PEOPLE
The Irish
people are mainly of Celtic origin, with the country's only significant
sized minority having descended from the Anglo-Normans. English
is the common language, but Irish (Gaelic) is also an official
language and is taught in schools.
Anglo-Irish
writers such as Swift, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Burke, Wilde, Joyce,
Yeats, Shaw, and Beckett have made a major contribution to world
literature over the past 300 years.
The earliest
inhabitants--people of a mid-Stone Age culture--arrived about
6000 BC. About 4,000 years later, tribes from southern Europe
arrived and established a high Neolithic culture, leaving behind
gold ornaments and huge stone monuments. The Bronze Age people,
who arrived during the next 1,000 years, produced elaborate gold
and bronze ornaments and weapons.
The Iron
Age arrived abruptly in the fourth century BC with the invasion
of the Celts, a tall, energetic people who had spread across Europe
and Great Britain in the preceding centuries. The Celts, or Gaels,
and their more numerous predecessors divided into five kingdoms
in which, despite constant strife, a rich culture flourished.
The coming
of Christianity from across the Irish Sea brought major changes
and civilizing influences. Tradition maintains that St. Patrick
arrived on the island in AD 432 and, in the years that followed,
worked to convert the Irish to Christianity.
The pagan
druid tradition collapsed before the spread of the new faith,
and Irish scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and
Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished. Missionaries
went forth from Ireland to England and the continent, spreading
news of the flowering of learning, and scholars from other nations
came to Irish monasteries. The excellence and isolation of these
monasteries helped preserve Latin and Greek 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.
Two hundred
years of Viking invasion and settlement was later followed by
a Norman conquest in the 12th century. The Norman conquest resulted
in the assimilation of the Norman settlers into Irish society.
The early 17th century saw the arrival of Scottish and English
Protestants, sent as colonists to the north of Ireland and the
Pale around Dublin.
In 1800
the Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union with Great Britain,
and Ireland was an official part of the United Kingdom until 1921.
Religious freedom, outlawed in the 18th century, was restored
in 1829, but this victory for the Irish Catholic majority was
overshadowed by a severe economic depression and the great famine
from 1846-48 when the potato crop failed. Millions died, and the
millions that emigrated spawned the first mass wave of Irish emigration
to the United States. A decade later, in 1858, the Irish Republican
Brotherhood (IRB--also known as the Fenians) was founded as a
secret society dedicated to armed rebellion against the British.
An aboveground political counterpart, the Home Rule Movement,
was created in 1874, advocating constitutional change for independence.
Galvanized
by the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, the party was able
to force British governments after 1885 to introduce several home
rule bills. The turn of the century witnessed a surge of interest
in Irish nationalism, including the founding of Sinn Fein ("Ourselves
Alone") as an open political movement.
Nationalism
was and is a potent populist force in Irish politics. A home rule
bill passed in 1914, but its implementation was suspended until
war in Europe ended. Believing the mantra: “England’s
problem is Ireland’s opportunity,” and tapping into
a mood of Gaelic revivalism, Padraic Pearse and James Connolly
led the unsuccessful Easter Rising of 1916. Pearse and the other
1916 leaders declared an independent Irish republic, but a lack
of popular support doomed the rebellion, which lasted a week and
destroyed large portions of Dublin. The decision by the British
military government to execute the leaders of the rebellion, coupled
with the British Government's threat of conscripting the Irish
to fight in the Great War, alienated public opinion and produced
massive support for Sinn Fein in the 1918 general election. Under
the leadership of Eamon de Valera, the elected Sinn Fein deputies
constituted themselves as the first Dail. Tensions only increased:
British attempts to smash Sinn Fein ignited the Anglo-Irish War
of 1919-1921.
The end
of the war brought the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, which established
the Irish Free State of 26 counties within the British Commonwealth
and recognized the partition of the island into Ireland and Northern
Ireland, though supposedly as a temporary measure. The six predominantly
Protestant counties of northeast Ulster--Northern Ireland--remained
a part of the United Kingdom with limited self-government. A significant
Irish minority repudiated the treaty settlement because of the
continuance of subordinate ties to the British monarch and the
partition of the island. This opposition led to further hostilities--a
civil war (1922-23), which was won by the pro-treaty forces.
In
1932, Eamon de Valera, the political leader of the forces initially
opposed to the treaty, became Prime Minister, and a new Irish
constitution was enacted in 1937. The last British military bases
were soon withdrawn, and the ports were returned to Irish control.
Ireland was neutral in World War II. The government formally declared
Ireland a republic in 1948; however, it does not normally use
the term "Republic of Ireland," which tacitly acknowledges
the partition, but refers to the country simply as "Ireland."
Nationality: Noun--Irishman, Irishwoman. Adjective--Irish.
Population: 4,234,935 (2006 est.).
Cities: Capital--Dublin (pop. 505,739). Other cities--Cork (119,143), Galway (71,983), Limerick (52,560), Waterford, (45,775).
Population breakdown 0-14 years (21%), 15-24 years (15%), 25-34 years (17%), 35-44 years (14%), 45-54 years (12%), 55-64 years (10%), 65 years and over (11%)
Population growth rate: 1.14 (2007 est.).
Ethnic groups: Irish, with English minority.
Religions: Roman Catholic 86.8%; Church of Ireland 3 %; Presbyterian 0.5%; Methodist 0.25%; Muslim 1 %; Jewish 0.1%; other 8.35%.
Languages: English, Irish (Gaelic).
Education: Compulsory up to age 16. Enrollment rates: first (primary) level 449,508, second (high school and vocational) level 335,162, third (university and college) level 133,691. Literacy--98%-99%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--5.2/1,000. Life expectancy at birth--male 75.3 yrs., female 80.7 yrs.
Work force: Services--66%; industry--28%; agriculture--6%.
