El Salvador
In
The United Kingdom and Ireland

In the Stone and Bronze Ages, Ireland was inhabited by Picts in the north and a people called the Erainn in the south, the same stock, apparently, as in all the isles before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. About 4th century B.C., tall, red-haired Celts arrived from Gaul or Galicia. They subdued and assimilated the inhabitants and established a Gaelic civilisation. By the beginning of the Christian Era, Ireland was divided into five kingdoms: The Kingdoms of Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, Meath, and Munster.- Saint Patrick introduced Christianity in 432, and the country developed into a center of Gaelic and Latin learning. The pagan druid tradition collapsed before the spread of the new faith, and Irish scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished. Missionaries went forth from Ireland to England and the continent, spreading news of the flowering of learning, and scholars from other nations came to Irish monasteries. The excellence and isolation of these monasteries helped preserve Latin and Greek learning during the Dark Ages. The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the ¨Book of Kells, ornate jewelry, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. Although on the 8^th Century the rich monasteries were targets of raids by Vikings, who were followed by Anglo- Norman forces in 1169.

Norse depredations along the coasts, starting in 795, ended in 1014 with Norse defeat at the Battle of Clontarf by forces under Brian Boru. In the 12th century, The Pope gave all of Ireland to the English Crown as a papal fief. In 1171, Henry II of England was acknowledged "Lord of Ireland," but local sectional rule continued for centuries, and English control over the whole island was not reasonably absolute until the 17th century. Catholic oppression got serious in the 1500s when Elizabeth I gave a vast amount of Irish land to Protestant settlers, sowing in the seed of today's divided Ireland. In 1690 and at the Battle of the Boyne, the Catholic King James II and his French supporters were defeated by the Protestant King William III (of Orange). An era of Protestant political and economic supremacy began.

By the 18^th century Ireland's Catholics held less than 15% of the land that suffered brutal civil restrictions. Irish movements for civil rights alarmed the Protestant gentry, and in 1800 the ¨Act of Union joined Ireland with Britain, which saw the countries join forces and become the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". A steady decline in the Irish economy followed in the next decades. Successive failures of potato crops between 1845 and 1851 brought massive starvation, while British and Irish ruling classes profited from inflated food prices. About one million people died from the disease or starvation, and another two millions emigrated to North America. This tragedy is known as the "Great Famine".

In the meantime, anti-British agitation continued along with demands for Irish home rule. The advent of World War I delayed the institution of home rule and resulted in the Easter Rising (April 24 - 29, 1916), in which Irish nationalists unsuccessfully attempted to throw off British rule. The decision by the British military government to execute the leaders of the rebellion, coupled with the British Government's threat of conscripting the Irish to fight in the Great War, alienated public opinion and produced massive support for Sinn Fein in the 1918 general election. Under the leadership of Eamon de Valera, the elected Sinn Fein deputies constituted themselves as the first Dail. Tensions only increased: British attempts to overthrow Sinn Fein ignited the Anglo-Irish War of 1919-1921. The end of the war brought the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, which established the Irish Free State of 26 counties within the British Commonwealth and recognised the partition of the island into Ireland and Northern Ireland, though supposedly as a temporary measure. The six predominantly Protestant counties of northeast Ulster--Northern Ireland--remained a part of the United Kingdom with limited self-government. A significant Irish minority repudiated the treaty settlement because of the continuance of subordinate ties to the British monarch and the partition of the island. This opposition led to further hostilities, a Civil War (1922-23), which was won by the pro-treaty forces. A civil war ensued between those supporting the Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the Irish Free State and those repudiating it because it led to the partitioning of the island. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), led by Eamon de Valera, fought against the partition but lost. De Valera joined the government in 1927 and became prime minister in 1932. In 1937 a new constitution changed the nation's name to Éire. The last British military bases were soon withdrawn, and the ports were returned to Irish control. Ireland remained neutral in World War II. The government formally declared Ireland a republic on April 1st, 1949; however, it does not normally use the term "Republic of Ireland," which tacitly acknowledges the partition, but refers to the country simply as "Ireland."

From the 1960s onward two antagonistic currents dominated Irish politics. One sought to bind the wounds of the rebellion and civil war. The other was the effort of the outlawed Irish Republican Army and more moderate groups to bring Northern Ireland into the republic. The "troubles" (the violence and terrorist acts between Republicans and Unionists in both Ireland and Northern Ireland) would plague the island for the remainder of the century and beyond.

Under the First Programme for Economic Expansion (1958-1963), economic protection was dismantled and foreign investment encouraged. This prosperity brought profound social and cultural changes to what had been one of the poorest and least technologically advanced countries in Europe. Ireland joined the European Economic Community (now the EU) in 1973.

In 1998 hope for a solution to the troubles in Northern Ireland seemed palpable. A landmark settlement, the Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998, called for Protestants to share political power with the minority Catholics and gave Ireland a voice in the affairs of Northern Ireland. The resounding commitment to the settlement was demonstrated in a dual referendum on May 22: the North approved the accord by a vote of 71% to 29%, and in the Irish Republic 94% favored it. After numerous stops and starts, the new government in Northern Ireland was formed on Dec. 2, 2000, but it has been suspended four times since then (and has remained suspended since Oct. 2002) primarily because of Sinn Fein's reluctance to disarm its military wing, the IRA. In 2005, however, the IRA renounced armed struggle, and peace again seemed possible.

Once a country plagued with high unemployment, high inflation, slow growth, and a large public debt, Ireland has undergone an extraordinary economic transformation in the last 15 years. Formerly an agriculture-based economy, the "Celtic Tiger" has become a leader in high-tech industries. In some recent years its economy has grown as much as 10%.