Ireland. Motorways shown in blue, primary roads (N, A) shown in green.
(OpenStreetMap mapping)

The island of Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, has an extensive network of tens of thousands of kilometres of public roads, usually surfaced. These roads have been developed and modernised over centuries, from trackways suitable only for walkers and horses, to surfaced roads including modern motorways. Northern Ireland has had motorways since 1962, and has a well-developed network of primary, secondary and local routes. Historically, the road network in the Republic of Ireland was less well developed and maintained. However, with the advent of the Celtic Tiger and significant European Union funding, most national roads in the Republic continue to be upgraded. In the 1990s the Republic went from having only a few short sections of motorway to constructing motorways, dual-carriageways and other improvements on most major routes as part of a National Development Plan. Road construction in Northern Ireland has proceeded at a slower pace in recent years, although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have recently been completed or are about to begin.

The major differences between roads in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are in road quality and route classification, signposts and speed limits.

Roads in Northern Ireland are classified as either motorways (shown by the letter M followed by a route number, e.g. M1), A-roads (shown by the letter A followed by a route number, e.g. A6), B-roads (shown by the letter B followed by a route number, e.g. B135) and other roads. There are two types of A-roads: primary and non-primary. Roads in the Republic are classified as either motorways (shown by the letter M followed by a route number, e.g. M7), National roads (shown by the letter N followed by a route number, e.g. N25), Regional roads (shown by the letter R followed by a route number, e.g. R611) and Local roads (shown by the letter L followed by a route number, e.g. L4202). There are two types of National roads: National Primary routes and National Secondary routes.

Distance signposts in Northern Ireland show distances in miles, while all signposts placed in the Republic since the 1990s use kilometres. The Republic's road signs are bilingual, using both official languages, Irish and English. The Irish names are written in lower case italic script. Signs in Northern Ireland are in English only. Warning signs in the Republic have a yellow background and are diamond-shaped, those in Northern Ireland are triangle-shaped and have a white background with a red border.

Speed limits in Northern Ireland are specified in miles per hour. Those in the Republic use kilometres per hour (km/h or kph), a change introduced on 20 January 2005.^[1] This involved the provision of 58,000 new metric speed limit signs, replacing and supplementing 35,000 imperial signs.

History[link]

There have been routes and trackways in Ireland connecting settlements and facilitating trade since ancient times. Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire and, therefore, Roman roads were not built in Ireland. However, an Iron Age road with a stone surface has been excavated in Munster ^[2] and togher (Irish: tóchar) roads, a type of causeway built through bogs, were found in many areas of the country.^[3]

According to an entry^[4] in the Annals of the Four Masters for AD 123, there were five principal highways (Irish: slighe) leading to Tara (Irish: Teamhair) in Early Medieval Ireland.

Early medieval law-tracts^[5] set out five types of road including the highway (slighe), the '[regional] main road' (ród or rout), the 'connecting road' (lámraite), the 'side road' (tógraite) which could be tolled, and the 'cow road' (bóthar). Bóthar is the most common term for 'road' in modern Irish: its diminutive form, bóithrín, (or boreen in English) is used as a term for very narrow, rural roads.

The development of roads in Ireland seemed to have stagnated until the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centuries. However, in the 18th century, a network of turnpike roads (charging tolls) was built: "a turnpike was a primitive form of turnstile - a gate across the road, opened on payment of a toll. The average length of a turnpike road was 30 miles". Routes to and from Dublin were developed initially and the network spread throughout the country. Turnpikes operated between 1729 and 1858 when the extensive railway network made them increasingly unpopular.^[6]

Specialist routes to facilitate the butter trade, which centered on Cork, were built in Munster. The first butter road was commissioned in 1748 and was built by John Murphy of Castleisland in Co. Kerry.^[7] In other areas, notably in Co. Wicklow, military roads were built to help secure British military control over remote areas. The Military Road through Co. Wicklow was begun in 1800 and completed in 1809.^[8] The R115 is part of the Military Road for its entire length.

Railways became the dominant form of land transport from the mid-19th century. This situation persisted until the first half of the 20th century when motorised road transport (cars, buses and trucks) gradually began to take over from railways as the most important form of land transport.

Pre-independence legislation (the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919^[9]) laid the foundation for the regulation of the modern system of public roads in Ireland. The Act gave the Minister for Local Government the power to classify roads: Trunk Road Funds were used to enable local councils to improve major roads and road surfacing was gradually undertaken throughout the 1920s, 1930s and beyond.

By the 1950s an established system of road classification and numbering with Trunk Roads and Link Roads had long been developed. The present system of road classification and numbering began in 1977 when twenty-five National Primary roads and thirty-three National Secondary roads were designated.

Regional roads were first formally designated in 1994, although Regional road route-numbers began appearing on signposts in the 1980s. The Roads Act 1993 also classified all public roads which are not national or regional roads as local roads.

Roads in the Republic of Ireland[link]

A directional road sign in the Republic of Ireland
County Laois.

The Republic has an extensive network of public roads connecting all parts of the country. As of 31 December 2007, there was a total of 5,427.58 km of national roads: 2,743.606 km of national primary routes (including motorways) and 2,683.974 km of national secondary routes.^[10] In addition to national roads, the Republic also has an extensive network of other public roads: there are 11,630 kilometres of regional roads and 78,972 kilometres of local roads.

The Republic's major road network is focused on Dublin. Motorways were extended from Dublin to other major cities as part of the Transport 21 programme which aimed to have a world-class motorway network in place by the end of 2010. By the end of 2010, Ireland's main cities (Cork, Limerick, Galway, and Waterford, Belfast) excluding Derry were connected to Dublin with motorways or with near-motorway standard roads. Dublin has been the focus of some other major projects, such as the East-Link and West-Link toll-bridges, as well as the Dublin Port Tunnel. Major by-pass projects are underway at other cities and towns; most of these are under construction as of 2009. The Jack Lynch Tunnel under the River Lee in Cork was a major project outside Dublin, and a fourth crossing at Limerick under the River Shannon (known as the Limerick Tunnel) opened in 2010.

The different classes of roads in Ireland are allocated blocks of numbers so that no number is used more than once.(not all road numbers are currently in use):

• National Primary Roads are numbered from N1 to N50 (motorway sections are signed with M prefix instead of N ).
• National Secondary Roads are numbered from N51 to N99.
• Regional Roads are numbered from R100 to R999.
• Local Primary Roads are numbered from L1000 to L4999.
• Local Secondary Roads are numbered from L5000 to L8999.
• Local Tertiary Roads are numbered from L10001 to L89999 with the first 4 digits representing the Local Primary or Secondary road it is off. Local Tertiary roads which are unrelated to a Local Primary or Secondary road are given numbers from L90000 up.

Motorways[link]

In the Republic of Ireland, the highest category of road is a motorway, indicated by the prefix M followed by one or two digits. The motorway network has been expanded extensively since the 1990s, through construction of new motorways and redesignation of existing motorway-standard dual-carriageway sections of National Primary routes.

The first motorway section in the state was the M7 Naas by-pass, which opened in 1983. As of 2009, all motorways in Ireland are part of, or form, national primary roads. At the end of 2004 there were 192 km (119 mi) of motorway in the Republic and 286 km (178 mi) of dual-carriageway.^[11] This was extended, by the end of 2005, to 247 km (153 mi) of motorway and 297 km (185 mi) of dual-carriageway.^[12] By the end of December 2009 there were 667 km (414 mi) of motorway in Ireland, with 385 kilometres (239 mi) under construction.^[13]

As of 2011, the following motorway routes are in operation:

• M1, part of the Dublin – Belfast route: from M50 J3 at Dublin Airport to Thistle Cross (just north of Dundalk) where it reverts to the N1 dual carriageway up to the border with Northern Ireland (where it continues without interruption as the A1 to Belfast).
• M2, part of the Dublin – Derry route: from M50 J5 to just north of Ashbourne, Co Meath, where it reverts to the N2.
• M3, part of the Dublin – Cavan/Enniskillen route: from Bracetown (on N3 from M50 J6) to Kells bypass.
• M4, part of the Dublin – Sligo route: from Lucan (on N4 from M50 J7) to Kinnegad at which point it reverts to dual carriageway to (bypass) Mullingar.
• M6, part of the Dublin – Galway route: leaves M4 at J11 near Kinnegad, ending at the N17 crossing where it reverts to the N6 dual carriageway around Galway. The section around Athlone reverts to N6 status as it is an all-traffic dual carriageway. This was the first city-to-city motorway link in Ireland. Opened Jan 2010
• M7, part of the Dublin – Limerick route: begins at the Naas bypass at the end of the N7 Naas Road dual carriageway from M50 J9 and continues to Limerick where it joins in to the M 20.
• M8, part of the Dublin – Cork route: branches off the M7 at an unnumbered^{[citation needed]} junction and heads for Cork, and completes what is effectively a city-to-city motorway. The moterway reverts to N8 status at Priory Court, just north of Cork.
• M9, part of the Dublin – Waterford route: branches off the M7 at junction 11 and heads for Kilkenny at which point it continues to Waterford at the N9.
• M11, part of the Dublin – Wexford route: the southern tip of the M50 merges into the M11 at M50 J17/M11 J4. The M11 reverts to N11 status on the west side of Bray
• M32,it heads eastwards from the junction of the M50 and M1.The M32 is 600m long

In June 2007, it was announced that around 800 kilometres of 'new' motorway would be created; however, much of this resulted from the re-classification of most of the country's high-quality dual carriageways to motorway regulations rather than the construction of purpose-built motorways. This has affected most of the major inter-urban routes between Dublin and various towns and cities and some of the Atlantic Corridor along the Western seaboard.^[14] In December 2007, it was announced that a planned high quality dual carriageway scheme between Galway and Tuam would be built as a motorway, the first such new motorway project to be announced since the early 2000s.^[15][16]

• Another new motorway, the M20, is being planned as the main route between Cork and Limerick.^[17]
• By 2015, the NRA planned that there would be approximately 1090 km of motorway in Ireland, comprising the M50 (49 km), M20 (90 km approx), M18 (70 km approx), M32(600m)M17 (25.5 km), M11 (62 km), M9 (116.5 km), M8 (143 km), M7 (185 km), M6 (144 km), M4 (62 km), M3 (57 km), M2 (13 km), and M1 (83 km). However the Irish financial crisis has brought this target into question.
• On 30 September 2008 (see below), it was announced that the proposed 26.6 km Gort to Oranmore scheme was to be included in the second tranche of motorway re-designations as it will link into the proposed M17.

National primary roads[link]

This category of road has the prefix "N" followed by one or two digits. The most important routes are numbered N1-N11 (radiate anti-clockwise from Dublin), with those in the range N12-N33 being cross-country roads. National secondary roads (see next section) are numbered under the same scheme with higher numbers. On road signage, destinations served but not on the route in question are listed in brackets, with the connecting route also listed (see thumbnail).

Northern Ireland route sections (which are classified separately according to NI schemes) are in some cases included in a theoretical complete cross-border route – for example the N3 route, which re-enters the Republic. These are listed here in brackets for completeness (and are present on southern road signage).

Naas Road (N7), non-motorway high-grade dual carriageway

Non-motorway National Route sign in Ireland

This list ignores the sections of route reclassified as motorway (see previous section).

National secondary roads[link]

Local Road route marker.

A directional sign with Local Road number indicated.

National secondary roads are also indicated with a "N" prefix. Routes N51 and higher (currently to N87) are national secondary routes.

There are 2683.974 km of national secondary roads in Ireland, making up slightly less than 50% of the entire national route (national primary and national secondary) network.^[19] National secondary routes are generally more poorly maintained than primary routes (although their quality can vary widely), but often carry more traffic than regional roads. Almost the entire network of national secondary roads is single carriageway, although there are some short sections of dual carriageway on the Tallaght bypass section of the N81, on the N52 at Dundalk, on the N85 at Ennis, on the N62 at Athlone and on the N71 between Cork and Bandon. Typically, national secondary roads are of a similar standard or higher than regional roads although some are of lower quality than the better sections of regional roads. Many of them have been resurfaced with higher quality pavements in recent years with relatively smooth surfaces and good road markings and signposting. However, road widths and alignments are often inadequate, with many narrow and winding sections.

National secondary roads generally do not bypass towns on their routes although there are a number of exceptions: the N52 bypasses Nenagh, Mullingar and the centre of Dundalk (as a relief road) with a further N52 bypass of Tullamore planned, the N55 (along with the N3) bypasses Cavan, the N56 forms part of the Donegal bypass, the N61 and the N63 bypass Roscommon, the N71 bypasses Halfway and Skibbereen, the N74 bypasses Cashel, the N76 bypasses Callan, the N77 forms the northern part of the Kilkenny ring road, the N80 bypasses Carlow and the N85 bypasses Ennis. When the Fermoy (Moorepark) to Kilbehenny section of the M8 was completed, the former N8 bypass of Mitchelstown was re-classified as the N73.

Examples of national secondary roads are:

• N52 Dundalk via Mullingar and Birr to Nenagh joining M7 to Limerick
• N59 Galway – Clifden – Westport – Bangor Erris – Ballina – Ballysadare
• N62 Athlone – Horse and Jockey
• N74 Cashel – Golden – Tipperary Town
• N81 Dublin – Tullow
• N86 Tralee – Dingle via Lispole

Regional roads[link]

There are over 11,600 kilometres of regional roads.^[20] Regional roads are numbered with three digit route numbers, prefixed by "R" (e.g. R105). Route numbers range from R1xx in the north-east to R7xx in the south-east of the country, with newer regional roads numbered R8xx and R9xx. Some of the more important regional roads such as the R136 Outer Orbital, Dublin and the R710 Waterford Outer Ring Road are dual-carriageway in whole or part. Most regional roads are however single carriageway roads, and many are rather narrow country roads.

Regional roads are subject to a general speed limit of 80 km/h (imperial equivalent: 50 mph) or 50 km/h (imperial equivalent: 31.25 mph) in built-up areas.

While funding for national primary roads is administered centrally by the National Roads Authority (NRA), regional and local roads are less well funded (although funding has increased in the 2000s). Local councils are responsible for these roads, as opposed to the NRA.

Local Roads[link]

Local Road (boreen) in County Mayo. Speed limit of 80 km/h.

All public roads which are not motorways, national roads or regional roads are local roads: "a public road, other than a national road or a regional road, shall be a local road".^[21]

Local roads vary greatly in quality, from wide urban streets to very narrow, rural lanes, known as boreens in Ireland. There are three types of Local Road: Local Primary (local roads wider than 4 metres), Local Secondary (local roads narrower than 4 metres) and Local Tertiary (cul-de-sacs and other minor roads).

Local roads are subject to a general speed limit of 80 km/h (imperial equivalent: 50 mph) or 50 km/h (imperial equivalent: 31.25 mph) in built-up areas.

Local roads are not generally referred to by number, but are registered with a four- or five-digit "L" number, taking the form Lxxxx. It used to be rare to see these numbers on signposts (and these numbers do not appear on Ordnance Survey maps), but in 2006 the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government began a programme of new signage for regional roads that incorporates local road numbers on directional signage (see thumbnails).^[22]

Old system[link]

Old style Fingerpost with old Link Road number on it

The Republic of Ireland had a different road numbering system prior to the introduction of the National Route numbering system.

Major roads were marked with "T" for Trunk Road, less important roads were marked with "L" for Link Road.

The first nine Trunk Roads (T1, T2, T3, T4, T4a, T5, T6, T7, T8) radiated out from Dublin (with the T8 branching off the T7 at Enniscorthy) and followed an anti-clockwise pattern. This pattern was similar to the existing anti-clockwise pattern which the routes radiating out of Dublin follow.

Unlike the present system, where each road (whether N- or R-) has a unique number, under the Trunk/Link system, the L-roads were numbered separately beginning with L1. These L (for Link Road) classifications are not related to the current Lxxxx numbers for Local Roads. Confusingly, some old road signs still show the former (now obsolete) road numbers.

Trunk Roads were broadly equivalent to the present National Roads, and Link Roads to the present Regional Roads. Most of the National Primary and National Secondary routes had been Trunk Roads and generally they followed the routes of these Trunk roads, albeit with a different numbering system. However, some National Primary and Secondary roads also incorporated Link Roads and unclassified roads into their routes. Furthermore, many Trunk Roads were downgraded to Regional roads, effectively 'de-trunked'. Some newer National Primary routes were built as new roads in the 1990s and therefore did not incorporate former Trunk, Link or unclassified roads into their routes.

Former Major Trunk Roads in Ireland & Current Equivalents[link]

• T1 = Dublin – north of Dundalk (Belfast). Mainly present R132, old N1; largely replaced by M1
• T2 = Dublin – north of Monaghan (Derry). Mainly present N2 road
• T3 = Dublin–Sligo. Mainly present N4 road
• T4 = Dublin–Galway. Mainly present N6 road (& R348).
• T5 = Dublin–Limerick. Mainly present N7 road
• T6 = Dublin–Cork. Including parts of present N9 road, N8 road and N30 road
• T7 = Dublin–Waterford. Mainly present N11 road
• T8 = Enniscorthy–Rosslare. Mainly part of present N11 road and N25 road.
• T11 = Cork–Sligo. Mainly present N20 road, N18 road and N17 road
• T12 = Cork–Wexford. Mainly present N25 road
• T13 = Limerick–Waterford. Mainly present N24 road
• T18 = Sligo – near Strabane (Derry). Mainly present N15 road
• T28 = Limerick–Tralee. Mainly present N21 road
• T29 = Cork–Tralee. Mainly present N22 road
• T35 = Dublin–Cavan–Donegal. Mainly present N3 road
• T77 = Dublin–Ballina. Mainly parts of present N5 road & N26 road

Roads in Northern Ireland[link]

The main roads in Northern Ireland, which connect well with those in the south, are classified "M"/"A"/"B" as in Great Britain. Whereas the roads in Great Britain are numbered according to a zonal system, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers in Northern Ireland,^[23] though their numbering is separate from the system in England, Scotland and Wales.

Euro Routes[link]

The following Euro Routes include sections in Ireland:

• E01 - Larne - Belfast - Dublin - Rosslare - A Coruña - Pontevedra - Valença do Minho - Vila Real de Santo António - Huelva - Sevilla
• E16 - Derry - Belfast ... Glasgow - Edinburgh ... Bergen - Arna - Voss ... Lærdal - Tyin - Fagernes - Hønefoss - Sandvika - Oslo
• E18 - Craigavon - Belfast - Larne ... Stranraer - Gretna - Carlisle - Newcastle ... Kristiansand - Arendal - Porsgrunn - Larvik - Sandefjord - Horten - Drammen - Oslo - Askim - Karlstad - Örebro - Västerås - Stockholm/Kapellskär ... Mariehamn ... Turku/Naantali - Helsinki - Kotka - Vaalimaa - Vyborg - Saint Petersburg
• E20 - Shannon - Limerick - Dublin ... Liverpool - Manchester - Leeds - Kingston upon Hull ... Esbjerg - Copenhagen - Malmö - Helsingborg - Halmstad - Gothenburg - Örebro - Stockholm ... Tallinn - Narva - Saint Petersburg
• E30 - Cork - Waterford - Wexford - Rosslare ... Fishguard - Swansea - Cardiff - Newport - Bristol - London - Colchester - Ipswich - Felixstowe ... Hoek van Holland - The Hague - Gouda - Utrecht - Amersfoort - Oldenzaal - Osnabrück - Bad Oeynhausen - Hanover - Braunschweig - Magdeburg - Berlin - Świebodzin - Poznań - Warsaw - Brest - Minsk - Smolensk - Moscow - Ryazan - Penza - Samara - Ufa - Chelyabinsk - Kurgan - Ishim - Omsk
• E201 - Cork - Portlaoise

See also[link]

• Atlantic Corridor
• Dublin Port Tunnel
• History of Roads in Ireland
• Jack Lynch Tunnel
• List of Ireland-related topics
• List of roads of County Mayo
• Local Roads in Ireland
• Motorways in the Republic of Ireland
• National primary road
• National Roads Authority
• National secondary road
• Northern Irish Vehicle Registration Plates
• Regional road
• Road signs in the Republic of Ireland
• Road speed limits in the Republic of Ireland
• Transport in Ireland
• Trunk Roads in Ireland
• Vehicle registration plates of Ireland

References[link]

• S.I. No. 209/1994: Roads Act, 1993 (Declaration of National Roads) Order, 1994 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 49 of 1995 Roads Act, 1993 (Declaration of National Roads) Order, 1995 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 347 of 1996 Roads Act, 1993 (Declaration of National Roads) Order, 1996 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 26 of 2003 Roads Act, 1993 (Classification of National Roads) (Kilcock – Kinnegad Route) Order, 2003 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 249 of 2004 Roads Act, 1993 (Classification of National Roads) (Fermoy, Rathcormac and Watergrass Hill) Order, 2004 (revoked)
• S.I. No. 18 of 2004 Roads Act, 1993 (Classification of National Roads) (Gormanstown to Dundalk Route) Order, 2004 (revoked)
• Roads Act 1993 (Classification of National Roads) Order 2006 (PDF)- Department of Transport

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Roads in Ireland

• Roads Service - Northern Ireland
• National Roads Authority (Republic of Ireland)
• A discussion on RTÉ Radio One's science show Quantum Leap about the quality of GPS mapping in Ireland is available here. The discussion starts 8mins 17sec into the show. It was aired on 18 January 2007 Requires Real player.

Coordinates: 53°20′N 08°00′W / 53.333°N 8°W / 53.333; -8

Ireland

Native name: Irish: Éire, English: Ireland, Ulster-Scots: Airlann Nickname: The Emerald Isle, The Island of Saints and Scholars
Satellite photograph of Ireland. The Atlantic Ocean is to the west, the Celtic Sea is to the south and the Irish Sea is to the east.
Geography
Location	Northern Europe or Western Europe[1]
Area	81,638.1 km2 (31,520.65 sq mi)[2]
Area rank	20th
Coastline	2,797 km (1,738 mi)
Highest elevation	1,041 m (3,415 ft)
Highest point	Carrauntoohil
Country
Republic of Ireland
Largest city	Dublin
United Kingdom
Constituent Country	Northern Ireland
Largest city	Belfast
Demographics
Population	6,380,661[3] (as of 2008)
Density	73.4 /km2 (190.1 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Irish, Ulster Scots, Irish Travellers[Note 1]

Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɪrlənd] ( listen); Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann or Airlan) is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth.^[4] To its east is the larger island of Great Britain, from which it is separated by the Irish Sea.

Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers just under five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remainder and is located in the northeast of the island. The population of Ireland is approximately 6.4 million. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just under 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.^[3]

Relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain epitomise Ireland's geography with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild but changeable oceanic climate, which avoids extremes in temperature. Thick woodlands covered the island until the 17th century. Today, it is one of the most deforested areas in Europe.^[5][6] There are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland.

A Norman invasion in the Middle Ages gave way to a Gaelic resurgence in the 13th century. Over sixty years of intermittent warfare in the 1500s led to English dominance after 1603. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th century. In 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century led to the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades. Northern Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom and saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973, both parts of Ireland joined the European Economic Community.

Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, particularly in the fields of literature and, to a lesser degree, science and education. A strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed for example through Gaelic games, Irish music and the Irish language, alongside mainstream Western culture, such as contemporary music and drama, and a culture shared in common with Great Britain, as expressed through sports such as soccer, rugby, horse racing, and golf, and the English language.

History[link]

History of Ireland
This article is part of a series
Chronology
Prehistory
Protohistory
400–800
800–1169
1169–1536
1536–1691
1691–1801
1801–1923
Timeline of Irish history
Peoples and polities
Gaelic Ireland
Lordship of Ireland
Kingdom of Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Republic of Ireland · Northern Ireland
Topics
Battles · Clans · Kingdoms · States
Gaelic monarchs · British monarchs
Economic history · History of the Irish language
Ireland Portal v t e

Pre-history[link]

Most of Ireland was covered with ice until the end of the last ice age over 9,000 years ago. Sea levels were lower and Ireland, like Great Britain, was part of continental Europe. Mesolithic stone age inhabitants arrived some time after 8,000 BC and agriculture followed with the Neolithic Age around 4,500 to 4,000 BC when sheep, goats, cattle and cereals were imported from the Iberian peninsula.

At the Céide Fields, preserved beneath a blanket of peat in present-day County Mayo, is an extensive field system, arguably the oldest in the world,^[7] dating from not long after this period. Consisting of small divisions separated by dry-stone walls, the fields were farmed for several centuries between 3,500 and 3,000 BC. Wheat and barley were the principal crops.

The Bronze Age – defined by the use of metal – began around 2,500 BC, with technology changing people's everyday lives during this period through innovations such as the wheel, harnessing oxen, weaving textiles, brewing alcohol, and skillful metalworking, which produced new weapons and tools, along with fine gold decoration and jewellery, such as brooches and torcs. According to John T. Koch and others, Ireland in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that also included Britain, France, Spain and Portugal where Celtic languages developed.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

The Uragh Stone Circle a Neolithic stone circle in Gleninchaquin Park, County Kerry.

The Iron Age in Ireland is traditionally associated with people known as the Celts. The Celts were commonly thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of invasions between the 8th and 1st centuries BC. The Gaels, the last wave of Celts, were said to have divided the island into five or more kingdoms after conquering it. However, some academics favour a theory that emphasises the diffusion of culture from overseas as opposed to a military colonisation.^[15] Finds such as Clonycavan Man are given as evidence for this theory.

Late antiquity and early medieval times[link]

The earliest written records of Ireland come from classical Greco-Roman geographers. Ptolemy in his Almagest refers to Ireland as Mikra Brettania (Lesser Britain), in contrast to the larger island, which he called Megale Brettania (Great Britain).^[16] In his later work, Geography, Ptolemy refers to Ireland as Iwernia and to Great Britain as Albion. These "new" names were likely to have been the Celtic names for the islands at the time. The earlier names, in contrast, were likely to have been coined before direct contact with local peoples was made.^[17]

The Romans would later refer to Ireland by this name too in its Latinised form, Hibernia,^[18] or Scotia.^[19] Ptolemy records sixteen tribes inhabiting every part of Ireland in 100 AD.^[20] The relationship between the Roman Empire and the tribes of ancient Ireland is unclear. However, a number of finds of Roman coins have been found, for example at New Grange.^[21]

Ireland continued as a patchwork of rival tribes but, beginning in the 7th century AD, a concept of national kingship gradually became articulated through the concept of a High King of Ireland. Medieval Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings stretching back thousands of years but modern historians believe the scheme was constructed in the 8th century to justify the status of powerful political groupings by projecting the origins of their rule into the remote past.^[22]

The High King was said to preside over the patchwork of provincial kingdoms that together formed Ireland. Each of these kingdoms had their own kings but were at least nominally subject to the High King. The High King was drawn from the ranks of the provincial kings and ruled also the royal kingdom of Meath, with a ceremonial capital at the Hill of Tara. The concept only became a political reality in the Viking Age and even then was not a consistent one.^[23] However, Ireland did have a unifying rule of law: the early written judicial system, the Brehon Laws, administered by a professional class of jurists known as the brehons.^[24]

The Chronicle of Ireland records that in 431 AD Bishop Palladius arrived in Ireland on a mission from Pope Celestine I to minister to the Irish "already believing in Christ."^[25] The same chronicle records that Saint Patrick, Ireland's best known patron saint, arrived the following year. There is continued debate over the missions of Palladius and Patrick but the consensus is that they both took place^[26] and that the older druid tradition collapsed in the face of the new religion.^[27] Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin and Greek learning and Christian theology. In the monastic culture that followed the Christianisation of Ireland, Latin and Greek learning was preserved in Ireland during the Early Middle Ages in contrast to elsewhere in Europe, where the Dark Ages followed the decline of the Roman Empire.^[27][28]

The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking and sculpture flourished and produced treasures such as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery and the many carved stone crosses^[29] that still dot the island today. A mission founded in 563 on Iona by the Irish monk Saint Columba began a tradition of Irish missionary work that spread Christianity and learning to Scotland, England and the Frankish Empire on Continental Europe after the fall of Rome.^[30] These missions continued until the late Middle Ages, establishing monasteries and centres of learning, producing scholars such as Sedulius Scottus and Johannes Eriugena and exerting much influence in Europe.

From the 9th century, waves of Viking raiders plundered Irish monasteries and towns.^[31] These raids added to a pattern of raiding and endemic warfare that was already deep-seated in Ireland. The Vikings also were involved in establishing most of the major coastal settlements in Ireland: Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Wexford, Waterford, and also Carlingford, Strangford, Annagassan, Arklow, Youghal, Lough Foyle and Lough Ree.^[32]

Norman and English invasions[link]

Remains of the 12th-century Trim Castle in County Meath, the largest Norman castle in Ireland.

On May 1, 1169, an expedition of Cambro-Norman knights with an army of about six hundred landed at Bannow Strand in present-day County Wexford. It was led by Richard de Clare, called Strongbow due to his prowess as an archer.^[33] The invasion, which coincided with a period of renewed Norman expansion, was at the invitation of Dermot Mac Murrough, the king of Leinster.^[34]

In 1166, Mac Murrough had fled to Anjou, France following a war involving Tighearnán Ua Ruairc, of Breifne, and sought the assistance of the Angevin king, Henry II, in recapturing his kingdom. In 1171, Henry arrived in Ireland in order to review the general progress of the expedition. He wanted to re-exert royal authority over the invasion which was expanding beyond his control. Henry successfully re-imposed his authority over Strongbow and the Cambro-Norman warlords and persuaded many of the Irish kings to accept him as their overlord, an arrangement confirmed in the 1175 Treaty of Windsor.

The invasion was legitimised by the provisions of the Papal Bull Laudabiliter, issued by Adrian IV in 1155. The bull encouraged Henry to take control in Ireland in order to oversee the financial and administrative reorganisation of the Irish Church and its integration into the Roman Church system.^[35] Some restructuring had already begun at the ecclesiastical level following the Synod of Kells in 1152.^[36] There has been significant controversy regarding authenticity of Laudabiliter,^[37] and there is no general agreement as to whether the bull was genuine or a forgery.^[38][39]

In 1172, the new pope, Alexander III, further encouraged Henry to advance the integration of the Irish Church with Rome. Henry was authorised to impose a tithe of one penny per hearth as an annual contribution. This church levy, called Peter's Pence, is still extant in Ireland as a voluntary donation. In turn, Henry accepted the title of Lord of Ireland which Henry conferred on his younger son, John Lackland, in 1185. This defined the Irish state as the Lordship of Ireland. When Henry's successor died unexpectedly in 1199, John inherited the crown of England and retained the Lordship of Ireland.

Irish soldiers, 1521 — by Albrecht Dürer.

Over the century that followed, Norman feudal law gradually replaced the Gaelic Brehon Law so that by the late 13th century the Norman-Irish had established a feudal system throughout much of Ireland. Norman settlements were characterised by the establishment of baronies, manors, towns and the seeds of the modern county system. A version of the Magna Carta (the Great Charter of Ireland), substituting Dublin for London and Irish Church for Church of England, was published in 1216 and the Parliament of Ireland was founded in 1297.

However, from the mid-14th century, after the Black Death, Norman settlements in Ireland went into a period of decline. The Norman rulers and the Gaelic Irish elites intermarried and the areas under Norman rule became Gaelicised. In some parts, a hybrid Hiberno-Norman culture emerged. In response, the Irish parliament passed the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1367. These were a set of laws designed to prevent the assimilation of the Normans into Irish society by requiring English subjects in Ireland to speak English, follow English customs and abide by English law.^[40] However, by the end of the 15th century central English authority in Ireland had all but disappeared and a renewed Irish culture and language, albeit with Norman influences, was dominant again. English Crown control remained relatively unshaken in an amorphous foothold around Dublin known as The Pale and under the provisions of Poynings' Law of 1494, the Irish Parliamentary legislation was subject to the approval of the English Parliament.

Kingdom of Ireland[link]

A scene from The Image of Irelande (1581) showing a chieftain at a feast.

The title of King of Ireland was re-created in 1542 by Henry VIII, then King of England, of the Tudor dynasty. English rule of law was reinforced and expanded in Ireland during the latter part of the 16th century leading to the Tudor conquest of Ireland. A near complete conquest was achieved by the turn of the 17th century, following the Nine Years' War and the Flight of the Earls. This control was further consolidated during the wars and conflicts of the 17th century, which witnessed English and Scottish colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Williamite War. Irish losses during the Wars of the three Kingdoms (which, in Ireland, included the Irish Confederacy and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland) are estimated to include 20,000 battlefield casualties. 200,000 civilians are estimated to have died as a result of a combination of war-related famine, displacement, guerilla activity and pestilence over the duration of the war. A further 50,000^{[Note 2]} were sent to slavery in the West Indies. Some historians estimate that as much as half of the pre-war population of Ireland may have died as a result of the conflict.^[43]

The religious struggles of the 17th century left a deep sectarian division in Ireland. Religious allegiance now determined the perception in law of loyalty to the Irish King and Parliament. After the passing of the Test Act 1672, and with the victory of the forces of the dual monarchy of William and Mary over the Jacobites, Roman Catholics and nonconforming Protestant Dissenters were barred from sitting as members in the Irish Parliament. Under the emerging penal laws Irish Roman Catholics and Dissenters were increasingly deprived of various and sundry civil rights even to the ownership of hereditary property. Additional regressive punitive legislation followed 1703, 1709 and 1728. This completed a comprehensive systemic effort to materially disadvantage Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, while enriching a new ruling class of Anglican conformists.^[44] The new Anglo-Irish ruling class became known as the Protestant Ascendancy.

Half-hanging of suspected United Irishmen.

An extraordinary climatic shock known as the "Great Frost" struck Ireland and the rest of Europe between December 1739 and September 1741, after a decade of relatively mild winters. The winters destroyed stored crops of potatoes and other staples and the poor summers severely damaged harvests.^[45] This resulted in the famine of 1740. An estimated 250,000 people (about one in eight of the population) died from the ensuing pestilence and disease.^[46] The Irish government halted export of corn and kept the army in quarters but did little more.^[46][47] Local gentry and charitable organisations provided relief but could do little to prevent the ensuing mortality.^[46][47]

In the aftermath of the famine, an increase in industrial production and a surge in trade brought a succession of construction booms. The population soared in the latter part of this century and the architectural legacy of Georgian Ireland was built. In 1782, Poynings' Law was repealed, giving Ireland virtual legislative independence from Great Britain for the first time since the Norman invasion.^{[citation needed]} The British government, however, still retained the right to nominate the government of Ireland without the consent of the Irish parliament.

In 1798, members of the Protestant Dissenter tradition (mainly Presbyterian) made common cause with Roman Catholics in a republican rebellion inspired and led by the Society of United Irishmen, with the aim of creating an independent Ireland. Despite assistance from France the rebellion was put down by British and Irish government and yeomanry forces. In 1800, the British and Irish parliaments both passed Acts of Union that, with effect from 1 January 1801, merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain to create a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.^[48]

Union with Great Britain[link]

The passage of the Act in the Irish Parliament was ultimately achieved with substantial majorities, having failed on the first attempt in 1799. According to contemporary documents and historical analysis, this was achieved through a considerable degree of bribery, with funding provided by the British Secret Service Office, and the awarding of peerages, places and honours to secure votes.^[48] Thus, Ireland became part of an extended United Kingdom, ruled directly by a united parliament at Westminster in London.

Aside from the development of the linen industry, Ireland was largely passed over by the industrial revolution, partly because it lacked coal and iron resources^[49][50] and partly because of the impact of the sudden union with the structurally superior economy of England,^[51] which saw Ireland as a source of agricultural produce and capital.^[52][53]

Emigrants Leave Ireland engraving by Henry Doyle depicting the emigration to America following the Great Famine in Ireland.

The Great Famine of the 1840s caused the deaths of one million Irish people and over a million more emigrated to escape it.^[54] By the end of the decade, half of all immigration to the United States was from Ireland.^{[citation needed]} Mass emigration became deeply entrenched and the population continued to decline until the mid-20th century. Immediately prior to the famine the population was recorded as 8.2 million by the 1841 census.^[55] The population has never returned to this level since.^[56] The population continued to fall until 1961 and it was not until the 2006 census that the last county of Ireland (County Leitrim) to record a rise in population since 1841 did so.^{[citation needed]}

The 19th and early 20th centuries saw the rise of modern Irish nationalism, primarily among the Roman Catholic population. The pre-eminent Irish political figure after the Union was Daniel O'Connell. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Ennis in a surprise result and despite being unable to take his seat as a Roman Catholic. O'Connell spearheaded a vigorous campaign that was taken up by the Prime Minister, the Irish-born soldier and statesman, the Duke of Wellington. Steering the Catholic Relief Bill through Parliament, aided by future prime minister Robert Peel, Wellington prevailed upon a reluctant George IV to sign the Bill and proclaim it into law. George's father had opposed the plan of the earlier Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger, to introduce such a bill following the Union of 1801, fearing Catholic Emancipation to be in conflict with the Act of Settlement 1701.

A subsequent campaign, led by O'Connell, for the repeal of the Act of Union failed. Later in the century, Charles Stewart Parnell and others campaigned for autonomy within the Union, or "Home Rule". Unionists, especially those located in Ulster, were strongly opposed to Home Rule, which they thought would be dominated by Catholic interests.^[57] After several attempts to pass a Home Rule bill through parliament, it looked certain that one would finally pass in 1914. To prevent this from happening, the Ulster Volunteers were formed in 1913 under the leadership of Edward Carson.^[58]

Their formation was followed in 1914 by the establishment of the Irish Volunteers, whose aim was to ensure that the Home Rule Bill was passed. The Act was passed but with the "temporary" exclusion of the six counties of Ulster that would become Northern Ireland. Before it could be implemented, however, the Act was suspended for the duration of the First World War. The Irish Volunteers split into two groups. The majority, approximately 175,000 in number, under John Redmond, took the name National Volunteers and supported Irish involvement in the war. A minority, approximately 13,000, retained the Irish Volunteers name, and opposed Ireland's involvement in the war.^[58]

Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street), Dublin, after the 1916 Easter Rising

The failed Easter Rising of 1916 was carried out by the latter group in alliance with a smaller socialist militia, the Irish Citizen Army. The British response, executing fifteen leaders of the Rising over a period of ten days and imprisoning or interning more than a thousand people, turned the mood of the country in favour of the rebels. The pro-independence republican party, Sinn Féin, received overwhelming endorsement in the general election of 1918, and in 1919 proclaimed an Irish Republic, setting up its own parliament (Dáil Éireann) and government. British authorities attempted to extinguish this challenge, sparking a guerilla war from 1919 to July 1921 which ended in a truce.^[59]

In 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was concluded between the British Government and representatives of the First Dáil. It gave all of Ireland complete independence in their home affairs and practical independence for foreign policy. However, an oath of allegiance to the British Crown had to be exercised, and Northern Ireland was given an opt-out clause, which it exercised immediately as expected.^[60] Disagreements over these provisions led to a split in the nationalist movement and a subsequent civil war between the new government of the Irish Free State and those opposed to the treaty, led by Éamon de Valera. The civil war officially ended in May 1923 when de Valera issued a cease-fire order.^[61]

Partition[link]

Independent Ireland[link]

Annotated page from the Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the Irish Free State and independence for 26 out of 32 Irish counties.

During its first decade the newly formed Irish Free State was governed by the victors of the civil war. When de Valera achieved power, he took advantage of the Statute of Westminster and political circumstances to build upon inroads to greater sovereignty made by the previous government. The oath was abolished and in 1937 a new constitution was adopted.^[59] This completed a process of gradual separation from the British Empire that governments had pursued since independence. However, it was not until 1949 that the state was declared, officially, to be the Republic of Ireland.

The state was neutral during World War II, but offered clandestine assistance to the Allies, particularly in the potential defence of Northern Ireland. Despite being neutral, approximately 50,000^[62] volunteers from independent Ireland joined the British forces during the war, four being awarded Victoria Crosses.

German Intelligence was also active in Ireland, with both the Abwehr ([ˈapveːɐ̯], German for Defence; the German military intelligence service) and the SD (the Sicherheitsdienst, English: Security Service, the intelligence service of the SS) sending agents there.^[63] German intelligence operations effectively ended in September 1941 when police made arrests on the basis of surveillance carried out on the key diplomatic legations in Ireland, including that of the United States. To the authorities counterintelligence was a fundamental line of defence. With a regular army of only slightly over seven thousand men at the start of the war, and with limited supplies of modern weapons, the state would have had great difficulty in defending itself from invasion from either side of the conflict.^[63][64]

Large-scale emigration marked the 1950s and 1980s, but beginning in 1987 the economy improved, and the 1990s saw the beginning of substantial economic growth. This period of growth became known as the Celtic Tiger.^[65] The Republic's real GDP grew by an average of 9.6% per annum between 1995 and 1999,^[66] in which year the Republic joined the euro. In 2000 Ireland was the sixth-richest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita.^[67] Social changes followed quickly on the heels of economic prosperity, ranging from the 'modernisation' of the annual parade in Dublin to mark the principal national holiday of Saint Patrick's Day (17 March), to the decline in authority of the Catholic Church. The financial crisis of 2008–2010 dramatically ended this period of boom. GDP fell by 3% in 2008 and by 7.1% in 2009, the worst year since records began (although earnings by foreign-owned businesses continued to grow).^[68] The state has since experienced deep recession, with unemployment, which doubled during 2009, remaining above 14% in 2012.^[69]