Irish History 101

Ireland has a long, rich and deep history.  Too much to ever put into one blog post so instead I will try and touch on the key elements.



7000 B.C. Ireland became an island, separate from what is now England/Wales/Scotland due to rising waters covering the land bridge that once connected the two. 



500 B.C. The Celts began to migrate and settle in Ireland.  The most famous and influential of these tribes are the Gaels. This is where the Gaelic language stems from, which is still present in Ireland today.



432 A.D. St. Patrick arrived and converted the pagan Irish to Christianity. He was originally brought to the island as a slave for six years.  After the six years he was able to escape and made his way to Gaul where his studies prepared him for a life in the clergy.  Inspired by a dream St. Patrick found his way back to Ireland, this time converting the Irish to the Christian religion.



795 A.D. Vikings invade from Norway. However much havoc they wreaked on Ireland, it is the Vikings we have to thank for Ireland's first set of walled cities- Dublin and Waterford. These raiders slowly became traders, thus introducing the first bit of urban life to Ireland.



1100 A.D. The Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland.  Strongbow, who was a Welsh earl, conquered Dublin and Waterford, marrying the local king's daughter.  He became the new king once his father-in-law passed away.



1171 A.D. King Henry II declares the entire island English, reminding Strongbow of his original purpose in invading the island.



1348 A.D. Most of the Anglo-Norman population died out as a result of the Black Death, thus shrinking English control.  The surrounding and more rural Gaelic clans went relatively untouched, giving them back most of the control that they had previously lost to the English.



1500 A.D. Ireland became an important location as the English worked to colonize the Americas.  Later, Queen Elizabeth I (daughter of King Henry VIII) gave Irish land to English Protestants to colonize.  This began the long, and never ending, fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants.  This feuding ultimately ended the Gaelic Irish rule.



1600 A.D. (End of) The, now, Protestant England put down every rebellion of the Irish Catholic and instituted the Penal Laws. These laws affected any person not of the Church
of England.  In terms of religion you were still allowed to practice so long as you paid a very hefty fine.   These laws made it impossible for any Catholic in Ireland to play the harp, join the army, hold public office, let alone vote, buy land or even buy a horse costing more than five pounds.



1800 A.D. Daniel O'Connell is famously known as the liberator of the Catholics. He was able to achieve this peacefully through legislation.



1845-1849 A.D. The Great Potato Famine. A fungus wiped out the potatoes in Ireland. At the time the potato was the main food group of the Irish. It is estimated that between 500,000-1,100,000 people died as result.  A number of Irish started migrating to other lands.  This is why we have a large Irish population in the United States today.





1900-1950 A.D. The focus becomes Independence for many Irish.  The most famous of the parties advocating independence include Sinn Fien (which translates to "ourselves"), the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizens Army. In 1920 after a lot of fighting the British Parliament made the island of Ireland into two independent and self-governing countries that still belonged to Britain.  This created Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.



There is much more to cover but I believe that is enough, and possibly too much, for this posting. For more information on Modern Irish history look to the next posting.