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Ireland, country of western Europe occupying five-sixths of the westernmost major island of the British Isles.
The magnificent scenery of Ireland’s Atlantic coastline faces a 2,000-mile- (3,200-km-) wide expanse of ocean, and its geographic isolation has helped it to develop a rich heritage of culture and tradition that was linked initially to the Gaelic language. Washed by abundant rain, the country’s pervasive grasslands create a green-hued landscape that is responsible for the popular sobriquet Emerald Isle. Ireland is also renowned for its wealth of folklore, from tales of tiny leprechauns with hidden pots of gold to that of the patron saint, Patrick, with his legendary ridding the island of snakes and his reputed use of the three-leaved shamrock as a symbol for the Christian Trinity. But while many may think of Ireland as an enchanted land, the republic has been beset with perennial concerns—emigration, cultural and political identity, and relations with Northern Ireland (comprising the 6 of Ireland’s 32 counties within the province of Ulster that remain part of the United Kingdom). At the beginning of the 21st century, Ireland’s long-standing economic problems were abating, owing to its diverse export-driven economy, but calamity struck again in 2008 when a new financial and economic crisis befell the country, culminating in a very costly bailout of the Irish economy by the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund.
The emergence of Ireland as an independent country is a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the 17th century, political power was widely shared among a rather loosely constructed network of small earldoms in often-shifting alliances. Following the so-called “Flight of the Earls” after an unsuccessful uprising in the early 17th century, Ireland effectively became an English colony. It was formally incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801. A 1914 Home Rule Act was passed but never implemented due to pro-union militancy in the north, the onset of World War I, and the subsequent Irish War of Independence. In 1920 the island was effectively partitioned with the creation of Northern Ireland, a six-county area with devolved powers within the United Kingdom, whereas under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921, the other 26 counties became the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth and Empire. In 1937 the southern state passed a new constitution that offered a more robust expression of sovereignty, and in 1949 it formally left the Commonwealth as the Republic of Ireland.
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Dependent on agriculture, Ireland was long among Europe’s poorest regions, a principal cause of mass migration from Ireland, especially during the cycle of famine in the 19th century. Some 40 million Americans trace their ancestry to Ireland as a result of that traumatic exodus, as do millions of others throughout the world. Every year members of this diaspora visit their ancestral homeland and forge connections with long-lost family.
View of Dublin from the River Liffey.
Ireland’s capital is Dublin, a populous and affluent city whose metropolitan area is home to more than one-fourth of the country’s total population. The city’s old dockside neighbourhoods have given way to new residential and commercial development. Cork, Ireland’s second largest city, is a handsome cathedral city and port in the southwest. Other principal centres include Waterford, Wexford, and Drogheda on the east coast, Sligo in the northwest, and Limerick and Galway in the west.
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Although Ireland is now both urbanized and Europeanized, its culture retains many unique characteristics, and its people prize folkloric and social traditions that largely derive from and celebrate the country’s rural past. In “Meditations in Time of Civil War” William Butler Yeats, perhaps Ireland’s best-known poet, evokes the idyllic and idealized countryside, a place central to the memories of the country’s millions of expatriates and their descendants:
An acre of stony ground,
Where the symbolic rose can break in flower,
Old ragged elms, old thorns innumerable,
The sound of the rain or sound
Of every wind that blows;
The stilted water-hen
Crossing stream again
Scared by the splashing of a dozen cows.
Land
Aerial view of Ireland’s coastline.
The republic of Ireland occupies the greater part of an island lying to the west of Great Britain, from which it is separated—at distances ranging from 11 to 120 miles (18 to 193 km)—by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St. George’s Channel. Located in the temperate zone between latitudes 51°30′ and 55°30′ N and longitudes 6°00′ and 10°30′ W—as far north as Labrador or British Columbia in Canada and as far west as the West African state of Liberia—it constitutes the westernmost outpost of the Atlantic fringe of the Eurasian landmass (the absolute extreme of which is Tearaght Island, the westernmost member of the Blasket Islands, which lie off the Dingle Peninsula and are part of County Kerry). Ireland, which, like Great Britain, once formed part of this landmass, lies on the European continental shelf, surrounded by seas that are generally less than 650 feet (200 metres) deep. The greatest distance from north to south in the island is 302 miles (486 km), and from east to west it is 171 miles (275 km).
Relief
The territory of the republic consists of a broad and undulating central plain underlain by limestone. This plain is ringed almost completely by coastal highlands, which vary considerably in geologic structure. The flatness of the central lowland—which lies for the most part between 200 and 400 feet (60 and 120 metres) above sea level—is relieved in many places by low hills between 600 and 1,000 feet (180 to 300 metres) in elevation. With many lakes, large bog areas, and low ridges, the lowland is very scenic. The principal mountain ranges are the Blue Stack Mountains in the north, the Wicklow Mountains in the east (topped by Lugnaquillia, at 3,039 feet [926 metres]), the Knockmealdown and Comeragh mountains in the south, the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks in the southwest, and the Twelve Pins in the west. Carrantuohill, at 3,414 feet (1,041 metres) in the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, is the highest point in the republic. In the west and southwest the wild and beautiful coast is heavily indented where the mountains of Donegal, Mayo, Galway, and Kerry thrust out into the Atlantic, separated by deep wide-mouthed bays, some of which—Bantry Bay and Dingle Bay, for example—are, in fact, drowned river valleys. By contrast, the east coast is little indented, but most of the country’s trade passes through its ports because of their proximity to British and Continental markets.
The coastal mountain fringe illustrates the country’s complex geologic history. In the west and northwest as well as in the east, the mountains are composed mainly of granite. Old Red Sandstone predominates in the south, where the parallel folded mountain ridges trend east-west, separated by limestone river valleys. Ireland experienced at least two general glaciations—one covering most of the country and the other extending as far south as a line linking Limerick, Cashel, and Dublin—and the characteristic diversity of Irish scenery owes much to this glacial influence. The large areas of peat bog to be found throughout the country are a notable feature of the landscape.
Drainage of Ireland
The rivers that rise on the seaward side of the coastal mountain fringe are naturally short and rapid. The inland streams, however, flow slowly, often through marshes and lakes, and enter the sea—usually by way of waterfalls and rapids—long distances from their sources. The famed River Shannon, for example, rises in the plateau country near Sligo Bay and flows sluggishly south-southwestward for some 160 miles (260 km), reaching tidewater level at Limerick and draining a wide area of the central lowland on its way. Other major inland rivers—some of them renowned for their salmon fisheries—are the Slaney, Liffey, and Boyne in the east; the Nore, Barrow, and Suir in the southeast; the Blackwater, Lee, and Bandon in the south; and the Clare and the Moy in the west. Because of the porosity of the underlying Carboniferous limestones, an underground drainage system has developed, feeding the interlacing surface network of rivers and lakes. The government has implemented major arterial drainage projects, preventing flooding—and making more land available for cultivation—by improving the flow of water in the rivers and thereby lowering the levels of lakes. There are also state-aided farm-drainage schemes designed to bring wasteland and marginal land into production.
Soils
Most Irish soils originate from drift, the ice-scoured waste formerly frozen to the base of the advancing glaciers. Some older rocks in the country’s geologic formation—quartzites, certain granites, and shales—weather into infertile and unproductive soils. In many places, however, these have been overlaid by patches of the ice-borne drift, mostly limestone-bearing, which are farmed with considerable success. The bare limestone regions remaining in western areas show how much glacial drift cover has meant to the Irish agricultural economy.
Climate
Ireland’s climate is classified as western maritime. The predominant influence is the Atlantic Ocean, which is no more than 70 miles (113 km) from any inland location. The mild southwesterly winds and warm waters of the North Atlantic Current contribute to the moderate quality of the climate. Temperature is almost uniform over the entire island. Average air temperatures lie mainly between limits of 39 and 45 °F (4 and 7 °C) in January and February, the coldest months of the year. In July and August, the warmest months, temperatures usually range between 57 and 61 °F (14 and 16 °C), although occasionally considerably higher readings are recorded. The sunniest months are May and June, when there is sunshine for an average duration of 5.5 and 6.5 hours a day, respectively, over most of the country, and the ancient patchwork of fields and settlements making up the landscape glows under a clear, vital light. Average annual precipitation varies from about 30 inches (760 mm) in the east to more than 100 inches (2,533 mm) in the western areas exposed to the darkening clouds that often come sweeping in from the Atlantic. The precipitation, combined with the equable climate, is particularly beneficial to the grasslands, which are the mainstay of the country’s large livestock population. Snow is infrequent except in the mountains, and prolonged or severe snowstorms are rare.
Plant and animal life
Ireland was almost completely covered by glaciers during the Ice Age, and its plant and animal life are thus mainly—but not entirely—the result of the subsequent migration of species from other areas. As long as there was a land connection between Ireland and what was to become the rest of the British Isles, most species arrived overland from northern Europe. Irish plant and animal life nevertheless possess certain unique features owing partly to climatic conditions and partly to the fact that Ireland became separated from Britain by the Irish Sea sometime before Britain itself became separated from the European continent.
Apart from flora that came from northern Europe, several plants common in Ireland are believed to have reached the country from the Mediterranean, along a subsequently drowned coastal route, and others appear to have arrived from North America, probably by way of Greenland and Iceland. The western highlands are home to such hardy species as St. Dabeoc’s heath, Irish spurge, Eriocaulon aquaticum (a pipewort with North American affinities), and the Irish orchid (a species of Mediterranean origin). Scattered over the island are sundew, foxglove, bell heather, sheep’s bit, bog asphodel, and yellow fleabane, yet it is Ireland’s extensive and verdant grasslands that leave the most lasting impression. Prior to the 17th century the Irish midlands had great forests of broad-leaved trees, but by the end of the 19th century the once large forests had been reduced to about 1 percent of the total land area. Now the island is mainly devoid of broad-leaved woodlands, and government-sponsored reforestation programs have chiefly favoured fast-growing sitka spruce.
Common English animals such as the weasel and the mole do not exist in Ireland, which also has no snakes. Tradition ascribes the absence of snakes to banishment at the hands of St. Patrick; in fact, before their introduction as pets and in zoos in the 20th century, snakes had not lived on the island for the thousands of years since the Ice Age. In addition, there are only two kinds of mice—as opposed to four in Britain—and the only reptile found in Ireland is a species of lizard. Endemic mammals include the Irish stoat and the Irish hare. Deer have increased in number since the mid-19th century, but the giant Irish elk has long been extinct. Ireland abounds in birdlife, notably waterfowl. Numerous species that breed in Iceland and Greenland in the summer spend winter in Ireland, and many more migratory species stop there in the spring and the fall.
People
Although Ireland was invaded and colonized within historical times by Celts, Norsemen, Normans, English, and Scots, there are no corresponding ethnic distinctions. Ireland has always been known as a welcoming place, and diversity is not a phenomenon new to the country. Britannica QuizWhich Country Is Larger? Quiz
Ethnic groups, language, and religion
Ethnic and racial minorities make up about 12 percent of the population of Ireland—a proportion that doubled in the first decade of the 21st century. Immigration from the rest of Europe, Africa, and Asia has been significant since the last two decades of the 20th century. The key factors in increased immigration have been the more-open labour market provided by the European Union and the globalized nature of the contemporary Irish economy, both of which have attracted a wave of new residents. Today Poles constitute the largest minority population in Ireland. Although they are small in number, the nomadic Travellers (“Tinkers”) are an indigenous ethnic minority group—defined by their shared customs, traditions, and language—who have lived in Ireland for centuries.
The constitution provides that Irish be the first official language and English the second. All official documents are published in both Irish and English. The modern Irish language, which is very similar to Scottish Gaelic, was widely spoken up to the time of the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and the subsequent emigrations. The use of Irish continued to decline even after 1922, when the language was introduced into schools; despite its decline, Irish never ceased to exert a strong influence on Irish consciousness. Although its use as a vernacular has decreased and is concentrated in several small Gaeltacht (i.e., Irish-speaking) areas, Irish is more widely read, spoken, and understood today than it had been during most of the 20th century. English is universally spoken. Compulsory Irish in schools has come under some criticism from the business sector, which would prefer to see students develop more-diverse language skills. While modern society might question the utility of the language, however, it remains an important element of the Irish identity.
The Celtic religion had a major influence on Ireland long before the adoption of Christianity in the 5th century. Its precise rituals and beliefs remain somewhat obscure, but the names of hundreds of Celtic gods have survived, and elements of the religion—particularly the cults of Mary (an echo of Danu, the Earth Mother goddess whom the Celts worshiped) and St. Brigid (one of Ireland’s patron saints) and several seasonal festivals—carried into the Christian period.
Since the conversion to Christianity, Roman Catholicism, with its ecclesiastical seat at Armagh in Northern Ireland, has been the island’s principal religion. After the Reformation, Catholicism became closely associated with Irish nationalism and resistance to British rule. However, church support for nationalism—both then and now—has been ambivalent. After the devastating Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, there was a remarkable surge in devotional support of the Catholic church, and over the next century the number of Irish priests, nuns, and missionaries grew dramatically.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.
Today nearly four-fifths of the republic’s population is Roman Catholic, with small numbers of other religious groups (including Church of Ireland Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Muslims, and Jews). There is no officially established church in Ireland, and the freedoms of conscience and religion are constitutionally guaranteed. Since the last decades of the 20th century, Ireland has seen a significant decline in the number of regular churchgoers. That decline corresponded with the heyday of the so-called Celtic Tiger economy—when, during the 1990s in particular, robust economic growth made the country significantly wealthier—and also with the revelations of child abuse by Catholic clergy that came to light in the first decade of the 21st century. The Roman Catholic Church nevertheless continues to play a prominent role in the country, including maintaining responsibility for most schools and many hospitals.