History History

A narrow channel is formed between Ireland and southwest Scotland

Accurate and recent radiocarbon dating of a bear bone, discovered in 1903 in Alice and Gwendoline Cave (County Clare), attests that the marks are stone tool marks made 12,500 years ago. This brings the documented human presence in Ireland at Lough Boora (County Offaly) forward by at least 2,500 years. Currently, studies are continuing on the reindeer bones found in Cork in 1972, which prove the presence of man 20,000 years earlier!

Hunters-gatherers are present in Ireland, they organize themselves in groups, around herds. This is the beginning of agriculture. The first Céide Fields sites in Connacht or North Mayo are among the most extensive and oldest Neolithic sites

This is the period of construction of the Boyle Valley site: Brú na Bóinne. Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth were erected, demonstrating the development of the Neolithic peoples who settled there: art, tombs, astrology with the magic of the winter solstice ray (December 21).

There is, in Ross Island, Killarney, one of the very first copper mines of Europe. These mines were probably the origin of the tools of the Irish Bronze Age. A trade could be developed with tribes on the other side of the Channel

Gradually, Celts (Gaels) arrived from Europe and subdued the native hunter-gatherer population. Small kingdoms were created and fought over, forming clans and legends with each battle.

In the raids of these barbarians from Ireland, recounted in Greek and Roman texts: the Irish are called Scoti and the country Scotia, while Scotland is Nova Scotia or Caledonia for the Romans. This sometimes leads to confusion when we speak of Scoti today. So, at this date, there were no Scots, but Celts from the Dal Riata tribes, who plundered both banks of the channel that separates Ireland from Argyl, in Scotland.

Tara was a site in use before the High Kings. A known tomb, Dumha na nGiall, is the oldest visible monument and dates from about 3,000 B.C. However, Tara became truly important in the Iron Age (600 B.C. to A.D. 400) and then in the early Christian period. In 433, Patrick, not yet a saint, on the nearby hill of Slane, lit the Easter fire to challenge the pagan king of Tara. Tara was the royal center of Mide, "the middle kingdom", the fifth province of ancient Ireland. A landscape of legends

Around thirty years before Saint Patrick, Rome sent a Christian emissary to Ireland. Pope Celestine sent Paladius to Christianize so-called barbarian Europe. It's difficult to pinpoint the date of the first Christian place of worship in Ireland, let alone the location of the first monastery. In Ireland, the accepted date for the creation of the first monasteries, the first Christian communities, is in the^5th century. Christian religious life, organized in a network of monasteries, reached its apogee after Patrick's conversion.

Saint Patrick, converted to the Christian religion, returns to Ireland - he had lived there happily. He had been captured in Wales, perhaps, during a raid which the Celts, inhabitants of Ireland, were used to. He was a slave and became a shepherd of a Celtic tribe. He began to convert Ireland peacefully. He does not oppose the cults, he compares and mixes them. The new religion slowly but deeply penetrates the Celtic society.

Accustomed to living on a rath farm (a farm-village) in a tuath (the tribe) gathered around a rí (king) chief: the political organization of Irish society was modeled on the Tuath . Tribes around kinglets. The converting Druids organized their religious hierarchy in the Irish style.

It was between the ^6th and ^9th centuries that the influence of the Hiberno-Latin monks reached its apogee.
During this period, these Irish monks established themselves as one of the most active communities in the spread of Christianity, as well as the arts of writing. They knew Latin, they wrote it, they copied it, they spread it. They were remarkable illuminators, responsible for the Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow and the Lindisfarne Gospels, among many others. The Christian monasteries of Ireland are veritable little autonomous cultural cities: farms, libraries, scriptoriums, cellars, walled gardens, etc. Families live together, and celibacy is not imposed!

Among the first monasteries built was Clonard, erected under the hospice of Saint Fenian. At first, it was a simple cell-chapel founded by St. Fenian around 520. Little by little, what would later be known as the 12 Apostles of Ireland grew up around Fenian.

Add Ardfert, from the Gaelic Ard Fhearta: hill of miracles. It's also the birthplace of Brendan, the Navigator... The man who, a thousand years before Christopher Columbus, would have been on the other side of the Atlantic!

Arrival of the first Vikings, at the end of the 8th century in the form of raids on Iona Rathlin Island and Inis Murray. Throughout the ninth century, Ireland suffered from attacks by Vikings from northern Europe in the region called Scandinavia today

At the beginning of the 9th century, the Vikings settled on the east coast. They founded several longships, protected harbors for drakkars. They settled on the site of what would later become Dublin. They first opened a trading post, a longphort, which they called Dubh Linn (Black Lagoon). The Celts who remained higher up on the banks of the river set up a thua which they named Baile Átha Cliath. Dubh Linn became an important port, the Vikings trading from Ireland to Constantinople and Iceland

The Vikings decided to expand the longphort, to create more than a trading post, they founded a city in 988. Dublin will become the capital of Ireland. In the 21st century, Dublin proudly keeps its Viking origins

Although the battle of October 14, 1066, between England's last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson, and the victorious Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, was fought at Hastings, it marked the turning point in Celtic history in Ireland.

The start of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland is led by Richard Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, nicknamed Strongbow in battle. He landed on the east coast and seized Dublin in 1169, intent on subduing Ireland and dreaming of power.

The Celtic kings were divided. Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, allied himself with Strongbow to regain his power. The ambitious Strongbow accepts, in exchange for marrying MacMurrough's daughter. On the death of the Irish king, Strongbow inherits the counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Kildare, parts of Wicklow, Laois and Offaly, as well as the Hiberno-Norses (Celto-Viking) trading ports of Wexford and Dublin, making Strongbow a powerful warrior and a wealthy man.

The last great king of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (Modern Irish: Ruairí Ó Conchúir) attempted to retake Dublin from Strongbow. Despite a long siege in 1171, the city did not yield and remained Norman.

Henry II Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Anjou and other estates, who became King of England in 1154 at the age of 21, with Eleanor of Aquitaine as his wife, was the powerful man who reigned in England and wanted to stay that way! He is worried about Strongbow's ambition. He disembarked at Crook (Waterford) to proclaim himself lord of Ireland. He is the first English king to set foot on Irish soil. This visit was of great importance. The conquest of Ireland was to be marked by royal power. At the same time, in Ireland, he discreetly escaped the investigation launched by Rome into his possible complicity in the assassination of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Strongbow died in 1176.

Brian Boru was given the title HightKing of Ireland, and adopted the titleImperator Scotorum, "Emperor of the Scots". All the indications are that he felt he was not only lord of all Ireland, but also of all the Celts: Gaels, Scots, including those living on the other side of the Channel, in the North Channel.

On April 23, 1014, the Battle of Clontarf took place against the Vikings and their allies. Victory for the Irish led by Brian Boru, their High King, marked the end of the Viking conquest. Despite the victory over the Vikings, Brian Boru is killed in battle. The Wren's conquest of the Irish High King's throne shattered the Irish union.

The Viking Sigtrygg had remained King of Dublin after the defeat at Clontarf and had continued to wage war with other northern territories, Meath, Wicklow, Ulster, even as far as the coast of Wales, even coming into conflict with rival Nordic kings, notably in Cork and Waterford. His death left a gaping hole that the rivalry of the kings of the Irish regions failed to fill.

Defying the English, in 1306, Robert Bruce seized the throne of Scotland, which forced him into exile on the island of Rathlin, off the coast of Antrim. Edward Bruce, his brother, taking advantage of the rivalry of the Irish kings, reigned as High King of Ireland between 1315 and 1318. He died on October 14, 1318 at the battle of Dunkalk. It was a great victory for Edward II of England.

The ambition of England, in 1338, pushes it into the Hundred Years War. This period of war with France left Ireland in relative peace

The statutes of Kilkenny in 1366 are a series of recommendations for the organization of political, civil and cultural life in Ireland. The king's goal was to remind the Anglo-Irish nobility, who sometimes proved to be "more Irish than the Irish", that English laws applied. From now on, it will be forbidden to follow the Brehon code (ancestral Irish law and particularly avant-garde), or to speak Gaelic. It was a first attempt at assimilation that gave rise to a vindictive attachment to Celtic traditions

A pseudo-Irish peace was established during the 14th and 15th centuries. Ireland can be forgotten and become again this land of legend, in the oceanic mist. It is in fact ruled by the three great earls of Desmond, Ormonde and Kildare who together dominate the government of Dublin. Desmond had sway over the counties of Limerick, Cork, Kerry and Waterford; Ormonde over those of Tipperary and Kilkenny; and Kildare over Leinster.
It was a period of strong development of Dublin, perhaps too much for the British Crown which wanted to strengthen its power in Ireland. The coronation of Henry VIII will upset this Irish languor

Henry VIII, King of England and second in line to the Tudor dynasty, came to power at just 18. The young king's temperament and thirst for power were to take hold in Ireland. The monarch, famous for the tragic fate of his wives, wanted to create a powerful united kingdom.

Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church in 1533, after Pope Clement VII refused to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Royal rather than papal ecclesiastical supremacy was adopted, leading to the confiscation of the Church of Rome's assets. These riches were used to build a strong navy.

In 1541, following the abandonment of papal authority, the complacent Dublin Parliament recognized Henry VIII as King of Ireland, his predecessors having held only the title of Lord of Ireland. This event accelerated English power over Ireland.

In 1542, the Crown of Ireland Act enshrined in law that the King of England, his heirs and successors were kings of Ireland. The Act was contested by Irish patriots and described as an act of annexation.

After the reign of Mary Tudor, Elizabeth^I was determined to resume the construction of a great British empire, as her father Henry VIII had done. She re-established a Protestant religion known as the Anglican faith. She had little confidence in Philip, the Spanish Catholic king. He could send his navy to Ireland and attack England from this western flank.
During Henry VIII's reign, the Irish clan chiefs were loyal and honored their commitments to England, and some received Earls' titles from Henry VIII. To keep the Irish in check, Elizabeth intensified planting by offering cheap Irish estates to Englishmen and Scotsmen. Land was confiscated from Gaelic clans such as the O'Connors and Fitzpatricks, who were pushed to poorer lands. Various rebellions were attempted by Gaelic chiefs, always followed by severe reprisals from the English royal power. Castles and lands were burned and confiscated. It couldn't last! In 1594, the O'Neill and O'Donnell clans held their ground and won battles until 1603, when they were defeated at Kinsale. This became known as the Nine Years' War or Tyrone's Rebellion.

In 1607, the last Irish clan leaders, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, fled to France along with 99 other influential Ulster Irishmen, who would continue the journey throughout Europe. The exile, which emptied Ireland of its elite in the 17th and 18th centuries, was colloquially referred to by historians as "The Flight of the Wild Geese". There were three main dates for this particular exile: 1607, 1640 at the time of Cromwell's reprisals, 1690 after the Battle of the Boyne, when James' Jacobite supporters followed him to France

The injustice that continued to be suffered by the small Irish nobility and the humblest people who remained in Ireland could only lead to the worst. On October 23, 1641, the most dramatic uprising in Ireland, known as the Great Rebellion, broke out. The exasperation of the humiliated population, the lack of organization, will transform what should have been the reconquest of justice, into one of the bloodiest episode. Nothing was resolved, quite the contrary!

For 7 years, England's civil war pitted Royalist supporters of King Charles ^I against Parliament's supporters of Cromwell, culminating in the King's execution on January 30, 1649. Cromwell then decreed the Commonwealth, which should have seen the birth of the first parliamentary democracy, and which, seen from Ireland, more closely resembled what might today be described as a military dictatorship.
No sooner had the civil war ended in England than the rebellion in Ireland had to be calmed. Cromwell didn't negotiate: deaths, expulsions, confiscated land. The last city to abdicate was Galway, in 1652, after a 9-month siege during which the population suffered famine and plague.
Once again, Ireland was defeated, but nothing was settled!

july 12, 1689, in Ireland, at the Battle of the Boyne two men and two religions clashed: James II of England, who in 1688 lost the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland where he is still supported, being Catholic, and William III of Orange became king of England, supported by England and Scotland, because he is Protestant. Defeated in battle, James II went into exile in France where he arrived with a Jacobite court, the majority of whom were Irish

After the defeat at the Boyne, the anti-Catholic laws redoubled in Ireland. They deprived them of almost all rights. For Catholics, it was impossible to vote, to be a civil servant, to own land, to possess objects of worship from Rome, to distribute (publish, sell, offer) Catholic primers, or to teach. All traces of the ancient Celtic culture had to disappear. These laws reduced to poverty the Celtic population converted to the Catholic religion

Many Irish people, fleeing Ireland and the sectarian penal laws, took refuge in France where the ideas of the revolution - liberty, equality, fraternity - awakened consciences...
The first outbursts from within Ireland came from the Anglo-Irish elite, Protestant, but who no longer accepted injustice, religious segregation and English domination. Henry Flood and Henry Grattan awakened the spirit of independence in Ireland and obtained laws removing certain restrictions imposed on Catholics in matters of property, education and political participation. The Irish Parliament obtained legislative independence.

In 1791, the Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast, dedicated to the ideals of the Enlightenment and the Revolution. The United Irishmen attempted an insurrection.

The Act of Union, effective in 1801, abolished the Irish Parliament. A rebellion led by Robert Emmet and a few other United Irishmen against British rule was suppressed; Emmet and the other leaders were executed.

The Catholic Association was founded in 1823 to campaign for equal rights for Catholics, which they won, allowing them to hold any political office, including that of member of Parliament.

The potato blight represented an unprecedented upheaval for Irish society. A famine that reduced the island's population by half. Some of them died of hunger, others left the country. During these journeys towards America, Australia, Europe, travelling in often difficult conditions, a certain number of Irish will be decimated en route by diseases. It is to this sinister famine that we owe the birth of the legendary Irish diaspora!

A feeling of the need to organize was born. Due to a lack of method and a charismatic leader, several attempts at rebellion failed. Several associations were created to try and organize the struggle.

In 1858, the Irish Republican Brotherhood was founded. In 1875, Charles Stewart Parnell was elected Member of Parliament for County Meath.

In 1879, the Agrarian League Foundation was born: the Irish National Land League was founded to campaign for fairer conditions for tenant farmers. The GAA (Gaelic Athletics Association) was founded in 1884 to promote "Gaelic" sports.

The Home Rule Bill is rejected by the House of Commons in 1886.

As he became a leader, Charles Stewart Parnell became embroiled in a love scandal that destroyed his reputation and divided the Irish party. He died the following year in 1891.

In Dublin, Conradh na Gaeilge, the Gaelic League was founded in 1893 to encourage the use of the Irish language, which was then little used because it had been banned.

A new bill, Home Rule (self-government), was proposed at Westminster in 1886.

The same year saw the creation of the Celtic Revival Movement, led by Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, John Millington Synge and William Buttler. The movement's focus on the Gaelic language, theater and poetry would lead to the birth of the first National Theatre in the English-speaking world.

The Sinn Féin movement was born in 1905.

The proposed Third Home Rule was suspended as the First World War was declared. The Irish who signed up to go to Europe to defend freedom wore British uniforms. It was a real dilemma, and one that some Irishmen did not hesitate to face. At least 37,000 Irish soldiers died during this conflict. The Easter Rising of 1916, also known as Bloody Easter, was the insurrection that ushered in a long period of fighting for independence. Sinn Féin victory at the Dáil Éireann in Dublin. The Anglo-Irish War of Independence lasted two years before the Irish Free State was declared in 1922.

The creation of the Irish Free State was not a simple matter. Between 1922 and 1923, civil war broke out in Ireland over the terms of the Anglo-Irish treaty. In 1926, Eamon de Valera founded a new political party, the Fianna Fáil. It wished to field members in the 1927 general election, in order to stand for election in the Free State at the general election. Fianna Fáil representatives enter the Dáil. In 1932, Eamon de Valera becomes President of Ireland. The constitution came into force in 1937, and the name "Irish Free State" was replaced in Gaelic by Éire and in English by Ireland.

Ireland became a member of the EEC in 1973. It joined the first 6 members of the Common Market like Denmark and Great Britain. The European Economic Community then had nine members

During the presidential elections of 1990, Mary Robinson became the first woman president of the Republic of Ireland. She committed herself and obtained the legalization of divorce in 1995. Previously, only financial assistance was granted to the abandoned spouse, without discrimination on the basis of gender

A woman, Mary McAleese, was again elected President of the Republic in 1997; Bertie Ahern became Prime Minister

The euro was introduced in Ireland in 1999, for all transactions in cheques, bank cards and direct debits. On January^1, 2002, the euro became the official currency of Ireland, replacing the Irish pound. The pound sterling remains the currency of Northern Ireland

Mary McAleese was re-elected as President of the Republic of Ireland in October 2004

On the front pages of all the newspapers, the IRA announced that it was ceasing the armed struggle and was committed to the search for democratic solutions. The arms are laid down and the Good Friday Agreement can be implemented.

The subprime crisis erupts in the USA. The US economy plummets. The Irish economy, relatively dependent on the US market, was hard hit.

Ireland is the only country to vote in a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, a new treaty establishing a constitution for Europe, rather similar to the one abandoned in 2005. The "no" vote won by 53.4%.

The 2011 Presidential Elections saw the appointment of Michael D. Higgins of the Labour Party as Head of State.

A constitutional referendum on the European Budget Pact was held in Ireland on May 31, 2012. The "yes" vote won by 60%.

In 2013, Ireland takes over the Presidency of the European Union for the seventh time, celebrates the fortieth anniversary of its membership of the E.U. and hosts the G8 summit in Enniskillen.

Ireland repays the loan that helped stem the 2008 crisis.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins pays a historic visit to Elizabeth II in 2014; almost a century later, relations are calmer.

Large-scale demonstrations denounce the reform that puts an end to free running water in Ireland. For the first time, the Irish will have to pay water bills.

In jubilation at the declaration of the results, in 2015 Ireland becomes the first country in the world to vote in a referendum to legalize same-sex marriage.

The commemoration of the centenary of the 1916 Bloody Easter Rising unites the population in ceremonies recalling the conquest of Irish independence.

Thousands march in Dublin in support of abortion rights. Ireland remembers its past, but wants to be modern. And this will be seen again when, on June 14 2017, Léo Varadkar is appointed to the post of Prime Minister. Léo Varadkar is 41, a doctor, of mixed race and openly gay. He is the face of modern Ireland.

In 2018, the country legalizes voluntary termination of pregnancy (with 66.4% approval in a referendum). Pope Francis visits Ireland and Michael D. Higgins is re-elected president.

The Brexit has been effective since January 31, 2021. The agreements, ratified and signed by the 28 countries, organize trade between the European Union and the United Kingdom, while respecting everyone's interests. For Ireland, this is more utopia than reality. It would appear that the application of the protocol is more complicated than its meticulous drafting. On February 27, 2023, an historic agreement known as the Windsor Framework was signed between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The agreement revises the Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland, notably by making trade within the UK more fluid.

Faced with the urgency of climate change, emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, living concretely through Brexit, the Irish government is making ambitious commitments. Should its future be more European or more ecological? On the European side, it's a celebration of Ireland's 50-year presence in the EU. On the ecological side, Ireland is going for the Green Deal. In 2022, it's all at once: Ireland is blue and green!

Since 1969, Ireland has referred to this sectarian struggle in Northern Ireland as The Troubles. The history of Derry-Londonderry, Belfast, Strabane and Omagh has left indelible wounds. The mistakes, errors and abuses of each side in the conflict make dialogue complicated. In 1969, the civil rights demonstrations, like those around the world, focused on social rights, wages, housing, etc. The slogan was: "One civil rights movement". The watchword was: one man, one vote. It was the deadly excesses of law enforcement that turned the tide. In 1972, the images of Bloody Sunday were broadcast around the world. In 1976, the change in the status of political prisoners provoked protests, followed by a hunger strike and the death of 10 H-Bloc prisoners at Long Kesh, including Bobby Sands. Democratic Unionist Party versus Irish Republican Army and vice versa. A step forward was taken in April 1998 with the Belfast Agreement or Good Friday Agreement: a joint democratic government paved the way for a slow but possible peace, before the Omagh bombing in August 1998 dashed hopes. It was not until the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, that the IRA denounced the violence and declared that it would only fight with political means, abandoning violent combat once and for all.
Fight, resistance, war of independence, guerrilla warfare, struggle - whatever historians may call these events, it seems that Ireland and the United Kingdom want to offer their people the means of reconciliation. On May 20, 2023, the nationalist Sinn Féin party, which favors reunification with the neighboring Republic of Ireland, came out well ahead in Northern Ireland's local elections.