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IRELAND
The island of Ireland (Éire in Irish, Airlann in Ulster Scots) is the
third-largest island in Europe. It lies on the west side of the Irish
Sea, close to the island of Great Britain. It is composed of the
Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Ireland, a region of the
United Kingdom. The population of the island is about 5.6 million people.
The population of the Republic of Ireland recently passed 4 million for
the first time since 1871, due to immigration and increased birth rate .
Geography
The island of Ireland is located in northwest Europe in the north
Atlantic Ocean, west of Great Britain. It is approximately 53° north of
the equator and 8° west of the Greenwich meridian. It has a total area
of 84,116 km² (32,477 mi²). Ireland is separated from Britain by the
Irish Sea and from mainland Europe by the Celtic Sea.
A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. The highest
peak is Carrauntuohill (Irish: Corrán Tuathail), which is 1041 m (3414
feet). The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 113 km (70 mi)
the longest river in either Britain or Ireland, which flows south from
northwest County Cavan to meet the Atlantic just south of Limerick.
There are a large number of lakes, of which Lough Neagh is the largest.
The island's lush vegetation earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle."
Ireland is divided into four provinces, Connacht, Leinster, Munster and
Ulster, and 32 counties. Six of the nine Ulster counties form Northern
Ireland and the other 26 form the Republic of Ireland.
Politics
Politically, the island of Ireland is divided into:
The Republic of Ireland, capital - Dublin. This state is often simply
referred to internally and internationally as "Ireland" or "Éire".
Technically Ireland and Éire are the official names of the state while
the "Republic of Ireland" is its official description.
Northern Ireland, capital - Belfast, also referred to unofficially as
the 'Six Counties', the 'North of Ireland', and 'Ulster'. Northern
Ireland is a region of the United Kingdom.
This partition has existed since 1922, when the Irish Free State came
into being as an independent state. Prior to that, the entire island was
united politically under the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Prior to the Act of Union in 1800, it also had an all-Ireland parliament.
See Irish States (1171-present).
In a number of areas, the island operates officially as a single entity,
for example, in sport. The major religions, the Roman Catholic Church,
the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, are
organised on an all-island basis. 92% of the population of the Republic
of Ireland are Roman Catholic, and 40% in Northern Ireland. Some trades
unions are also organised on an all-Irish basis and associated with the
Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU) in Dublin, while others in
Northern Ireland are affiliated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in
the United Kingdom. The island also has a shared culture across the
divide in many other ways. Traditional Irish music, for example, though
showing some variance in all geographical areas, is broadly speaking the
same on both sides of the divide.
The island is often referred to as being part of the British Isles.
However, many people, especially those from the Republic, take exception
to this name, which seems to suggest that the whole island belongs to
Britain. For this reason, "Britain and Ireland" is commonly used as a
more neutral alternative. Another suggestion, although used much less,
is the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA).
History
The division of the island into "Northern" and "Republic" is a
relatively recent development, only coming about in 1920 after hundreds
of years of violent repression, penal laws and various failed rebellions
against English occupation. The island itself has been inhabited for
about 9,000 years. Not much is known of pre-Christian Ireland, the only
references are a few Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and
archaeology. Stone age inhabitants arrived sometime after 8000 BC, with
the culture progressing from Mesolithic to high Neolithic over the
course of three or four millennia. This saw the appearance of huge stone
monuments, many of them astronomically aligned. The Bronze Age, which
began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze
ornaments and weapons. See the Early history of Ireland for a fuller
treatment of this period of Irish history. The Iron Age in Ireland is
associated with the Celts, who colonised Ireland in a series of waves
between the 8th and 1st centuries BC. The Gael, the last wave of Celts,
conquered the island and divided it into five or more kingdoms. The
Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. Ptolemy in 100 CE accurately
records Ireland's geography and tribes. The exact relationship between
Rome and the tribes of Hibernia is unclear.
Tradition maintains that in 432 AD, St. Patrick arrived on the island
and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to
Christianity. The druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of
the new faith. Irish scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning
and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving
Latin learning during the Dark Ages. The arts of manuscript
illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such
treasures as the Book of Kells, ornate jewelry, and the many carved
stone crosses that dot the island. Sites dating to this period include
clochans, ringforts and promontory forts. This golden age was
interrupted in the 9th century by 200 years of intermittent warfare with
waves of Viking raiders who plundered monasteries and towns. The Vikings
eventually founded many seacoast towns in Ireland.
In 1172, King Henry II of England gained Irish lands, and from the 13th
century, English law began to be introduced. English rule was largely
limited to the area around Dublin known as the Pale initially, but this
began to expand in the 16th century with the final collapse of the
Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th
century due to manipulation by the British government. In the middle of
the 1800's the country suffered a huge potato famine. The ruling local
elite's laissez-faire approach to this catastrophe meant that millions
were starving, spurring emigration waves to Britain, North America and
Australia. The result was that, between deaths and emigration, the
population dropped from over 8 million before the Famine to 4.4 million
in 1911. From that time, English influence and expansion grew, and with
it spread the English language. Over time there grew a movement to shake
off British rule, and for Ireland to become independent.
An attempt was made to gain independence for Ireland with the 1916
Easter Rising, an insurrection largely confined to Dublin. Though
support for the insurgents was not entirely widespread, the suppression
of the rebellion, and subsequent executions by the British government
galvanised support for independance. A war of independance, or the
Anglo-Irish War raged from 1919 to 1921, resulting in the creation of
Southern Ireland (becoming the Irish Free State) and Northern Ireland
(which remained in the Union).
The new Irish Free State struggled throughout its early years.
Unemployment and emigration were high. In 1937, a new constitution
proclaimed the state of Éire (or Ireland), followed by its becoming a
republic in 1949. The neutrality of the state throughout World War II
saved it from the horrors of the war, but it was hit badly by rationing
of food, and coal in particular (peat production became a priority
during this time). Even until the 1980s, Ireland continued to be a
"backward" country, struggling to modernise and thrive. The 1990s saw
the emergence of a period of rapid economic growth, modernisation, and a
turnaround for the state.
The parliament of Northern Ireland, based in Stormont, was
Unionist-dominated. In the 1960s, a civil rights movement for Catholics
in the North gathered pace. Tensions came to a head with the events of
Bloody Sunday, and the worst years (early 1970s) of what became known as
The Troubles resulted. Three decades of conflict followed, with the
violence spilling across to Great Britain in the 1980s.
More recently, the Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998 has brought a
degree of powersharing to Northern Ireland, giving both unionists, who
favour it remaining a part of the United Kingdom, and nationalists, who
favour it becoming part of the Irish state, a hand in running its
affairs. However, the power conferred by the agreement is limited, and
the agreement has come close to breaking down on a number of occasions.
The political future of Northern Ireland remains unclear once again.
Sport
The Irish rugby team includes players from the north and the south, and
the Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport on both sides of the
border. Gaelic football is the most popular form of football and is
played and organised on an All-Ireland basis; Hurling, a faster, more
violent precursor of field hockey, is another popular traditional Irish
sport, with teams from all 32 counties north and south competing - both
these sports are governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).
Boxing is also an All-Ireland sport governed by the Irish Amateur Boxing
Association. However, when Ireland was partitioned, organisation of
football (soccer) in the Republic was transferred from the Irish
Football Association (IFA) to the new Football Association of Ireland
(FAI). The IFA remained in charge of the game in Northern Ireland.
Culture
Literature and the arts
For a comparatively small country, Ireland has made a disproportionate
contribution to world literature in all its branches. Poetry in Irish
represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest
examples dating from the 6th century. In more recent times, Ireland has
produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature; George Bernard
Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney.
The early history of Irish visual art is generally considered to begin
with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is traced
through Bronze age artefacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and
the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the medieval
period. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong
indigenous tradition of painting emerged, including such figures as John
Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.
Music and dance
The Irish tradition of folk music and dance is also widely known. In the
middle years of the 20th century, as Irish society was attempting to
modernise, traditional music tended to fall out of favour, especially in
urban areas. During the 1960s, and inspired by the American folk music
movement, there was a revival of interest in the Irish tradition. This
revival was led by such groups as The Dubliners, The Chieftans, the
Clancy Brothers and Sweeney's Men and individuals like Sean O'Riada.
Before long, groups and musicians including Horslips, Van Morrison and
even Thin Lizzy were incorporating elements of traditional music into a
rock idiom to form a unique new sound. 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
as a matter of course. This trend can be seen more recently in the work
of bands like U2 and The Corrs.
Transportation
Air
There are many small airports throughout Ireland, the three most
important international airports in the Republic are Cork Airport,
Shannon Airport and Dublin Airport. In Northern Ireland there are three
main airports. Belfast International provides routes to Ireland and
Britain as well as many international services the most recent of which
is Belfast-New York (Newark). The City of Derry Airport and Belfast City
often provide few flights to locations outside of the United Kingdom;
their are also several small airports in the Republic that limit their
services to Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Rail
The rail network in Ireland was developed by various private companies
with the help of British Government funding throughout the late 19th
century, reaching its greatest extent around the 1920s. The standard
gauge of 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) was standardised upon thoughout the island,
although there were narrow gauge (3 ft) railways also. Ireland also has
one of the largest freight railways in Europe, operated by Bord na Móna,
this company has a narrow gauge railway of 1200 miles.
Road
The island of Ireland has a quite extensive road network, despite the
low quality of many of these until recently. Northern Ireland has
historically had better main roads, while the Republic of Ireland has an
increasing motorway network, focused on Dublin.
Energy
For much of their existence electricity networks in the Republic of
Ireland and Northern Ireland were entirely separate. Both networks were
designed and constructed independently, but are now connected with three
interlinks and also connected by Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE)
though Great Britain to mainland Europe. The Electricity Supply Board
(ESB) in the Republic drove a rural electrification programme in the
1940s until the 1970s.
The natural gas network is also now all-island, with a connection from
Northern Ireland to Scotland.
Ireland, north and south has faced difficulties in providing continuous
power at peak load. Especially during the winter, power outages have
been forced due to inadequate power generation. The situation in
Northern Ireland is complicated by the issue of private companies not
supplying NIE with enough power, while in the Republic, the government
has failed to modernise power plants owned by ESB. In the latter case,
availability of power plants has averaged 66% recently, one of the worst
such figures in Western Europe.
There have been recent efforts in Ireland to use renewable energy such
as wind energy with large wind farms being constructed in coastal
counties such as Mayo and County Antrim. These constructions have in
some cases been delayed by opposition from locals, some of whom consider
the wind turbines to be unsightly. Another issue in the Republic of
Ireland is the failure of the aging network to cope with the varying
availability of power from such installations. Turlough Hill is the only
energy storage mechanism in Ireland .
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