Coordinates: 53°N 7°W / 53°N 07°W / 53; -07
Ireland ( /ˈaɪrlənd/ , ; Irish: Éire , ; Ulster Scots: Airlann , Latin: Hibernia ) is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain. The sovereign state of Ireland ( official name Ireland, description "Republic of Ireland" ) covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) covering the remaining one-sixth of the island, located in the northeast.
The first settlements in Ireland date from around 8000 BC. By 200 BC Celtic migration and influence had come to dominate Ireland. Relatively small scale settlements of both the Vikings and Normans in the Middle Ages gave way to complete English domination by the 1600s. Protestant English rule resulted in the marginalisation of the Catholic majority, although in the north-east, Protestants were in the majority due to the Plantation of Ulster. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. A famine in the mid-1800s caused large-scale death and emigration. The Irish War of Independence ended in 1921 with the British Government proposing a truce and during which the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, creating the Irish Free State. This was a Dominion within the British Empire, with effective internal independence but still constitutionally linked with the British Crown. Northern Ireland, consisting of six of the 32 Irish counties which had been established as a devolved region under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, immediately exercised its option under the treaty to retain its existing status within the United Kingdom. The Free State left the Commonwealth to become a republic in 1949. In 1973 both parts of Ireland joined the European Community. Conflict in Northern Ireland led to much unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s, which subsided following a peace deal in 1998.
The population of Ireland is slightly under six million (2006), with nearly 4.25 million residing in the Republic of Ireland and an estimated 1.75 million in Northern Ireland. This is a significant increase from a modern historic low in the 1960s, but still much lower than the peak population of over 8 million in the early 19th century, prior to the Great Famine.
The name Ireland derives from the name of the Celtic goddess Ériu (in modern Irish, Éire ) with the addition of the Germanic word land . Most other western European names for Ireland, such as Spanish Irlanda , derive from the same source.
Geography
Political geography
Further information: for the political history of the island, see History of Ireland; for other political institutions, see Politics of Ireland and Demography and politics of Northern IrelandIreland is occupied by two political entities:
- Ireland (also sometimes 'Republic of Ireland', such as seen on this map for disambiguation, is not normally used in international diplomacy), a sovereign country, covers five-sixths of the island. Its capital is Dublin.
- Northern Ireland , part of the United Kingdom, covers the remaining sixth. Its capital is Belfast.
All-island traditional subdivisions
Traditionally, Ireland is subdivided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster; and, in a political system that was developed between the 13th and 17th centuries, thirty-two counties. Twenty-six of the counties are in the Republic of Ireland, and six counties (six of Ulster's nine counties) are in Northern Ireland. "Ulster" is often used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, although Ulster and Northern Ireland are neither synonymous nor co-terminous, according to very old boundaries established in the early modern period, since three counties of Ulster (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan) are part of the Republic of Ireland. Counties Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, and Tipperary have been broken up into smaller administrative areas, but they are still considered by the Ordnance Survey Ireland to be official counties. The counties in Northern Ireland are no longer used for local governmental purposes, though their traditional boundaries are still used for informal purposes such as sports leagues, etc. and in some other cultural, ceremonial or tourism contexts.
All-island institutions
Despite the national separation resulting from differing governments, the entire island shares a highway and railway system, power and water grids, radio and television broadcasting systems, and phone and Internet systems. Satellite communications and the Internet serve all parts of Ireland and interconnect them with each other, as well as with the rest of the world.
The English language is spoken and understood by almost all people on both sides of the boundary, though some speak Irish Gaelic as well.
Ireland as an island operates as a single entity in a number of areas that transcend governmental divisions. With a few notable exceptions, this island operates as a single unit in all major religious denominations, in many economic fields despite using two different currencies, and in sports such as hurling, Gaelic football, rugby football (union and league), golf, tennis, boxing, cricket, baseball, American football, field hockey, and perhaps ice hockey.
An exception to this is soccer: following partition, the (previously all-island) Irish Football Association retained control of soccer only in Northern Ireland, with a separate Football Association of Ireland being formed for the remainder of the island. The creation of an all-island soccer league and a single international team (as is the case for rugby union) has been publicly touted by various prominent figures on the island in recent years, such as Irish government minister Dermot Ahern. More recently, there have been calls for an All-Ireland league, however due to contract commitments with sponsors and lack of interest between the two football associations this is unlikely in the near future. An all-Ireland club cup competition, the Setanta Cup, was created in 2005.
All major religious bodies are organised on an all-Ireland basis, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, and the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Some trade unions are also organised on an all-island basis and associated with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) in Dublin, while others in Northern Ireland are affiliated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom, and some affiliate to both—although such unions may organise in both parts of the island as well as in Great Britain. The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) organises jointly in Northern Ireland with the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom (NUS), under the name NUS-USI.
Strand 2 of the Belfast Agreement provides for all-Ireland co-operation in various guises. For example, a North-South Ministerial Council was established as a forum in which ministers from the Irish government and the Northern Ireland Executive can discuss matters of mutual concern and formulate all-Ireland policies in twelve "areas of co-operation", such as agriculture, the environment and transport. Six of these policy areas have been provided with implementation bodies, an example of which is the Food Safety Promotion Board. Tourism marketing is also managed on an all-Ireland basis, by Tourism Ireland.
Two political parties, Sinn Féin and the Irish Green Party, contest elections and hold legislative seats in both jurisdictions. The largest party in the Republic of Ireland, Fianna Fáil, registered with the Electoral Commission in Northern Ireland, and has considered extending its organisation into Northern Ireland, perhaps via a merger with another political party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
An increasingly large amount of commercial activity operates on an all-Ireland basis, a development which is in part facilitated by the two jurisdictions' shared membership of the European Union. There have been calls for the creation of an "all-island economy" from members of the business community and policy-makers on both sides of the border, so as to benefit from economies of scale and boost competitiveness in both jurisdictions. This is a stated aim of the Irish government and nationalist political parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly. One commercial area in which the island already operates largely as a single entity is the electricity market. and there are plans for the creation of an all-island gas market.
March 17th is celebrated throughout Ireland as th
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