Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0183/01834.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 21KB | 361 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01834}
$Pretitle{423}
$Title{Ireland
History}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC}
$Subject{irish
ireland
century
parliament
king
political
rule
home
new
war}
$Date{1990}
$Log{Religious Artifacts*0183401.scf
}
Country:     Ireland
Book:        Facts About Ireland. 1990
Author:      Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC
Date:        1990

History

[See Religious Artifacts: Courtesy Embassy of Ireland, Washington DC.]

Prehistory

     The earliest settlers arrived in Ireland around 6,000 BC in the
mesolithic or middle stone-age period. They arrived in the north across the
narrow strait from Britain. These people were dominantly hunters.

     Colonists of the neolithic, or new stone-age, period reached Ireland
around 3,000 BC. These people were farmers who raised animals and cultivated
the soil. Many remnants of their civilization - houses, pottery,
implements - have been excavated at Lough Gur in Co. Limerick and some can be
seen at the folk park now developed around the lakeside site. The neolithic
colonists were largely self-sufficient but did engage in a limited form of
trading in products such as axe-heads. Many of their religious monuments have
survived, the most impressive of which is the great megalithic tomb at
Newgrange in Co. Meath.

     Prospectors and metalworkers reached Ireland about 2,000 BC. Metal
deposits were discovered and soon bronze and gold objects were being
manufactured. Many artifacts made by these bronze-age people have been found,
among them axe-heads, pottery and jewellery. About 1,200 BC another movement
of people reached Ireland, producing an even greater variety of weapons and
artifacts. A common type of dwelling in use at this time was the crannog, an
artificial island, pallisaded on all sides, constructed in the middle of a
lake.

     The people who made the greatest impact on Ireland were the Celts. The
earliest waves of Celtic invaders may have reached Ireland from central Europe
as early as the 6th century BC with subsequent groups arriving up to the time
of Christ. The Celts belonged linguistically to the great Indo-European
family. They soon came to dominate Ireland and the earlier settlers.

     The Celtic culture of the La Tene civilization - named after a Celtic
site in Switzerland - reached Ireland around the 2nd century BC.

     Celtic Ireland was not unified politically but it was by culture and
language. The country was divided into about 150 miniature kingdoms, each
called a tuath. A minor king ruled a tuath, subject to a more powerful king
who ruled a group of tuatha, who was in turn subject to one of the five
provincial kings. This political situation was very fluid, with constant
shifts in power among the most important contenders.

     Celtic Ireland had a simple agrarian economy. No coins were used and the
unit of exchange was the cow. People lived on individual farms and there were
no towns. Society was rigidly stratified into classes and was regulated by the
Brehon Laws, an elaborate code of legislation based largely on the concepts of
the tuath as the political unit and the fine, or extended family, as the
social unit.

Early Christian Period

     Christianity was introduced into Ireland in the 5th century. This is
traditionally associated with St Patrick (d. 461) although there were some
Christians in Ireland before his arrival. It is from this period that the
first written documents date. A distinctive feature of the development of
early Irish Christianity was the important role played by monasticism. The
great monasteries such as Glendalough, founded by St Kevin, and Clonmacnoise,
founded by St Ciaran, were famous centres of culture and learning and the
illuminated manuscripts which they produced were one of the great glories of
Irish monasticism.

     It was through the monasteries that Irish influence on Britain and Europe
was exerted from the 6th century onwards. Setting out first as pilgrims, Irish
monks preached the Gospel and established new communities right across the
continent. Ireland, unlike most of the rest of Europe, did not suffer
barbarian invasion and so acted as a repository of Christian civilization at a
time when it was almost extinguished elsewhere. Irish monks are associated
with a number of continental centres - St Fursey at Peronne in France, St
Kilian at Wurzburg in Germany, St Vergil at Salzburg in Austria, St Columbanus
at Bobbio in Italy. The Irish brought Christianity to pagan peoples,
established centres of learning and paved the way for the intellectual
flowering in 9th century France known as the Carolingian Renaissance. One of
the most notable of these Irishmen was the philosopher and theologian John
Scotus Eriugena.

     The successful missionary efforts of the Irish abroad were matched by
rich cultural achievements at home. Elaborate chalices, croziers and
ornamental jewellery were fashioned while the monastic scribes committed the
rich classical tradition to their magnificently illuminated manuscripts. This
period from the 6th to the 9th century has been seen by many as the Golden Age
of Irish history.

The Middle Ages

     From around 800 onwards Ireland was attacked by bands of Viking
marauders. The raids continued right through the 9th century and a second
major wave began early in the 10th century. The monasteries, as the major
centres of population and wealth, were a main target of the Vikings. They were
despoiled of their books and valuables and many of them were burned. These
attacks, and attacks by the Irish themselves, contributed to the decline of
the great Irish monastic tradition at this period.

     The Vikings were great traders and did much to develop trade in medieval
Ireland. It was they who founded most of the major towns such as Dublin, Cork,
Limerick and Waterford.

     The lack of any political unity in Ireland made it difficult to resist
the Viking attacks. However, the strength of the Ui Neill kings in the
northern half of the country prevented the Vikings from establishing
themselves there. Towards the end of the 10th century a new dynasty emerged in
Munster in the south and, under the kingship of Brian Boru, was able to match
the Ui Neill. Brian Boru defeated the Vikings in 999 and in 1002 he won
recognition as king of all Ireland. The Vikings intervened regularly in the
disputes between the Irish kings. Their support for a Leinster revolt against
Brian Boru led to their defeat at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, after which
the Vikings were confined to a subsidiary role in Irish political history.

     The 11th and 12th centuries were an age of renaissance and progress in
Ireland. Cultural activity and the arts prospered. It was a great era of
religious reform and a powerful effort was made to bring the Irish church more
fully into line with Roman orthodoxy. Two of the principal figures of this
movement were St Malachy of Armagh (d. 1148) and St Laurence of Dublin (d.
1180). In the politics others sought to follow Brian Boru's example and
establish themselves as kings of all Ireland. At various times between 1014
and 1169 the kings of Munster, Ulster, Connacht and Leinster succeeded in
doing so. The general trend in Ireland was towards the development of a strong
centralised monarchy on the European model.

     This trend was interrupted by the arrival of the Normans in 1167-69. The
first Normans came to Ireland from south Wales at the invitation of Diarmait
Mac Murchada, king of Leinster, to support his ambition to become king of all
Ireland. Mac Murchada was succeeded as King of Leinster by the leader of the
Normans, Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow. In 1171 the Normans' overlord,
Henry II, King of England, came to Ireland and was recognised as overlord of
the country by both Irish and Normans. Thus began the political involvement
of England in Ireland which was to dominate Irish history in succeeding
centuries.

     The Norman