Republic of Ireland
The
Republic of Ireland (
Irish:
Poblacht na hÉireann) is the official description
[The Republic of Ireland Act, 1948, Section 2, Irish Statute Book] of the sovereign state which covers approximately five-sixths of the island of
Ireland, off the coast of north-west
Europe. The state's official name is
Ireland (Irish:
Éire),
[Constitution of Ireland, Article 4, Department of the Taoiseach] and this is how international organisations and citizens of Ireland usually refer to the country. It is a member of the
European Union, has a
developed economy and a population of slightly more than 4.2 million. The remaining sixth of the island of Ireland is known as
Northern Ireland and is part of the
United Kingdom. Ireland is the fastest growing country in Europe, with a population increase of 8.1% between 2002 and 2006, or 2.25% annually.
The constitution provides that the name of the state is "Éire, or, in the
English language, Ireland." However, the
state is sometimes referred to as the "Republic of Ireland", in order to distinguish it from the island of Ireland. The name
Republic of Ireland came into use after the
Republic of Ireland Act defined it as the official description of the state in 1949 (the purpose of the act being to declare that the state was a
republic rather than a form of
constitutional monarchy). It is also the accepted legal name of the state in the
United Kingdom as per the
Ireland Act 1949. Today, while
Republic of Ireland is a valid term for the state,
Ireland is used for official purposes such as treaties, government and legal documents, and membership of international organisations. However with
Irish being named the
European Union's 21st official language in 2007; the nation will be referred to using both Irish and English languages, similarly to other countries such as Finland and Belgium using more than one language at EU level. This means the label 'Éire Ireland' will be used on various signage and nameplates referring to the state.
[EU to call country 'Éire Ireland', Irish Examiner, 27 June 2006.]The state is also known by many other names in English, such as
Éire,
The Free State and the
Twenty-six Counties. The use of Éire when speaking English in Ireland has become increasingly rare, not least due to historical condescending connotations. Often in the United Kingdom the state is referred to as
Southern Ireland, though this term is used informally and was only used officially for a brief period in the state's history.
The state has had more than one official title. The revolutionary state established by nationalists in 1919 was known as the "
Irish Republic"; when the state achieved
de jure independence in 1922, it became known as the "
Irish Free State" (in the
Irish language Saorstát Éireann), a name that was retained until 1937.
The state known today as the Republic of Ireland came into being when 26 of the counties of
Ireland seceded from the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) in
1922. The remaining six counties remained within the UK as
Northern Ireland. This action, known as the
Partition of Ireland, came about because of complex constitutional developments in the early twentieth century.
From
1 January 1801 until
6 December 1922, Ireland was part of the
United Kingdom. During the
Great Famine from 1845 to 1849 the island's population of over 8 million fell by 30 percent. One million Irish died of starvation and another 1.5 million were forced to emigrate, which set the pattern of emigration for the century to come and would result in a constant decline up to the 1960s. From 1874, but particularly from 1880 under
Charles Stewart Parnell, the
Irish Parliamentary Party moved to prominence with its attempts to achieve
Home Rule, which would have given Ireland some autonomy without requiring it to leave the United Kingdom. It seemed possible in 1911 when the
House of Lords lost their veto, and
John Redmond secured the Third
Home Rule Act 1914. The
unionist movement, however, had been growing since 1886 among Irish
Protestants, fearing that they would face discrimination and lose economic and social privileges if Irish
Catholics were to achieve real political power. Though Irish unionism existed throughout the whole of Ireland, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century unionism was particularly strong in parts of
Ulster, where industrialisation was more common in contrast to the more agrarian rest of the island. (Any tariff barriers would, it was feared, most heavily hit that region.) In addition, the Protestant population was more strongly located in Ulster, with unionist majorities existing in about four counties. Under the leadership of the
Dublin-born
Sir Edward Carson and the northerner
Sir James Craig they became more militant. In 1914, to avoid rebellion in Ulster, the British
Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, with agreement of the leadership of the
Irish Parliamentary Party leadership, inserted a clause into the bill providing for home rule for 26 of the 32 counties, with an as of yet undecided new set of measures to be introduced for the area temporarily excluded. Though it received the
Royal Assent, the Third
Home Rule Act 1914's implementation was suspended until after the
Great War. (The war at that stage was expected to be ended by 1915, not the four years it did ultimately last.) For the prior reasons Redmond and his Irish
National Volunteers supported the Allied cause, and tens of thousands joined the
British Army.
In January 1919, after the December 1918
general elections, 73 of Ireland's 106
MPs elected were
Sinn Féin members who refused to take their seats in the
British House of Commons. Instead, they set up an extra-legal Irish parliament called
Dáil Éireann.
This Dáil in January 1919 issued a
Unilateral Declaration of Independence and proclaimed an
Irish Republic. The Declaration was mainly a restatement of the 1916
Proclamation with the additional provision that Ireland was no longer a part of the
United Kingdom. Despite this, the new
Irish Republic remained unrecognised internationally except by
Lenin's
Russian Republic. Nevertheless the Republic's
Aireacht (ministry) sent a delegation under
Ceann Comhairle Sean T. O'Kelly to the
Paris Peace Conference, 1919, but it was not admitted. After the bitterly fought
War of Independence, representatives of the
British government and the Irish rebels negotiated the
Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 under which the British agreed to the establishment of an independent Irish State whereby the
Irish Free State (in the
Irish language Saorstát Éireann) with
dominion status was created. The
Dáil narrowly ratified the treaty.
The Treaty was not entirely satisfactory to either side. It gave more concessions to the Irish than the British had intended to give but did not go far enough to satisfy republican aspirations. The new Irish Free State was in theory to cover the entire island, subject to the proviso that six counties in the north-east, termed "Northern Ireland" (which had been created as a separate entity under the
Government of Ireland Act 1920) could opt out and choose to remain part of the United Kingdom, which they duly did. The remaining twenty-six counties became the
Irish Free State, a
constitutional monarchy over which the British monarch reigned (from 1927 with the title
King of Ireland). It had a
Governor-General, a
bicameral parliament, a cabinet called the "Executive Council" and a prime minister called the
President of the Executive Council.
The
Irish Civil War was the direct consequence of the creation of the Irish Free State. Anti-Treaty forces, led by
Eamon de Valera, objected to the fact that acceptance of the Treaty
abolished the
Irish Republic of 1919 to which they had sworn loyalty, arguing in the face of public support for the settlement that the "people have no right to do wrong". They objected most to the fact that the state would remain part of the
British Commonwealth and that
Teachtaí Dála would have to swear an oath of fidelity to
King George V and his successors. Pro-Treaty forces, led by
Michael Collins, argued that the Treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire to and develop, but the freedom to achieve it".
At the start of the war, the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) split into two opposing camps: a pro-treaty IRA and an
anti-treaty IRA. The pro-Treaty IRA became part of the new
National Army. However, through the lack of an effective command structure in the anti-Treaty IRA, and their defensive tactics throughout the war,
Collins and his pro-treaty forces were able to build up an army capable of overwhelming the anti-Treatyites. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, machine-guns and ammunition boosted pro-treaty forces, and the threat of a return of Crown forces to the Free State removed any doubts about the necessity of enforcing the treaty. The lack of public support for the anti-treaty Irregulars, and the determination of the government to overcome them, contributed significantly to their defeat.
The National Army suffered 800 fatalities and perhaps as many as 4,000 people were killed altogether. As their forces retreated, the Irregulars showed a major talent for destruction and the economy of the Free State suffered a hard blow in the earliest days of its existence.
|
Irish population through the 20th century. |
On
29 December 1937 a new constitution, the
Constitution of Ireland, came into force. It replaced the Irish Free State by a new state called simply "Ireland". Though this state's
constitutional structures provided for a
President of Ireland instead of a king, it was not technically a republic; the principal key role possessed by a head of state, that of symbolically representing the state internationally remained vested, in
statute law, in the King as an
organ. On
21 December 1948 the Republic of Ireland Act declared a republic, with the functions previously given to the King given instead to the President of Ireland.
The Irish state had remained a member of the then-
British Commonwealth after independence until the declaration of a republic on 18th April 1949. Under Commonwealth rules declaration of a republic automatically terminated membership of the association; since a reapplication for membership was not made, Ireland consequently ceased to be a member.
The Republic of Ireland joined the
United Nations in 1955 and the
European Community (now the
European Union) in 1973. Irish governments have sought the peaceful reunification of Ireland and have usually cooperated with the
British government in the violent conflict with the
Provisional IRA and
UVF in Northern Ireland known as the "
Troubles". A peace settlement for Northern Ireland, the
Belfast Agreement, was approved in 1998 in referenda north and south of the border, and is currently being implemented, albeit more slowly than many would like.
The state is a
republic, with a parliamentary system of government. The
President of Ireland, who serves as
head of state, is elected for a seven-year term and can be re-elected only once. The president is largely a
figurehead but can still carry out certain
constitutional powers and functions, aided by the
Council of State, an advisory body. The
Taoiseach (
prime minister), is appointed by the president on the nomination of parliament. The Taoiseach is normally the leader of the political party which wins the most seats in the national elections. It has become normal in the Republic for
coalitions to form a government, and there has not been a single-party government since the period of 1987"1989.
The
bicameral parliament, the
Oireachtas, consists of a Senate,
Seanad Éireann, and a lower house,
Dáil Éireann. The Seanad is composed of sixty members; eleven nominated by the Taoiseach, six elected by two universities, and 43 elected by public representatives from panels of candidates established on a vocational basis. The Dáil has 166 members,
Teachtaí Dála, elected to represent multi-seat constituencies under the system of
proportional representation by means of the
Single Transferable Vote. Under the constitution, parliamentary elections must be held at least every seven years, though a lower limit may be set by statute law. The current statutory maximum term is every five years.
The Government is constitutionally limited to fifteen members. No more than two members of the Government can be selected from the Senate, and the Taoiseach,
Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Finance
must be members of the Dáil. The current government consists of a coalition of two parties;
Fianna Fáil under Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern and the
Progressive Democrats under Tánaiste
Mary Harney.
The main opposition in the current Dáil consists of
Fine Gael and
Labour. Smaller parties such as the
Green Party,
Sinn Féin and the
Socialist Party also have representation in the Dáil.
Ireland joined the
European Union in 1973. Since then it has received 16% of all "first warnings" issued on environmental issues, despite being under 1% of the EU's population.
In 2004 Ireland held the Presidency of the Council of the
European Union .
The Republic of Ireland has 26
counties, and these are used in political, cultural and sporting contexts.
Dáil constituencies are required by statute to follow county boundaries, as far as possible. Hence counties with greater populations have multiple constituencies (e.g. Limerick East/West) and some constituencies consist of more than one county (e.g. Sligo-Leitrim), but by and large, the actual county boundaries are not crossed. As local government units, however, some have been restructured, with County Dublin distributed between three new county councils in the 1990s and County Tipperary having been administratively two separate counties since the 1890s, giving a present-day total of 29 administrative counties and five cities. The five cities " Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway , and Waterford " are administered separately from the remainder of their respective counties. Five boroughs " Clonmel, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Sligo and Wexford " have a level of autonomy within the county:
These counties are grouped together into
regions for statistical purposes.
The island of Ireland extends over 32,595
square miles (84,421
km²) of which 83% (or five-sixths) belong to the Republic (at 27,133 sq. mi; 70,280 km²), with the remainder constituting Northern Ireland. It is bound to the west by the
Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast by the
North Channel. To the east is found the
Irish Sea which reconnects to the ocean via the southwest with
St George's Channel and the
Celtic Sea. The west-coast of Ireland mostly consists of cliffs, hills and low mountains (the highest point being
Carrauntoohil at 1,041 m). In from the perimeter of the country is mostly relatively flat farmland, traversed by rivers such as the
River Shannon and several large lakes or
loughs. The center of the country is part of the River Shannon watershed, containing large areas of
bogland, used for
peat production.
The local
temperate climate is modified by the
North Atlantic Current and is relatively mild. Summers are rarely very hot, but it freezes only occasionally in winter.
Precipitation is very common, with up to 275 days with rain in some parts of the country. Chief cities are the capital
Dublin on the east coast,
Cork in the south,
Limerick,
Galway on the west coast, and
Waterford on the south east coast (see
Cities in Ireland).
The economy of Ireland has transformed in recent years from an agricultural focus to one dependent on trade, industry and investment. Economic growth in Ireland averaged an exceptional 10% from 1995"2000, and 7% from 2001-2004.
Industry, which accounts for 46% of
GDP, about 80% of exports, and 29% of the labor force, now takes the place of
agriculture as the country's leading sector.
Exports play a fundamental role in the state's robust growth, but the economy also benefits from the accompanying rise in consumer spending, construction, and business investment. On paper, the country is the largest exporter of software-related goods and services in the world. In fact, a lot of foreign software, and sometimes music, is filtered through the country to avail of the state's non-taxing of royalties from copyrighted goods.
One key reason for the country's economic surge might be the government's role in the past ten years. A number of initiatives to address the problems of high
inflation (with poor results in recent years), large tax burdens, government spending, lack-lustre foreign investment and low job skills have been introduced.
A key part of economic policy, since 1987, has been
Social Partnership which is a
neo-corporatist set of voluntary 'pay pacts' between the Government, employers and trades unions. These usually set agreed pay rises for three-year periods.
The state joined in launching the
euro currency system in January 1999 (leaving behind the
Irish pound) along with ten other EU nations. The 1995 to 2000 period of high economic growth led many to call the country the
Celtic Tiger. The economy felt the impact of the global economic slowdown in 2001, particularly in the high-tech export sector " the growth rate in that area was cut by nearly half. GDP growth continued to be relatively robust, with a rate of about 6% in 2001 and 2002. Growth for 2004 was over 4%, and for 2005 was 4.7%.
With high growth came high levels of inflation, particularly in the capital city. Prices in
Dublin, where nearly 30% of Ireland's population lives, are considerably higher than elsewhere in the country [
1], especially in the
booming property market.
Ireland has the fourth-highest
GDP (based on
PPP) per capita in the world after
Luxembourg,
Norway and the
United States, but lies 8th in the
2005 UN Human Development Index, which counts GDP per capita as a factor. This indicates that factors such as life expectancy (77.56 in 2005), which places Ireland at about 32nd in the world, currently trail behind economic growth.
The Economist Intelligence Unit's Quality of Life Index ([
2]) placed Ireland in 1st place in its World in Review 2005 survey.
Poverty figures show that 6.8% of Ireland's population suffer "consistent poverty" [
3] (2004).
The
CSO published preliminary findings based on the 2006 Census of Population on
July 19 2006. These indicate:
* The total population of Ireland on Census Day,
April 23 2006, was 4,234,925, an increase of 317,722, or 8.1% since
2002*Allowing for the incidence of births (245,000) and deaths (114,000), the derived net immigration of people to Ireland between 2002 and 2006 was 186,000. It is estimated that the cohort of non-nationals resident in Ireland is of the order of 400,000 - a number that will be clarified in
April 2007.
*The average annual rate of increase, 2%, is the highest on record " compared to 1.3% between 1996 and 2002 and 1.5% between 1971 and 1979.
*The 2006 population was last exceeded in the 1861 Census when the population then was 4.4 million The lowest population of Ireland was recorded in the 1961 Census " 2.6 million.
*All provinces of Ireland recorded population growth. The population of
Leinster grew by 8.9%;
Munster by 6.5%; and the long-term population decline of
Connaught "
Ulster has stopped.
* The ratio of males to females has declined in each of the four provinces between 1979 and 2006. Leinster is the only province where the number of females exceeds the number of males. Males predominate in rural counties such as
Cavan,
Leitrim, and
Roscommon while the are more females in cities and urban areas.
The Republic's armed forces are organised under the
Irish Defence Forces (
"glaigh na hÉireann). The
Irish Army is relatively small, but well equipped, with 8,500 full-time soldiers(13,000 in the reserve army).
[Irish Defence Forces, Army (accessed 15 June 2006)] This is principally due to Ireland's designation as a
neutral country. Due to the "triple-lock" rules governing participation in conflicts, deployments are on
UN peace-keeping duties and protection of the Republic's territorial waters (in the case of the
Irish Naval Service). See
Irish neutrality.
There is also an
Irish Air Corps and
Reserve Defence Forces (
Irish Army Reserve and
Naval Service Reserve) under the Defence Forces.
The Irish peoples are mainly of indigenous origin, with the country's only significant minorities having descended from the Vikings and Anglo-Normans. An indigenous minority group is the
Irish Traveller, while some of the population are also of English, Scottish, and Welsh descent.
The official languages are
Irish and
English. Teaching of the Irish language is compulsory in primary and secondary level schools which receive money and recognition from the state. Some students may be exempt from the requirement to receive instruction in the language.
English is by far the predominant language spoken throughout the country. People living in predominantly Irish-speaking communities (the
Gaeltacht) are limited to the low tens of thousands in isolated pockets largely on the western seaboard. Roads signs are usually bilingual, except in the
Gaeltacht, where they are in Irish only. The legal status of place names has recently been the subject of controversy, with an order made in 2005 under the
Official Languages Act changing the official name of certain locations from English to Irish (e.g.
Dingle is now officially named
An Daingean). Most public notices are only in
English, as is most of the print media. National media in Irish exists on TV, radio, and in print.
According to "Marketing Ireland" Ireland has experienced a massive influx in the number of people from the 10 new EU accession states. Some 210,000
PPS numbers have been issued to people from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. 140,000 PPS number have been given to
Poles in Ireland. However, not all those who have received PPS numbers will have remained in Ireland. There are also around 100,000 Americans living in Ireland. There is also a significant Asian community in Ireland with an estimated 22,000 people and a Nigerian population of around 9,000 [
4]. It is estimated that 10,000 Poles arrive in Ireland to work every month.
[[Image:Bohermeenoldchurch.JPG|thumb|A Roman Catholic Mass in Ireland, ca. 1950.
Ireland is still predominantly Roman Catholic.]]
|
St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin
The National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland, part of the Anglican communion. |
The Republic of Ireland is 92% nominally
Roman Catholic, but there has been a massive decline in Mass attendance among
Irish Catholics since the liturgical, disciplinary and theological reforms of the
Second Vatican Council were implemented. Between 1996 and 2001, regular
Mass attendance, already previously in decline, declined from 60% to 48% (it had been 90%+ before 1973), and all but two of its sacerdotal seminaries have closed.
The second largest Christian denomination, the
Church of Ireland (
Anglicanism), having been in decline for most of the twentieth century, has now experienced an increase in membership, according to the 2002 census, as have other small Christian denominations, and
Islam. The largest other Protestant denominations are the
Presbyterian Church in Ireland, followed by the
Methodist Church in Ireland. The very small
Jewish community in the state has continued to decline in numbers (see
History of the Jews in Ireland).
Religion and politics
The
1937 Constitution of Ireland gave the Roman Catholic Church a "special position" as the church of the majority, but also recognised other Christian and Jewish sects. As with other predominantly Roman Catholic European states (e.g.,
Italy), the Irish state underwent a period of legal secularisation in the late
20th century. In
1972, the articles mentioning specific religions groups, including the Catholic Church were deleted from the Irish constitution by the
Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.
Still remaining in the Constitution is Article 44, which begins:
The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.The article also establishes freedom of religion (for belief, practice, and organisation without undue interference from the state), prohibits endowment of any particular religion, prohibits the state from religious discrimination, and requires the state to treat religious and non-religious schools in a non-prejudicial manner.
Catholic doctrine prohibits
abortion in most circumstances, putting it in conflict with the
pro-choice movement. In
1983, the
Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland recognised "the right to life of the unborn", subject to qualifications concerning the "equal right to life" of the mother. The case of
Attorney General v. X prompted passage of the
Thirteenth and
Fourteenth Amendments, guaranteeing the right to travel abroad to have an abortion performed, and the right of citizens to learn about "services" that are illegal in Ireland but legal outside the country. (See
Abortion in Ireland.)
Catholic and Protestant attitudes in 1937 also disfavoured
divorce, which was prohibited by the original Constitution. It was not until
1995 that the
Fifteenth Amendment repealed this ban.
The Catholic Church was hit in the 1990s by a series of sexual abuse scandals and cover-up charges against its hierarchy. In 2005, a major inquiry was made into
child sexual abuse allegations. The Ferns report, published on
25 October,
2005, revealed that more than 100 cases of child sexual abuse, between 1962 and 2002, by 21 priests, had taken place in the Diocese of Ferns alone. The report criticised the
Garda and the health authorities, who failed to protect the children to the best of their abilities; and in the case of the Garda before 1988, no file was ever recorded on sexual abuse complaints. (See
Roman Catholic sex abuse cases.)
 |
U2
The most successful Irish band of all time and one of the biggest bands internationally in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. |
The island of Ireland has produced the
Book of Kells,
Irish traditional music, and writers such as
George Berkeley,
Jonathan Swift,
James Joyce, [[George Bernard Shaw|George Bernard Shaw]],
Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
Oliver Goldsmith,
Oscar Wilde,
W.B. Yeats,
Patrick Kavanagh,
Samuel Beckett,
John Millington Synge,
Seán O'Casey,
Séamus Heaney,
Bram Stoker and others. Shaw, Yeats, Beckett and Heaney are
Nobel Literature laureates. Other prominent writers include
Roddy Doyle,
Séamus " Grianna,
Dermot Bolger,
Maeve Binchy,
Frank McCourt,
Edna O'Brien,
Joseph O'Connor,
John McGahern and
Colm Tóibín.
Ernest Walton of
Trinity College Dublin shared the
1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for "splitting the atom".
William Rowan Hamilton was a significant mathematician.
Figures influential in music included
Blues guitarist
Rory Gallagher, folk singer
Christy Moore,
the Wolfe Tones,
Shane MacGowan with his band
The Pogues and singer
Sinéad O'Connor. Successful entertainment exports in the late twentieth century include acts such as
Horslips,
U2,
Thin Lizzy,
Bob Geldof,
The Corrs,
The Cranberries and
Enya, and the internationally acclaimed dance shows
Riverdance and
Lord of the Dance. In
classical music, the Island of Ireland was also the birthplace of the notable composers
Turlough O'Carolan,
John Field (inventor of the
Nocturne),
Michael William Balfe,
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and
Charles Wood.
*
List of Ireland-related topics*
Bunreacht na hÉireann (the 1937 constitution) (
PDF version)
*
The Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922* J. Anthony Foley and Stephen Lalor (ed),
Gill & Macmillan Annotated Constitution of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan, 1995) (ISBN 071712276X)
* FSL Lyons,
Ireland Since the Famine* Alan J. Ward,
The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland 1782"1992 (Irish Academic Press, 1994) (ISBN 0716525283)
*
Some of the material in these articles comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.*
OECD Information Technology Outlook 2004*
Áras an Uachtaráin - Official presidential site
*
Information on the Irish State - Governmental portal
*
Ireland Story - History, geography and current affairs
*
Taoiseach - Official prime ministerial site
*
Tithe an Oireachtais - Houses of Parliament, official parliamentary site
*
2004 Presidency of the Council of the European Unionnds-nl:Ierlaandfiu-vro:Iirimaa
