<text><span class="style42"></span><span class="style12">IRELAND</span><span class="style14">Official name:</span><span class="style42"> Poblacht na h’Éireann (Republic of Ireland)</span><span class="style14">Member of: </span><span class="style42">UN, EU/EC, OSCE, OECD, WEU (Observer)</span><span class="style14">Area: </span><span class="style42">70285 km2 (27137 sq mi)</span><span class="style14">Population: </span><span class="style42">3516000 (1993 est)</span><span class="style14">Capital: </span><span class="style42">Dublin 921000 (city 478000; Dún Laoghaire 55000; 1991 census)</span><span class="style14">Other major cities: </span><span class="style42">Cork 174000 (city 127000), Limerick 77000 (city 52000), Galway 51000 (1991 census)</span><span class="style14">Languages: </span><span class="style42">Irish (official; 5% as a first language), English (over 94% as a first language)</span><span class="style14">Religion: </span><span class="style42">Roman Catholic (93%)GOVERNMENTThe Seanad (Senate) comprises 60 members – 11 nominated by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), the rest indirectly elected for a five-year term to represent vocational and special interests. The Dáil (House) comprises 166 members elected for five years by universal adult suffrage under a system of proportional representation. The President – whose role is largely ceremonial – is directly elected for a seven-year term. The Taoiseach and a Cabinet of Ministers are appointed by the President upon the nomination of the Dáil, to whom they are responsible.GEOGRAPHYCentral Ireland is a lowland crossed by slight ridges and broad valleys, bogs and large lakes, including Loughs Derg and Ree. Except on the east coast north of Dublin, the lowland is surrounded by coastal hills and mountains, including the Wicklow Mountains, the Ox Mountains and the hills of Connemara and Donegal in the west. The highest uplands in Ireland are the Macgillicuddy’s Reeks in Kerry (the southwest), rising to Carrauntuohill (1041 m / 3414 ft). The rugged Atlantic Coast is highly indented. </span><span class="style14">Principal river: </span><span class="style42">Shannon 370 km (595 mi). </span><span class="style14">Climate: </span><span class="style42">Ireland has a mild temperate climate. Rainfall is high, ranging from over 2500 mm (100 in) in the west and southwest to 750 mm (30 in) in the east.ECONOMYManufactured goods – in particular machinery, metals and engineering, electronics and chemical products – now account for over 80% of Ireland’s exports. Agriculture – the traditional mainstay of the economy – concentrates upon the production of livestock, meat and dairy products. Food processing and brewing are major industries. Natural resources include lead-zinc, offshore petroleum and natural gas, and HEP sites. Ireland suffers high rates of unemployment and emigration. </span><span class="style14">Currency: </span><span class="style42">Punt (Irish pound).HISTORYChristianity, traditionally brought by St Patrick in the 5th century, gave a cultural unity to the kingdoms of Celtic Ireland – Connacht, Leinster, Meath, Munster and Ulster. At the end of the 8th century, the Vikings invaded, settling in eastern Ireland, but were eventually defeated in 1014 by Brian Boru, who became effective king of all Ireland. However, throughout the early medieval period, the ‘high kings’ of Ireland seldom controlled the whole island. In 1171 the English king, Henry II, invaded Ireland and claimed sovereignty over the whole island. The disunited Irish kingdoms quickly succumbed, but the Anglo-Norman settlers and their descendants soon lost their identity and became absorbed by the Irish. For the greater part of the Middle Ages, only the area around Dublin (the Pale) remained loyal to English culture and administration. In the 16th and 17th centuries the English unsuccessfully attempted to convert the Irish to Protestantism. Following three major rebellions against Elizabeth I, new waves of Protestant settlers from England and later (under James I) from Scotland underlined English determination to control Ireland. Many Catholic landholders were deprived of their property following a series of English military actions, of which Oliver Cromwell’s campaign (1649–50) is the most notorious.The Catholic James II, having fled England in 1688, attempted to conquer Ireland. His defeat at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) at the hands of William of Orange (King William III of England) confirmed Protestant domination. The Protestant ascendancy was, however, split – Anglicans formed the Anglo-Irish ruling classes, while the Presbyterian descendants of Scottish settlers in Ulster were mainly working class. In the 18th century, both Presbyterians and Roman Catholics pressed for the civil rights that they were largely denied. In 1798 the failure of a nationalist revolt led by Wolfe Tone (1763–98) was followed by the amalgamation of the British and Irish parliaments and the establishment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801).In the 1840s thousands died in the Irish potato famine. Many more were evicted by Anglo-Irish landowners and joined a mass emigration, especially to the USA – between 1845 and 1851 Ireland’s population declined by almost 3000000. Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847) led a movement seeking to repeal the Union, and to gain land and civil rights for the Roman Catholic majority. His campaign helped lead to Catholic Emancipation (1829), after which Irish Catholics were able to become MPs in the British Parliament. However, relations between the Protestant and Catholic communities deteriorated, in part owing to increasingly violent actions by nationalist Fenians whose goal was Irish independence. English policy on Ireland vacillated between conciliation and coercion. Gladstone, recognizing the need for reform, disestablished the (Anglican) Church of Ireland and granted greater security of tenure to peasant farmers. In the 1880s Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–91) led a sizeable bloc of Irish MPs in a campaign to secure Irish Home Rule (i.e. self-government). Home Rule Bills were introduced in 1883 and 1893, but after their rejection by Parliament, more revolutionary nationalist groups gained support in Ireland.Fearing Catholic domination, Protestant Unionists in Ulster opposed the Third Home Rule Bill in 1912. Nationalists declared an independent Irish state in the Dublin Easter Rising of 1916, which was put down by the British. After World War I, Irish nationalist MPs formed a provisional government in Dublin led by Eamon de Valera (later PM and President; 1882–1975). Except in the northeast, British administration in Ireland crumbled and most of the Irish police resigned to be replaced by English officers – the ‘Black and Tans’. Fighting broke out between nationalists and British troops and police, and by 1919 Ireland had collapsed into violence. The British response in 1920 was to offer Ireland two Parliaments – one in Protestant Ulster, another in the Catholic south. Partition was initially rejected by the south, but by the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) dominion status was granted, although six (mainly Protestant) counties in Ulster – Northern Ireland – opted to remain British. The Irish Free State was proclaimed in 1922 but de Valera and the Republicans refused to accept it. Civil war broke out between the provisional government – led by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins – and the Republicans. The fighting ended in 1923, but de Valera’s campaign for a republic continued and in 1937 the Free State became the Republic of Eire. The country remained neutral in World War II and left the Commonwealth – as the Republic of Ireland – in 1949. Relations between south and north – and between the Republic and the UK – were often tense during the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland that lasted from 1968 until the ceasefire by terrorist groups in 1994. The Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985) provided for the participation of the Republic in political, legal and security matters in Northern Ireland, and the government of the Republic is taking an active role in the Northern Ireland peace process.</span></text>
