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 Ireland| Facts & Figures |
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| President: Mary McAleese (1997) Taoiseach (Prime Minister): Brian
Cowen (2008) Land area: 26,598 sq mi (68,889 sq km);
total area: 27,135 sq mi (70,280 sq km) Population (2009 est.): 4,203,200
(growth rate: 1.1%); birth rate: 14.2/1000; infant mortality rate:
5.0/1000; life expectancy: 78.2; density per sq km: 60
Capital (2003 est.):
Dublin, 1,018,500 Other large cities: Cork, 193,400;
Limerick, 84,900; Galway, 67,200 Monetary unit: Euro (formerly Irish
pound [punt]) More Facts & Figures |
GeographyIreland is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and
separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea. Half the size of Arkansas,
it occupies the entire island except for the six counties that make up
Northern Ireland. Ireland resembles a basin—a central plain rimmed
with mountains, except in the Dublin region. The mountains are low, with
the highest peak, Carrantuohill in County Kerry, rising to 3,415 ft (1,041
m). The principal river is the Shannon, which begins in the north-central
area, flows south and southwest for about 240 mi (386 km), and empties
into the Atlantic.
GovernmentRepublic.
HistoryIn the Stone and Bronze Ages, Ireland was
inhabited by Picts in the north and a people called the Erainn in the
south, the same stock, apparently, as in all the isles before the
Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. Around the 4th century
B.C.
, tall, red-haired Celts arrived from Gaul or
Galicia. They subdued and assimilated the inhabitants and established a
Gaelic civilization. By the beginning of the Christian Era, Ireland was
divided into five kingdoms—Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, Meath, and
Munster. Saint Patrick introduced Christianity in 432, and the country
developed into a center of Gaelic and Latin learning. Irish monasteries,
the equivalent of universities, attracted intellectuals as well as the
pious and sent out missionaries to many parts of Europe and, some believe,
to North America.
Norse incursions along the coasts, starting in
795, ended in 1014 with Norse defeat at the Battle of Clontarf by forces
under Brian Boru. In the 12th century, the pope gave all of Ireland to the
English Crown as a papal fief. In 1171, Henry II of England was
acknowledged “Lord of Ireland,” but local sectional rule
continued for centuries, and English control over the whole island was not
reasonably secure until the 17th century. In the Battle of the Boyne
(1690), the Catholic King James II and his French supporters were defeated
by the Protestant King William III (of Orange). An era of Protestant
political and economic supremacy began.
By the Act of Union (1801), Great Britain and
Ireland became the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland.” A steady decline in the Irish economy followed in the next
decades. The population had reached 8.25 million when the great potato
famine of 1846–1848 took many lives and drove more than 2 million
people to immigrate to North America.
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