History and Geography of Ireland

Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean.
It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel.
Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.
The geography of Ireland comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland.
Its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate which is free of extremes in temperature.
Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%,[9] with most of it being non-native conifer plantations.
The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate,[12] and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe.
Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant.
Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD. The island was Christianised from the 5th century onwards. Following the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain.
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.
With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, thus creating the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
In 1973, the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland as part of it, did the same.
In 2020, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland included, left what was by then the European Union (EU).
Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the field of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, a strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music, Irish language, and Irish dance.
The island's culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing, golf, and boxing.
The Irish island was first inhabited by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.
By about 8000 BC, more sustained occupation of the island had been shown, with evidence for Mesolithic communities around the island.
The Neolithic settlers introduced cereal cultivars, domesticated animals such as cattle and sheep, built large timber buildings, and stone monuments.
The earliest evidence for farming in Ireland or Great Britain is from Ferriter's Cove, County Kerry, where a flint knife, cattle bones and a sheep's tooth were carbon-dated to c. 4350 BC.
Field systems were developed in different parts of Ireland, including at the Céide Fields, that has been preserved beneath a blanket of peat in present-day Tyrawley.
An extensive field system, arguably the oldest in the world, consisted of small divisions separated by dry-stone walls. The fields were farmed for several centuries between 3500 BC and 3000 BC.
Wheat and barley were the principal crops.
The Bronze Age began around 2500 BC, with technology changing people's everyday lives during this period through innovations such as the wheel; harnessing oxen; weaving textiles; brewing alcohol; and skilful metalworking, which produced new weapons and tools, along with fine gold decoration and jewellery, such as brooches and torcs.
The Celtic language, Ogham script and culture were brought to Ireland by waves of invading or migrating Celts from mainland Europe.
The theory was advanced in the early 20th century, but has since been challenged by more recent genetic research.
The first written records of Ireland come from classical Greco-Roman geographers.
Ptolemy in his Almagest refers to Ireland as Mikra Brettania ("Little Britain"), in contrast to the larger island, which he called Megale Brettania ("Great Britain").
In his later work, Geography, Ptolemy refers to Ireland as Iouernia and to Great Britain as Albion.
These 'new' names were likely to have been the local names for the islands at the time.
The relationship between the Roman Empire and the kingdoms of ancient Ireland is unclear.
However, a number of finds of Roman coins have been made, for example at the Iron Age settlement of Freestone Hill near Gowran and Newgrange.
Ireland continued as a patchwork of rival kingdoms; however, beginning in the 7th century, 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.
In 1169, a Cambro-Norman army landed in Ireland and conquered most of the island.
This invasion was legitimized by reference to provisions of the alleged Papal Bull Laudabiliter, issued by an Englishman, Adrian IV, in 1155.
The invasion was at the invitation of Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster.
In 1171, Henry arrived in Ireland to review the general progress of the invasion. 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.
The invasion was legitimized by reference to provisions of the alleged Papal Bull Laudabiliter, issued by an Englishman, Adrian IV, in 1155.