UNIT 3- A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRELAND

- 1st settlers in Ireland—8000BC

• When hunter-gatherers came from GB+ Europe (by land bridge)
• Lived by Hunting+ fishing (for 4 thousand years)
• Around 4000BC→ Farm (old lifestyle gradually died out)
- Descendants of original settlers
• Built burial mounds+ impressive monuments
Ex: Newgrange (stone tomb—before 3000BC)
- Early Irish society
• Organized into kingdoms rich culture
Learned upper classes
Artisans (metalwork→ iron, bronze, gold)
• Pagan (for thousands of years)→ changed in the early 5th cent AD when
Christian missionaries, including St Patrick arrived.
• Christianity replaced the old pagan religions by the year 600
o Early monks introduced the Roman alphabet (not oral culture
anymore) + Wrote down traditional stories, legends and myths (that
otherwise may have been lost)
- Vikings invaded Ireland (early 9th cent)→ attacks were on for over 100 years
• 1st→ Vikings raided monasteries+ villages
• Eventually→ built settlements on the island (which grew into important
towns)
• Irish cities (by Vikings)→ Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Wexford
• Irish society eventually assimilated the descendants of the Vikings
- Invasion of Norman mercenaries (1169)→ several consequences for the island
• Marked the beginning of more than 7 cent of Norman English rule in
Ireland→control expanded until the beginning of the 13th cent (when the
rulers began to be assimilated into Irish society)
- The Reformation brought this time of relative peace to a brutal end.
• In 1534 military campaign put down Irish chiefs who would not submit to the
English king (Henry VIII—the 1st king to have the title of being king in England+
Ireland)
• People were massacred
• A policy of “plantations” began→ land was confiscated from Catholic Irish
landowners, and given to Protestant settlers from England and Scotland
• During the next cent and a half (17th cent)→ Catholic Ireland was conquered+
religion became a source of division and strife (a role it held until recent times)

18th -19th cent

- Many laws were passed that discriminated against Catholics

- Native Gaelic language→ banned in schools
- 1778→ only 5% of the land owned by Catholics
- 1801→ Irish parliament abolish+ Ireland became part of the UK of “GB and Ireland”
- Poverty→widespread
• Potatoes=most important food→ 1845 “the potato blight”/ “The Great Famine”:
potato crop destroyed by a disease+ English rulers not helping to the situation
 • About a million people died of starvation or disease+ 1 million emigrated to escape
• The population of Ireland fell from 8million (1841) to 6million (1852) + continued
to decline more slowly until the 2nd half of the 20th cent

20th cent

- Efforts→ gain home rule+ improve the condition of people

- Movements for land reform+ movements to make Gaelic the official language
- Strong Protestant opposition to these demands
- 1900→ civil war loomed
- 1914→ the Home Rule act was passed (would give Ireland some autonomy)—
suspended with the start of the 1st World War
- April 24th ,1916→ uprising on Eastern Day: failed beyond Dublin+ leaders arrested and
executed— (brutal treatment tipped public opinion in favor of independence)
- Irish War of Independence began in 1919 until 1921
- 1922→ southern 26 counties of Ireland separated themselves from the UK—new
country=Irish Free State
- Gaelic restored as the official national language (+English)
- 1948→ ties with England were cut—country became known as Republic of Ireland
- 6 counties in the north of Ireland= Northern Ireland→ remained part of the UK (still
today)
- The Troubles (late 1960’s-1998)
• A sectarian conflict in N. Ireland in which Nationalists (Catholics who wanted
N. Ireland to unite the Rep of Ireland) and Unionists (Protestants, loyal to the
UK) are confronted
• Unrest exploded violently in the late 1960s and did not end until 1998, when a
peace agreement was signed (the Good Friday)
• 1969→ British troops were sent to N. Ireland
• The brutality of British troops was controversial and a landmark during the
decade was the Bloody Sunday (1972): British shot 26 civilians who did not
carry arms when they were just protesting against arrest without trial
• During this decades, conflict between 2 sides: Loyalist paramilitaries+ the
British army / Republican paramilitaries such as the IRA (Irish Republic Army—
controversial because of the terrorist attacks committed in Ireland+ the UK)
• 1998→ end of The Troubles with the Good Friday Agreement+ dissolution of
the IRA
• The agreement tries to reach a peaceful agreement but violence is still in the
streets. It is not until 2007 that the British troops decides to leave N. Ireland to
restore peace
- Economically→ things slowly began to grow after the establishment of the Irish
Republic (late 1950s) + population began to increase since the potato blight
- 1973→ Ireland joined the EEC (European Economic Community—current European
Union)—membership did much to improve Irish economy (with direct aid and
increasing foreign investment)
- 1990s→ Irish economy boomed and Ireland called “The Celtic Tiger”
- After of centuries of poverty and suffering, Ireland is now a prosperous, modern
country