Proper noun

Singular Ireland

Plural -

Ireland

1. A large island in northwest Europe.
2. A country occupying the twenty-six southern and western counties of the island of Ireland. Also known as the Republic of Ireland, in order to distinguish it from the island.

Related terms

• Irish
• Northern Ireland
• Emerald Isle

Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɾlənd]( listen),; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third largest island in Europe and the twentieth largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from it by the Irish Sea.

Government of the island is divided between two independent jurisdictions: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland (the state, also known as "the Republic of Ireland"). The Republic covers five-sixths of the island. Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, covers the remainder and is located in the northeast of the island. Relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain epitomise Ireland's geography with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild but changeable oceanic climate, which avoids extremes in temperature. Thick woodlands covered the island until the 1600s. Today, it is the most deforested area in Europe. Twenty-six mammal species are native to Ireland, with some, such as the red fox, hedgehog and badger, being very common. Others, like the Irish hare, red deer, and pine marten are less so.

The population of Ireland is estimated to be 6.2 million people. Just under 4.5 million in the Republic of Ireland and slightly just under 1.8 million in Northern Ireland. This is a significant increase from a modern historical low of 4.2 million in the 1960s but still much lower than the peak population of over 8 million in the mid-19th century prior to the Great Famine.

A Norman invasion in the Middle Ages gave way to English domination by the 1500s. In the 1600s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 1700s. In 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century led to the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades. Northern Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom and saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973, both parts of Ireland joined the European Community. The Republic of Ireland experienced unprecedented economic growth from the mid-1990s until the 2008–2010 Irish financial crisis.

Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, particularly in the fields of literature and, to a lesser degree, science and education. A strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed for example through native sports and the Irish language, alongside a common Western culture, such as contemporary music and drama, and sports such as football, rugby and golf, and the English language.

Ireland is a north-west European island lying to the west of Great Britain. It was conquered by England in the 12th century. The island was partitioned in 1921, Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom while the Republic of Ireland achieved independence.

Sourced

• For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad.
  • G. K. Chesterton The Ballad of the White Horse (1911), Bk. 2, line 220.

• Gladstone…spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the question.
  • W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman 1066 and All That (1930), ch. 57.

• German Bismarck said that the solution of the Irish question lay in having the Irish to swap countries with the Dutch. He added that the Dutch would make Ireland the most beautiful island in the world while the Irish would neglect to mend the dykes left to them by the Dutch and therefore would be drowned.
  • John Green Sims Whither, World? (Privately published, 1938) p. 78.
  • The attribution to Bismarck has not been confirmed.

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Thu Jul 22 16:28:06 2010