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{{Infobox Country or territory|native_name = |conventional_long_name = Ireland|common_name = Ireland|image_flag=Flag of Ireland.svg|image_coat=COA of Ireland.svg|image_map = Location Ireland EU Europe.png|map_caption = |national_anthem =
The Soldier's Song|official_languages = Irish language, English language|demonym = Irish|capital = Dublin and [Parliamentary system|leader_title1 = President of Ireland|leader_name1 = Mary McAleese|leader_name2 = [Bertie Ahern|accessionEUdate = January 1 1973-->|area_rank = 120th|area_magnitude = 1 E9|percent_water = 2.00|population_estimate = 4,239,848|population_estimate_year = 2006|population_estimate_rank = 121st|population_density_km2 = 60.3|population_density_sq_mi = 147.6 |sovereignty_note = from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|established_event1 = Proclamation of the Irish Republic|established_date1 = 24 April 1916|established_date2 = [21 January 1919|established_date3 = [6 December 1922|established_date4 = [29 December 1937 ([Euro sign)1|currency_code = EUR|time_zone = Western European Time|utc_offset = +0|time_zone_DST = Irish Summer Time (Western European Summer Time)|utc_offset_DST = +1|cctld = .ie2].|footnote2 = The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.-->Ireland (Irish language: Éire; ) is a country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was Partition of Ireland in 1921. It is bordered by Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) to the north, by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and by the Irish Sea to the east. The term Republic of Ireland (Irish language: Poblacht na hÉireann) is officially used as "the description of the State". Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 (Irl).

Name Bunreacht na hÉireann (Irish), the constitution of Ireland, provides that "the name of the state is Éire, or, in the English language, 'Ireland'." The state is also described as the "Republic of Ireland", in order to distinguish it from the island of Ireland and from Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland Act defined Republic of Ireland as the description of the state in 1949 (the purpose of the act being to declare that the state was a republic rather than a form of constitutional monarchy). However, because this was a statutory provision, the constitutional name of "Ireland" remains the official name of the state, whilst "Republic of Ireland" is a description of the state. The form Ireland is used for official purposes in English language documents such as treaties, government and legal documents, and membership of international organisations:, the form Éire is used when these are Irish language documents. However with Irish language being named the European Union's twenty-third official language in 2007, the state will be referred to in both constitutional official languages, the Irish and English languages, similarly to other countries such as Finland and Belgium using more than one language at EU level. This means the label 'Éire-Ireland' will be used on various signage and nameplates referring to the state. EU to call country 'Éire Ireland', Irish Examiner, 27 June 2006.The state is also known by other names in English, such as , Irish Free State and the Twenty-six Counties. Occasionally in the United Kingdom the state is referred to incorrectly as Southern Ireland, this term was only used officially for a brief period in Irish history: Irish people generally understand the phrase "southern Ireland" to mean Munster. Northern Irish people sometimes refer to the state as "The South" - it is not uncommon to hear Northern Irish people talking about going "down south".

The state has had more than one official title. The all-island revolutionary state, declared in 1919 by the large majority of Irish Member of Parliament#United Kingdom elected in 1918, was known as the "Irish Republic"; when the present smaller state achieved independence in 1922, it became known as the "Irish Free State" (in the Irish language ), a name that was retained until 1937.

History The state known today as Ireland came into being when 26 of the counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) in 1922. The remaining six counties remained within the UK as Northern Ireland. This action, known as the Partition of Ireland, came about because of complex constitutional developments in the early twentieth century.

It was preceded by the Easter Rising of 1916, when Irish volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army took over sites in Dublin and Galway under terms expressed in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The seven signatories of this proclamation, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Thomas Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada, Joseph Plunkett, Eamonn Ceannt and James Connolly, were executed, along with nine others, and thousands were interned precipitating the Irish War of Independence.

From 1 January 1801 until 6 December 1922, Ireland had been part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the Irish Potato Famine from 1845 to 1849 the island's population of over 8 million fell by 30 percent. One million Irish died of starvation and another 1.5 million emigrated, which set the pattern of emigration for the century to come and would result in a constant decline up to the 1960s. From 1874, but particularly from 1880 under Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish Parliamentary Party moved to prominence with its attempts to achieve Devolution#Irish home rule, which would have given all of Ireland some autonomy without requiring it to leave the United Kingdom. It seemed possible in 1911 when the House of Lords lost their veto, and John Redmond secured the Third Home Rule Act 1914. The Unionists (Ireland) movement, however, had been growing since 1886 among Irish Protestants, fearing that they would face discrimination and lose economic and social privileges if Irish Catholics were to achieve real political power. Though Irish unionism existed throughout the whole of Ireland, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century unionism was particularly strong in parts of Ulster Unionists, where industrialisation was more common in contrast to the more agrarian rest of the island. (Any tariff barriers would, it was feared, most heavily hit that region.) In addition, the Protestant population was more strongly located in Ulster, with unionist majorities existing in about four counties. Under the leadership of the Dublin-born Edward Carson and the northerner James Craig they became Ulster Defence Force. In 1914, to avoid rebellion in Ulster, the British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, with agreement of the Irish Parliamentary Party#Home Rule succeeds leadership, inserted a clause into the bill providing for home rule for 26 of the 32 counties, with an as of yet undecided new set of measures to be introduced for the area temporarily excluded. Though it received the Royal Assent, the Third Home Rule Act 1914's implementation was suspended until after the World War I. (The war at that stage was expected to be ended by 1915, not the four years it did ultimately last.) For the prior reasons of ensuring the implementation of the Act at the end of the war Redmond and his Irish National Volunteers supported the Allied cause, and tens of thousands joined battalions of the 10th (Irish) Division and 16th (Irish) Divisions of the Kitchener's Army.

In January 1919, after the December 1918 Irish (UK) general election, 1918, 73 of Ireland's 106 Member of Parliament elected were Sinn Féin members who refused to take their seats in the British House of Commons. Instead, they set up an extra-legal Irish parliament called Dáil Éireann. First Dáil in January 1919 issued a Declaration of Independence and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The Declaration was mainly a restatement of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic with the additional provision that Ireland was no longer a part of the United Kingdom. Despite this, the new Irish Republic remained unrecognised internationally except by Vladimir Lenin's Russian SFSR. Nevertheless the Republic's Aireacht (ministry) sent a delegation under Ceann Comhairle Seán T. O'Kelly to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, but it was not admitted.

After the bitterly fought Irish War of Independence, representatives of the Her Majesty's Government and the Irish treaty delegates, led by Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton and Michael Collins negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London from October 11th -6th December 1921. The Irish delegates set up headquarters at Hans Place in Knightsbridge and it was here in private discussions that the decision was taken at 11.15am on 5th December to recommend the Treaty to Dáil Éireann. Under the Treaty the British agreed to the establishment of an independent Irish State whereby the Irish Free State (in the Irish language Saorstát Éireann) with Dominion was created. The Dáil Éireann narrowly ratified the treaty.

The Treaty was not entirely satisfactory to either side. It gave more concessions to the Irish than the British had intended to give but did not go far enough to satisfy republican aspirations. The new Irish Free State was in theory to cover the entire island, subject to the proviso that six counties in the north-east, termed "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 they duly did. The remaining twenty-six counties became the Irish Free State, a constitutional monarchy over which the British monarch reigned (from 1927 with the title monarchy in the Irish Free State). It had a Governor-General of the Irish Free State, a bicameral parliament, a cabinet called the "Executive Council" and a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State.

The Irish Civil War was the direct consequence of the creation of the Irish Free State. Anti-Treaty forces, led by Éamon de Valera, objected to the fact that acceptance of the Treaty abolished the Irish Republic of 1919 to which they had sworn loyalty, arguing in the face of public support for the settlement that the "people have no right to do wrong". They objected most to the fact that the state would remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations and that Teachta Dála would have to swear an oath of fidelity to George V of the United Kingdom and his successors. Pro-Treaty forces, led by Michael Collins (Irish leader), argued that the Treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire to and develop, but the freedom to achieve it".

At the start of the war, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) split into two opposing camps: a pro-treaty IRA and an Irish Republican Army (1922–1969). The pro-Treaty IRA became part of the new Irish Army. However, through the lack of an effective command structure in the anti-Treaty IRA, and their defensive tactics throughout the war, Michael Collins (Irish leader) and his pro-treaty forces were able to build up an army capable of overwhelming the anti-Treatyists. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, machine-guns and ammunition boosted pro-treaty forces, and the threat of a return of Crown forces to the Free State removed any doubts about the necessity of enforcing the treaty. The lack of public support for the anti-treaty Irregulars, and the determination of the government to overcome them, contributed significantly to their defeat.

The National Army suffered 800 fatalities and perhaps as many as 4,000 people were killed altogether. As their forces retreated, the Irregulars showed a major talent for destruction and the economy of the Free State suffered a hard blow in the earliest days of its existence.

On 29 December 1937, a new constitution, the Constitution of Ireland, came into force. It replaced the Irish Free State by a new state called simply "Ireland". Though this state's constitutional structures provided for a President of Ireland instead of a king, it was not technically a republic; the principal key role possessed by a head of state, that of symbolically representing the state internationally remained vested, in statute law, in the King as an organ.

Irish neutrality during World War II during World War II, a period it described as The Emergency.

On 21 December 1948, the Republic of Ireland Act declared a republic, with the functions previously given to the Governor-General acting on the behalf of the King given instead to the President of Ireland.

The Irish state had remained a member of the then-Commonwealth of Nations after independence until the declaration of a republic on 18 April 1949. Under Commonwealth rules declaration of a republic automatically terminated membership of the association; since a reapplication for membership was not made, Ireland consequently ceased to be a member.

The Republic of Ireland joined the United Nations in 1955 and the European Community (now the European Union) in 1973. Irish governments have sought the peaceful reunification of Ireland and have usually cooperated with the British government in the violent conflict involving many Paramilitary and the British Army in Northern Ireland known as "The Troubles". A peace settlement for Northern Ireland, the Belfast Agreement, was approved in 1998 in referendums north and south of the border, and is currently being implemented.

Politics , Mary McAleese

The state is a republic, with a parliamentary system of government. The President of Ireland, who serves as head of state, is elected for a seven-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), is appointed by the president on the nomination of parliament. The is normally the leader of the political party which wins the most seats in the national elections. It has become normal in the Republic for coalitions to form a government, and there has not been a single-party government since 1989.

The bicameral parliament, the , consists of a Senate, , and a lower house, . The is composed of sixty members; eleven nominated by the , six elected by two universities, and 43 elected by public representatives from panels of candidates established on a vocational basis. The has 166 members, , elected to represent multi-seat constituencies under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote. Under the constitution, parliamentary elections must be held at least every seven years, though a lower limit may be set by statute law. The current statutory maximum term is every five years.

, the seat of (the Irish parliament).The Government is constitutionally limited to fifteen members. No more than two members of the Government can be selected from the Senate, and the , (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Finance must be members of the . The current government consists of a coalition of three parties; under Bertie Ahern, the Green Party (Ireland) under new leader John Gormley and the Progressive Democrats under Minister for Health and Children (Ireland) Mary Harney. The last scheduled Irish general election, 2007 to the Dáil took place on 24 May 2007, after it was called by the Taoiseach on 29th April.

The main opposition in the current consists of Fine Gael under Enda Kenny, Irish Labour Party under new leader Eamon Gilmore and Sinn Féin. A number of independent deputies also sit in Dáil Éireann though less in number than before the recent election.

Ireland joined the European Union in 1973 but has chosen to remain outside the Schengen Treaty. Citizens of the UK can freely enter Ireland without a passport thanks to the Common Travel Area, however some form of identification is required at airports and seaports.

Counties The Republic of Ireland traditionally had twenty-six County, and these are still used in cultural and sporting contexts. Dáil Éireann constituencies are required by statute to follow county boundaries, as far as possible. Hence counties with greater populations have multiple constituencies (e.g. Limerick East/West) and some constituencies consist of more than one county (e.g. Sligo-North Leitrim), but by and large, the actual county boundaries are not crossed.

As local government units, however, some have been restructured, with the now-abolished County Dublin distributed among three new county councils in the 1990s and County Tipperary having been administratively two separate counties since the 1890s, giving a present-day total of twenty-nine administrative counties and five cities. The five cities — Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, and Waterford (Kilkenny is a city but does not possess a city council) — are administered separately from the remainder of their respective counties. Five boroughs — Clonmel, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Sligo and Wexford — have a level of autonomy within the county:{| align="center" cellpadding="10"| |style="font-size: 90%;"| Republic of Ireland
  • County Dublin
    — Dublin
    — Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
    — Fingal
    — South Dublin
  • County Wicklow
  • County Wexford
    — Wexford (Borough)
  • County Carlow
  • County Kildare
  • County Meath
  • County Louth
    — Drogheda (Borough)
  • County Monaghan
  • County Cavan
  • County Longford
  • County Westmeath
  • County Offaly
  • County Laois
  • County Kilkenny
    — Kilkenny (Borough)
    • |style="font-size: 90%;"|
  • County Waterford
    — Waterford
  • County Cork
    — Cork (city)
  • County Kerry
  • County Limerick
    — Limerick
  • County Tipperary
    — North Tipperary
    — South Tipperary
     — Clonmel (Borough)
  • County Clare
  • County Galway
    — Galway
  • County Mayo
  • County Roscommon
  • County Sligo
    — Sligo (Borough)
  • County Leitrim
  • County Donegal|}

    These counties are grouped together into Regions of the Republic of Ireland for statistical purposes.

    Geography, climate, and environment The island of Ireland extends over 84,421 Square kilometres or 32,556 square miles, of which 83% (approx. five-sixths) belong to the Republic (70,280 km²; 27,103 sq mi) and the remainder constituting Northern Ireland. It is bound to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast by the North Channel (Great Britain). 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 1,038 Metre or 3,406 Foot (unit of length)). The interior of the country is relatively flat land, traversed by rivers such as the River Shannon and several large lakes or loughs. The centre of the country is part of the River Shannon watershed, containing large areas of bogland, used for peat extraction and production.

    The local temperate climate is modified by the North Atlantic Current and is relatively mild. Summer temperatures exceed 30ºCelsius (86°F) usually once every decade, though commonly reach 29°C (84ºFahrenheit) most summers, and freezes occur only occasionally in winter, with temperatures below -6°C (21°F) being uncommon. Precipitation (meteorology) is very common, with some parts of the country getting up to 275 days with rain annually.

    Chief city conurbations are the capital Dublin 1,045,769 on the east coast, Cork (city) 190,384 in the south, Limerick City 90,757 in the mid-west, Galway 72,729 on the west coast, and Waterford City 49,213 on the south east coast (see Cities in Ireland).

    Impact of agriculture The long history of agricultural production coupled with modern intensive agricultural methods (such as pesticide and fertiliser use) has placed pressure on biodiversity in Ireland. Agriculture is the main factor determining current land use patterns in Ireland, leaving limited land to preserve natural habitats (also forestry and urban development to a lesser extent),{{Citation | title = Land cover and land use | publisher = Environmental Protection Agency | year = 2000 | url=http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/assessment/land/ | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> in particular for larger wild mammals with greater territorial requirements. With no top predator in Ireland, populations of animals that cannot be controlled by smaller predators (such as the fox) are controlled by annual culling, i.e. semi-wild populations of deer. A land of green fields for crop cultivation and cattle rearing limits the space available for the establishment of native wild species. Hedgerows, however, traditionally used for maintaining and demarcating land boundaries, act as a refuge for native wild flora. Their ecosystems stretch across the countryside and act as a network of connections to preserve remnants of the ecosystem that once covered the island.

    Pollution from agricultural activities is one of the principal sources of environmental damage. "Runoff" of contaminants into streams, rivers and lakes impact the natural fresh-water ecosystems.{{Citation | title = World Factbook - Ireland | publisher = CIA | year = 2007 | url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ei.html | accessdate = 2007-08-07--> Subsidies under the [Common Agricultural Policy which supported these agricultural practices and contributed to land-use distortions are undergoing reforms.{{Citation | title = CAP reform - a long-term perspective for sustainable agriculture | publisher = European Commission | url=http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/capreform/index_en.htm | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> The CAP still subsidises some potentially destructive agricultural practices, however, the recent reforms have gradually decoupled subsidies from production levels and introduced environmental and other requirements.

    Forest covers about 10% of the country, with most designated for commercial production. Forested areas typically consist of monoculture plantations of non-native species which may result in habitats that are not suitable for supporting a broad range of native species of invertebrates. Remnants of native forest can be found scattered around the country, in particular in the Killarney National Park. Natural areas require fencing to prevent over-grazing by deer and sheep that roam over uncultivated areas. This is one of the main factors preventing the natural regeneration of forests across many regions of the country.{{Citation | first = Dick | last = Roche | title = National Parks | publisher = Seanad Éireann | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0185/S.0185.200611080008.html | volume = 185 | date = 2006-11-08 | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> Seanad Éireann Debate involving Former Minister for Environment Heritage and Local Government

    Education The education systems are largely under the direction of the government via the Minister for Education and Science (Ireland) (currently Mary Hanafin, TD). Recognised primary and secondary schools must adhere to the curriculum established by authorities that have power to set them.

    The education systems in Ireland are complex due to a confusion of ownership, control and curricular assessment. This has arisen because the systems developed over long periods of time with variable influence by several key players, including the Irish state. Unlike in countries such as France, Ireland's state education system is largely limited to the content of the curriculum, although this too is mediated by voluntary interests.

    Primary, Secondary and Third (University/College) level education are all free in the Republic of Ireland for all EU citizens.

    OwnershipTechnically, the majority of Ireland's primary and secondary schools are owned by the Catholic parishes of the country. Parishes establish schools and this has tended to develop where the local Catholic Church provided the land under the ownership of a Board of Management, composed of various community interests, including but not exclusively so, the local Catholic priest. With the decline in numbers of priests, this has proven more and more problematic. The parish's school is then run by the Board of Management on behalf of the local community. With increasing numbers of non-Catholics in Ireland, the question of Catholic school ethos has become contested. The State provides and pays for the teachers, organises the curriculum and agrees to provide examinations and other centralised services for these schools. At second level, the system of ownership is more complex again because schools owned by the Churches, the State and other voluntary interests coexist side by side. At this level, the parish's interests are represented by a Board of Management / Trust established by an order of the Catholic Church under the direction of a Bishop. A state owned secondary school - generally called community or comprehensive schools - is wholly controlled by the State through the Department of Education and Science. A small number of other denominational schools exist such as those organised by the Islamic communities. The church ownership model extends to these groups too.

    ControlControl of schools is technically vested in the Catholic Church/Church of Ireland/church grouping. As the State decides the content of educational curricula with various interests, including the Churches, control is effectively in the State's purview. Ireland's educational systems can be characterised in a largely voluntary manner. This does not imply that their effects are politically neutral with class and other interests sequentially embedded throughout each system.

    Economy The economy of Ireland has transformed in recent years from an agricultural focus to one dependent on trade, industry and investment. Economic growth in Ireland averaged an exceptional 10% from 1995–2000, and 7% from 2001–2004. Industry, which accounts for 46% of Gross Domestic Product, about 80% of exports, and 29% of the labour force, now takes the place of agriculture as the country's leading sector.

    Exports play a fundamental role in the state's robust growth, but the economy also benefits from the accompanying rise in consumer spending, construction, and business investment. On paper, the country is the largest exporter of software-related goods and services in the world. In fact, a lot of foreign software, and sometimes music, is filtered through the country to avail of the state's non-taxing of royalties from copyrighted goods.

    A key part of economic policy, since 1987, has been Social Partnership which is a corporatism set of voluntary 'pay pacts' between the Government, employers and trades unions. These usually set agreed pay rises for three-year periods.

    The state joined in launching the Euro currency system in January 1999 (leaving behind the Irish pound) along with eleven other EU nations. The 1995 to 2000 period of high economic growth led many to call the country 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. Growth for 2004 was over 4%, and for 2005 was 4.7%.

    With high growth came high levels of inflation, particularly in the capital city. Prices in Dublin, where nearly 30% of Ireland's population lives, are considerably higher than elsewhere in the country, - CSO especially in the Irish Property Bubble.

    Measuring Ireland's level of income per capita is a complicated issue. Ireland possesses the second highest GDP (Purchasing power parity) per capita in the world (US$43,600 as of 2006), behind Luxembourg, and the fourth highest Human Development Index, which is calculated partially on the basis of GDP per capita. However, many economists feel that GDP per capita is an inappropriate measure of national income for Ireland, as it neglects the fact that much income generated in Ireland belongs to multinational companies and eventually goes offshore. Another measure, Gross National Income per head, takes account of this and therefore many economists feel it is a superior measure of income in the country. In 2005, the World Bank measured Ireland's GNI per head at $41,140 - the seventh highest in the world, sixth highest in Western Europe, and the third highest of any EU member state. Also, a study by The Economist found Ireland to have the best quality of life in the world. - The Economist This study employed GDP per capita as a measure of income rather than GNI per capita.

    The positive reports and economic statistics mask several underlying imbalances. The construction sector, which is inherently cyclical in nature, now accounts for a significant component of Ireland's GDP. A recent downturn in residential property market sentiment has highlighted the over-exposure of the Irish economy to construction, which now presents a threat to economic growth.{{Citation | title = Economic Survey of Ireland 2006: Keeping public finances on track | publisher = OECD | year = 2006 | url=http://www.oecd.org/document/50/0,3343,en_33873108_33873500_36173106_1_1_1_1,00.html | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> {{Citation | title = House slowdown sharper than expected | publisher = RTÉ | date = 2007-08-03 | url=http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/0803/economy1.html | accessdate = 2007-08-06--> {{Citation | title = Latest Report: Latest edition of permanent tsb / ESRI House price index - May 2007 | publisher = Permanent TSB, ESRI | url=http://www.permanenttsb.ie/house-price-index/ | accessdate = 2007-08-10--> Several successive years of unbalanced economic growth have also led to huge inequality between the strata of Irish society (see Economy of the Republic of Ireland#Recent Developments). Poverty figures show that 6.8% of Ireland's population suffer "consistent poverty". CSO, 2004.

    Military Ireland's armed forces are organised under the Irish Defence Forces (). The Irish Army is relatively small compared to other neighbouring armies in the region, but is well equipped, with 8,500 full-time military personnel (13,000 in the reserve army). Irish Defence Forces, Army (accessed 15 June 2006) This is principally due to Ireland's policy of neutral country, See Gilland, Karin. "Ireland: Neutrality and the International Use of Force," p. 143, in Philip P. Everts and Pierangelo Isernia, Public Opinion and the International Use of Force, Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0415218047. and its "triple-lock" rules governing participation in conflicts whereby approval must be given by the UN, the Government and the Dáil before any Irish troops are deployed into a conflict zone. Deployments of Irish soldiers cover United Nations peace-keeping duties, protection of the Republic's territorial waters (in the case of the Irish Naval Service) and Aid to Civil Power operations in the state. See Irish neutrality.

    There is also an Irish Air Corps and Reserve Defence Forces (Irish Army Reserve and Naval Service Reserve) under the Defence Forces. The Irish Army Rangers is a special forces branch which operates under the aegis of the army.

    Over 40,000 Irish servicemen have served in UN peacekeeping missions around the world.

    The Republic supplies support to the USA military, facilitating the delivery of the bulk of the military personnel involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq through Shannon Airport; previously the airport had been used for the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) in 2001. This is part of a longer history of use of Shannon for controversial military transport, which is largely unbiased towards any particular military alliance. The airport was used previously by the US in the First Gulf War and by the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. - Tony Gregory speaking in Dáil Éireann

    During the Second World War, though officially neutral, the Republic supplied similar, though more extensive, support for the Allied Forces. See Irish neutrality during World War II.

    Demographics {| class="wikitable" align=right style="width:275px;"|-! colspan=3 | International rankings|-! style="width:150px;" | Indicator! style="width:50px;" | Rank! style="width:75px;" | Measure|-! colspan=3 | Economy|-| List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita| style="text-align:center;" | 2nd| style="text-align:center;" | International dollar44,087|-| GNP| style="text-align:center;" | ↓ 28th| style="text-align:center;" | 4.30%|-| [List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita| style="text-align:center;" | 30th| style="text-align:center;" | 10.3 Tonne†|-| List of countries by electricity consumption| style="text-align:center;" | 61st| style="text-align:center;" | 22.79 Watt-hour|-| Index of Economic Freedom| style="text-align:center;" | 3rd| style="text-align:center;" | 1.58|-! colspan=3 | Politics|-| List of countries by Human Development Index| style="text-align:center;" | 4th| style="text-align:center;" | 0.956|-| Freedom in the World 2006| style="text-align:center;" | 1st*| style="text-align:center;" | 1|-| Reporters Without Borders#Worldwide press freedom index| style="text-align:center;" | 1st*| style="text-align:center;" | 0.50|-| Corruption Perceptions Index| style="text-align:center;" | ↓ 18th| style="text-align:center;" | 7.4|-| Global Peace Index| style="text-align:center;" | 11th| style="text-align:center;" | 9.01|-| [Henley Visa Restrictions Index| style="text-align:center;" | 1st*| style="text-align:center;" | 99.9%|-| [Quality-of-life index| style="text-align:center;" | —| style="text-align:center;" | 16.5%|-| [List of mobile network operators of Europe#Republic of Ireland| style="text-align:center;" | —| style="text-align:center;" | 114%|-| Alcohol consumption| style="text-align:center;" | 2nd| style="text-align:center;" | 13.7 Litre†|-| Beer consumption by country| style="text-align:center;" | 2nd| style="text-align:center;" | 131.1 Litre†|-| International Property Rights Index| style="text-align:center;" | 29th| style="text-align:center;" | 78.9|-| [List of countries by birth rate| style="text-align:center;" | 136th| style="text-align:center;" | 14.45‡|-| List of countries and territories by fertility rate| style="text-align:center;" | 133rd| style="text-align:center;" | 1.86††|-| List of countries by infant mortality rate (2005)| style="text-align:center;" | 196th| style="text-align:center;" | 5.39‡‡|-| List of countries by death rate| style="text-align:center;" | 110th| style="text-align:center;" | 7.85‡|-| List of countries by suicide rate| style="text-align:center;" | 33rd| style="text-align:center;" | ♂ 21.4†‡♀ 4.1†‡|-| List of countries by HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate| style="text-align:center;" | 122nd| style="text-align:center;" | 0.10%|-! colspan=3 | Notes|-| colspan=3 | ↓ indicates rank is in reverse order (e.g. 1st is lowest)
    * joint with one or more other countries† per capita
    ‡ per 1000 people†† per woman‡‡ per 1000 live births†‡ 100,000 people per year♂ indicates males, ♀ indicates females|}

    Genetic research suggests that the first settlers of Ireland, and parts of North-Western Europe, came through migrations from Iberian peninsula following the end of the most recent ice age. Myths of British ancestry - Prospect Magazine After the Mesolithic, the Neolithic and Bronze Age migrants introduced Celtic culture and languages to Ireland. Geneticists find Celtic links to Spain and Portugal - breakingnews.ie These later migrants from the Neolithic to Bronze Age still represent a minority of the genetic heritage of Irish people. ("Origins of the British", Stephen Oppenheimer, 2006) The Longue Durée of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe - PUBMED Culture spread throughout the island, and the Gaels tradition became the dominant form in Ireland. Today, Irish people are mainly of Gaels ancestry, and although some of the population is also of Norse, Anglo-Norman, English, Scottish, French and Welsh ancestry, these groups have been assimilated and do not form distinct minority groups. Gaelic culture and language forms an important part of national identity. In the UK, Irish Travellers are a recognised ethnic minority group, politically (but not ethnically) linked with mainland European Roma and Gypsy groups, Commission for Racial Equality: Gypsies and Irish Travellers: The facts although in the Republic of Ireland, the are not, instead they are classified as a "social group". Irish Travellers Movement: Traveller Legal Resource Pack 2 - Traveller Culture

    Languages The official languages are Irish language and English language. Teaching of the Irish and English languages is compulsory in the primary and secondary level schools that receive money and recognition from the state. Some students may be exempt from the requirement to receive instruction in either language. English is by far the predominant language spoken throughout the country. People living in predominantly Irish-speaking communities, Gaeltacht regions, are limited to the low tens of thousands in isolated pockets largely on the western seaboard. Road signs are usually bilingual, except in Gaeltacht regions, where they are in Irish only. The legal status of place names has recently been the subject of controversy, with an order made in 2005 under the Official Languages Act 2003 changing the official name of certain locations from English back to Irish (e.g. Dingle had its name changed to An Daingean, but was then renamed to "Dingle Daingean Ui Chuis"), sometimes despite local opposition, and, in Dingle's case, a plebiscite requesting a name change to a bilingual version. Most public notices are only in English language, as are most of the print media. Most Government publications and forms are available in both English and Irish, and citizens have the right to deal with the state in Irish if they so wish. National media in Irish exist on TV (TG4), radio (e.g. Raidió na Gaeltachta), and in print (e.g. Lá Nua and Foinse).

    According to the 2006 census, 1,656,790 people (or 39%) in the Republic regard themselves as competent in Irish; though no figures are available for English-speakers, it is thought to be almost 100%.

    The Polish language is one of the most widely-spoken languages in Ireland after English and Irish: there are over 63,000 Poles resident in Ireland according to the 2006 census. Other languages spoken in Ireland include Shelta, spoken by the Irish Traveller population and a dialect of Ulster Scots language is spoken by the descendents of Ulster-Scots in Ulster.

    Recent population growth Ireland's population has increased greatly in recent years. Much of this population growth can be attributed to the arrival of immigrants and the return of Irish people (often with their foreign-born children) who emigrated in large numbers in earlier years during periods of high unemployment. However, birth rates in Ireland are currently over double the death rates, which is highly unusual among Western European countries, and the nation seems to be in the midst of a baby boom. Irish Independent - Boom in births as new arrivals double on death rates Approximately 10% of Ireland's population is now made up of foreign citizens.The Central Statistics Office (Ireland) has published preliminary findings based on the 2006 Census of Population. These indicate:

    A more detailed breakdown of these figures is available online.

    Detailed statistics into the population of Ireland since 1841 are available at Irish Population Analysis.

    Religion pie chart showing the proportion of foll {{Infobox Country or territory|native_name = |conventional_long_name = Ireland|common_name = Ireland|image_flag=Flag of Ireland.svg|image_coat=COA of Ireland.svg|image_map = Location Ireland EU Europe.png|map_caption = |national_anthem =
    The Soldier's Song|official_languages = Irish language, English language|demonym = Irish|capital = Dublin and [Parliamentary system|leader_title1 = President of Ireland|leader_name1 = Mary McAleese|leader_name2 = [Bertie Ahern|accessionEUdate = January 1 1973-->|area_rank = 120th|area_magnitude = 1 E9|percent_water = 2.00|population_estimate = 4,239,848|population_estimate_year = 2006|population_estimate_rank = 121st|population_density_km2 = 60.3|population_density_sq_mi = 147.6 |sovereignty_note = from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|established_event1 = Proclamation of the Irish Republic|established_date1 = 24 April 1916|established_date2 = [21 January 1919|established_date3 = [6 December 1922|established_date4 = [29 December 1937 ([Euro sign)1|currency_code = EUR|time_zone = Western European Time|utc_offset = +0|time_zone_DST = Irish Summer Time (Western European Summer Time)|utc_offset_DST = +1|cctld = .ie2].|footnote2 = The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.-->Ireland (Irish language: Éire; ) is a country in north-western Europe. The modern Sovereignty state occupies five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was Partition of Ireland in 1921. It is bordered by Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) to the north, by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and by the Irish Sea to the east. The term Republic of Ireland (Irish language: Poblacht na hÉireann) is officially used as "the description of the State". Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 (Irl).

    Name Bunreacht na hÉireann (Irish), the constitution of Ireland, provides that "the name of the state is Éire, or, in the English language, 'Ireland'." The state is also described as the "Republic of Ireland", in order to distinguish it from the island of Ireland and from Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland Act defined Republic of Ireland as the description of the state in 1949 (the purpose of the act being to declare that the state was a republic rather than a form of constitutional monarchy). However, because this was a statutory provision, the constitutional name of "Ireland" remains the official name of the state, whilst "Republic of Ireland" is a description of the state. The form Ireland is used for official purposes in English language documents such as treaties, government and legal documents, and membership of international organisations:, the form Éire is used when these are Irish language documents. However with Irish language being named the European Union's twenty-third official language in 2007, the state will be referred to in both constitutional official languages, the Irish and English languages, similarly to other countries such as Finland and Belgium using more than one language at EU level. This means the label 'Éire-Ireland' will be used on various signage and nameplates referring to the state. EU to call country 'Éire Ireland', Irish Examiner, 27 June 2006.The state is also known by other names in English, such as , Irish Free State and the Twenty-six Counties. Occasionally in the United Kingdom the state is referred to incorrectly as Southern Ireland, this term was only used officially for a brief period in Irish history: Irish people generally understand the phrase "southern Ireland" to mean Munster. Northern Irish people sometimes refer to the state as "The South" - it is not uncommon to hear Northern Irish people talking about going "down south".

    The state has had more than one official title. The all-island revolutionary state, declared in 1919 by the large majority of Irish Member of Parliament#United Kingdom elected in 1918, was known as the "Irish Republic"; when the present smaller state achieved independence in 1922, it became known as the "Irish Free State" (in the Irish language ), a name that was retained until 1937.

    History The state known today as Ireland came into being when 26 of the counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) in 1922. The remaining six counties remained within the UK as Northern Ireland. This action, known as the Partition of Ireland, came about because of complex constitutional developments in the early twentieth century.

    It was preceded by the Easter Rising of 1916, when Irish volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army took over sites in Dublin and Galway under terms expressed in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The seven signatories of this proclamation, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Thomas Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada, Joseph Plunkett, Eamonn Ceannt and James Connolly, were executed, along with nine others, and thousands were interned precipitating the Irish War of Independence.

    From 1 January 1801 until 6 December 1922, Ireland had been part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the Irish Potato Famine from 1845 to 1849 the island's population of over 8 million fell by 30 percent. One million Irish died of starvation and another 1.5 million emigrated, which set the pattern of emigration for the century to come and would result in a constant decline up to the 1960s. From 1874, but particularly from 1880 under Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish Parliamentary Party moved to prominence with its attempts to achieve Devolution#Irish home rule, which would have given all of Ireland some autonomy without requiring it to leave the United Kingdom. It seemed possible in 1911 when the House of Lords lost their veto, and John Redmond secured the Third Home Rule Act 1914. The Unionists (Ireland) movement, however, had been growing since 1886 among Irish Protestants, fearing that they would face discrimination and lose economic and social privileges if Irish Catholics were to achieve real political power. Though Irish unionism existed throughout the whole of Ireland, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century unionism was particularly strong in parts of Ulster Unionists, where industrialisation was more common in contrast to the more agrarian rest of the island. (Any tariff barriers would, it was feared, most heavily hit that region.) In addition, the Protestant population was more strongly located in Ulster, with unionist majorities existing in about four counties. Under the leadership of the Dublin-born Edward Carson and the northerner James Craig they became Ulster Defence Force. In 1914, to avoid rebellion in Ulster, the British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, with agreement of the Irish Parliamentary Party#Home Rule succeeds leadership, inserted a clause into the bill providing for home rule for 26 of the 32 counties, with an as of yet undecided new set of measures to be introduced for the area temporarily excluded. Though it received the Royal Assent, the Third Home Rule Act 1914's implementation was suspended until after the World War I. (The war at that stage was expected to be ended by 1915, not the four years it did ultimately last.) For the prior reasons of ensuring the implementation of the Act at the end of the war Redmond and his Irish National Volunteers supported the Allied cause, and tens of thousands joined battalions of the 10th (Irish) Division and 16th (Irish) Divisions of the Kitchener's Army.

    In January 1919, after the December 1918 Irish (UK) general election, 1918, 73 of Ireland's 106 Member of Parliament elected were Sinn Féin members who refused to take their seats in the British House of Commons. Instead, they set up an extra-legal Irish parliament called Dáil Éireann. First Dáil in January 1919 issued a Declaration of Independence and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The Declaration was mainly a restatement of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic with the additional provision that Ireland was no longer a part of the United Kingdom. Despite this, the new Irish Republic remained unrecognised internationally except by Vladimir Lenin's Russian SFSR. Nevertheless the Republic's Aireacht (ministry) sent a delegation under Ceann Comhairle Seán T. O'Kelly to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, but it was not admitted.

    After the bitterly fought Irish War of Independence, representatives of the Her Majesty's Government and the Irish treaty delegates, led by Arthur Griffith, Robert Barton and Michael Collins negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London from October 11th -6th December 1921. The Irish delegates set up headquarters at Hans Place in Knightsbridge and it was here in private discussions that the decision was taken at 11.15am on 5th December to recommend the Treaty to Dáil Éireann. Under the Treaty the British agreed to the establishment of an independent Irish State whereby the Irish Free State (in the Irish language Saorstát Éireann) with Dominion was created. The Dáil Éireann narrowly ratified the treaty.

    The Treaty was not entirely satisfactory to either side. It gave more concessions to the Irish than the British had intended to give but did not go far enough to satisfy republican aspirations. The new Irish Free State was in theory to cover the entire island, subject to the proviso that six counties in the north-east, termed "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 they duly did. The remaining twenty-six counties became the Irish Free State, a constitutional monarchy over which the British monarch reigned (from 1927 with the title monarchy in the Irish Free State). It had a Governor-General of the Irish Free State, a bicameral parliament, a cabinet called the "Executive Council" and a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State.

    The Irish Civil War was the direct consequence of the creation of the Irish Free State. Anti-Treaty forces, led by Éamon de Valera, objected to the fact that acceptance of the Treaty abolished the Irish Republic of 1919 to which they had sworn loyalty, arguing in the face of public support for the settlement that the "people have no right to do wrong". They objected most to the fact that the state would remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations and that Teachta Dála would have to swear an oath of fidelity to George V of the United Kingdom and his successors. Pro-Treaty forces, led by Michael Collins (Irish leader), argued that the Treaty gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire to and develop, but the freedom to achieve it".

    At the start of the war, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) split into two opposing camps: a pro-treaty IRA and an Irish Republican Army (1922–1969). The pro-Treaty IRA became part of the new Irish Army. However, through the lack of an effective command structure in the anti-Treaty IRA, and their defensive tactics throughout the war, Michael Collins (Irish leader) and his pro-treaty forces were able to build up an army capable of overwhelming the anti-Treatyists. British supplies of artillery, aircraft, machine-guns and ammunition boosted pro-treaty forces, and the threat of a return of Crown forces to the Free State removed any doubts about the necessity of enforcing the treaty. The lack of public support for the anti-treaty Irregulars, and the determination of the government to overcome them, contributed significantly to their defeat.

    The National Army suffered 800 fatalities and perhaps as many as 4,000 people were killed altogether. As their forces retreated, the Irregulars showed a major talent for destruction and the economy of the Free State suffered a hard blow in the earliest days of its existence.

    On 29 December 1937, a new constitution, the Constitution of Ireland, came into force. It replaced the Irish Free State by a new state called simply "Ireland". Though this state's constitutional structures provided for a President of Ireland instead of a king, it was not technically a republic; the principal key role possessed by a head of state, that of symbolically representing the state internationally remained vested, in statute law, in the King as an organ.

    Irish neutrality during World War II during World War II, a period it described as The Emergency.

    On 21 December 1948, the Republic of Ireland Act declared a republic, with the functions previously given to the Governor-General acting on the behalf of the King given instead to the President of Ireland.

    The Irish state had remained a member of the then-Commonwealth of Nations after independence until the declaration of a republic on 18 April 1949. Under Commonwealth rules declaration of a republic automatically terminated membership of the association; since a reapplication for membership was not made, Ireland consequently ceased to be a member.

    The Republic of Ireland joined the United Nations in 1955 and the European Community (now the European Union) in 1973. Irish governments have sought the peaceful reunification of Ireland and have usually cooperated with the British government in the violent conflict involving many Paramilitary and the British Army in Northern Ireland known as "The Troubles". A peace settlement for Northern Ireland, the Belfast Agreement, was approved in 1998 in referendums north and south of the border, and is currently being implemented.

    Politics , Mary McAleese

    The state is a republic, with a parliamentary system of government. The President of Ireland, who serves as head of state, is elected for a seven-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), is appointed by the president on the nomination of parliament. The is normally the leader of the political party which wins the most seats in the national elections. It has become normal in the Republic for coalitions to form a government, and there has not been a single-party government since 1989.

    The bicameral parliament, the , consists of a Senate, , and a lower house, . The is composed of sixty members; eleven nominated by the , six elected by two universities, and 43 elected by public representatives from panels of candidates established on a vocational basis. The has 166 members, , elected to represent multi-seat constituencies under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote. Under the constitution, parliamentary elections must be held at least every seven years, though a lower limit may be set by statute law. The current statutory maximum term is every five years.

    , the seat of (the Irish parliament).The Government is constitutionally limited to fifteen members. No more than two members of the Government can be selected from the Senate, and the , (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Finance must be members of the . The current government consists of a coalition of three parties; under Bertie Ahern, the Green Party (Ireland) under new leader John Gormley and the Progressive Democrats under Minister for Health and Children (Ireland) Mary Harney. The last scheduled Irish general election, 2007 to the Dáil took place on 24 May 2007, after it was called by the Taoiseach on 29th April.

    The main opposition in the current consists of Fine Gael under Enda Kenny, Irish Labour Party under new leader Eamon Gilmore and Sinn Féin. A number of independent deputies also sit in Dáil Éireann though less in number than before the recent election.

    Ireland joined the European Union in 1973 but has chosen to remain outside the Schengen Treaty. Citizens of the UK can freely enter Ireland without a passport thanks to the Common Travel Area, however some form of identification is required at airports and seaports.

    Counties The Republic of Ireland traditionally had twenty-six County, and these are still used in cultural and sporting contexts. Dáil Éireann constituencies are required by statute to follow county boundaries, as far as possible. Hence counties with greater populations have multiple constituencies (e.g. Limerick East/West) and some constituencies consist of more than one county (e.g. Sligo-North Leitrim), but by and large, the actual county boundaries are not crossed.

    As local government units, however, some have been restructured, with the now-abolished County Dublin distributed among three new county councils in the 1990s and County Tipperary having been administratively two separate counties since the 1890s, giving a present-day total of twenty-nine administrative counties and five cities. The five cities — Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, and Waterford (Kilkenny is a city but does not possess a city council) — are administered separately from the remainder of their respective counties. Five boroughs — Clonmel, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Sligo and Wexford — have a level of autonomy within the county:{| align="center" cellpadding="10"| |style="font-size: 90%;"| Republic of Ireland
  • County Dublin
    — Dublin
    — Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
    — Fingal
    — South Dublin
  • County Wicklow
  • County Wexford
    — Wexford (Borough)
  • County Carlow
  • County Kildare
  • County Meath
  • County Louth
    — Drogheda (Borough)
  • County Monaghan
  • County Cavan
  • County Longford
  • County Westmeath
  • County Offaly
  • County Laois
  • County Kilkenny
    — Kilkenny (Borough)
    • |style="font-size: 90%;"|
  • County Waterford
    — Waterford
  • County Cork
    — Cork (city)
  • County Kerry
  • County Limerick
    — Limerick
  • County Tipperary
    — North Tipperary
    — South Tipperary
     — Clonmel (Borough)
  • County Clare
  • County Galway
    — Galway
  • County Mayo
  • County Roscommon
  • County Sligo
    — Sligo (Borough)
  • County Leitrim
  • County Donegal|}

    These counties are grouped together into Regions of the Republic of Ireland for statistical purposes.

    Geography, climate, and environment The island of Ireland extends over 84,421 Square kilometres or 32,556 square miles, of which 83% (approx. five-sixths) belong to the Republic (70,280 km²; 27,103 sq mi) and the remainder constituting Northern Ireland. It is bound to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast by the North Channel (Great Britain). 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 1,038 Metre or 3,406 Foot (unit of length)). The interior of the country is relatively flat land, traversed by rivers such as the River Shannon and several large lakes or loughs. The centre of the country is part of the River Shannon watershed, containing large areas of bogland, used for peat extraction and production.

    The local temperate climate is modified by the North Atlantic Current and is relatively mild. Summer temperatures exceed 30ºCelsius (86°F) usually once every decade, though commonly reach 29°C (84ºFahrenheit) most summers, and freezes occur only occasionally in winter, with temperatures below -6°C (21°F) being uncommon. Precipitation (meteorology) is very common, with some parts of the country getting up to 275 days with rain annually.

    Chief city conurbations are the capital Dublin 1,045,769 on the east coast, Cork (city) 190,384 in the south, Limerick City 90,757 in the mid-west, Galway 72,729 on the west coast, and Waterford City 49,213 on the south east coast (see Cities in Ireland).

    Impact of agriculture The long history of agricultural production coupled with modern intensive agricultural methods (such as pesticide and fertiliser use) has placed pressure on biodiversity in Ireland. Agriculture is the main factor determining current land use patterns in Ireland, leaving limited land to preserve natural habitats (also forestry and urban development to a lesser extent),{{Citation | title = Land cover and land use | publisher = Environmental Protection Agency | year = 2000 | url=http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/assessment/land/ | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> in particular for larger wild mammals with greater territorial requirements. With no top predator in Ireland, populations of animals that cannot be controlled by smaller predators (such as the fox) are controlled by annual culling, i.e. semi-wild populations of deer. A land of green fields for crop cultivation and cattle rearing limits the space available for the establishment of native wild species. Hedgerows, however, traditionally used for maintaining and demarcating land boundaries, act as a refuge for native wild flora. Their ecosystems stretch across the countryside and act as a network of connections to preserve remnants of the ecosystem that once covered the island.

    Pollution from agricultural activities is one of the principal sources of environmental damage. "Runoff" of contaminants into streams, rivers and lakes impact the natural fresh-water ecosystems.{{Citation | title = World Factbook - Ireland | publisher = CIA | year = 2007 | url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ei.html | accessdate = 2007-08-07--> Subsidies under the [Common Agricultural Policy which supported these agricultural practices and contributed to land-use distortions are undergoing reforms.{{Citation | title = CAP reform - a long-term perspective for sustainable agriculture | publisher = European Commission | url=http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/capreform/index_en.htm | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> The CAP still subsidises some potentially destructive agricultural practices, however, the recent reforms have gradually decoupled subsidies from production levels and introduced environmental and other requirements.

    Forest covers about 10% of the country, with most designated for commercial production. Forested areas typically consist of monoculture plantations of non-native species which may result in habitats that are not suitable for supporting a broad range of native species of invertebrates. Remnants of native forest can be found scattered around the country, in particular in the Killarney National Park. Natural areas require fencing to prevent over-grazing by deer and sheep that roam over uncultivated areas. This is one of the main factors preventing the natural regeneration of forests across many regions of the country.{{Citation | first = Dick | last = Roche | title = National Parks | publisher = Seanad Éireann | url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0185/S.0185.200611080008.html | volume = 185 | date = 2006-11-08 | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> Seanad Éireann Debate involving Former Minister for Environment Heritage and Local Government

    Education The education systems are largely under the direction of the government via the Minister for Education and Science (Ireland) (currently Mary Hanafin, TD). Recognised primary and secondary schools must adhere to the curriculum established by authorities that have power to set them.

    The education systems in Ireland are complex due to a confusion of ownership, control and curricular assessment. This has arisen because the systems developed over long periods of time with variable influence by several key players, including the Irish state. Unlike in countries such as France, Ireland's state education system is largely limited to the content of the curriculum, although this too is mediated by voluntary interests.

    Primary, Secondary and Third (University/College) level education are all free in the Republic of Ireland for all EU citizens.

    OwnershipTechnically, the majority of Ireland's primary and secondary schools are owned by the Catholic parishes of the country. Parishes establish schools and this has tended to develop where the local Catholic Church provided the land under the ownership of a Board of Management, composed of various community interests, including but not exclusively so, the local Catholic priest. With the decline in numbers of priests, this has proven more and more problematic. The parish's school is then run by the Board of Management on behalf of the local community. With increasing numbers of non-Catholics in Ireland, the question of Catholic school ethos has become contested. The State provides and pays for the teachers, organises the curriculum and agrees to provide examinations and other centralised services for these schools. At second level, the system of ownership is more complex again because schools owned by the Churches, the State and other voluntary interests coexist side by side. At this level, the parish's interests are represented by a Board of Management / Trust established by an order of the Catholic Church under the direction of a Bishop. A state owned secondary school - generally called community or comprehensive schools - is wholly controlled by the State through the Department of Education and Science. A small number of other denominational schools exist such as those organised by the Islamic communities. The church ownership model extends to these groups too.

    ControlControl of schools is technically vested in the Catholic Church/Church of Ireland/church grouping. As the State decides the content of educational curricula with various interests, including the Churches, control is effectively in the State's purview. Ireland's educational systems can be characterised in a largely voluntary manner. This does not imply that their effects are politically neutral with class and other interests sequentially embedded throughout each system.

    Economy The economy of Ireland has transformed in recent years from an agricultural focus to one dependent on trade, industry and investment. Economic growth in Ireland averaged an exceptional 10% from 1995–2000, and 7% from 2001–2004. Industry, which accounts for 46% of Gross Domestic Product, about 80% of exports, and 29% of the labour force, now takes the place of agriculture as the country's leading sector.

    Exports play a fundamental role in the state's robust growth, but the economy also benefits from the accompanying rise in consumer spending, construction, and business investment. On paper, the country is the largest exporter of software-related goods and services in the world. In fact, a lot of foreign software, and sometimes music, is filtered through the country to avail of the state's non-taxing of royalties from copyrighted goods.

    A key part of economic policy, since 1987, has been Social Partnership which is a corporatism set of voluntary 'pay pacts' between the Government, employers and trades unions. These usually set agreed pay rises for three-year periods.

    The state joined in launching the Euro currency system in January 1999 (leaving behind the Irish pound) along with eleven other EU nations. The 1995 to 2000 period of high economic growth led many to call the country 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. Growth for 2004 was over 4%, and for 2005 was 4.7%.

    With high growth came high levels of inflation, particularly in the capital city. Prices in Dublin, where nearly 30% of Ireland's population lives, are considerably higher than elsewhere in the country, - CSO especially in the Irish Property Bubble.

    Measuring Ireland's level of income per capita is a complicated issue. Ireland possesses the second highest GDP (Purchasing power parity) per capita in the world (US$43,600 as of 2006), behind Luxembourg, and the fourth highest Human Development Index, which is calculated partially on the basis of GDP per capita. However, many economists feel that GDP per capita is an inappropriate measure of national income for Ireland, as it neglects the fact that much income generated in Ireland belongs to multinational companies and eventually goes offshore. Another measure, Gross National Income per head, takes account of this and therefore many economists feel it is a superior measure of income in the country. In 2005, the World Bank measured Ireland's GNI per head at $41,140 - the seventh highest in the world, sixth highest in Western Europe, and the third highest of any EU member state. Also, a study by The Economist found Ireland to have the best quality of life in the world. - The Economist This study employed GDP per capita as a measure of income rather than GNI per capita.

    The positive reports and economic statistics mask several underlying imbalances. The construction sector, which is inherently cyclical in nature, now accounts for a significant component of Ireland's GDP. A recent downturn in residential property market sentiment has highlighted the over-exposure of the Irish economy to construction, which now presents a threat to economic growth.{{Citation | title = Economic Survey of Ireland 2006: Keeping public finances on track | publisher = OECD | year = 2006 | url=http://www.oecd.org/document/50/0,3343,en_33873108_33873500_36173106_1_1_1_1,00.html | accessdate = 2007-07-30--> {{Citation | title = House slowdown sharper than expected | publisher = RTÉ | date = 2007-08-03 | url=http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/0803/economy1.html | accessdate = 2007-08-06--> {{Citation | title = Latest Report: Latest edition of permanent tsb / ESRI House price index - May 2007 | publisher = Permanent TSB, ESRI | url=http://www.permanenttsb.ie/house-price-index/ | accessdate = 2007-08-10--> Several successive years of unbalanced economic growth have also led to huge inequality between the strata of Irish society (see Economy of the Republic of Ireland#Recent Developments). Poverty figures show that 6.8% of Ireland's population suffer "consistent poverty". CSO, 2004.

    Military Ireland's armed forces are organised under the Irish Defence Forces (). The Irish Army is relatively small compared to other neighbouring armies in the region, but is well equipped, with 8,500 full-time military personnel (13,000 in the reserve army). Irish Defence Forces, Army (accessed 15 June 2006) This is principally due to Ireland's policy of neutral country, See Gilland, Karin. "Ireland: Neutrality and the International Use of Force," p. 143, in Philip P. Everts and Pierangelo Isernia, Public Opinion and the International Use of Force, Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0415218047. and its "triple-lock" rules governing participation in conflicts whereby approval must be given by the UN, the Government and the Dáil before any Irish troops are deployed into a conflict zone. Deployments of Irish soldiers cover United Nations peace-keeping duties, protection of the Republic's territorial waters (in the case of the Irish Naval Service) and Aid to Civil Power operations in the state. See Irish neutrality.

    There is also an Irish Air Corps and Reserve Defence Forces (Irish Army Reserve and Naval Service Reserve) under the Defence Forces. The Irish Army Rangers is a special forces branch which operates under the aegis of the army.

    Over 40,000 Irish servicemen have served in UN peacekeeping missions around the world.

    The Republic supplies support to the USA military, facilitating the delivery of the bulk of the military personnel involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq through Shannon Airport; previously the airport had been used for the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) in 2001. This is part of a longer history of use of Shannon for controversial military transport, which is largely unbiased towards any particular military alliance. The airport was used previously by the US in the First Gulf War and by the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. - Tony Gregory speaking in Dáil Éireann

    During the Second World War, though officially neutral, the Republic supplied similar, though more extensive, support for the Allied Forces. See Irish neutrality during World War II.

    Demographics {| class="wikitable" align=right style="width:275px;"|-! colspan=3 | International rankings|-! style="width:150px;" | Indicator! style="width:50px;" | Rank! style="width:75px;" | Measure|-! colspan=3 | Economy|-| List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita| style="text-align:center;" | 2nd| style="text-align:center;" | International dollar44,087|-| GNP| style="text-align:center;" | ↓ 28th| style="text-align:center;" | 4.30%|-| [List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita| style="text-align:center;" | 30th| style="text-align:center;" | 10.3 Tonne†|-| List of countries by electricity consumption| style="text-align:center;" | 61st| style="text-align:center;" | 22.79 Watt-hour|-| Index of Economic Freedom| style="text-align:center;" | 3rd| style="text-align:center;" | 1.58|-! colspan=3 | Politics|-| List of countries by Human Development Index| style="text-align:center;" | 4th| style="text-align:center;" | 0.956|-| Freedom in the World 2006| style="text-align:center;" | 1st*| style="text-align:center;" | 1|-| Reporters Without Borders#Worldwide press freedom index| style="text-align:center;" | 1st*| style="text-align:center;" | 0.50|-| Corruption Perceptions Index| style="text-align:center;" | ↓ 18th| style="text-align:center;" | 7.4|-| Global Peace Index| style="text-align:center;" | 11th| style="text-align:center;" | 9.01|-| [Henley Visa Restrictions Index| style="text-align:center;" | 1st*| style="text-align:center;" | 99.9%|-| [Quality-of-life index| style="text-align:center;" | —| style="text-align:center;" | 16.5%|-| [List of mobile network operators of Europe#Republic of Ireland| style="text-align:center;" | —| style="text-align:center;" | 114%|-| Alcohol consumption| style="text-align:center;" | 2nd| style="text-align:center;" | 13.7 Litre†|-| Beer consumption by country| style="text-align:center;" | 2nd| style="text-align:center;" | 131.1 Litre†|-| International Property Rights Index| style="text-align:center;" | 29th| style="text-align:center;" | 78.9|-| [List of countries by birth rate| style="text-align:center;" | 136th| style="text-align:center;" | 14.45‡|-| List of countries and territories by fertility rate| style="text-align:center;" | 133rd| style="text-align:center;" | 1.86††|-| List of countries by infant mortality rate (2005)| style="text-align:center;" | 196th| style="text-align:center;" | 5.39‡‡|-| List of countries by death rate| style="text-align:center;" | 110th| style="text-align:center;" | 7.85‡|-| List of countries by suicide rate| style="text-align:center;" | 33rd| style="text-align:center;" | ♂ 21.4†‡♀ 4.1†‡|-| List of countries by HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate| style="text-align:center;" | 122nd| style="text-align:center;" | 0.10%|-! colspan=3 | Notes|-| colspan=3 | ↓ indicates rank is in reverse order (e.g. 1st is lowest)
    * joint with one or more other countries† per capita
    ‡ per 1000 people†† per woman‡‡ per 1000 live births†‡ 100,000 people per year♂ indicates males, ♀ indicates females|}

    Genetic research suggests that the first settlers of Ireland, and parts of North-Western Europe, came through migrations from Iberian peninsula following the end of the most recent ice age. Myths of British ancestry - Prospect Magazine After the Mesolithic, the Neolithic and Bronze Age migrants introduced Celtic culture and languages to Ireland. Geneticists find Celtic links to Spain and Portugal - breakingnews.ie These later migrants from the Neolithic to Bronze Age still represent a minority of the genetic heritage of Irish people. ("Origins of the British", Stephen Oppenheimer, 2006) The Longue Durée of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe - PUBMED Culture spread throughout the island, and the Gaels tradition became the dominant form in Ireland. Today, Irish people are mainly of Gaels ancestry, and although some of the population is also of Norse, Anglo-Norman, English, Scottish, French and Welsh ancestry, these groups have been assimilated and do not form distinct minority groups. Gaelic culture and language forms an important part of national identity. In the UK, Irish Travellers are a recognised ethnic minority group, politically (but not ethnically) linked with mainland European Roma and Gypsy groups, Commission for Racial Equality: Gypsies and Irish Travellers: The facts although in the Republic of Ireland, the are not, instead they are classified as a "social group". Irish Travellers Movement: Traveller Legal Resource Pack 2 - Traveller Culture

    Languages The official languages are Irish language and English language. Teaching of the Irish and English languages is compulsory in the primary and secondary level schools that receive money and recognition from the state. Some students may be exempt from the requirement to receive instruction in either language. English is by far the predominant language spoken throughout the country. People living in predominantly Irish-speaking communities, Gaeltacht regions, are limited to the low tens of thousands in isolated pockets largely on the western seaboard. Road signs are usually bilingual, except in Gaeltacht regions, where they are in Irish only. The legal status of place names has recently been the subject of controversy, with an order made in 2005 under the Official Languages Act 2003 changing the official name of certain locations from English back to Irish (e.g. Dingle had its name changed to An Daingean, but was then renamed to "Dingle Daingean Ui Chuis"), sometimes despite local opposition, and, in Dingle's case, a plebiscite requesting a name change to a bilingual version. Most public notices are only in English language, as are most of the print media. Most Government publications and forms are available in both English and Irish, and citizens have the right to deal with the state in Irish if they so wish. National media in Irish exist on TV (TG4), radio (e.g. Raidió na Gaeltachta), and in print (e.g. Lá Nua and Foinse).

    According to the 2006 census, 1,656,790 people (or 39%) in the Republic regard themselves as competent in Irish; though no figures are available for English-speakers, it is thought to be almost 100%.

    The Polish language is one of the most widely-spoken languages in Ireland after English and Irish: there are over 63,000 Poles resident in Ireland according to the 2006 census. Other languages spoken in Ireland include Shelta, spoken by the Irish Traveller population and a dialect of Ulster Scots language is spoken by the descendents of Ulster-Scots in Ulster.

    Recent population growth Ireland's population has increased greatly in recent years. Much of this population growth can be attributed to the arrival of immigrants and the return of Irish people (often with their foreign-born children) who emigrated in large numbers in earlier years during periods of high unemployment. However, birth rates in Ireland are currently over double the death rates, which is highly unusual among Western European countries, and the nation seems to be in the midst of a baby boom. Irish Independent - Boom in births as new arrivals double on death rates Approximately 10% of Ireland's population is now made up of foreign citizens.The Central Statistics Office (Ireland) has published preliminary findings based on the 2006 Census of Population. These indicate:

    A more detailed breakdown of these figures is available online.

    Detailed statistics into the population of Ireland since 1841 are available at Irish Population Analysis.

    Religion pie chart showing the proportion of foll

    Republic of Ireland
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