Hello, my name is Silver Phoenix, and not only am I of Irish decent buy as you can see I have a fascination with the country of Ireland.
The area of the island is 84,431 square kilometers (32,599 square miles). Ireland consists of sections of lowlands, characterized by bogs and lakes - surrounded by low mountain ranges that form a barrier between the lowlands and the perimeter of the island. Carrantuohill (1041 m/3414 ft above sea level) in the McGillicuddy Reeks, in the southwest, is the highest point on the island. The principal rivers of Ireland are the Erne and the Shannon.
Ireland's climate is moderated by the surrounding seas, making the winters warmer and the summers cooler. Sedges, rushes, ferns, and grass are the principal plant life. Most of the indigenous animals are no longer present in Ireland, with the exception of small rodents and birds. There are no snakes.
For the most part we will be concentrating our timeline on the CE era of history. The insensible fighting between the Christian factions of Ireland. Please note: These two factions believe the same thing, yet because one calls it Catholic and one calls it Protestant, they must fight. Now on to the timeline.....
Before the dawn of time and long before the concept of one God came along - Ireland was once, long ago (before the Christians decided to kill each other), inhabited by various tribes - representative of different faith, including the Tuatha Dé Danann. Each of the four historical provinces of Ireland appears to have had its own king, who was then subject to the ardri, or monarch, to whom the central district, called Meath, was allotted.
During the reign of Loigare, or King MacNeill (AD428-463), Saint Patrick attempted to convert the island's inhabitants to Christianity, and by the 6th century extensive monasteries were founded. Often taking the building and land of the Celtic Gods as their own. In the late 8th century Scandinavian Vikings established settlements on the coast. They conducted raids on the interior until 1014, when they were defeated in battle by Irish king Brian Boru (a Celtic/Druidic Prince).
1155 CE - King Henry II of England is said to have been authorized by Pope Adrian IV to "take possession" of Ireland. And end any Pagan influence. Contrary to what will follow, this was primarily done in a peaceful manner, by confiscating rituals and symbols and taking them for their own, the Catholic church was able to "blend" the Pagan population into its own. Or so they thought… Not everyone "confessed" to being Pagan when asked.
1169 CE - Anglo-Norman troops arrive at Bannow Bay in County Wexford to assist the deposed King of Leinster, Diarmuid MacMurrough. Long-term British involvement in Ireland begins.
1171 CE - Henry II arrives in Ireland with a large force. Most Irish Kings and Princes pay him homage with the exception of the chieftains of Tir Eoghain (Tyrone) and Tir Conaill (Donegal)>
1172 CE - Henry supported Norman leaders in Ireland in their claim to portions of the island. An English viceroy was then appointed to govern these Norman territories, and the Norman legal system was introduced. However, descendants of the Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland increasingly adopted native Irish language, habits, laws, faith, and over time the authority of the English decreased. Though the monasteries were maintained by those of the Catholic faith there was pretty much a peaceful existence. English control waned until:
1175 CE - Rory O'Connor, High King of Ireland, accepts Henry's over-lordship.
1177 CE - John de Courcy conquers Ulster for the Anglo-Normans and rules the province for 27 years setting up fortresses and towns.
1315-1318 CE - Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce King of Scotland, is invited to Ireland and crowned High King. His army lays waste to the countryside until its defeat and Edward's death at the Battle of Faughart in County Louth.
1348-49 CE - The Black Death Rages in Ireland and further weakens the English colony. By the end of the century English rule is confined to the area around Dublin known as The Pale.
1399 CE - An expedition by Richard II becomes bogged down in conflicts with Art McMurrough of Leinster. Henry Bolingbroke seizes the throne. For more than a century English power wanes. The powerful Anglo-Norman families become increasingly Gaelicized and are described as "more Irish than the Irish themselves."
1494 CE - when Sir Edward Poynings was appointed viceroy by King Henry VII. Under Poynings, legislation was established to reduce the power of the Anglo-Irish lords.
1519 CE - Henry VIII begins to take an interest in Irish affairs and sends the Earl of Surrey with a force to look after his interests. The expedition fails.
1534 CE - Thomas FitzGerald, Lord Offaly, rises in rebellion against Henry VIII.
1537 CE - King Henry VIII attempted to introduce Reformation into Ireland, beginning with the closing and destruction of many of the monasteries. Under Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625), the power of the Church of England was extended over Ireland, although a great many of the Irish people remained either Celtic Pagan or Roman Catholic. Under James I, English law was pronounced the law of Ireland, and the independence of the Irish Parliament was destroyed.
1541 CE - Henry VIII abandons the title "Lord of Ireland" and proclaims himself King of Ireland. His break with Rome introduces a religious element to political differences between the two islands.
1558 CE - The accession of Elizabeth I widens the religious differences between the Irish and the English. Her reign is marked by numerous wars and rebellions in Ireland.
1598 CE - Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Ulster, inflicts a massive defeat on Elizabeth's forces at the Yellow Ford, north of Armagh.
1601 CE - A joint Spanish and Irish force is defeated at Kinsale in County Cork by the English army under the Lord Deputy Mountjoy in a decisive battle. Two years later O'Neill surrenders at Mellifont in County Louth and Ireland is finally conquered.
1607 CE - O'Neill and Ruairi O'Donnell of Tyrconnell flee to the Continent in a French ship from Rathmullan in County Donegal.
1609 CE - The plantation of Ulster with Protestant settlers from England and the Scottish lowlands begins.
1640's CE - The Irish fought back, and insurgents took control of part of the country (guess which part *g*).
1641 CE - Native Irish in Ulster rise in rebellion under Sir Phelim O'Neill. Up to 12,000 settlers are killed. War rages on with Eoghan Ruadh O'Neill heavily defeating a Scottish army at Benburb in County Tyrone in 1646. Three years later Oliver Cromwell arrives in Ireland with a parliamentary army and crushes the Irish opposition with massacres at Drogheda and Wexford. Land under Catholic ownership is seized and many Catholics are banished west of the Shannon or transported to the West Indies.
1649 CE - English statesman Oliver Cromwell landed at Dublin with an army that eventually confiscated the best land of Munster, Leinster, and Ulster. In the years that followed, English control of the island led to Irish commerce and industry being crushed through restrictive legislation. Disease and hunger were common, with the best of everything being exported to England while the Irish starved and died. This caused large groups of Irish people to emigrate - mainly to the then British colony in the America and a steady decline of economy in Ireland.
1688 CE - Thirteen apprentice boys of Derry close the city's gates against the Jacobite army. 1689: James II lands at Kinsale in County Cork.
1690 CE - James is defeated by William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne.
1691 CE - Protestant supremacy in Ireland is made certain by the Williamite victory at Aughrim in County Galway. Following the Treaty of Limerick 14,000 Irish Catholic soldiers leave for France to serve in the armies of Louis XIV.
1695 CE - Enactment of the Penal Laws impose a series of religious, social and political impediments on Irelands non-Protestant people not all of which are imposed with the utmost severity. The laws prevent non-Protestants from bearing arms, restrict their rights to education, ban them from holding public office, entering the legal profession, becoming MPs or voting.
1778 CE - The Irish Parliament passed the Relief Act, removing some of the most oppressive restrictions on the Irish. Backed by a volunteer military force of 80,000, Irish Protestants demanded legislative independence from England, and the British Parliament repealed legislation that had previously reduced the power of the Irish people. Suffrage was not, however, extended to Roman Catholics. The Pagan community, on the other hand, maintained a quiet attitude, and was able to escape most of the English domination and control. After an unsuccessful peasant rebellion organized by the Society of United Irishmen.
1782- 1793 CE - A series of Catholic Relief Acts restore some civil rights to Catholics. Henry Grattan and Henry Flood's Patriot party wins nominal independence for the Irish parliament based in College Green from Westminster in 1782, following resolutions passed by a convention of Volunteer companies.
1791 CE - The republican "Society of United Irishmen" is founded in Belfast by Theobald Wolfe Tone son of a Dublin Protestant artisan.
1795 CE - The Orange Order is founded in Loughgall in Country Armagh following a skirmish between Protestants and Catholics.
1796 CE - A large French invasionary force with Wolfe Tone at its head is scattered by storm-force winds in Bantry Bay in County Cork.
1798 CE - Republican insurrection breaks out in County Wexford and among the predominantly Presbyterian populations of Counties Antrim and Down. French troops land in County Mayo and defeat British forces at Castlebar before marching inland to defeat. Wolfe Tone lands with a small French force in county Donegal, is captured and takes his own life in prison.
1798 CE - British prime minister William Pitt, induced the Irish Parliament to pass the Act of Union.
1800 CE - The Act of Union is passed in the parliament in Dublin amid a welter of bribery and placemanship. It comes into force in 1801. Ireland is now governed from London.
1801 CE - The legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was formally proclaimed, still without emancipation for Roman Catholics.
1823 CE - The Catholic Association was founded. This organization demanded, and finally obtained, complete Roman Catholic emancipation in Ireland.
1828 CE - Roman Catholics were permitted to hold local office.
1829 CE - Catholic Emancipation Act allows Catholics to become members of Parliament, though many of them lose the vote.
The struggle for Irish freedom next centered on the tithes, later known as rents, which all Irish, Roman Catholics included, were compelled to pay for the maintenance of the Anglican church in Ireland. The so-called Tithe War led to emphatic demands for the repeal of the Act of Union.
1843 CE - O'Connell's campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union gains strength with "Monster Meetings" held at historical sites in different parts of Ireland. A gathering at the Dublin suburb of Clontarf is banned and O'Connell backs down to avoid blood shed
1845-1848 CE - The Great Famine devastates the Irish population following the failure of successive potato crops. Over one million people die of starvation and disease, as many more flee the country, primarily settling in the US. Resources that could have been used to save lives in Ireland were exported and used by the English government. In 1847 O'Connell dies in Genoa.
1858 CE - The Irish Republican Brotherhood is founded by James Stephens with a view to gaining Irish independence. The Fenian Brotherhood becomes its main support group in the United States. In time the term "Fenians" covers both groups.
1880 CE - Home Rule found a champion in Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell. At the same time, many secret societies (including the Pagan Community network or primarily Celtic faith), were working for the establishment of an Irish republic. Charles Stewart Parnell a Protestant landowner from County Wicklow becomes leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party at Westminster.
1885 CE - Parnell converts British Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone to the cause of Home Rule for Ireland.
1889 CE - Parnell is cited as co-respondent in a divorce petition and loses the support of English non-conformists and most Irish Catholics.
1892 CE - An Ulster Unionist Convention is held to oppose attempts to institute Home Rule in Ireland.
1893 CE - Gladstone's Home Rule Bill is passed in the House of Commons but blocked in the House of Lords in Westminster.
1894 CE - The Irish Agricultural Organization Society was formed
1903 CE - The Gaelic League was founded, aimed to rehabilitate Ireland's economic and intellectual life from within.
1902 CE - The Sinn Fein, an important political party attributed with achieving ultimate independence, was founded.
1905 CE - The Ulster Unionist Council is founded to oppose Home Rule. Under its leader Edward Carson, a Dublin barrister, it forms a committee to buy arms to resist Home Rule with violence in 1910. A policy of "Sinn Féin" (Ourselves Alone) is advocated by Dublin journalist Arthur Griffith.
1907 CE - "Sinn Féin League" founded.
1912 CE - A Solemn League and Covenant to defend Ulster against Home Rule is signed by 400,000 Ulster Protestants.
1913 CE - Another Home Rule Bill is passed in the Commons but Blocked by the Lords. The Ulster Volunteer Force is formed violently to resist further attempts to institute Home Rule.
1914 CE - The Ulster Volunteer Force lands 24,000 rifles and ammunition at Larne in County Antrim. The rival National Volunteers, who favor Home Rule, land a small number of rifles at Howth near Dublin. Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the National Volunteers fight on the same side in the Great War.
1916 CE - An Irish Republic is proclaimed at the General Post Office in Dublin by Patrick Pearse as less than 1,500 rebels from the Irish Volunteers, which had broken away from the National Volunteers, and the socialist Irish Citizen Army stage a rebellion on Easter Monday, April 24th. After five days of fighting in which over 400 die and more than 2,500 are wounded the rebels surrender. Public opinion initially opposed to the rebellion turns in favour of the rebels after a long drawn-out series of executions of its leaders.
Carson on behalf of the Ulster Unionist accepts an offer from the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George which would exclude the six north-eastern counties of Ulster from any Home Rule settlement. The corollary is that the Ulster counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, would be included in any Home Rule settlement.
1918 CE - General election witnesses polarization of Irish politics. Sinn Fein wins 73 seats, Home Rulers 6. Unionists and Independent Unionists 31.
1919 CE - Ambush by the IRA at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary starts the "War of Independence." Sinn Fein MPs meet in Dublin as Dail Eireann and declare Irish independence. The Irish Volunteers become known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA.)
1920 CE - "Black and Tans," brought to Ireland to aid the police forces. Their nickname comes from their makeshift uniforms, some with black jackets and khaki trousers others with khaki jackets and black trousers. Disturbances in Belfast and Derry. Thirty killed.
Bloody Sunday in Dublin. IRA kills fourteen men suspected of being British Secret Service agents on the morning of November 21st. Black and Tans fire on crowd at a football match in the afternoon killing 12. Large areas of the center of Cork City burned by Black and Tans. Government of Ireland Act provides for parliaments in Dublin and Belfast subordinate to parliament in London.
1921 CE - Carson resigns as leader of the Ulster Unionists and is replaced by Sir James Craig.
Elections to the Dublin and Belfast parliaments. Sinn Fein's 124 candidates and 4 independents are all returned unopposed to the Southern body. 40 Unionists candidates, Six Nationalists and six Sinn Fein candidates are elected to Northern parliament. Custom House in Dublin is destroyed by IRA. 120 IRA men are arrested. Northern Ireland Parliament is opened by George V. Truce between IRA and British Army takes effect in July. Irish negotiators under Michael Collins and British negotiators under Lloyd George meet in London.
1922 CE - Treaty by which the Irish Free State, comprising 26 of the island's 32 counties, comes into being as a dominion of the British Commonwealth. It is approved by Dail Eireann by 64 votes to 57.
Serious disturbances in Northern Ireland with 230 people, mostly Catholics, killed and 1,000 wounded. A general election in the Irish Free State returns a pro-treaty majority. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, adviser to Northern Ireland Government, is assassinated in London. Free State Government moves against anti-treaty forces in the Four Courts in Dublin. Civil war begins on June 28th and continues to May of the following year with up to 5,000 killed. Death of Pro-Treaty political leader Arthur Griffith. Michael Collins killed in an ambush at Beal nam Blath in County Cork. Seventy seven anti-treaty prisoners are executed.
1924 CE - Boundary Commission which, as part of the Treaty conditions, is to review the boundary between Northern Ireland and the Free State holds its first meeting in Belfast.
1925 CE - The Morning Post predicts correctly that the boundary commission would cede only small areas of Northern Ireland to the Free State while parts of County Donegal would be ceded to Northern Ireland. The governments of the Irish Free State, under W.T. Cosgrave, and the United Kingdom under Stanley Baldwin agree to revoke the powers of the Boundary Commission and maintain the existing frontier which is registered at the League of Nations.
1926 CE - Eamon de Valera, anti-treaty leader in the Civil War, founds the Fianna Fail party.
1927 CE - Kevin O'Higgins, the Irish Free State's Minister for Justice is assassinated in Dublin. In a general election Eamon de Valera's Fianna Fail party enters the Dail as the largest opposition grouping.
1932 CE - Army Comrades Association is founded in the Free State. Following a general election de Valera becomes President of the Executive council of the Free State.
1933 CE - General Eoin O'Duffy dismissed as commissioner of the Garda Siochana (police force). The Army Comrades Association under O'Duffy adopts uniform of blue shirt and black beret. The association is renamed the National Guard. The National Guard is declared illegal. United Irish Party (later Fine Gael) is founded with O'Duffy as president.
1934 CE - O'Duffy resigns from Fine Gael.
1935 CE - Further disturbances in Belfast.
1936 CE - IRA is declared illegal in the Irish Free State. General O'Duffy and his followers leave for Spain to fight in the Civil War for Franco's rebels. Edward VII abdicates and is succeeded by George VI. All references to the Crown removed the constitution of the Irish Free State. Irish left-wing unit under Frank Ryan joins the pro-Government forces in Spain.
1937 CE - New constitution which lays claim to Northern Ireland is approved by the Dail and confirmed in a referendum by 685, 105 votes to 526, 945 in July and comes into effect in December. The Irish Free State becomes "Eire."
1938 CE - Agreement between de Valera and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on the return of the "Treaty Ports," the last British outposts in Eire.
1939 CE - IRA bombing offensive in Britain. Second World War begins in September. De Valera announces his Government's intention to pursue a policy of neutrality. Northern Ireland, as part of the UK, is at war with Germany.
1940 CE - Viscount Craigavon (Sir James Craig), dies and is succeeded as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland by Mr J.M. Andrews.
1941 CE - German air raid on Belfast. 700 killed. German bombs on Dublin kill 34. Smaller bombing raids in counties Carlow, Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow.
1942 CE - De Valera protests at the arrival of US troops in Northern Ireland. Minor IRA attacks in Northern Ireland.
1943 CE - J.M. Andrews resigns as Northern Ireland Prime Minister and is replaced by Sir Basil Brooke (later Lord Brookeborough).
1945 CE - De Valera at the end of the War expresses formal condolences at the German Legation in Dublin on the death of Hitler. Winston Churchill in his victory speech praises Northern Ireland's war effort and attacks neutrality in Eire. De Valera replies in his own radio address.
1948 CE - De Valera is defeated in general election and is replaced as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) by John A Costello (Fine Gael). In September Costello announces that Eire is to become the Republic of Ireland outside the British Commonwealth.
1949 CE - The Republic of Ireland is formally declared on April 18th and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee's government passes the Ireland Act which declares the Republic of Ireland not to be part of the British dominions and that Northern Ireland should not cease to be part of the United Kingdom without the consent of the Northern Ireland parliament.
1951 CE - John A Costello succeeded as Taoiseach by De Valera after general election
1954 CE - Costello succeeds De Valera as Taoiseach following general election. Flags and Emblems Act is passed in Northern Ireland banning interference with the British flag and effectively prohibiting the public display of the Irish tricolor. IRA raid Gough Military Barracks in Armagh.
1955 CE - IRA breakaway group Saor Uladh attack Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) barracks at Rosslea in County Fermanagh.
1956 CE - A fifteen-year old Catholic girl is made a ward of court after she had appeared at the house of the Rev Ian Paisley who had converted her to Protestantism. IRA campaign in Northern Ireland begins. Internment without trial is introduced in Northern Ireland.
1959 CE - Sean Lemass (Fianna Fail) succeeds De Valera as Taoiseach after De Valera becomes President of Ireland.
1962 CE - IRA campaign in Northern Ireland is called off due to a lack of support.
1963 CE - Captain Terence O'Neill becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in succession to Lord Brookeborough.
1965 CE - O'Neill and Lemass hold meetings in Belfast and Dublin. Anglo-Irish free trade agreement is signed.
1966 CE - Ulster Volunteer Force founded. Ian Paisley demonstrates against the "Romeward trend" of the Presbyterian Church. Gusty Spence and associates in the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) are convicted of the murder of Peter Ward an 18-year-old Catholic barman in Malvern Street in Belfast. Sean Lemass retires as Taoiseach and is replaced by Jack Lynch (Fianna Fail).
If you click on the back button below and follow the link titled: "Ireland's History - Part II", you will see the remaining years detailed there. Because each year had several bloody events, they have their own link. Is that sad or what ?
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