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The Republic of Ireland (Irish: Poblacht na
hÉireann) is a state which covers approximately five-sixths of the island of Ireland, off the coast of northwest Europe. The remaining sixth of the
island of Ireland is known as Northern Ireland and is part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The constitution proclaims that the state's name
"is Éire or, in the English language,
Ireland". The Republic of Ireland is the official description of the state, from the Republic of Ireland Act. (In this article, unless otherwise
indicated, Ireland refers to the Republic of Ireland).
History
Main articles: History of Ireland, History of the Republic of
Ireland
The difference between the island of Ireland (which was once governed as a unit) and the Republic of Ireland
(which covers 26 of the 32 counties on the island) is a product of complex constitutional developments in the first half of the
twentieth century.
From 1 January 1801 until 6 December 1922 Ireland as one unit was part of
the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1919, most Irish MPs elected in the 1918
British general election declined to take their seats in the British House of Commons. Instead they set up a rival extra-legal Irish parliament called Dáil Éireann. This Dáil in January 1919
issued a Unilateral
Declaration of Independence in the name of a proclaimed Irish
Republic. In reality this republic received no international recognition. After a bitterly fought Anglo-Irish War (also known as the Irish War of Independence)
representatives of the British government and the Irish Republic's
Aireacht (cabinet) in 1921 negotiated an
Anglo-Irish Treaty and created a whole new system of legal
Irish self government, known as dominion status.
A new internationally recognised Irish state called the Irish Free
State (in the Irish language Saorstát Éireann) was
created. The new Free State was in theory to cover the entire island, subject to the proviso that Northern Ireland (which had been created as a separate entity under the
Government of Ireland Act 1920
could opt out and choose to remain part of the United Kingdom, which it duly did. The remaining 26 counties of Ireland became the
Irish Free State, a constitutional monarchy over which the British monarch reigned (from 1927 with the title King of Ireland). It had a Governor-General, a
bicameral parliament, a cabinet called the Executive Council and a prime
minister called the President of the Executive Council. The constitution was called
the Irish Free State Constitution.
On the 29 December 1937 a new
constitution Bunreacht na hÉireann came into being. It
replaced the Irish Free State by a new state called Éire, or, in the English language,
Ireland. Though this state's constitutional structures provided for a President of Ireland instead of a king, it was not a republic. The principal key role possessed
by a head of state, that of representing the state symbolically internationally remained vested in statute law in the
King as an organ. On 1 April 1949 the
Republic of Ireland Act declared Éire a republic, with the functions previously given to the King given instead
to the President of Ireland.
Though the official name of the state remained Éire,(Article 4, "The name of the state is Éire, or in the English
language, Ireland") the term Republic of Ireland (officially just the description of the new state), came to be used as
its name. While the Republic chooses to use the word Ireland to describe itself, particularly in the diplomatic sphere
(thus it is always the President of Ireland and the
Constitution of Ireland), many states avoid using
that term because of the existence of a second Ireland, Northern Ireland, and because the 1937 constitution claimed that the
south had jurisdiction over the north. Using the word 'Ireland' was taken as accepting that claim and so caused offence in
Northern Ireland. That claim, in what was known as Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 constitution, was repealed in 1999.
The Irish Free State/Éire remained a member of the then British Commonwealth until the declaration of a republic in April 1949. Under Commonwealth rules
declaration of a republic automatically terminates membership of the association. Only in 1950 were the rules were changed to
allow India as a republic to remain in the Commonwealth. Although Ireland ceased to be a member and chose not to re-apply for
membership, it retained many of the privileges of Commonwealth membership. To this day, for example, Irish citizens resident in
the United Kingdom enjoy all the rights of citizenship, including the
right to stand for office in local and parliamentary elections and to serve in the British forces.
Ireland joined the United Nations in 1955 and the European Economic
Community (now called the European Union) in 1973. Irish governments have sought the peaceful unification of Ireland and have cooperated with Britain against
the violent conflict between paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland known
as the Troubles. A peace settlement for Northern Ireland, known as the
Belfast Agreement and approved in 1998 in a vote in both the Republic and Northern Ireland, is currently being implemented.
Politics
Main article: Politics of
the Republic of Ireland
The Republic of Ireland is a republic, with a parliamentary system of
government. The President of Ireland (Uachtaráin na
hÉireann), who serves as head of state, is elected for a 7-year term
and can be re-elected only once. The President is largely a figurehead but can
still carry out certain constitutional powers and functions, aided by the
Council of State, an advisory body. The prime minister, the Taoiseach, is appointed by the president on the nomination of parliament. The Taoiseach is normally the
leader of the political party, or a coalition, which wins the most seats in the
national elections.
The bicameral parliament, the Oireachtas, consists of a Senate, the Seanad
Éireann, and a House of Representatives, the Dáil
Éireann. The Seanad is composed of 60 members; 11 nominated by the Taoiseach, 6 elected by the national universities,
and 43 elected from panels of candidates established on a vocational basis. The Dáil has 166 members, Teachtaí Dála or Deputies, elected to represent multi-seat
constituencies under the system of proportional
representation by means of the single transferable
vote. Under the Irish constitution (Bunreacht
na hÉireann), parliamentary elections must be held at least every 7 years, though a lower limit may be set by statute law.
The current statutory maximum term is every 5 years.
The Government (Án Rialtas) is constitutionally limited to 15 members. No more than two members of the Government can
be selected from the Senate, and the Taoiseach, Tánaiste (deputy prime
minister) and Minister for Finance must be members of the Dáil. The current government is made up of a coalition of two
parties; Fianna Fáil under Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Progressive
Democrats under Tánaiste Mary Harney. The main opposition in the current
Dáil is made up of Fine Gael and Labour. Smaller parties such as Sinn Féin and the
Green Party also have representation in Dáil Éireann.
Counties
Main article: Counties of Ireland
The Republic of Ireland is traditionally described as having 26 counties, which
continue to be in use in e.g. a cultural, historical and sporting context. As local governmental units some have been
restructured, with County Dublin broken up into four new counties in the 1990s, while County Tipperary has in fact been two
separate counties for generations, producing a total of 30 administrative counties:
Geography
Main article: Geography of Ireland
The island of Ireland extends over 84,421 km² of which five-sixths belong to the
Republic, with the remainder constituting Northern Ireland. It is
bound to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast by the
North Channel. To the east is
found the Irish Sea which reconnects to the ocean via the southwest with St. George's Channel
and the Celtic Sea. The west-coast of Ireland mostly consists of cliffs, hills
and low mountains (the highest point being Carrauntoohil at 1,041 m). In from the perimeter of the country is mostly relatively flat farmland, traversed
by rivers such as the River Shannon and several large lakes or
loughs. The center of the country is part of the River Shannon watershed, containing large areas of bogland, used for peat production.
The local temperate climate is modified by the North Atlantic Current and relatively mild. Summers are rarely
very hot, but it freezes only occasionally in winter. Precipitation is very common, with up to 275 days with rain in some parts of the country. Chief
cities are the capital Dublin on the east coast, Cork in the south, Galway and Limerick on the west coast, and Waterford in the
south east (see Cities in Ireland).
Economy
Main article: Economy of Ireland
The Republic of Ireland is a small, modern, trade-dependent economy with growth averaging a robust 10% in 1995-2000. Agriculture, once the most important sector, is now dwarfed by industry, which accounts for 38% of GDP, about 80% of exports, and employs 28% of the labour force.
Although exports remain the primary engine for Ireland's robust growth, the economy is also benefiting from a rise in consumer
spending and recovery in both construction and business investment.
Over the past decade, the Irish government has implemented a series of national economic programs designed to curb inflation, ease tax burdens, reduce government spending as a percentage of GDP, increase labour force skills, and promote foreign
investment. Ireland joined in launching the euro currency system in January 1999 along with 11 other EU nations. This period of high economic
growth led many to call Ireland the Celtic Tiger. The economy felt the
impact of the global economic slowdown in 2001, particularly in the high-tech export sector
– the growth rate in that area was cut by nearly half. GDP growth continued to be relatively robust, with a rate of about
6% in 2001 and 2002 – but this was expected to fall to around 2% in 2003. Since 2001, GNP growth has been much worse, with
an almost three-fold decrease in 2001 from the previous year. After a near stagnant year in 2002, growth was expected to pick up
in 2003. [1]
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Ireland
Most Irish people are of Celtic ethnicity, though there is a sizable English minority.
The official languages are Irish (Gaelic), the native Celtic language, and English, which is constitutionally described as a secondary official language. Learning Irish is
compulsory in education, but English is by far the predominant language. Public signs are usually bilingual and national media in
Irish also exist. People living in predominantly Irish speaking communities (the Gaeltacht) are limited to the low tens of thousands in isolated pockets largely on the western seaboard.
The Republic of Ireland is officially 92% Roman Catholic. However
there had been a massive decline in adherence to Roman Catholicism among Irish Catholics. Between 1996 and 2001, regular Mass attendance, already previously in decline, declined from 60% to 48% (it had been 90%+ in 1973), and all but two of its priest-training seminaries have either closed or are expected to
close soon. The Church was also hit in the 1990s by a series of sexual scandals and cover-up charges against its hierarchy. In
1995, after an approximately 58-year ban, voters chose to re-legalize divorce in the Republic.
The second largest religion, the Church of Ireland (Anglican), having been in decline for most of the twentieth century, has now experienced an
increase in membership, according to the 2002 census, as have other small Christian denominations and Islam. The very small Jewish community in Ireland however has
continued to decline in numbers.
Culture
Main article: Culture of Ireland
The island of Ireland has produced the Book of Kells, Guinness, Irish
traditional music, and writers such as George Berkeley, James Joyce, George
Bernard Shaw, Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Séamus Heaney, and others.
Shaw, Yeats, Beckett and Heaney are Nobel
Literature laureates. Ernest Walton of Trinity College Dublin shared the 1951 Nobel Physics Prize for
"splitting the atom".
The most famous Irish exports in the late twentieth century included the rock group U2, Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Geldof, The Corrs and the dance show Riverdance. Its most prominent world figure was Mary Robinson, from 1997 to 2002, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Reference
- Bunreacht na hÉireann (the 1937 constitution)
- The Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922
- J. Anthony Foley and Stephen Lalor (ed), Gill & Macmillan Annotated Constitution of Ireland (Gill &
Macmillan, 1995) (ISBN
071712276X)
- FSL Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine
- Alan J. Ward, The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland 1782-1992 (Irish
Academic Press, 1994) (ISBN
0716525283)
- Some of the material in these articles comes from the CIA
World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.
Miscellaneous topics
Main article: List of
Ireland-related topics
External links
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