|1| |INTRODUCTION |
Ireland (Irish Éire), country in northwestern Europe occupying most of the
island of Ireland, the second largest of the British Isles. The Republic of
Ireland lies to the west of Great Britain, the largest island in the
archipelago. It is separated from Great Britain to the east by the North
Channel and the Irish Sea, and to the southeast by Saint George’s Channel.
The western and southern shores of Ireland meet the North Atlantic Ocean.
Ireland’s only land border is with Northern Ireland, a province of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to the northeast. The
Irish Republic has an area of 70,273 sq km (27,133 sq mi). The capital and
largest city is Dublin.
Ireland’s vivid green landscapes have earned it the title Emerald Isle.
Traditionally, most Irish people made their living farming the land. Since
the 1950s, energetic industrialization policies have promoted
manufacturing, which, along with services, now dominates Ireland’s economy.
In 1973 Ireland was admitted into the European Community (EC), and it is
now a member of the European Union (EU). Since the 1960s Ireland has
undergone a period of vigorous economic growth and rapid social change.
|2| |Climate|
Ireland has a maritime temperate climate with little seasonal or regional
variation due to the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream, which brings
warm, moist winds from the Atlantic Ocean. The average winter temperature
ranges from 4° to 7°C (40° to 45°F), approximately 14 Celsius degrees (25
Fahrenheit degrees) higher than that of most other places in the same
latitude in the interior of Europe or on the eastern coast of North
America. The oceanic influence is also pronounced in the summer; the
average summer temperature of Ireland ranges from 15° to 17°C (59° to
62°F), or about 4 Celsius degrees (7 Fahrenheit degrees) lower than that of
most other places in the same latitudes. Rainfall averages 1,000 mm (40 in)
annually, although regional variation is significant, with more than twice
as much rain falling in the west as in the east. The sunniest part of the
country is the southeast.
life does not differ markedly from that of England or France. Over many
centuries of human settlement almost all of Ireland’s natural woodlands
were cleared, and indigenous animals such as bear, wolf, wildcat, beaver,
wild cattle, and the giant Irish deer (a type of fallow deer) gradually
disappeared. However, the hardy and versatile Connemara pony, Ireland’s
only native pony breed, has been used by Irish farmers since prehistoric
times. The great auk, or garefowl, was exterminated in the 19th century.
Small rodents living in forested areas and fields remain numerous across
Ireland, as do numerous species of shore and field birds, including many
types of gull. Birds of prey are rare. Ireland has no snakes; in fact, the
only reptile found in Ireland is a species of lizard. Sedges, rushes,
ferns, and grasses provide the dominant plant cover.
|3| |PEOPLE AND SOCIETY |
Ireland’s population descends from a variety of ethnic groups and reflects
intermixing over millennia by successive waves of immigrants. Ireland’s
population is predominantly of Celtic origin (Celts), but ancient tribes
had inhabited Ireland for thousands of years when Celtic peoples settled
the island in the 4th century bc. Over the centuries Ireland absorbed
significant numbers of Vikings, Normans, and English. More recently,
Ireland’s membership in the European Union (EU) has increased the number of
citizens of other European countries living in Ireland, and small
communities of ethnic Chinese and Indian people also have been established.
Since 1996 Ireland has received small numbers of refugees and asylum
seekers from eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. Ireland also has a small
indigenous minority known as Travellers. Numbering approximately 25,000,
Travellers move and camp across the Irish countryside in small groups or
cluster in enclaves within cities.
|A| |Population Characteristics |
The population of the Irish Republic in 2004 was estimated at 3,969,558,
giving the country an overall population density of 58 persons per sq km
(149 per sq mi). Some 60 percent of the population lived in urban areas in
2002. The urban share of the population has increased with each successive
census since 1926; the urban population exceeded the rural population for
the first time in 1971.
Ireland’s economic growth in recent decades has reversed a long historical
trend of emigration. For more than a century after the Great Potato Famine
of the 1840s, Ireland’s population steadily declined, despite the nation’s
relatively high birth rate. This continuous decline resulted from mass
emigration, initially to escape the famine and later to seek employment and
better lives, mainly in the United States and in the industrialized cities
of the United Kingdom. In the 1960s and 1970s emigration fell sharply and
no longer offset the natural increase. By the 1980s Ireland’s population
was growing at an annual rate of about 0.5 percent, and in the 1990s
immigration began to exceed emigration by a small margin. In 2002 Ireland’s
population grew at an annual rate of 1.16 percent, one of the highest rates
in western Europe.
|B| |Political |
| | |Divisions |
The island of Ireland is traditionally divided
into the four provinces of
Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Ulster. Most of Ulster is now part of
Northern Ireland.
For administrative purposes, the Irish Republic is divided into 26
counties. They are the counties of Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny,
Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow, in
Leinster Province; Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford,
in Munster Province; Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo, in
Connacht Province; and Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan, in Ulster Province.
Each county is governed by at least one county council. Two counties are
divided into subsections administered by separate county councils, giving
the Irish Republic a total of 29 county councils. Tipperary county has two
councils, North and South Tipperary. Dublin county has three councils,
Dublin-Belgard, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, and Dublin-Fingal.
In addition to the county councils, there are five borough councils, five
city councils, and 75 town councils. The borough councils are Clonmel,
Drogheda, Kilkenny, Sligo, and Wexford. The city councils are Cork, Dublin,
Galway, Limerick, and Waterford.
|C| |Principal |
| | |Cities |
The capital and largest city is Dublin, with a population (2002) of
495,781. Dublin is the commercial and industrial center of Ireland and the
country’s principal port. Cork is the second largest city and a major port,
with a population of 123,062. Other major cities and towns include Limerick
(54,023), Galway (65,832), and Waterford (44,594).
|D| |Way of Life|
Ireland, for centuries a predominantly rural, agricultural society, changed
dramatically with economic development after World War II (1939-1945). The
emergence of diversified manufacturing and service sectors has made the
country more urbanized and middle class. Consumption of consumer goods has
expanded rapidly, and material comforts—including automobiles, cellular
telephones and other electronic goods, and fashionable clothing—have become
important symbols of social status.
In cities and towns, most Irish people live in houses, although apartments
are growing in popularity as urban densities increase. In the countryside,
traditional farmhouses constructed of stone or dried peat and covered with
thatched roofs have been largely replaced by modern dwellings. Today, most
homes are made from concrete, brick, or mortared stone and have tile roofs.
In rural areas peat is still cut and dried for use as fuel for cooking and
heating.
Ireland is a strongly Roman Catholic country by tradition. However, the
late 20th and early 21st centuries were marked by increasing secularization
in Irish society. Many Irish have questioned, and even rejected, the role
of the Roman Catholic Church as the chief arbiter of social and family
values. At the same time, women have energetically challenged the country’s
traditional patriarchal social values. Despite these changes, political
life in Ireland is still largely dominated by men, and women typically earn
far less than their male counterparts. Ireland’s abortion laws are among