Histori



The history of Ireland began in prehistoric time when the first humans arrived to Ireland from Britain and the European continent. It’s possible that there were land connection to Ireland, then the present-day Scotland and Northern Ireland, where there was shortest distance. There are not much left after the earliest inhabitants, but the others that arrived to the island left behind Neolithic finding locations like Newgrange. The Christianization of Ireland began through St. Patrick and lots of other missionaries from the 5th century after Christ. It had clashed a Celtic form of Christianity by the year 600, and it first contained a number of elements of Celtic mythology. In Ireland’s cultural and political development, Christianity has played a meaningful role. There were more than a century of vikinginvations from about year 800, and it caused great damage to the monastic culture and the regional dynasties. There the Norsemen created their own kingdoms. The Normans arrived in 1169, and England was heavily involved in the rule of the island for a period of 800 years.

From 1541 the English monarch's took direct control, and a significant number of settlers from England and Scotland went over. This led to the old nobility was forced out, and that there was a religious conflict between Protestant settlers and the Catholic siren. This conflict has been a recurrent theme in Irish History. Ireland got it’s own parliament, and had a limited autonomy, but the power lay in the anglo-Irish protestant hands, while the catholic majority had no right to vote. In 1801 the island was incorporated in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Irish parliament was abolished. The struggle of independence reached new speed at the beginning of the 20th century. After the Irish war of independence in 1922, the island was divided in two. The British province in Northern Ireland in the north have had limited autonomy with the exception of the period 1971-1998. There have always been religious and political conflicts in that area, and in the period 1968-1997 there was comprehensive violence that was spread to the U.K and the southern part of the island. The British created South-Ireland in the south, while the Irishmen created The Irish Republic. The southern state, with the Anglo-Irish treaty, then became The Irish Free State, which after that became the present republic of Ireland.