Ireland History

Ireland history dates back to as late as 300 B.C. It was close to 300 B.C that the Kelts came to Ireland and reigned for the nest 1000 years. During this time the country was maximally influenced on its culture, language and lifestyle. This influent can still be experienced at large in the cities of Cork, Waterford, Kerry and Galway. Between 3rd to 5th century, Ireland became a colony of European society. Ireland saw through a period of Viking Invasion during 8th century. Later in the 10th century they founded Dublin which then became their empire. In 1169, the English arrived with the Normans, taking over Wexford and Dublin; the British became its new rulers. Henry II, The English king, was accepted by the pope as Lord of Ireland and he took Waterford in the year 1171, pronouncing it a royal city. Alongside, Anglo-Norman lords also established their power bases in Ireland. Fighting off the last Irish Chief- Hugh O'Neill in 1607 the region of Ulster was seized by the English power.

In the English Civil War the local Irish and Old English Catholics defended the royalists but after the execution of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell - the triumphant Protestant parliamentarian - arrived in Ireland for vengeance. This war witnessed many deaths and major damage. The called popery code of 1695 was the most restricting of all laws ever made in the history. The creation of the Catholic Association minified the Catholic emancipation. The severe failure of the potato crop in the history of Ireland led to mass hunger and set up a pattern of emigration that sustained well into the 20th century.

The bloody consequences of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin led to the Irish independence and in Britain's 1918 general election the Irish republicans won a large majority of the Irish seats. Ireland was declared independent and thus formed the first Dail Eireann (Irish assembly or lower house), under the leadership of Eamon de Valera, a surviving hero of the Easter Rising. This caused the Anglo-Irish war, which lasted from 1919 till mid 1921. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 gave sovereignty to 26 Irish counties, and allowed six, largely Protestant Ulster counties the choice of opting out. The Northern Ireland parliament came into being, with James Craig as its first prime minister. The politics of the North became increasingly separated on religious grounds, and discrimination against Catholics was rife in politics, housing, employment and social welfare. The south of Ireland was ultimately affirmed as a republic in the year 1948, and left the British Commonwealth in 1949.

Volatility in the North began surge in the 1960s and when a peaceful civil rights march in 1968 was violently broken up by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the troubles were under way. The disturbance was punctuated by massive carnage and unrest on both sides.

For the next 30 years, Northern Ireland lost its vestige of parliamentary liberty and was alienated from London. The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 gave the Dublin government an official advice-giving role in Northern Ireland's affairs for the first time. The jubilantly received ceasefire of 1994 was damaged by further killings, the comeback of terrorism in Britain and the perceived intransigence of the British government in Whitehall. Things changed with the election of Tony Blair in 1997, which was backed by Labor majority. The two sides resumed discussions and, in 1998, formulated a peace plan that offered a degree of self-government for Northern Ireland and the formulation of a North-South Council that would eventually be able to realize all-Ireland policies if agreed to by the governments in Belfast and Dublin. As part of the plan, which was fully sanctioned by a referendum, the South gave up its constitutional claim to the North.