 16 people. There are also many stylistic differences between these two forms. Irish social dance is a living tradition, and variations in particular dances are found across the country. In some places dances are deliberately modified and new dances are choreographed. Performance dance is traditionally referred to as stepdance. Irish stepdance, popularised by the show Riverdance, is notable for its rapid leg movements, with the body and arms being kept largely stationary. The solo stepdance is generally characterised by a controlled but not rigid upper body, straight arms, and quick, precise movements of the feet. The solo dances can either be in "soft shoe" or "hard shoe".

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Ireland

The Dublin Custom House is a neoclassical building from the late 18th century.Powerscourt Estate, near Enniskerry in County Wicklow, was built in the 18th century

Ireland has a wealth of structures,[220] surviving in various states of preservation, from the Neolithic period, such as Brú na Bóinne, Poulnabrone dolmen, Castlestrange stone, Turoe stone, and Drombeg stone circle.[221] As Ireland was never a part of the Roman Empire, ancient architecture in Greco-Roman style is extremely rare, in contrast to most of Western Europe. The country instead had an extended period of Iron Age architecture.[222] The Irish round tower originated during the Early Medieval period.

Christianity introduced simple monastic houses, such as Clonmacnoise, Skellig Michael and Scattery Island. A stylistic similarity has been remarked between these double monasteries and those of the Copts of Egypt.[223] Gaelic kings and aristocrats occupied ringforts or crannógs.[224] Church reforms during the 12th century via the Cistercians stimulated continental influence, with the Romanesque styled Mellifont, Boyle and Tintern abbeys.[225] Gaelic settlement had been limited to the Monastic proto-towns, such as Kells, where the current street pattern preserves the original circular settlement outline to some extent.[226] Significant urban settlements only developed following the period of Viking invasions.[224] The major Hiberno-Norse Longphorts were located on the coast, but with minor inland fluvial settlements, such as the eponymous Longford.

The ruins of Monasterboice in County Louth are of early Christian settlements.

Castles were built by the Anglo-Normans during the late 12th century, such as Dublin Castle and Kilkenny Castle,[227] and the concept of the planned walled trading town was introduced, which gained legal status and several rights by grant of a Charter under Feudalism. These charters specifically governed the design of these towns.[228] Two significant waves of planned town formation followed, the first being the 16th- and 17th-century plantation towns, which were used as a mechanism for the Tudor English kings to suppress local insurgency, followed by 18th-century landlord towns.[229] Surviving Norman founded planned towns include Drogheda and Youghal; plantation towns include Portlaoise and Portarlington; well-preserved 18th-century planned towns include Westport and Ballinasloe. These episodes of planned settlement account for the majority of present-day towns throughout the country.

Brick architecture of multi-storey buildings in Merrion Square, Dublin

Gothic cathedrals, such as St Patrick's, were also introduced by the Normans.[230] Franciscans were dominant in directing the abbeys by the Late Middle Ages, while elegant tower houses, such as Bunratty Castle, were built by the Gaelic and Norman aristocracy.[231] Many religious buildings were ruined with the Dissolution of the Monasteries.[232] Following the Restoration, palladianism and rococo, particularly country houses, swept through Ireland under the initiative of Edward Lovett Pearce, with the Houses of Parliament being the most significant.[233]

With the erection of buildings such as The Custom House, Four Courts, General Post Office and King's Inns, the neoclassical and Georgian styles flourished, especially in Dublin.[233] Georgian townhouses produced streets of singular distinction, particularly in Dublin, Limerick and Cork. Following Catholic Emancipation, cathedrals and churches influenced by the French Gothic Revival emerged, such as St Colman's and St Finbarre's.[233] Ireland has long been associated with thatched roof cottages, though these are nowadays considered quaint.[234]

Capital Dock in Dublin is the tallest building in the Republic of Ireland.

Beginning with the American designed art deco church at Turner's Cross, Cork in 1927, Irish architecture followed the international trend towards modern and sleek building styles since the 20th century.[235] Other developments include the regeneration of Ballymun and an urban extension of Dublin at Adamstown.[236] Since the establishment of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority in 1997, the Dublin Docklands area underwent large-scale redevelopment, which included the construction of the Convention Centre Dublin and Grand Canal Theatre.[237] Completed in 2018, Capital Dock in Dublin is the tallest building in the Republic of Ireland achieving 79 metres (259 feet) in height (the Obel Tower in Belfast, Northern Ireland being the tallest in Ireland). The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland regulates the practice of architecture in the state.[238]

Media

Main article: Media of the Republic of Ireland

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) is Ireland's public service broadcaster, funded by a television licence fee and advertising.[239] RTÉ operates two national television channels, RTÉ One and RTÉ Two. The other independent national television channels are Virgin Media One, Virgin Media Two, Virgin Media Three and TG4, the latter of which is a public service broadcaster for speakers of the Irish language. All these channels are available on Saorview, the national free-to-air digital terrestrial television service.[240] Additional channels included in the service are RTÉ News Now, RTÉjr, and RTÉ One +1. Subscription-based television providers operating in Ireland include Virgin Media and Sky.

The BBC's Northern Irish division is widely available in Ireland. BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland are available in pay television providers including Virgin and Sky as well as via signal overspill by Freeview in border counties.

Supported by the Irish Film Board, the Irish film industry grew significantly since the 1990s, with the promotion of indigenous films as well as the attraction of international productions like Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan.[241]

A large number of regional and local radio stations are available countrywide. A survey showed that a consistent 85% of adults listen to a mixture of national, regional and local stations on a daily basis.[242] RTÉ Radio operates four national stations, Radio 1, 2fm, Lyric fm, and RnaG. It also operates four national DAB radio stations. There are two independent national stations: Today FM and Newstalk.

Ireland has a traditionally competitive print media, which is divided into daily national newspapers and weekly regional newspapers, as well as national Sunday editions. The strength of the British press is a unique feature of the Irish print media scene, with the availability of a wide selection of British published newspapers and magazines.[241]

Eurostat reported that 82% of Irish households had Internet access in 2013 compared to the EU average of 79% but only 67% had broadband access.[243]

Cuisine

See also: Irish cuisine and List of Irish dishes

A pint of Guinness

Irish cuisine was traditionally based on meat and dairy products, supplemented with vegetables and seafood.

Examples of popular Irish cuisine include boxty, colcannon, coddle, stew, and bacon and cabbage. Ireland is known for the full Irish breakfast, which involves a fried or grilled meal generally consisting of rashers, egg, sausage, white and black pudding, and fried tomato. Apart from the influence by European and international dishes, there has been an emergence of a new Irish cuisine based on traditional ingredients handled in new ways.[244] This cuisine is based on fresh vegetables, fish, oysters, mussels and other shellfish, and the wide range of hand-made cheeses that are now being produced across the country. Shellfish have increased in popularity, especially due to the high quality shellfish available from the country's coastline. The most popular fish include salmon and cod. Traditional breads include soda bread and wheaten bread. Barmbrack is a yeasted bread with added sultanas and raisins, traditionally eaten on Halloween.[245]

Popular everyday beverages among the Irish include tea and coffee. Alcoholic drinks associated with Ireland include Poitín and the world-famous Guinness, which is a dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate in Dublin. Irish whiskey is also popular throughout the country and comes in various forms, including single malt, single grain, and blended whiskey.[244]

Sports

Main article: Sport in Ireland

Croke Park stadium is the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Gaelic football and hurling are the traditional sports of Ireland as well as popular spectator sports.[246] They are administered by the Gaelic Athletics Association on an all-Ireland basis. Other Gaelic games organised by the association include Gaelic handball and rounders.[247]

Association football (soccer) is the third most popular spectator sport and has the highest level of participation.[248] Although the League of Ireland is the national league, the English Premier League is the most popular among the public.[249] The Republic of Ireland national football team plays at international level and is administered by the Football Association of Ireland.[250]

The Irish Rugby Football Union is the governing body of rugby union, which is played at local and international levels on an all-Ireland basis, and has produced players such as Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara, who were on the team that won the Grand Slam in 2009.[251]

The success of the Irish Cricket Team in the 2007 Cricket World Cup has led to an increase in the popularity of cricket, which is also administered on an all-Ireland basis by Cricket Ireland.[252] Ireland are one of the twelve Test playing members of the International Cricket Council, having been granted Test status in 2017. Professional domestic matches are played between the major cricket unions of Leinster, Munster, Northern, and North West.

Netball is represented by the Ireland national netball team.

Golf is another popular sport in Ireland, with over 300 courses countrywide.[253] The country has produced several internationally successful golfers, such as Pádraig Harrington, Shane Lowry and Paul McGinley.

Horse racing has a large presence, with influential breeding and racing operations in the country. Racing takes place at courses at The Curragh Racecourse in County Kildare, Leopardstown Racecourse just outside Dublin, and Galway. Ireland has produced champion horses such as Galileo, Montjeu, and Sea the Stars.

Boxing is Ireland's most successful sport at an Olympic level. Administered by the Irish Athletic Boxing Association on an all-Ireland basis, it has gained in popularity as a result of the international success of boxers such as Bernard Dunne, Andy Lee and Katie Taylor.

Some of Ireland's highest performers in athletics have competed at the Olympic Games, such as Eamonn Coghlan and Sonia O'Sullivan. The annual Dublin Marathon and Dublin Women's Mini Marathon are two of the most popular athletics events in the country.[254]

Rugby league is represented by the Ireland national rugby league team and administered by Rugby League Ireland (who are full member of the Rugby League European Federation) on an all-Ireland basis. The team compete in the European Cup (rugby league) and the Rugby League World Cup. Ireland reached the quarter-finals of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup as well as reaching the semi-finals in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.[255] The Irish Elite League is a domestic competition for rugby league teams in Ireland.[256]

While Australian rules football in Ireland has a limited following, a series of International rules football games (constituting a hybrid of the Australian and Gaelic football codes) takes place annually between teams representing Ireland and Australia.[257] Baseball and basketball are also emerging sports in Ireland, both of which have an international team representing the island of Ireland. Other sports which retain a following in Ireland include cycling, greyhound racing, horse riding, and motorsport.

Society

See also: Abortion in the Republic of Ireland and LGBT rights in the Republic of Ireland

Ireland ranks fifth in the world in terms of gender equality.[258] In 2011, Ireland was ranked the most charitable country in Europe, and second most charitable in the world.[259] Contraception was controlled in Ireland until 1979, however, the receding influence of the Catholic Church has led to an increasingly secularised society.[260] A constitutional ban on divorce was lifted following a referendum in 1995. Divorce rates in Ireland are very low compared to European Union averages (0.7 divorced people per 1,000 population in 2011) while the marriage rate in Ireland is slightly above the European Union average (4.6 marriages per 1,000 population per year in 2012). Abortion had been banned throughout the period of the Irish state, first through provisions of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and later by the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. The right to life of the unborn was protected in the constitution by the Eighth Amendment in 1983; this provision was removed following a referendum, and replaced it with a provision allowing legislation to regulate the termination of pregnancy. The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 passed later that year provided for abortion generally during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and in specified circumstances after that date.[261]

Capital punishment is constitutionally banned in Ireland, while discrimination based on age, gender, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, religion, race or membership of the travelling community is illegal. The legislation which outlawed homosexual acts was repealed in 1993.[262][263] The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 permitted civil partnerships between same-sex couples.[264][265][266] The Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 allowed for adoption rights for couples other than married couples, including civil partners and cohabitants, and provided for donor-assisted human reproduction; however, significant sections of the Act have yet to be commenced.[267] Following a referendum held on 23 May 2015, Ireland became the eighteenth country to provide in law for same-sex marriage, and the first to do so by popular vote.[268]

Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce an environmental levy for plastic shopping bags in 2002 and a public smoking ban in 2004. Recycling in Ireland is carried out extensively, and Ireland has the second highest rate of packaging recycling in the European Union. It was the first country in Europe to ban incandescent lightbulbs in 2008 and the first EU country to ban in-store tobacco advertising and product display in 2009.[269][270] In 2015, Ireland became the second country in the world to introduce plain cigarette packaging.[271] Despite the above measures to discourage tobacco use, smoking rates in Ireland remain at approximately 15.4% as of 2020.[272]

State symbols

Further information: Symbols of the Republic of Ireland

The seal of the president of Ireland, incorporating a harp

The state shares many symbols with the island of Ireland. These include the colours green and blue, animals such as the Irish wolfhound and stags, structures such as round towers and celtic crosses, and designs such as Celtic knots and spirals. The shamrock, a type of clover, has been a national symbol of Ireland since the 17th century when it became customary to wear it as a symbol on St. Patrick's Day. These symbols are used by state institutions as well as private bodies in the Republic of Ireland.

The flag of Ireland is a tricolour of green, white and orange. The flag originates with the Young Ireland movement of the mid-19th century but was not popularised until its use during the Easter Rising of 1916.[273] The colours represent the Gaelic tradition (green) and the followers of William of Orange in Ireland (orange), with white representing the aspiration for peace between them.[274] It was adopted as the flag of the Irish Free State in 1922 and continues to be used as the sole flag and ensign of the state. A naval jack, a green flag with a yellow harp, is set out in Defence Forces Regulations and flown from the bows of warships in addition to the national flag in limited circumstances (e.g. when a ship is not underway). It is based on the unofficial green ensign of Ireland used in the 18th and 19th centuries and the traditional green flag of Ireland dating from the 16th century.[275]

Like the national flag, the national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann (English: A Soldier's Song), has its roots in the Easter Rising, when the song was sung by the rebels. Although originally published in English in 1912,[276] the song was translated into Irish in 1923 and the Irish-language version is more commonly sung today.[276] The song was officially adopted as the anthem of the Irish Free State in 1926 and continues as the national anthem of the state.[277] The first four bars of the chorus followed by the last five comprise the presidential salute.

The arms of Ireland originate as the arms of the monarchs of Ireland and was recorded as the arms of the King of Ireland in the 12th century. From the union of the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1603, they have appeared quartered on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. Today, they are the personal arms of the president of Ireland whilst he or she is in office and are flown as the presidential standard. The harp symbol is used extensively by the state to mark official documents, Irish coinage and on the seal of the president of Ireland.

See also

Europe portalIreland portal

List of Ireland-related topics

Outline of the Republic of Ireland

Notes

^ a b Article 4 of the Constitution of Ireland declares that the name of the state is Ireland; Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 declares that Republic of Ireland is "the description of the State".[278]

^ Article 8 of the Constitution states that Irish is "the national language" and "the first official language", and that English is "a second official language".

^ Prior to 2002, Ireland used the Irish pound as its circulated currency. The euro was introduced as an accounting currency in 1999.

^ The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

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Bibliography

Gilland, Karin (2001). Ireland: Neutrality and the International Use of Force. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-21804-7.

Greenwood, Margaret (2003). Rough guide to Ireland. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-84353-059-7.

Mangan, James Clarence (2007). James Clarence Mangan – His Selected Poems. Read Books. ISBN 978-1-4086-2700-6.

Meinardus, Otto Friedrich August (2002). Two thousand years of Coptic Christianity. American Univ in Cairo Press. ISBN 977-424-757-4.

Moody, Theodore William (2005). A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and early Ireland. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821737-4.

Further reading

Constitution of Ireland (the 1937 constitution)

The Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922

J. Anthony Foley and Stephen Lalor (ed), Gill & Macmillan Annotated Constitution of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan, 1995) (ISBN 0-7171-2276-X)

Geary, Michael J. (2009). An Inconvenient Wait: Ireland's Quest for Membership of the EEC, 1957–73. Institute of Public Administration. ISBN 978-1-904541-83-7.

FSL Lyons (1 January 1985). Ireland Since the Famine. ISBN 978-0006860051.

Ward, Alan J. (1994). The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland 1782–1992. Irish Academic Press. ISBN 0-7165-2528-3.

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Where to go

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Soaring cliffs, buzzing little towns and a way of life forever inspired by the sea, that's what you'll find on the world’s longest defined coastal touring route.

Start your journey

Amazing cliff-walks, Game of Thrones® adventures, Titanic attractions – let Northern Ireland stir your soul.

Embrace a Giant Spirit

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Did you know that there are over 5,000 years of history hidden amidst these lush landscapes, winding rivers and glorious gardens?

Uncover thrilling tales

Cutting-edge food, traditional pubs and incredible Titanic history take Belfast to the next level – welcome to one of Ireland's most exciting cities.

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Causeway Coastal Route

6

days

92

miles

Causeway Coastal Route

The Causeway Coastal Route is one of Northern Ireland's greatest adventures.

From Belfast To Derry~Londonderry

#Beaches

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Experience Now

Trip idea

48 hours in Derry~Londonderry and the Causeway Coast

2

days

84

miles

48 hours in Derry~Londonderry and the Causeway Coast

Explore the very best of Northern Ireland from the heart of the Walled City!

From Causeway Coast To Derry~Londonderry

#FillYourHeartWithIreland

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Experience Now

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Donegal's northern headlands

4

days

267

miles

Donegal's northern headlands

Take a journey to the edge of the world...

From Inishowen To Killibegs

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Surfers' paradise

2

days

99

miles

Surfers' paradise

Sea and land combine to create a vista of pure poetry on the Wild Atlantic Way.

From Donegal To Mayo

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Experience Now

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Great Western Greenway

4

days

78

miles

Great Western Greenway

Uncover the west of Ireland's most dramatic sights.

From Westport To Achill Island

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#CultureandHeritage

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Experience Now

Trip idea

Cliffs and coves

4

days

198

miles

Cliffs and coves

Be wowed with panoramic views from atop the Wild Atlantic Way's most dramatic cliff edges.

From Galway To Limerick

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A trip around the Ring of Kerry

2

days

114

miles

A trip around the Ring of Kerry

Experience Ireland at its wildest.

From Killarney To Killarney National Park

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Experience Now

Trip idea

Cycling the Waterford Greenway

2

days

50

miles

Cycling the Waterford Greenway

Grab your bike and take in the sites of this stunning cycling trail.

From Waterford city To Dungarvan

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Ireland's Ancient East from County Wexford

4

days

213

miles

Ireland's Ancient East from County Wexford

Explore gorgeous landscapes and dramatic histories around Ireland's Ancient East.

From Rosslare To Kilkenny city

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Experience Now

Trip idea

Explore Ireland's Ancient East on Dublin's doorstep

3

days

248

miles

Explore Ireland's Ancient East on Dublin's doorstep

Cinematic – that's the only word to describe what lies on Dublin's doorstep.

From Wicklow To Meath

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Experience Now

Trip idea

Ireland's Hidden Heartlands

5

days

301

miles

Ireland's Hidden Heartlands

Five days. 11 counties. One big adventure...

From Cavan Burren Park To Mitchelstown Caves

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Experience Now

Let Ireland inspire you!

Article

3 min read

Dublin city: top attractions

First time in Dublin? Here are some uniquely Dublin attractions you shouldn’t miss.

Dublin City

Article

3 min read

10 top Northern Ireland experiences

Fantastic food tours, Titanic trails and even walking on water!

Northern Ireland

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5 ways to tour the Wild Atlantic Way

Get your feet wet or hit the tarmac: how to explore the Wild Atlantic Way.

Article

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Charming towns of the Causeway Coastal Route

Get set for a glorious adventure amongst picturesque towns and scenic fishing villages.

Northern Ireland

Quiz

Take our fun St Patrick's quiz

Do you have the luck of the Irish? Test your St Patrick knowledge with our quirky quiz.

Article

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Belfast: top 9 attractions

Explore Belfast’s world-class museums, rich history, varied art scene and parkland

Belfast

Article

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Hidden gems of Ireland’s Ancient East

Wherever you go in Ireland’s Ancient East, you’ll find unbelievable experiences.

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From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the island of Ireland. For other uses, see Ireland (disambiguation).

Topographical map of Ireland

Ireland on a map of Europe

Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ (listen); Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] (listen); Ulster-Scots: Airlann) is an island in the North Atlantic. It is about 486 kilometres (302 miles) long and about 288 kilometres (179 miles) wide.[1] To the west of Ireland is the Atlantic Ocean; to the east of Ireland is the island of Great Britain. Over 6.4 million people lived on the island in 2016.[2][3]

Countries[change | change source]

Today, the island of Ireland is made up of two countries: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland:

The Republic of Ireland is a sovereign state and occupies 84% of the island. Its capital and largest city is Dublin. The official languages of the Republic are Irish and English. Even though Irish is official in the country, only a small part of the population is fluent or a native speaker. While the Irish language (or Gaelic) is taught in most schools, most people speak English in their day-to-day lives.[4]

Northern Ireland, which is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom, makes up the remaining 17% of Ireland and is in the north-east part of the island. It has a population of 5.33 million people,[3] and its capital and largest city is Belfast.

During the 1550s and the 1650s four plantations had taken place in Ireland.

From 1801 to 1921, all of Ireland was part of the same country, called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1919, a war broke out, the Irish War of Independence, and on December 6 1921, the Irish Free State became independent.[5] After a new constitution came into effect in 1937, the state became a republic. Northern Ireland stayed with the UK, and this would lead to The Troubles beginning in the 1960s and ending with the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998.

Facts[change | change source]

The flag colours of the Republic of Ireland are green, white and orange.

A symbol of Ireland is the shamrock.

Popular games in Ireland include Gaelic football and hurling.

The population of the Republic of Ireland is around 4.7 million.

The president of the Republic of Ireland is Michael D. Higgins.

The two parts of Ireland are the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The River Shannon, which runs from north to south, is the longest river on the island. Ireland has many lakes and Lough Neagh, in Northern Ireland, is the largest lake in Ireland. Ireland is known for its landscapes, music, history, and mythology.

The Great Potato Famine(1845 - 1849) was very bad; about 1 million people died.

Provinces and counties[change | change source]

Ireland is traditionally divided into four provinces and thirty-two counties. Twenty-six counties are in the Republic and six in Northern Ireland. Three of the provinces are entirely within the Republic (Connacht, Leicester and Munster), and one province (Ulster) has some counties in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland.

Connacht - Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo

Leinster - Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, County Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

Munster - Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford

Ulster - Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan (Republic of Ireland); Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone (Northern Ireland)

Main cities[change | change source]

Dublin is the largest city. It is the capital of the Republic of Ireland. Dublin was established as a Viking settlement in the 9th century. The population is 525,383 in Dublin City, and 1,270,603 in Co. Dublin.[6]

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. It has 483,000 people in the Greater Belfast urban area there are 267,000 in the city itself.[7] Shipbuilding used to be a major industry here. The Titanic was built in Belfast at the Harland and Wolff shipyard.

Armagh is a city in Northern Ireland. It is often called the 'Ecclesiastic Capital of Ireland' as it is the seat of both the Catholic Church and the (Protestant) Church of Ireland. The population is 14,590.[8]

Cork is the largest city in Munster. Corkonians often refer to it as 'the Real Capital'. The population is 119,230. but following a 2019 Cork boundary change|boundary extension in 2019, the population increased to c. 210,000.[9]

Derry (Or Londonderry) is the second largest city in Northern Ireland. Derry is notable for the Medieval city walls which still stand. Because the walls have never been breached, the city is nicknamed "The Maiden City". In 2013 Derry was the UK Capital of Culture. Many cultural events took place there during the year. The population is 83,652.[10]

History[change | change source]

See the main article: History of Ireland

During the last glacial period (the "ice age"), most of Ireland was covered with ice. After that, Ireland became covered with trees. The first people came to Ireland about 9,000 years ago, in the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic period). They were nomadic. Once food ran out in the place they lived, they would move to another place. Evidence of these people was found in Mount Sandel, Co. Derry.

About 4000 BC, in the New Stone Age (Neolithic period), the first farmers arrived in Ireland. These people cleared openings in the forest and built permanent settlements with houses and farmland. When people in this age died, they were buried in tombs called megaliths. Many megaliths are left standing today, such as portal dolmens and passage tombs.The most famous megalith is Newgrange passage tomb in co.Meath.

New settlers came around 2000BC, marking the start of the Bronze Age. Copper was mined mainly in Mount Gabriel, Co. Cork and tin was imported from Cornwall. These people used bronze to make weapons, such as swords. They also used it to make early forms of jewellery, such as sun discs and torcs. These settlers buried the dead in court tombs or wedge tombs, and burial places have been found with stone circles.

It is unknown when the Celts came to Ireland, but it is likely they brought the use of iron with them. The use of iron marks the start of the Iron Age. It is known that by about 300BC, the use of iron and Celtic culture was widespread in Ireland. The Celts lived in ring forts, hill forts, promontory forts and crannógs. It is thought that only the richer families and settlements lived in crannógs. These were man-made islands in the middle of lakes with houses on them.

Celtic Ireland was split into around 150 kingdoms called tuath. The king was elected from the royal family. Below the king were the Nobles, and the Aos Dána, who were people with special skills, such as poets, Druids (priests), judges and craftsmen.

By the early 6th century, Ireland was mostly Christian through the work of St. Patrick and other missionaries. Druids were replaced by priests and monks. Monasteries soon were built such as Glendalough in co. Wicklow. Glendalough and other monasteries built round towers for safety when Vikings attacked. Small monasteries were also built in remote places, the most famous being Skellig Michael, off the coast of co. Kerry.

At this time many hand-written manuscripts were created by the monasteries. They include the Cathach, the Book of Durrow, and the Book of Kells. Monks also produced fine silver chalices, croziers and brooches, and carved high crosses.

In 1169, Anglo-Norman lords invaded Ireland. They were led by Strongbow who landed at Passage East, Co. Waterford. The Anglo-Normans conquered many parts of Ireland in the following 60 years. They introduced their way of life to the Irish people. The feudal system was soon introduced in Ireland as a means of organising land. Castles were built to defend the land like Trim Castle, Co. Meath. During the Middle Ages, Ireland's first proper towns were built.

From 1801 until 1921, all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1921 Northern Ireland was created and 'partitioned' from the south. Northern Ireland has stayed within the United Kingdom since then. The full name of the UK is 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.

In 1921 the south became the Irish Free State. In 1937 the Irish Free State adopted a new constitution which named the state 'Ireland', and in 1948 this state passed the Republic of Ireland Act which declared it to be a republic.

Migration[change | change source]

Many Irish people have left Ireland and moved to the United States, Canada, Australia, and South America. The Great Famine (1845 to 1849 inclusive) forced many to leave; it is estimated almost a million people died of starvation, and a million more emigrated. From a maximum of over 8 million in 1841, the total Irish population dropped to just over 4 million in the 1940s. Since then, the population has grown to over 6 million. This has been helped by the economic growth of the "Celtic Tiger" and since 2004 immigration from countries in Eastern Europe such as Poland.

Today almost 80 million people around the world are descended from Irish immigants.

Climate[change | change source]

Ireland has an oceanic climate.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.5 °C (92.3 °F), on 16 July 1876 in Dublin.[11]

Top 5 warmest days[change | change source]

Rank

Temperature

Date

Location

1.

33.5 °C (92.3 °F)

16 July 1876

Dublin

2.

33.4 °C (92.1 °F)

18 July 2022

Allenwood

3.

33.3 °C (91.9 °F)

26 June 1887

Kilkenny

4.

32.2 °C (90.0 °F)

2 August 1990

Limerick

5.

31.9 °C (89.4 °F)

17 July 2022

Allenwood

Sports[change | change source]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ireland.

Ireland's main sports are Gaelic Games (Gaelic football, hurling, etc.) and soccer.

The unique game of hurling

The many sports played and followed in Ireland include Gaelic games (mainly Gaelic football, hurling and camogie), horse racing, show jumping, greyhound racing, basketball, fishing, handball, motorsport, MMA, boxing, target shooting and tennis. Hockey, golf, rowing, cricket, rugby union and Olympic target shooting are organised on an all-island basis, with a single team representing the whole of Ireland in international competitions. Other sports, such as soccer and netball, have separate organizing bodies in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

As Northern Ireland is a constituent nation of the United Kingdom it also sends a Northern Ireland Team to the Commonwealth Games. At the Olympic Games, a person from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either Ireland or Great Britain.

Soccer is the most popular team sport in terms of participation. According to the Irish Sports Monitor 2015 annual report, 4.8% of adults over 15 participate in Soccer. Gaelic football 2%, camogie 1.2, rugby 1.1%. Individual exercise pursuits are most popular with 43% of all sport participated by individuals on their own. Personal exercise 13.7%, running 8.2%, swimming 8%, cycling 5.5%, dancing 3%, golf 2.7%, weights 2.3%, yoga 1.5% and pilates 1.4%.[12]

Soccer is by far the most popular team pursuit for males at 8.8% with Gaelic football attracting 3.4%. Personal exercise 13.4% and running 8.9% are the most popular male activities. Team sports do not figure highly amongst females with dancing at 4.6% and yoga 2.4% are two of the highest shared activities.[13]

Given the variety of sports in Ireland, it is of interest to note how the government's Capital Sports programme 2017 allocated it's €56 million funds. €23.5 million went to the GAA which highlights the strength of the GAA lobby. €7.25 million to soccer, Rugby €3.1 million, tennis €2.64 million, golf €1.97 million, sailing €1.21 million, athletics just under €1 million, diving €451,000 while other sports did not fare so well.[14]

Gaelic Football is one of the most popular sports in Ireland in terms of match attendance, and in 2003 had 34% of total sports attendances at events in the Republic of Ireland, followed by hurling at 23%, soccer at 16% and rugby at 8%. Initiative's ViewerTrack study, which measured 2005 sports audiences, showed the sport's highest-profile match, the All-Ireland Football Final, to be the most watched event of the nation's sporting year. Soccer is the most played team sport in Ireland.[15]

References[change | change source]

↑ "Location, size, and extent - Ireland - located, area". www.nationsencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 20 August 2018.

↑ "Census 2016 Summary Results" (PDF). Retrieved June 21 2019

↑ 3.0 3.1 "2017 Mid Year Population Estimates for Northern Ireland". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. 11 June 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2018.

↑ "Irish Language and the Gaeltacht - CSO - Central Statistics Office". Retrieved 20 August 2018.

↑ "League of Nations Treaty Series" (PDF). League of Nations. Retrieved June 19 2019

↑ "Dublin's population could grow by 150k in three years - adding pressure to housing market". 9 April 2019. Irish Examiner. April 9 2019

↑ "Population Of Belfast 2019". Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019. UK Population 2018. retrieved June 21 2019

↑ "Census 2011 Population Statistics for Armagh Settlement". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2019.

↑ "Census 2016 Sapmap Area: Settlements County Cork City". Central Statistics Office (Ireland). Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.

↑ "Population Estimates for Derry Local Government District". Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2019. Retrieved June 21 2019

↑ https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/dublin/highest-temperatures

↑ Anne, McCarthy. "Minister O'Donovan Launches Irish Sports Monitor Report". www.sportireland.ie. Archived from the original on 17 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.

↑ Anne, McCarthy. "Minister O'Donovan Launches Irish Sports Monitor Report". www.sportireland.ie. Archived from the original on 17 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.

↑ Sports Capital Programme 2017 Review (PDF). dttas.ie (Report). Department of Transport, Tourism And Sport. April 2018. pp. 26–27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2018.

↑ "Gaelic football is most attended sport, according to Sports Council survey". Johnny Watterston, Irish Times. October 2 2014

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The essential guide to visiting Ireland

The essential guide to visiting Ireland

Skip to contentNewslettersSubscribeMenuTRAVELThe essential guide to visiting IrelandHere’s everything you need to know about exploring the Emerald Isle—when to go, where to stay, what to do, and how to get around.Bicyclists roll along the 26-mile-long Great Western Greenway. Running from Westport to Achill in County Mayo, it’s one of many scenic trails around Ireland.Photograph By PAULO NUNES DOS SANTOS/The New York Times/ReduxByYvonne GordonAugust 02, 2023•10 min readFast FactsCapitals: Republic of Ireland: Dublin. Northern Ireland: Belfast.Time zone: Republic of Ireland: Irish Standard Time (GMT+1 Daylight Savings). Northern Ireland: British Summer Time (GMT +0 Standard).Main airports: Dublin Airport, Ireland’s largest airport, is serviced by major airlines. Shannon Airport, in County Clare, has flights to 30 European destinations and four U.S. airports. (Dublin and Shannon airports have U.S. Preclearance, so U.S.-bound passengers can clear U.S. customs and immigration before boarding). Cork Airport has flights to 32 European destinations. Northern Ireland’s main airport, Belfast International, has flights to the U.K. and European destinations.Ferry ports: Dublin, Rosslare, Cork, Belfast, and Larne service car ferries from the U.K. and Europe.Currency: Republic of Ireland: Euro. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and uses pound sterling.Fun fact: Ireland doesn’t have snakes.Why you should visit IrelandLandscapes as green and lovely as everyone says. Literary giants in Dublin; Titanic history in Belfast. A pint and good craic in a traditional pub. The lure of Celtic legends.Best time to visit IrelandSpring: Easter and St. Patrick’s Day draw crowds, but not quite as many as in the summer. It’s a bit easier to navigate popular sites in the bigger cities like Dublin and enjoy wildflower-dotted areas along the western coast.Summer: The peak season brings plenty of events, like the Galway Arts Festival. Cycle a trail like the Great Western Greenway, kayak a blueway, or hike in Connemara National Park.Spectators marvel at a 30-foot-tall mechanical creature highlighted in “Dragon—The Forgotten World,” a parade by Planete Vapeur that rolled through the streets during the Galway International Arts Festival, on July 21, 2023.Photograph By Photo by Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty ImagesAutumn: October festivals, such as the Cork Jazz Festival and the enthralling Púca Halloween festival in County Meath, start filling the calendar. It’s also a great time to sample the local harvest at farmers markets in towns and villages.Winter: It rarely snows in Ireland, but it rains quite a bit. There are fewer crowds, so winter visitors will feel more of the local vibe, especially in the pubs. Christmas is big, with holiday events like Winterval in Waterford.Lay of the landCities: Capital city Dublin is easy to explore on foot, with Trinity College, home of the Book of Kells, not far from the EPIC Irish emigration museum beside the River Liffey. Laid-back Galway has a thriving arts and music scene plus ferries to the Aran Islands. County Cork and Limerick are market counties, with the historic English Market at the former and the Milk Market in the latter. Known for its shipping history—and mid20th-century troubles—Belfast is also gaining recognition for its food scene.East: In County Wicklow, get lost in Powerscourt and Mount Usher gardens or hike in Wicklow Mountains National Park. In County Meath, history buffs find Neolithic monuments Newgrange and Knowth, plus other Boyne Valley treasures like Trim Castle and Loughcrew Cairns.Southeast: The city of Waterford’s Viking roots are on display at the Waterford Treasures museums. In Kilkenny city, follow the Medieval Mile walking trail and explore the narrow alleyways that reveal hundreds of years of history.Southwest: Backdropped by mountains like the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, gorgeous peninsulas, and colorful harbors, Cork and Kerry draw artists and writers. Killarney National Park and the Dingle Peninsula are sightseeing favorites during long summer days.West: The sea-lashed Cliffs of Moher and the otherworldly limestone plateaus of The Burren are just a few miles apart in County Clare. To the north, County Galway is home to the blanket bogs of Connemara. County Mayo preserves Céide Fields, one of the world’s oldest archaeological sites.(Follow the trail of Ireland’s legendary pirate queen.)Northwest: Flat-topped mountains like Ben Bulben and Knocknarea overlook County Sligo’s lively surfing scene. Donegal is famed for Sliabh Liag (Slieve League) sea cliffs, endless golden beaches, and hilly or lakeside hiking trails at Glenveagh National Park.The Midlands: The River Shannon, the country’s longest waterway, snakes through Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands and feeds into Lough Derg, popular for boating. Clonmacnoise, founded in A.D. 544, preserves the ruins of one of Ireland’s most influential monastic sites.Northern Ireland: The Causeway Coast leads to the natural wonders Giant’s Causeway and the Glens of Antrim. Visit Derry for its walled city and history. The Mourne Mountains are ideal for solitude and sea views.Ireland is a land of castles, like Bunratty Castle, which rises above the banks of the River Shannon in County Clare.Photograph By CHRIS HILL, Nat Geo Image CollectionGetting around IrelandBy plane: There are daily flights between Dublin Airport and regional hubs including Kerry Airport and Donegal Airport.By bus: Bus Eireann is the national operator with local services in cities and towns. It also runs the inter-city Expressway. Private bus services, such as GoBus.ie, connects cities. Plan journeys via the app or website Transport for Ireland. Services in Northern Ireland are run by Translink.By train: The rail network is operated by Irish Rail/ Iarnród Éireann, with good connections between main cities and towns. Trains from Dublin to Galway or Cork take around 2.5 hours. Rail services in Northern Ireland are operated by Translink.By car: Driving in Ireland is on the left. Ireland’s network of motorways (M) includes the M1 from Dublin to Belfast, the M6 crossing the country from Dublin to Galway, and the M8 from Dublin to Cork. Road types include national (N), regional (R), and local (L). Regional and local roads can be narrow and winding, so allow for plenty of time.By boat: There are seasonal and year-round passenger ferries servicing Ireland’s populated offshore islands such as the Aran Islands. These are for foot passengers (visitors can’t bring cars to the islands).(Uncover the hidden legends along Ireland’s southern coast.)With its endlessly walkable streets and lively vibe, Dublin makes a great home base for visiting Ireland.Photograph By LOLA AKINMADE AKERSTROM, Nat Geo Image CollectionKnow before you goIrish language: Irish and English are the country’s two official languages. Irish (a Gaelic language but not called Gaelic in Ireland) was the country’s first language until the 19th century, when English became dominant. While 40 percent of the population can speak some Irish, it is only spoken daily by about 2 percent of the population, particularly in the Gaeltacht, where place names and road signs are in Irish.Hours: Some restaurants open only three or four days, especially in smaller towns or during low season (October to Easter). Kitchens can close as early as 8 p.m.LGBTQ+: In 2015, Ireland became the first country to approve same-sex marriage by referendum. Ireland has lively LGBTQ+ communities in the larger cities like Dublin, Galway, and Belfast, and a calendar of pride festivals.How to visit Ireland sustainablyOutdoors: Help preserve habitats by staying on the main trails and boardwalks. Consider joining a tour led by a registered guide to reduce your impact. Leave no trace—remove trash when picnicking or camping.Shopping: Purchase from independent shops, markets, and small farms. Look for sustainable souvenirs and locally-made gifts like Aran wool sweaters, pottery and ceramics (the label will indicate where they are made).Dining: Ireland is a land of fishers, farmers, and makers, so eating local isn’t too difficult. Plus, there are several sustainable tourism initiatives, including Origin Green’s certification program for food producers. Food tours are easy eco-friendly options, but you can also find individual spots on Tourism Ireland’s website. Tap water is drinkable, so bring a reusable bottle.What to readA Short History of Ireland, by John Gibney. The historian takes you through five centuries, from 1500 to 2000, covering key events including the Great Famine and the fight for independence.Dubliners, by James Joyce. The famed novelist’s collection of short stories depicts life in Dublin in the 1900s.Travelers’ Tales Ireland: True Stories, by James O’Reilly, Sean O’Reilly, and Larry Habegger. Short stories like kayaking around an island and climbing Ireland’s holiest mountain capture some of the country’s magic.(For more tips on what to do in Ireland, see our Explorer’s Guide.)Go with Nat Geo: with National Geographic Expeditions offers Ireland: Tales and Traditions of the Emerald Isle and Iconic Ireland itineraries. Yvonne Gordon is an award-winning travel writer based in Dublin. Follow her on Instagram.Related TopicsCITY GUIDESTOURSCULTURAL TOURISMTOURISMFOOD TOURISMADVENTURE TRAVELYou May Also LikeTRAVELVisiting Ireland? 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Ireland travel - Lonely Planet | Europe

and travel - Lonely Planet | EuropeLonely PlanetDestinationsPlanningInspirationShopSearch SavesOpen main menuIreland Back to topDavid Sciora / Stocksy UnitedGallery+ 4IrelandEuropeA small island with a memorable punch, Ireland's breathtaking landscapes and friendly, welcoming people leave visitors floored. You'll want to go back for more.Best Time to VisitBest Places to VisitLeave the planning to a local expertExperience the real Ireland. Let a local expert handle the planning for you.Get startedAttractionsMust-see attractionsNewgrangeCounty MeathNewgrange is one of the most remarkable prehistoric sites in Europe, famous for the illumination of its passage and tomb during the winter solstice sun…Old Library & Book of KellsGrafton Street & St Stephen's GreenTrinity's greatest treasures are found within the Old Library and the incredible Long Room is one of the most photographed rooms in Dublin, for good…Sliabh LiagSouthwestern DonegalThe Cliffs of Moher get more publicity, but the cliffs of Sliabh Liag are higher. In fact, these spectacular sea cliffs are among the highest in Europe,…Kilmainham GaolDublinIf you have any desire to understand Irish history – especially the long-running resistance to British colonial rule – then a visit to this former prison…Trinity CollegeGrafton Street & St Stephen's GreenTrinity College Dublin is Ireland's most prestigious university, a collection of elegant Georgian and Victorian buildings, cobbled squares and nature…National GalleryDublinA magnificent Caravaggio and a breathtaking collection of works by Jack B Yeats – William Butler Yeats' younger brother – are the main reasons to visit…Slane CastleCounty MeathSlane Castle is a 300-year-old sprawling estate on the banks of the River Boyne in County Meath.  The neo-gothic castle and grounds  are open to visitors…Guinness StorehouseDublinThe most popular attraction in Dublin is this multimedia homage to Guinness. An old fermentation plant in the St James's Gate Brewery has been converted…View more attractionsView more attractionsAttractionsTop picks from our travel experts15 of the best things to do in IrelandCurated by Yolanda EvansCharles FortKinsaleOne of Europe's best-preserved star-shaped artillery forts, this vast 17th-century fortification would be worth a visit for its spectacular views alone…National Leprechaun MuseumNorth of the LiffeyOstensibly designed as a child-friendly museum of Irish folklore, this is really a romper room for kids sprinkled with bits of fairy tale. Which is no bad…House of Waterford CrystalCounty WaterfordThis large modern complex combines a retail shop and cafe with a factory offering a 90-minute tour that shows how world-famous Waterford crystal is…Lough Glencar WaterfallCounty SligoThe poet WB Yeats is among those who've fallen for this 15m tumbling torrent, set in the most beautiful area of Lough Glencar – it features in his poem…Spike IslandCobhThis low-lying green island in Cork Harbour was once an important part of the port's defences, topped by an 18th-century artillery fort. In the second…Dún AonghasaAran IslandsDún Aonghasa is one of the largest prehistoric stone forts in Europe and stands guard over Inis Mór on the edge of a 100-metre sheer cliff drop.Tí Joe Watty's BarAran IslandsWarmed by peat fires, the island's oldest and most popular pub has trad sessions every night in summer from 9pm or 10pm, and weekends the rest of the year…Ashford CastleCounty MayoHigh-end luxury, exquisite interiors and superb personalised service define Ashford Castle, once home to the Guinness family. Old-world elegance is…Lough Eske CastleCounty DonegalOccupying vast woodland and garden grounds at the lake's south end, this imposing and restored 19th-century castle was razed by fire in 1939 and is now…Planning ToolsExpert guidance to help you plan your tripBest Things to DoFrom seaweed baths to seafood feasts, Ireland has something to tempt the senses of any traveler. Read article TransportationThe big decision in getting around Ireland is whether to go by car or use public transport. Here's our handy guide to find what's right for your trip. Read article Visa RequirementsWho wouldn't jump at the chance to visit the Emerald Isle? Here’s how to check if you need a visa before setting off on your Irish adventure. Read article Traveling with KidsIreland is a delight to visit with children. Here's our guide to 12 of the best family-friendly natural attractions, outdoor adventures and cultural sites.Read article Best Road TripsWhat’s the best way to get the best of the natural beauty and famous charm of Ireland? Hit the (rural) road on these top road trips. Read article View morePlan with a localExperience the real IrelandLet a local expert craft your dream trip.Get startedArticlesLatest stories from IrelandRead more articlesFilter by interest:All InterestsAdventure TravelArt & CultureBeaches, Coasts & IslandsFood & Drink All Interests Adventure Travel Art & Culture Beaches, Coasts & Islands Food & DrinkPublic TransportThese 10 road trips will bring you into the heart of IrelandMar 9, 2024 • 7 min readWhat’s the best way to get the best of the natural beauty and famous charm of Ireland? Hit the (rural) road on these top road trips. Hiking12 of the best hikes and walks in IrelandMar 7, 2024 • 8 min readHiking10 unmissable places to visit in IrelandMar 5, 2024 • 9 min readTips & Advice"Hands off Molly Malone" and other tips for visitors to IrelandMar 5, 2024 • 3 min readBeachesThe 10 best beaches in Ireland to visit no matter the seasonJan 29, 2024 • 7 min readFestivals & EventsThe best times to go to IrelandDec 19, 2023 • 8 min readFamily TravelThe ultimate guide to visiting Ireland with kidsDec 8, 2023 • 12 min readActivitiesWhere locals go: our Irish writers pick their favorite vacation spots in IrelandJul 19, 2023 • 5 min readTips & AdviceCopy My Trip: Sightseeing tour of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic WayJun 7, 2023 • 7 min readSustainable TravelIt takes days to reach Spain from Ireland by ferry - but it's more charming than the 2-hour flightJun 6, 2023 • 7 min readRead more articlesin partnership with getyourguideBook popular activities in IrelandGuidebooksPurchase our award-winning guidebooks

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