Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland Poblacht na hÉireann
Flag Coat of arms
Dark green area is under the Republic's control, light green area is under British occupation.
Capital and largest city	Dublin
Official languages	English, Irish
Dominant mode of production	Capitalism
Government	Parliamentary bourgeois-democratic republic
• President	Catherine Connolly
• Taoiseach	Micheál Martin
Area
• Total	70,273 km² 84,421 km² (including occupied counties)
Population
• 2021 estimate	5,011,500
Labour
• Unemployment rate	26%

The Republic of Ireland is a country in Europe. Formerly a British colony, six of its 32 counties are still occupied by the United Kingdom. Since the island was partitioned in 1921, Irish Republicans have been fighting for unification. On 5 May 2022, Sinn Féin, formerly the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, won the Northern Ireland Assembly election, igniting hope of unification in the near future.

History

Early history

It is estimated that people first arrived in Ireland between 7000 and 6500 BCE. The inhabitants of Mesolithic Ireland were hunter-gatherers. Around 4000 BCE, a shift toward agriculture began. The Neolithic farmers evidently cleared land for crops, reducing Ireland's dense forest cover. The early inhabitants of Ireland created many megalithic structures, a notable example being the Newgrange monument constructed circa 3200 BCE.

Metalworking in Ireland is estimated to have been introduced or discovered circa 2500 BCE. Celtic peoples are believed to have entered Ireland sometime between 500 to 300 BCE, or possibly earlier, with a cultural diffusion occurring over centuries.

Medieval period

Christianity was introduced into Ireland mainly from the 5th century CE, via Britain which was under Roman rule.

In the 7th century CE, the legal system known as the Brehon laws that had been passed down orally for generations were written down for the first time. This legal system continued until the 17th century when it was replaced by English common law.

The first recorded Viking raids in Ireland took place in 795 CE. Several Viking fortifications would later come to form Ireland's first towns during the 10th century, for example Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork and Wexford, though Ireland remained predominantly rural.

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland began in 1169. According to historian Seán Duffy, "the central dynamic of Irish history and Ireland's complicated connection with England [...] originates in the 1169 Invasion." The historian also notes his view that this "was also a significant moment in world history—the beginning of European expansion and colonisation which eventually spread across the world."

Early British settlement

In the early 17th century, England opened 500,000 acres in the north of Ireland to settlers from Scotland. The English banned traditional Irish music and culture and exterminated entire clans. They tried to create a reservation for the Irish. The English paid bounties for Irish heads and later only required scalps or ears.

In 1654, Oliver Cromwell conquered Ireland and ended Celtic control of the country's land. In 1725, the British passed a law banning marriages between the Irish and English.

French Revolutionary wars

Theobold Wolfe Tone, a radical Protestant, founded the United Irishmen to fight for Irish independence. They began an uprising in 1798 that united Protestants and Catholics against British rule. The British killed 30,000 rebels, and French troops failed to arrive on time to support the resistance.

Following the rising, in 1800 the Irish parliament, mostly controlled by the English, voted itself out of existence and in 1801, the Act of Union allowed Great Britain to officially annex Ireland.

British occupation (1801–1922)

The Insurrection Act in Castlebar allowed the British to deport any man found outside at night without a passport.

During the 1913 Dublin lockout, English workers raised money for the Irish, but the bureaucracy of the Trades Union Congress refused to support the strike.

The Great Hunger (an Gorta Mór)

In 1845, the British appointed Charles Trevelyan to administer Ireland during a famine. Trevelyan adopted a laissez-faire attitude and wrote that the famine was an "effective mechanism for reducing surplus population" and "the judgement of God to teach the Irish a lesson." Exports of food from Ireland increased during the famine and over a million people starved to death. The population of Ireland had been nearing nine million when the potato blight struck. By the time the Famine officially ended in 1852, it had fallen to six, and it would continue to decline steeply in the following decades, a population decrease that Ireland still has not recovered from in the modern day.

Easter Rising

See main article: Easter Rising

In 1914 the First World War began in Europe, and although preparations for an Irish revolt had already begun, the distraction of the war for the British provided the Irish with an opportunity. Emissaries were sent to Berlin to secure weapons and other practical assistance from the German government, but in the end they came away with much less than they had hoped for and on the return journey to Ireland the supplies were captured.

On 24 April 1916, Pádraic Piarais read out an Irish proclamation of independence, beginning a proletarian rebellion against the British that lasted for six days. The rising was to be a failure before it even began but the Irish still fought valiantly for their freedom, with roughly 1,500 rebels taking up arms in Dublin before they were brutally crushed by the British. After the Easter Rising ended, the British executed all seven signers of the proclamation including Piarais himself, James Connolly and Thomas Clarke, and along with several other leaders.

War of Independence

The Dáil Éireann, Ireland's legislature, met for the first time during the Irish War of Independence and read out the Declaration of Independence and the Message to the Free Nations of the World. Although the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in 1921, it did not end any civil conflict, it instead provoked the Irish Civil War, which erupted in 1922 between pro- and anti-Treaty republicans and lasted until 1923. The British king was kept as head of state and allowed Britain to retain colonial control of the northeastern six counties. The Dáil approved the treaty in January 1922 with a vote of 64 to 57.

Opponents of the treaty founded Fianna Fáil while supporters founded the predecessor of Fine Gael. An anti-treaty faction of Sinn Féin refused to accept the treaty, and a civil war began.

Politics

Since its partial independence from Britain, a duopoly of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has dominated Ireland. Both parties support low taxes and allow international imperialists to exploit the country. The center-left Green Party also supports austerity and bailing out banks.

Sinn Féin seeks to improve living standards, reunify Ireland, and end collaboration with the European Union and NATO.