Irish History

Ancient Ireland

Ireland shares an ancient history of migration and settlement with the larger British Isles. Its first stable human communities likely arrived around 7,000 BCE as the glaciers of the last Ice Age receded. They came to a country already separated from Britain and mainland Europe. There they lived primarily as hunters and gatherers, a lifestyle later replaced by waves of farming cultures. Though they possessed no written language, the early people of Ireland left behind immense stone monuments like Newgrange, as well as the dolmens and tumuli still dotting its landscapes.

Ireland’s Celtic history begins around 500 BCE. Ancestors of the Indo-European cultural family first migrated from Eastern European steppes around 4,000 BCE. By the time they reached the western tip of Europe, they had retained elements of their earlier cultures, including a rigid caste system and the use of horse-drawn chariots. They brought iron-working to the island, allowing them to mix with and dominate its indigenous people, forming many small kingdoms. Today, these Celtic arrivals are known as the Gaels, and their language Gaelic.

When Rome advanced across Europe a few centuries later, its reach extended only to the southern half of Britain. Ireland, as well as neighboring Scotland, remained independent. Despite this, the close presence of the Roman Empire brought several changes to the island. Christianity, a written language, and increasing contact with Europe put an end to the druidic schools maintained by the island’s priests. The monasteries built in their stead would become centers of learning and wealth in medieval Ireland.

Early Medieval Ireland

The decline of Rome left much of Europe in disarray, but Ireland’s warring kingdoms continued relatively unaffected. Power revolved around Gaelic courts and the monasteries. The most important ruling family of the time was the Uí Néill dynasty, which claimed the High Kingship of Ireland. Within the monasteries, valuable artifacts produced by Christian monks and goldsmiths soon attracted the attentions of outsiders. Like Britain, Ireland underwent a period of Viking raids as well as internal strife beginning in 795 CE. By the end of this period, the Norsemen had settled coastal towns that would grow into some of Ireland’s largest cities. Among them were Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, and Limerick. Those who settled in Ireland came to be known as the Hiberno-Norse.

The Norse incursions into Ireland did not go unopposed. One notable High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, died in battle against the forces of Dublin and Leinster in 1014. His Battle of Clontarf has been interpreted as a triumphant Irish victory over the Norse, a local insurrection, or a combination of both. Either way, Boru’s reign toppled the Uí Néills and ensured self-rule in Ireland up to the Anglo-Norman invasion.

The Norman Invasion

While Ireland struggled with the Vikings, neighboring Britain was undergoing its own dramatic changes. Germanic Anglo-Saxons came to control much of the island from the 5th century on. They too fought against the Vikings, but a greater threat would come from Northern France. There, former Vikings known as the Normans had settled and converted to Christianity. The Normans led a successful invasion of England in 1066. By 1169, Norman England under King Henry II had turned its eye to Ireland. The invasion was justified in part to bring Irish Christianity closer to the Roman standard. They were joined by an exiled King of Leinster seeking to reclaim his throne.

The Normans’ heavy cavalry and superior weaponry soon overwhelmed the more fragmented Irish. Even so, the invasion took nearly a decade to accomplish. After the Norman victory, however, Ireland remained only loosely under English control. Many of the lords sent to govern the island from newly built Norman castles ended up embracing customs of the Gaelic courts. The two cultures mingled to a greater or lesser extent based on region. Over time, the area under English control shrank to a small area centered on Dublin, known as the Pale.

Ireland in the Tudor Era

This state of affairs continued until roughly 1536. At that time, King Henry VIII of England moved to tighten England’s grip on the island. In 1534, the king had split with Rome to found the Protestant Anglican Church. Ireland remained staunchly Catholic. As a result, Henry and his successors feared that the island would side with the Catholic monarchs of Europe against England. He removed the longstanding lords of the island from power and, in 1541, declared himself King of Ireland. Starting with his reign, an influx of English and Scottish Protestants settled the island, mainly to the north and in coastal cities. They would come to make up the upper classes of the new Irish society.

Early Modern Ireland

The next few centuries saw the gradual erosion of Irish culture, the Gaelic language, and resistance to English rule. A series of civil wars and rebellions broke out. The Nine Years’ War ended with the Flight of the Earls in 1607, when much of Northern Ireland’s nobility departed for Continental Europe. They left behind a power vacuum in Ulster, which was soon filled with the plantation of Scottish and English immigrants. In 1641, as civil war loomed in England, a failed Irish coup sparked the Irish Confederate Wars. The violent conflict for the most part ended in 1652, after Oliver Cromwell invaded and overcame the Confederates. The defeat led to retaliatory laws targeting Catholics, who lost much of their land in the aftermath.

After centuries of bloodshed, hardship, and growing poverty, native Irish Catholics had at last been pushed to the margins of society. Most now worked as landless tenants on estates owned by Protestant Anglicans. The western portions of the island in particular remained undeveloped. Subsistence farming, made more efficient by the New World potato, became the norm for many families. In the 1840s, however, a wave of potato blight caused widespread famine among the lower classes of Ireland. This period pushed millions to emigrate, including a sizable population of immigrants to the United States.

Modern Ireland

Despite these severe difficulties, Irish nationalism persisted throughout English rule. In 1919, after a period of unrest and increasing organization, the Irish War of Independence broke out. By 1921, an agreement had been reached. All of Ireland except Ulster would separate from the United Kingdom. A civil war then broke out between 1921 and 1923, fought over the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Religious and sectarian violence continued in the nation for decades afterward. The question of Northern Ireland proved to be a particularly divisive issue. It led to a slow-burning conflict known as the Troubles, marked by terrorist attacks and political murders. The Troubles came to an end in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement.

The island of Ireland continues to be divided between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, though tensions have eased considerably. Modern Ireland is a prosperous nation with a technology and service-based economy. Its current population of 5 million remains smaller than its height of about 8.2 million, just before the Great Famine.

References

Hegarty, Neil. The Story of Ireland: A History of the Irish People. Macmillan. 2012.

Hollis, Daniel Webster. The History of Ireland. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2011.

Ranelagh, John O'Beirne. A Short History of Ireland. Cambridge University Press. 2012.

“The World Factbook: Ireland.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 24 Oct. 2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ei.html.

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