Ireland

Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɪrlənd/ ( listen), locally [ˈaɾlənd]; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann, Latin: Hibernia) is the third-largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain. Politically, the sovereign country of Ireland (described as the Republic of Ireland)^[2] covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) covering the remainder in the north-east.

The first settlements in Ireland date from 8000 BC. By 200 BC Celtic migration and influence had come to dominate the island. Relatively small scale settlements of both the Vikings and Normans in the Middle Ages gave way to complete English domination by the 1600s. Protestant English rule resulted in the marginalisation of the Catholic majority, although in the north-east, Protestants were in the majority due to the Plantation of Ulster. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. A famine in the mid-1800s caused large-scale death and emigration. The Anglo-Irish War ended in 1921 with the British Government proposing a truce and during which the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, creating the Irish Free State, a Dominion within the British Empire, with effective internal independence but still constitutionally linked with the British Crown.^[3] Northern Ireland, consisting of six of the 32 Irish counties which had been established as a devolved region under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, immediately exercised its option under the treaty to retain its existing status within the United Kingdom.^[4] The Free State left the Commonwealth to become a republic in 1949. In 1973 both parts of Ireland joined the European Community. Conflict in Northern Ireland led to much unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s, which subsided following a peace deal in 1998.

The population of the island is slightly under 6 million (2006), with 4.2 million in the Republic^[5] and an estimated almost 1.75 million in Northern Ireland.^[6] This is a significant increase from a modern historical low in the 1960s, but still much lower than the peak population of over 8 million in the early 19th century, prior to the Great Famine.^[7]

The name Ireland derives from the name of the Celtic goddess Ériu (in modern Irish, Éire) with the addition of the.

Ireland

Native name: Éire
True colour image of Ireland, captured by a NASA satellite on 4 January 2003, with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Irish Sea to the east.
Geography
Location	Western Europe
Area	81,638.1 km² (31,520.6 sq mi) [1] (20th)
Coastline	3,700 km (2,300 mi)
Highest point	Carrauntoohil (1,041 m (3,414 ft))
Country
Ireland
Largest city	Dublin
United Kingdom
Constituent country	Northern Ireland
Largest city	Belfast
Demographics
Population	5,981,448 (as of 2006)
Density	71 /km² (180 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Irish, Ulster Scots