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Bank Of Ireland

Bank of Ireland

thumb The Bank of Ireland , officially known as the Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland is a commercial bank operation on the island of Ireland, one of the 'Big Four'. The bank was formed by an Act of the Irish Parliament in 1782 to support public and commercial finances in Ireland. The headquarters of the bank until the 1970s was the impressive, Bank of Ireland building in Dublin. This building hosted the Irish Parliament before the Act of Union 1800. Today visitors can still view the impressive Irish House of Lords chamber within the building. The banks headquarters is now a modern building in Baggot Street, Dublin, but the Bank of Ireland in College Green remains a working branch. In 1958, the Bank took over the Hibernian Bank Limited and in 1965 the National Bank of Ireland Limited, and rebranded them as Bank of Ireland. Today the bank is based throughout the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, it offers the Laser payment system. In Northern Ireland, the bank prints its own banknotes in Pound Sterling. In Great Britain, the bank expanded largely through the takeover of the Bristol and West Building Society in 1996. It also provides financial services for the Post Office throughout the UK. From the foundation of the Irish Free State until December 31 1971, the Bank of Ireland was the banker of the Irish Government, but not the central bank. The central bank was only formed twenty years after the Irish Free State and is called the Central Bank of Ireland. On 20 March 2005, Bank of Ireland announced 2,000 job cuts in a move to reduce its cost base. The Group's headquarters are in Dublin, and its operations extend geographically throughout Ireland and Britain. The Group provides a broad range of financial services in Ireland to the personal, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors. These include checking and deposit services, overdrafts, term loans, mortgages, international asset financing, leasing, instalment credit, debt financing, foreign exchange facilities, interest and exchange rate hedging instruments, executor, trustee, stockbroking, life assurance and investment fund management, fund administration and custodial services and financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions and underwriting. With the acquisition of New Ireland Assurance in December 1997 the Group has access to additional distribution channels and products for its life assurance and pensions business. The group provides services in multiple currencies, but primarily in the Euro. The Group markets and sells its products on a domestic basis through the most extensive nationwide distribution network in Ireland and its direct telephone banking service. The Group has built a market share among credit institutions in Ireland of over 20% of resources and loans outstanding. In the United Kingdom the Group operates mainly through Bristol & West plc which was acquired in July 1997, and the Group's retail branch network. Bristol & West operates in selected markets and provides mortgages, savings and investments products to customers. Operations in the rest of the world are primarily undertaken by Bank of Ireland Asset Management who provide fund management services to institutions and pension funds in Germany, Australia,Canada, Japan and the United States.

History

List currently only covers from 1995 onwards, and is not complete
- 1995
  - 19 December: Bank of Ireland merge First New Hampshire Bank with Royal Bank of Scotland's Citizens Financial Group
- 1996
  - 16 April: Bank of Ireland buys the Bristol & West building society for €882m, which keeps its own brand.
- 1999
  - 22 May: It is announced Alliance & Leicester is in merger talks with the Bank of Ireland.
  - 17 June: It is announced that merger talks with Alliance & Leicester have been called off.
- 2000
  - 31 July: It is announced that Bank of Ireland is to acquire Chase de Vere.
- 2002
  - 17 May: Bank of Ireland acquires Iridian, the US investment manager, which doubles the size of its asset management business.
- 2005
  - 21 September: Bank of Ireland completes the sale of the Bristol and West branch and Direct Savings (Contact Centre) to Britannia Building Society. This is the first re - mutualisation of a former Mutal company. Britannia promises that there will be no compusory redundencies.

See also


- List of Irish companies

External links


- [http://www.bankofireland.ie Official site] Category:Banks of Ireland

Ireland

:This page is about the island of Ireland. For the state also called Ireland, see Republic of Ireland. :For an explanation of terms like Ulster, Northern Ireland, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology) . British Isles (terminology)] Ireland (Irish: Éire) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies in the Atlantic Ocean and it is composed of the Republic of Ireland (officially, Ireland), which covers five sixths of the island (south, east, west and north-west), and Northern Ireland; part of the United Kingdom, which covers the northeastern sixth of the island. The population of the island is approximately 5.8 million people; 4.1 million in the Republic of Ireland (1.6 million in Greater Dublin) and 1.7 million in Northern Ireland (0.6 million in Greater Belfast). Belfast 2003. Scotland, the Isle of Man and Wales are visible to the east]]

Geography

Wales with more details).]] A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. The highest peak is Carrauntuohill (Irish: Corrán Tuathail), which is 1041 m (3414 feet). The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 259 km (161 mi) the longest river in Ireland or Britain. The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent but soft rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". The island's area is 84,079 km² (32,477 mile²). Ireland is divided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. In Irish these are referred to as Cúige's ( Cúige - meaning fifths). Previously there were five provinces - Connacht, Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Meath, comprising the counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford. These were further divided into 32 counties for administrative purposes. Six of the Ulster counties remain under British sovereignty as Northern Ireland following Ireland's partition in 1922 (the remaining 26 forming present-day Republic of Ireland); since the UK's 1974 reshuffle these county boundaries no longer exist in Northern Ireland for administrative purposes, although Fermanagh District Council is almost identical to the county. In the Republic, the county boundaries are still adhered to for local government, albeit with Tipperary and Dublin subdivided (some cities also have their own administrative regions). For election constituencies, some counties are merged or divided, but constitutionally the boundaries have to be observed. Across Ireland, the 32 counties are still used in sports and in some other cultural areas and retain a strong sense of local identity. Ireland's least arable land lies in the south-western and western counties. These areas are largely spectacularly mountainous and rocky, with beautiful green vistas.

Politics

Dublin Politically, Ireland is divided into:
- The Republic of Ireland, with its capital in Dublin. This state is often simply referred to internally and internationally as "Ireland" in English or "Éire" in Irish. Technically Ireland and Éire are the official names of the state while the "Republic of Ireland" is its official description.
- Northern Ireland is unofficially known as 'the North', and 'Ulster' (the province of Ulster also includes Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan which are in the Republic). Northern Ireland is a region of the United Kingdom. Prior to the Government of Ireland Act 1920 the island had been a unified political entity within the United Kingdom (see United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) from 1801. From 1541 the Kingdom of Ireland was established by the King of England, though this realm did not cover the whole island till the early 17th century. Up to then, Ireland had been politically divided into a number of different Irish kingdoms (Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Mide, Ulster, and others). Contrary to some assertions, at no time did a national kingdom headed by an Ard Ri exist. In a number of respects, the island operates officially as a single entity, for example, in most kinds of sports. The major religions, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, are organised on an all-island basis. Some 92% of the population of the Republic of Ireland and about 44% of Northern Ireland is Roman Catholic. Some trade unions are also organised on an all-Irish basis and associated with the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU) in Dublin, while others in Northern Ireland are affiliated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom - though such unions may organise in both parts of the island as well as in Britain. The island also has a shared culture across the divide in many other ways. Traditional Irish music, for example, though showing some variance in all geographical areas, is, broadly speaking, the same on both sides of the border. Irish and Scottish traditional music have many similarities. The Ireland Funds, an international fund-raising organisation, tries to help people on both sides find peace and reconciliation through community development, education, arts and culture. The island is often referred to as being part of the British Isles. However, some people, especially in Ireland, take exception to this name, which seems to suggest that both islands belong to Britain. For this reason, "Britain and Ireland" is commonly used as a more neutral alternative. Another suggestion, although much less used, is the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA).

Flag of Ireland

There is no universally agreed flag that represents the island of Ireland. Historically a number of flags were used, including St. Patrick's cross, the flag sometimes used for the Kingdom of Ireland and which represented Ireland on the Union Jack after the Act of Union, a green flag with a harp (used by some radical nationalists in the 19th century and which is also the flag of Leinster), a blue flag with a harp used from the 18th century onwards by many nationalists (now the standard of the President of Ireland), and the Irish tricolour. However as the tricolour is the flag of the Republic of Ireland it is not used to represent the island of Ireland, given that the island also includes Northern Ireland. The Royal Standard also shows a version of an ancient Irish flag in one of its four quadrants. St Patrick's Saltire is used to represent the island of Ireland by the all-island Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). In contrast the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) uses the tricolour to represent the whole island.

History

Gaelic Athletic Association]] Ireland was mostly ice-covered and joined by land to Britain and Europe during the last ice age, has been inhabited for about 9,000 years. Stone age inhabitants arrived sometime after 8000 BC, with the culture progressing from Mesolithic to high Neolithic over the course of three or four millennia. The Bronze Age, which began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments and weapons. The Iron Age in Ireland is associated with people now known as Celts. They are traditionally thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of waves between the 8th and 1st centuries BC, with the Gael, the last wave of Celts, conquering the island and dividing it into five or more kingdoms. Many scholars, however, now favour a view that emphasises cultural diffusion from overseas over significant colonisation.The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. Ptolemy in AD 100 records Ireland's geography and tribes. Native accounts are confined to Irish poetry, myth, and archaeology. The exact relationship between Rome and the tribes of Hibernia is unclear; the only references are a few Roman writings. Tradition maintains that in AD 432, St. Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. The druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of the new faith. Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving Latin learning during the Early Middle Ages. The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. This era was interrupted in the 9th century by 200 years of intermittent warfare with waves of Viking raiders who plundered monasteries and towns. Eventually they settled in Ireland, and established many towns, including the modern day cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. In 1172, King Henry II of England gained Irish lands by the granting of the 1155 Bull Laudibiliter to him by then English Pope Adrian IV, and from the 13th century, English law began to be introduced. English rule was largely limited to the area around Dublin, known as the Pale, and Waterford, but this began to expand in the 16th century with the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th century, as a result of the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland and English and Scottish Protestant colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland, which established English control over the whole island. After the the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the Irish Parliament. The new English Protestant ruling class was known as the Protestant Ascendancy In 1800 the Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union which, in 1801, merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The whole island of Ireland would remain within the United Kingdom, ruled directly by the UK Parliament in London. The 19th century saw the Great Famine of the 1840s in which at least 1 million Irish people died and over a million were forced to emigrate. The late 19th and early 20th century saw a vigorous but unsuccessful campaign for Irish home rule, followed by the eclipse of moderate nationalism by militant separatism. In 1922, following the Anglo-Irish War, twenty-six counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State. The remaining six, in the north-east, remained within the Union as Northern Ireland. Secession for the rest of Ireland led directly to the Civil War, as militant nationalists split into two factions and turned against one another.

History since partition

Irish Independence: The Irish Free State, Éire, Ireland

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was narrowly ratified by the Dáil in December 1921 but was rejected by a large minority, resulting in the Irish Civil War which lasted until 1923. In 1922, in the middle of this civil war, the Irish Free State came into being. For its first years the new state was governed by the victors of the Civil War. However in the 1930s Fianna Fáil, the party of the opponents of the treaty, were elected into government. The party introduced a new constitution in 1937 which renamed the state to simply "Éire or in the English language, Ireland" (preface to the Constitution). The state was neutral during World War II but offered some assistance to the Allies. In 1949 the state declared itself to be a republic and that henceforth it should be described as the Republic of Ireland. The state was plagued by poverty and emigration until the 1990s. That decade saw the beginning of unprecedented economic success, in a phenomenon known as the "Celtic Tiger". By the early 2000s, it had become one of the richest countries (in terms of GDP per capita) in the European Union, moving from being a net recipient to a net contributor and from a population with net emigration to one with net immigration.

Northern Ireland

From its creation in 1921 until 1972 Northern Ireland enjoyed limited self-government within the United Kingdom, with its own parliament and prime minister. However the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland each voted almost entirely along sectarian lines, meaning that the government of Northern Ireland (elected by "first past the post") was always controlled by the Ulster Unionist Party. Consequently, Catholics could not participate in the government, which at times openly encouraged discrimination in housing and employment. Nationalist grievances at unionist discrimination within the state eventually led to large civil rights protests in 1960s, which the government suppressed heavy-handedly, most notably on "Bloody Sunday". It was during this period of civil unrest that the paramilitary Provisional IRA, who favoured the creation of a united Ireland, began its campaign against Unionist rule. Other groups, legal and illegal on the unionist side, and illegal on the nationalist side, began to participate in the violence and the period known as the "Troubles" began. Owing to the civil unrest the British government suspended home rule in 1972 and imposed direct rule. In 1998, following a Provisional IRA cease-fire, the Good Friday Agreement was concluded and attempts began to be made to restore self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power sharing between the two communities. Violence has greatly decreased since the signing of the accord. In 2001 the armed police force in the north (which operated much like an army with armoured cars etc.), The Royal Ulster Constabulary (or RUC for short), was removed in place of the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) as a result of easing tensions. On July 28 2005, the Provisional IRA (PIRA) announced the end of its armed campaign and on September 25 2005 international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the PIRA.

Sport

Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular sports in Ireland. Along with Camogie, Ladies' Gaelic football, handball and rounders, they make up the national sports of Ireland, collectively known as Gaelic Games. All Gaelic games are governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), with the exception of Ladies' Gaelic Football, which is governed by a separate organisation. The GAA is organised on an all-Ireland basis with all 32 counties competing; traditionally, counties first compete within their province, in the provincial championships, and the winners then compete in the All-Ireland senior hurling or football championships. The headquarters of the GAA (and the main stadium) is located at the 83,000 capacity Croke Park in north Dublin. All major GAA games are played here, including the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland championships. All GAA players, even at the highest level, are amateurs and receive no wages. The Irish rugby team includes players from north and south, and the Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport on both sides of the border. Consequently in international rugby, the Ireland team represents the whole island. The same is true of cricket. However, when Ireland was partitioned, organisation of football (soccer) in the Republic was transferred from the Belfast-based Irish Football Association (IFA) to the new Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The IFA remained in charge of the game in the six counties. (Consequently in International Association Football, the island has two teams: the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland.) Northern Ireland qualified for the World Cup Soccer finals in 1958 (where they made it to the quarter finals), 1982 and 1986. The Republic of Ireland made it to the World Cup in 1990 (where they made it to the quarter finals), 1994 and 2002. Greyhound racing and horse racing are both popular in Ireland: greyhound stadiums are well attended and there are frequent horse race meetings. The Republic is noted for the breeding and training of race horses and is also a large exporter of racing dogs. The horse racing sector is largely concentrated in the central east of the Republic. Boxing is also an all-island sport governed by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association. Golf is an extremely popular sport in Ireland and Golfing Tourism is a major industry. The 2006 Ryder Cup will be held in the K Club in Co. Kildare, which is just outside Dublin. Prominent Irish sporting stars are: Sean Kelly (cycling), Stephen Roche (cycling), Brian O'Driscoll (rugby), Roy Keane (soccer), Damien Duff (soccer), D.J. Carey (hurling), Peter Canavan (GAA), Aidan O'Brien (racehorse trainer), Kieren Fallon (jockey), Eddie Jordan (F1), Padraig Harrington (golf), Sonia O'Sullivan (athlethics), Steve Collins (boxing) and Ken Doherty (snooker).

Culture

Literature and the arts

For a comparatively small country, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature in all its branches, mainly in English. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century; Jonathan Swift, still often called the foremost satirist in the English language, was wildly popular in his day (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, etc.) and remains so in modern times amongst both children and adults. In more recent times, Ireland has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. His 1922 novel Ulysses is sometimes cited as the greatest English-language novel of the 20th century and his life is celebrated annually on June 16th in Dublin as the Bloomsday celebrations. The early history of Irish visual art is generally considered to begin with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is traced through Bronze age artifacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the mediæval period. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong indigenous tradition of painting emerged, including such figures as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy.

Music and dance

The Irish tradition of folk music and dance is also widely known. In the middle years of the 20th century, as Irish society was attempting to modernise, traditional music tended to fall out of favour, especially in urban areas. During the 1960s, and inspired by the American folk music movement, there was a revival of interest in the Irish tradition. This revival was led by such groups as The Dubliners, The Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers and Sweeney's Men and individuals like Sean Ó Riada and Danny O'Flaherty. Irish and Scottish traditional music are similar. Before long, groups and musicians including Horslips, Van Morrison and even Thin Lizzy were incorporating elements of traditional music into a rock idiom to form a unique new sound. During the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction between traditional and rock musicians became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing over between these styles of playing as a matter of course. This trend can be seen more recently in the work of bands and individuals like U2, Clannad, The Cranberries, Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, and The Pogues. Nevertheless, Irish music has shown an immense inflation of popularity with many attempting to return to their roots. There are also contemporary music groups that stick closer to a "traditional" sound, including Altan, Gaelic Storm, Lúnasa, and Solas. Others incorporate multiple cultures in a fusion of style, such as Afro Celt Sound System and Canadian Loreena McKennitt. Ireland has done well in the Eurovision Song Contest, being the most successful country in the competition with seven wins. This achievement evokes mixed feelings in many Irish people.

Demographics

Ireland has been inhabited for at least 9000 years, although little is known about the neolithic inhabitants of the island. Early historical and genealogical records note the existance of dozens of different peoples (Attacotti, Conmaicne, Éoganacht, Érainn, Soghain, to name but a few). Over the last 1000 years, there have been influences by the Vikings, who founded several ports, including Dublin, and Normans, with significant admixture to the gene pool. However the greater part of the Irish population descends from the original inhabitants of the island who came after the end of the Ice Age. Although for many years the Irish were believed to be of Celtic origin, recent genetic evidence shows that both the Irish and the Welsh (and to a lesser degree England and Scotland) have many genetic traits in common with the people of the Basque region. Some theorize that although Basque is certainly not a Celtic language, there may have been a Celto-Basque link while others postulate that the pre-Celtic population of the island may have had Basque origins. Both positions are difficult to prove, as the information is relatively new. Culturally however, Ireland is undeniably Celtic. Mingling of native Irish inhabitants with the latinate peoples of Spain, France and Rome during the height of the Roman Empire (and later following the expulsion of many Protestants from the predominantly Catholic Southern France, many of whom subsequently migrated to Ireland) gave rise to what some refer to as Franco-celts or Latin-celts. These people are charecterised particularly by very dark, black hair color, a trait that does not occur in "pure" Anglo-Saxon, and other significant genetic similarities to Southern Europeans. Franco-celts (or Latin-celts) are responsible in part, but not wholey, for the moderately high occurrence of black hair and other Southern European characteristics amongst the Irish population. Ireland's largest religious denomination is Roman Catholicism (about 70%), and most of the rest of the population adhere to one of the various Protestant denominations. The largest is the Church of Ireland. The Irish Muslim community is growing, mostly through increased immigration (see Islam in Ireland). The island also has a small Jewish community (See History of the Jews in Ireland), although this has declined somewhat in recent years. Since joining the EU in 2004, Polish people have been the largest source of immigrants from Eastern Europe, followed by other migrants from Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Latvia. Ireland has also had large numbers of Romanians entering the country since the 1990s. A high standard of living, high wages and EU citizenship attract many of the migrants from the newest of the European Union countries. Nigerians, Chinese and people from other African countries also make up a large proportion of migrants to Ireland.

Infrastructure

Transport

Air

Africa The three most important international airports in the Republic are Dublin Airport, Cork Airport and Shannon Airport. All provide extensive services to the UK, continental Europe and North America. The Irish national airline Aer Lingus and low-cost operator Ryanair are based at Dublin. Shannon is an important stopover on trans-Atlantic route for refuelling operations. There are several smaller regional airports in the Republic (Galway Airport, Kerry Airport, Knock International Airport, Sligo Airport, Waterford Airport) that mostly limit their services to Ireland and the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland there are three main airports. Belfast International (Aldergrove) provides routes to Ireland and Great Britain, as well as many international services to Europe and recently Belfast-New York (Newark). Belfast City and City of Derry Airport mainly provide flights to Great Britain.

Rail

Great Britain The rail network in Ireland was developed by various private companies with the help of British Government funding throughout the late 19th century, reaching its greatest extent around the 1920s. The broad gauge of 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) was eventually settled upon throughout the island, although there were narrow gauge (3 ft) railways also. Ireland also has one of the largest freight railways in Europe, operated by Bord na Móna. This company has a narrow gauge railway of 1200 miles. In Dublin a new Light Rail System, named Luas opened in 2004. Two lines serve the south and west suburbs as well as the north city centre. More lines are planned as well as an eventual upgrade to Metro. The scheme is being run by the RPA.

Road

RPA] As with Britain, motorists must drive on the left in Ireland, unfortunately tourists driving on the wrong side of the road cause serious [http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1145.html accidents] every year. The island of Ireland has an extensive road network, despite the low quality of many of these until recently. Northern Ireland has historically had better main roads, while the Republic of Ireland has an increasing motorway network, focused on Dublin and the east coast. Historically land owners developed most roads and later Turnpike Trusts collecting tolls so that as early as 1800 Ireland had a 10,000 mile [http://www.cie.ie/about_us/schools_and_enthusiasts.asp road network]. 1815 marked the inauguration of the first horsecar service from Clonmel to Thurles and Limerick. Nowadays the main bus companies are Bus Éireann in the South and Ulsterbus in the North, with Dublin Bus serving the needs of greater Dublin.

Energy

Dublin Bus For much of their existence electricity networks in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were entirely separate. Both networks were designed and constructed independently, but are now connected with three interlinks and also connected by Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) through Great Britain to mainland Europe. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) in the Republic drove a rural electrification programme in the 1940s until the 1970s. The natural gas network is also now all-island, with a connection from Antrim to Scotland. Most of Ireland's gas comes from the Kinsale field. The Corrib Gas Field in Mayo has yet to come online, and is facing some localised opposition over the controversial decision to refine the gas onshore. Ireland, north and south has faced difficulties in providing continuous power at peak load. The situation in Northern Ireland is complicated by the issue of private companies not supplying NIE with enough power, while in the Republic, the ESB has failed to modernise its power stations. In the latter case, availability of power plants has averaged 66% recently, one of the worst such figures in Western Europe. There have been recent efforts in Ireland to use renewable energy such as wind energy with large wind farms being constructed in coastal counties such as Donegal, Mayo and Antrim. Recently what will be the world's largest offshore wind farm is being developed at Arklow Bank off the coast of Wicklow. It is estimated to generate 10% of Irelands energy needs when it is complete. These constructions have in some cases been delayed by opposition from locals, most recently on Achill Island, some of whom consider the wind turbines to be unsightly. Another issue in the Republic of Ireland is the failure of the ageing network to cope with the varying availability of power from such installations. Turlough Hill is the only energy storage mechanism in Ireland.

See also


- List of Ireland-related topics
- Republic of Ireland
- Northern Ireland
- Kingdom of Ireland
- The Ireland Funds
- Irish people

External links


- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Republic_of_Ireland Wikitravel guide to the Republic of Ireland]
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Northern_Ireland Wikitravel guide to Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.ireland-map.co.uk/ Map of Ireland]
- [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/heaven/dnairish.pdf.pdf#search='Ychromosome%20variation%20and%20Irish%20origins' Y-chromosome variation and Irish origin]
- [http://pdphoto.org/PictureHome.php?cid=23&mat=pdef&md=cid Public domain photos of Ireland] Category:Islands in the British Isles Category:Ireland ko:아일랜드 섬 ja:アイルランド島 simple:Ireland th:ไอร์แลนด์

Big Four

The phrase Big Four has multiple meanings:
- Big Four can refer to:
  - The Big Four auditors, the four largest international public accountancy firms.
  - The "Big Four" outlaw motorcycle gangs.
  - A nickname for a railroad in the United States of America officially called the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (later absorbed by the New York Central Railroad).
  - Big Four record labels — The four major media giants which dominate the global music market: EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group. These were known as the Big Five before the joint venture between Sony and BMG merged.
  - Name given to the four biggest banks in Ireland, these are: Allied Irish Banks (First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland), Bank of Ireland, National Irish Bank (Northern Bank in NI) and Ulster Bank.
  - Name traditionally given to the four biggest banks in the United Kingdom. For many decades these were: Lloyds Bank (now Lloyds TSB); Natwest, (now part of Royal Bank of Scotland); Barclays Bank; and Midland Bank (now HSBC). HBOS, which was formed by a merger between the Bank of Scotland and the former building society Halifax, is larger than Lloyds TSB by both assets and market capitalisation, so the term is obsolete, but it is still sometimes used by the media.
  - Name given to the four biggest banks in Australia, these are: the National Australia Bank, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ.
  - Name given to the four large banks in the People's Republic of China, these are the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China.
  - The four major U.S. television networks: ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox
  - In the United Kingdom, the Big Four ITV companies in the period 1956 to 1968 were Associated-Rediffusion (later Rediffusion London), ATV, ABC and Granada Television.
  - The four major IRC networks: Quakenet, Undernet, EFNet, IRCNet. DALnet used to be there instead of Quakenet.
  - The four major U.S. wireless providers: Cingular, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile.
  - The Big Four was the collective name given to four railroad magnates in the western U.S.: Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker.
  - In 1902, meat packers Gustavus Swift, J. Ogden Armour, and Edward Morris, along with the investment banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb, and Company, to create the National Packing Company for the purpose of fixing prices, dividing up markets, and suppressing union efforts to organize industry workers. The group became known the "Meat Trust" and the "Big Four" of the meat packing industry, and developed such a monopoly that the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the venture to disband in 1905.
  - The Big Four (novel) was an Agatha Christie novel.
  - The four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923-1948 were known as the Big Four. These were the Great Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway and the Southern Railway. In 1948 these companies were nationalised to form British Railways.
  - The four largest eikaiwa or English education organisations in Japan; Nova, AEON, GEOS & ECC
  - The four japanese motorcycle makers: Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha
  - The four most popular and arguably influential thrash metal bands of the 80's: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax
  - The four most prominent grunge bands that emerged from Seattle, Washington in the early 1990s: Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam
  - The four largest sports leagues in the North America: The National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League.
  - In 2005, the four golfers Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, and Phil Mickelson.
  - The starting pitchers for the Cleveland Indians in the 1950s: Bob Feller, Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, and Mike Garcia.
  - The four nations allowed automatic entries to the Eurovision Song Contest, due to their financial contributions: France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
- There are also two places named Big Four in the United States.
  - Big Four in Snohomish County, Washington
  - Big Four in McDowell County, West Virginia

See also


- Big Two
- Little Three
- Big Three
- Big Five
- Big Six 4 ja:世界四大一覧

Parliament of Ireland

:This article is about the legislature abolished in 1801. For alternative meanings, see Irish parliament (disambiguation). Irish parliament (disambiguation) The Parliament of Ireland was a legislature that existed from mediæval times until 1800. It comprised the King of Ireland and two chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Lords consisted of members of the Irish peerage while the Commons was directly elected, albeit on a very restricted franchise. Over the centuries, the Irish parliament met in a number of locations both inside and outside of Dublin - the first place of definitive date and place was Castledermot, County Kildare on 18 June, 1264. Among its most famous meeting places were Dublin Castle, the Bluecoat School, Chichester House and, its final permanent home, the Irish Parliament House in College Green.

Early History

The Irish Parliament was originially founded in the 13th century to represent the English community in the Lordship of Ireland. The native or Gaelic Irish were officially considered outlaws and were not eligible to either vote or stand for office. However, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the English presence in Ireland shrunk dramatically, eventually shrinking to a small fortified enclave around Dublin known as the Pale. The Parliament thereafter became essentially the forum for the Pale community until the 17th century. The Palesmen themselves encouraged the Kings of England to take a more direct role in the affairs of Ireland, to protect them from the Gaelic Irish and "Gaelicised" Old English lords. In 1494, the Parliament encouraged the passing of Poyning's Law which subordinated the Irish Parliament to the English one, so that the Irish Parliament could not be bullied by the powerful landed families in Ireland like the Earl of Kildare into passing laws that pursued the agendas of the different dynastic factions in the country. The role of the Parliament changed after 1541, when Henry VIII declared the Kingdom of Ireland and emabarked on the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland. Thereafter, the Gaelic Irish lords had their positon legalised and were entitled to attend the Irish Parliament as equals (although most members continued to be of English descent). However the Protestant Reformation introduced by the Tudor monarchs changed the nature of Irish politics, as almost all of the population of Ireland remained Roman Catholic. The native community had several disputes in Parliament with the English authorities in Ireland over the introduction of Protestantism as the state religion and over paying for the long-running English wars of conquest in the country. For this reason, in 1613-15, constituencies for the Parliament were fixed so that English and Scottish Protestant settler's representatives became the majority in the Irish Parliament. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the Parliament altogether in the Cromwellian Act of Settlement 1652. They never fully recovered these rights for the remainder of the Parliament's existence. Under the reign of James II of England, who was himself a Roman Catholic, Irish Catholics briefly recovered their pre-eminent position in the Irish Parliament. During the Williamite war in Ireland (1688-91), they were once again a majority in Parliament and forced James to pass legislation granting legislative autonomy to the Parliament and a restitution of the lands confiscated from Catholics in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. However, the Jacobite defeat in this war meant that under William III of England, Protestants were returned to their dominant position in Irish society and the Penal Laws against Catholics were applied with even greater strictness than before. However, it should be noted that Irish Catholics still voted in elections down to 1728, when they were explicitly banned from doing so. Presbyterians also had a subservient status in Parliament, as after 1707 they could hold seats, but not hold public office. After this point, the Irish Parliament was again the preserve of a colonial English minority, though now a new, Protestant (Anglican) one. The Anglo-Irish Parliament did asert its independence from London several times however. In the early 18th century it successfully lobied for Parliament to be called every two years (as opposed to on the whim of the monarch) and shortly thereafter, it declared itself to be in session permanently (mirroring developments in the English Parliament). The Irish Parliament also agitated for greater powers relative to the English Parliament and for better Terms of Trade with Britain.

Powers

After 1707, Ireland was to varying degrees subordinate to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Parliament of Ireland only had control over legislation, while the executive branch of government, under the Lord Lieutenant, answered to the British government in London. Furthermore the Penal Laws meant that Catholics, who constituted the vast majority of Irish people, were not permitted to sit in, or participate in elections to, the parliament; Poyning's Law made the Irish legislature subordinate to the Parliament of Great Britain, by forbidding the Irish parliament to discuss any bill without the British legislature's prior approval. In 1782, following agitation by major parliamentary figures, most notably Henry Grattan, the Irish parliament's authority was greatly increased. Under what became known as the Constitution of 1782 the restrictions imposed by Poyning's Law were removed. A little over a decade later Catholics were given the right to cast votes in elections to the parliament, although they were still debarred from membership.

Organisation

Constitution of 1782).]] The House of Lords was presided over by the Lord Chancellor, who sat on the woolsack, a large seat stuffed with wool from each of the three lands of England, Ireland and Scotland. In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker who, in the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons, was the dominant political figure in the parliament. Speaker Connolly remains today one of the most widely known figures produced by the Irish parliament. Much of the public ceremonial in the Irish parliament mirrored that of the British Parliament. Sessions were formally opened by the Speech from the Throne by the Lord Lieutenant, who, it was written "used to sit, surrounded by more splendour than His Majesty on the throne of England" . The Lord Lieutenant, when he sat on the throne, sat beneath a canopy of crimson velvet. At the state opening, MPs were summoned to the House of Lords from the House of Commons chamber by Black Rod, a royal official who would "command the members on behalf of His Excellency to attend him in the chamber of peers". Sessions of Parliament drew many of the wealthiest of Ireland's Anglo-Irish elite to Dublin, particularly as sessions often coincided with the social season, (January to 17 March) when the Lord Lieutenant presided in state over state balls and drawing rooms in the Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle. Leading peers in particular flocked to Dublin, where they lived in enormous and richly decorated mansions initially on the northside of Dublin, later in new Georgian residences around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square. Their presence in Dublin, along with large numbers of servants, provided a regular boost to the city economy.

Abolition

In 1801 the Parliament of Ireland was abolished entirely, when the Act of Union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and merged the British and Irish legislatures into a single Parliament of the United Kingdom. The union arose from a number of strains in Anglo-Irish relationships. In 1798 British rule in Ireland was shaken by the failed United Irishmen rebellion. The crisis over the 'madness' of King George III produced tension, as both of the King's parliaments in each of his two kingdoms possessed the theoretical right to nominate a regent, without the requirement that they choose the same person. Nonetheless the situation was resolved when both chose the Prince of Wales. The result of these tensions was a British government decision that the entire relationship between Britain and Ireland should be fundamentally changed. Constitutionally it was necessary for the Act of Union to be passed by both the British and Irish parliaments before it could become law. The Irish parliament was therefore effectively asked to vote for its own abolition. After one failed attempt, the passage of the act in the Irish parliament was finally achieved, albeit with the mass bribery of members of both houses, who were awarded British and United Kingdom peerages and other 'encouragements'. On 1st January 1801 the Kingdom of Ireland and its parliament ceased to exist. It was the last legislature in Irish history to have power to legislate for the whole island. Part of the deal involved the concession of Catholic emancipation, which meant the removal of all remaining discriminatory laws against Catholics and faiths other than the established Church of Ireland. This had long been resisted by the Irish Parliament. However, following the Union, King George III blocked emancipation, arguing that it conflicted with his coronation oath to uphold the Protestant faith. Emancipation was finally granted in 1829. In the 1830s and 1840s nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell lead a unsuccessful campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union and the restoration of 'Grattan's parliament'. Those advocating repeal insisted that Catholics be granted the right to sit in any restored parliament.

Footnotes

Unsourced eighteenth century quote used in the Bank of Ireland, College Green, an information leaflet produced by the Bank of Ireland about the Irish Houses of Parliament.

See also


- Historical Irish legislatures
- History of Ireland
- History of democracy
- List of Acts of the Parliament of Ireland
- List of Parliaments of Ireland
- Parliament of Great Britain
- Parliament of the United Kingdom Category:History of Ireland Category:Historical Irish legislatures

Irish Houses of Parliament

The Irish Houses of Parliament (also known as the Irish Parliament House, now called the Bank of Ireland, College Green due to its modern day use as a branch of the bank) was the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house. It served as the seat of both chambers (the Lords and Commons) of the Irish parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland for most of the eighteenth century until that parliament was abolished by the Act of Union in 1800 when the island became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In the 17th century, parliament had settled in Chichester House, a mansion in Hoggen Green (later renamed College Green) that had been owned by Sir George Carew, President of Munster and Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, and which had been built on the site of a nunnery disbanded by King Henry VIII after the dissolution of the monasteries. Carew's house, (later renamed Chichester House after a later owner Sir Arthur Chichester) was already a building of sufficient importance to have become a temporary home of the Kingdom of Ireland's law courts during the Michaelmas law term in 1605. Most famously, the legal documentation facilitating the Plantation of Ulster had been signed in the house on 16 November 1612.

Plans for the new building

The house was in a dilapidated state, allegedly haunted and unfit for parliamentary use. In 1727 parliament voted to spend £6,000 on the building of a new parliament building on the site. It was to be the first purpose-built two-chamber parliament building in the world. The then ancient Palace of Westminster, the seat of the English (before 1707) and the British parliament, was merely a converted building; the House of Commons's odd seating arrangements was due to the chamber's previous existence as a chapel. Hence MPs faced each other from former pews, a seating arrangement continued when the new British Houses of Parliament were built in the mid-nineteenth century after the mediæval building was destroyed by fire. (It was also followed in the 1940s, when the then House of Commons chamber was bombed during World War II, though consideration had been given to replacing it with a semi-circular chamber instead.) The design of this radical new Irish parliamentary building, one of the two purpose-built Irish parliamentary buildings in history (the other being the Stormont parliament), was trusted to a talented young architect, Edward Lovett Pearce, who was himself a Member of Parliament and a protégé of the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Connolly of Castletown House. While building begun, parliament moved to the Blue Coat Hospital on Dublin's northside. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on the 3rd of February 1729.

Design of the new building

1729 Pearce's design for the new Irish Houses of Parliament was revolutionary. The building was effectively semi-circular in shape, occupying nearly an acre and a half (6,000 m²) of ground. Unlike Chichester House, which was set far back from Hoggen Green, the new building was to open up directly onto the Green, as the above photograph shows. The principal entrance consisted of a colonnade of Ionic columns extending around three sides of the entrance quadrangle, forming a letter 'E' (see picture at the bottom of the page). Three statues, representing Hibernia (the Latin name for Ireland), Fidelity and Commerce stood above the portico. Over the main entrance, the royal coat of arms were cut in stone. The building itself underwent extensions by renowned architect James Gandon (Pearce died young, robbing Ireland of a young architect of outstanding potential.) In particular, Gandon, who was responsible for three of Dublin's finest buildings, the Custom House, the Four Courts and the King's Inns, added on a new peers' entrance onto Westmoreland Street (shown above) at the east of the building between 1785 and 1789. Unlike the main entrance to the south, which came to be known as the House of Commons entrance, Gandon's peers' entrance used six Corinthian columns, at the request of peers who wished to have their entrance marked by a different look to the entrance of the commoners who used Ionic columns. Over the entrance, three statues were placed, representing Fortitude, Justice and Liberty. A curved wall joined the Pearce entrance to Gandon's extension. That this curved wall did not actually mark the exterior of the building but masked the actual uneven joins of some of the extension is shown in the view at the bottom of this page. King's Inns The curved wall, though an instantly recognisable aspect of the building today, in fact bears little resemblance to the building as it was in its parliamentary days. Gandon's wall was built of granite, with inset alcoves. Another extension was made on the west side into Foster place by another architect, Robert Parke, in 1787; while matching Gandon's portico, he tried a different and highly unsuccessful solution, linking the other portico to the main Pearce one by a set of ionic pillars. The result proved unattractive. When the Bank of Ireland took over the building, it created an architectural unity by replacing this set of ionic columns by a curved wall similar to that built on the east side by Gandon. Ionic columns were then added to both curved walls, given the extensions an architectural and visual unity that had been lacking and producing the building's exterior as it is today. The interior of the Houses of Parliament contained one unusual and highly symbolic act. While in many converted parliamentary buildings where both houses met in the one building, both houses were given equality or indeed the upper house was given a more symbolic location within the building, in the Irish Houses of Parliament the House of Commons was given pride of place with its octagonal parliamentary chamber located in the centre of the building. In contrast, the smaller House of Lords was demoted to a sideline position nearby. However the domed House of Commons chamber was later destroyed by fire. A less elaborate new chamber, minus its dome, was rebuilt in the same location and opened in 1796, four years before the House of Commons' ultimate abolition.

Pearce's design copied in the US Capitol and British Museum

Pearce's revolutionary designs came to be studied and copied both at home and abroad. The Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle copied his top-lit corridors, through with minor alterations that undermined the effect somewhat. The British Museum in London copied his colonnaded House of Commons entrance for its own facade. The impact of his designs stretched as far as Washington, DC where Pearce's building, and in particular his octagonal House of Commons chamber, was studied as plans were made for the new United States's new Capitol building. While the shape of the chamber was not replicated, some of its decorative motifs were, with the ceiling structure in the Old Senate Chamber and old House of Representatives chamber (now the Statuary Hall) holding a striking resemblance to the original Pearce-designed ceiling in the original House of Commons. Ironically, while the Capitol was copying aspects of the Irish parliament's design, the White House was being modelled on the ground and first floors1 of Leinster House, then the residence of one of the leading peers in the Irish House of Lords, the Duke of Leinster, and now the seat of the modern independent Irish parliament, Oireachtas Éireann. Oireachtas Éireann The uniqueness of the building, the quality of its workmanship and its central location in College Green, across from Trinity College Dublin, made it one of Dublin's most highly regarded buildings, more highly regarded than its membership, some of whom were chosen from rotten boroughs and all of whom represented the Church of Ireland Anglo-Irish ascendancy in Ireland, not the vast majority of Irish people. In addition, it had little control of the Irish government, which was in fact a British government under a British Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Public ceremonial in the Irish Houses of Parliament

Much of the public ceremonial in the Irish Houses of Parliament mirrored that of the British House of Parliament. Sessions were formally opened by a Speech from the Throne by the Lord Lieutenant, whom it was written "used to sit, surrounded by more splendour than His Majesty on the throne of England"2. His Majesty's representative, when he sat on the throne, sat beneath a canopy of crimson velvet. The House of Lords was presided over, as in the English and British parliaments, by the Lord Chancellor, who sat on the woolsack, a large seat stuffed with wool from each of the three kingdoms, England, Ireland and Scotland. (Wool was seen as a symbol of economic success and wealth.) At the state opening, MPs were summoned from the nearby House of Commons chamber by Black Rod, a royal official who would "command the members on behalf of His Excellency to attend him in the chamber of peers". In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker, who in the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons was the dominant political parliamentary figure. Speaker Connolly remains today one of the most widely known figures ever to be produced by an Irish parliament, and not just for his role in parliament but also for his great wealth that allowed him to build one of Ireland's greatest Georgian houses, Castletown House. Sessions of Parliament drew many of the wealthiest of Ireland's Anglo-Irish elite to Dublin, particularly as sessions often coincided with the Social Season, (January to 17 March) when the Lord Lieutenant presided in state over state balls and drawing rooms in the Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle. Leading peers in particular flocked to Dublin, where they lived in enormous and richly decorated mansions initially on the northside of Dublin, later in new Georgian residences around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square. Their presence in Dublin, along with large numbers of servants, provided a regular boost to the city economy. Fitzwilliam Square The abolition of the parliament in 1800 had a major economic impact on the life of the city. Within a decade, many of the finest mansions (Leinster House, Powerscourt House, Aldborough House, etc) had been sold, often to government agencies. Though parliament itself was based on the exclusion of Irish Catholics, many catholic nationalist historians and writers blamed the absence of parliament for the increased impovertisation of Dublin, with many of the large mansions in areas like Henrietta Street sold to unscrupulous property developers and landlords who reduced them to tenements. The draw of the viceregal court and its social season was not enough to encourage most Irish peers and their large entourage to come to Dublin anymore, their absence and that of their servants, with all their collective and previously excessive spending, severely hitting the economy of Dublin, which went into dramatic decline. By the 1830s and 1840s, nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell was leading a demand for the Repeal of the Act of Union and the re-establishment of an Irish parliament in Dublin, only this time one in which Catholics like O'Connell could now be elected to and sit in, in contrast with the entirely protestant assembly that had met in the old Houses of Parliament.

Abolition of Irish Parliament

In the last thirty years of the Irish parliament's existence, a series of crises and reforms changed the role of parliament. In 1782, following agitation by major parliamentary figures, but most notably Henry Grattan, the severe restrictions such as Poyning's Law that effectively controlled the Irish Parliament's ability to control its own legislative agenda were removed, producing what was known as the Constitution of 1782. A little over a decade later, Roman Catholics, who were by far the majority in the Kingdom of Ireland, were allowed to cast votes in elections to parliament, though they were still debarred from membership. The crisis over the 'madness' of King George III produced a major strain in Anglo-Irish relation, as both of the King's parliaments in both of his kingdoms possessed the theoretical right to nominate a regent, without the requirement that they choose the same person, though both in fact chose the Prince of Wales. The British government decided that the entire relationship between Britain and Ireland should be changed, with the merger of both states and parliaments. After one failed attempt, this finally was achieved, albeit with mass bribery of members of both Houses, who were awarded British and United Kingdom peerages and other 'encouragements'. In August 1800 parliament held its last session in the Irish Houses of Parliament. On 1st January 1801 the Kingdom of Ireland and its parliament ceased to exist, with the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland coming into being, with a united parliament meeting in Westminster, to which Ireland sent approximately 100 members3 while Irish peers had the constant right to elect a number of fellow Irish peers as representative peers to represent Ireland in the House of Lords, on the model already introduced for Scottish peers.

After 1800: From a parliament to a bank


300px
The Irish House of Lords chamber
Formerly the bank boardroom, it is now used for recitals and book launches. The display in the picture is located on the dias where the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland's throne was placed.

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William III's victory over James II/VII
The Battle of the Boyne tapestry that hangs in the Lords chamber.
Initially the former Houses of Parliament was used for a variety of purposes; as a militant garrison and an art gallery. In 1803 the fledgling Bank of Ireland bought the building from the British government for £40,000 for use as its headquarters. One provisio is stipulated; it must be so adapted that it never could be used as a parliament again. As a result, the only recently rebuilt House of Commons chamber, though one of Dublin's finest locations, was broken up to form a number of small offices but primarily replaced by a magnificent cash office added by the architect employed to oversee the conversion, Francis Johnston, then the most prominent architect working in Ireland. However contrary to the stipulation, the House of Lords chamber survived almost unscathed. It was used as the board room for the bank until in the 1970s the Bank of Ireland moved its headquarters to elsewhere. The chamber is now open to the public and is used for various publication functions, including music recitals. Of the contents of the building, some have survived in different locations. The Mace of the House of Commons remained in the family of the last Speaker of the House of Commons, John Foster. The Bank of Ireland bought the Mace at a sale in Christies in London in 1937. The Chair of the Speaker of the House of Commons is now in the possession of the Royal Dublin Society, while a bench from the Commons is in the Royal Irish Academy. The original two tapestries have remained in the House of Lords. The Chandelier of the House of Commons now hangs in the Examination Hall of Trinity College Dublin. The woolsack, on which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland sat when chairing sessions of the House of Lords, is now back in location in the chamber on display. Copies of debates of the old Irish parliament are now kept in Ireland's modern day parliament house, Leinster House, so keeping a direct link between the old bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland and the modern day bicameral parliament of the modern Republic of Ireland.

The continuing symbolism of the Old Irish Houses of Parliament

From the 1830s under Daniel O'Connell, generations of leaders campaigned for the creation of a new Irish parliament, convinced that the Act of Union had been a great mistake. While O'Connell campaigned for full scale Repeal of the Act, leaders like Isaac Butt and Charles Stewart Parnell sought a more modest form of Home Rule within the United Kingdom, rather than the full recreation of an independent Irish state. However even if the proposal got through the British House of Commons (and the first two attempts, in 1886 and 1893 did not) the British House of Lords with its massive unionist majority was guaranteed to veto it. However the passage of the Parliament Act, 1911 which restricted the veto powers of the House of Lords, opened up the prospect that an Irish Home Rule Bill might indeed pass through both Houses, receive the Royal Assent and become law. Royal Assent Leaders from O'Connell to Parnell and later John Redmond spoke of the proud day when an Irish parliament might once again meet in what they called Grattan's Parliament in College Green. When, in 1911, King George V and his consort, Queen Mary visited Dublin where they attracted mass crowds, street sellers sold drawings of the King and Queen arriving in the not too distant future at the Old Houses of Parliament in College Green to open the new Irish parliament. In 1914, the Third Home Rule Act did indeed complete all parliamentary stages and receive the Royal Assent. The day when the old parliament would one day become the seat of parliament seemed around the corner. However the intervening First World War provided what proved to be a fatal delay for Home Rule. In 1916, a small band of radical republicans under Patrick Pearse staged the Easter Rising, in which they seized a number of prominent Irish buildings and proclaimed an Irish Republic. Surprisingly one building they did not take over was the old Parliament House. Perhaps they feared that as a bank it would be heavily protected. Perhaps, already expecting that the Rising would ultimately fail and that the reaction to the Rising and what Pearse called their "blood sacrifice", rather than the Rising itself, would reawaken Irish nationalism and produce independence, they did not seek to use the building for fear that it like the GPO would be destroyed in the British counter-attack. Or perhaps because of its association with a former ascendancy parliament, it carried little symbolism for their new republic. Interestingly their are two tapestries designed by Dutch landscape painter William Van der Hagen and woven by John Van Beaver dating from circa 1733 in the hall. The tapestries are unique. One represents the "Glorious Battle of the Boyne" and the other the "Glorious Defence of Londonderry". Each of the tapestries has five portrait and narrative medallions around the central scene which depict, narrate and name central characters and events in each of the battles. Both also have "trophies of arms and figures of Fame below enclosed by fringed curtains."

The Dáil choses a different home

Defence of Londonderry For whatever reason however the 'Bank of Ireland' as it was generally called, remained untouched. When in 1919, Irish republican MPs elected in the 1918 general election assembled to form the First Dáil and issue a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, they chose not to seek to use the old Irish parliament house but instead the Round Room of the Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. (Ironically the Round Room had more royal connections than the Houses of Parliament; it had been built for the visit of King George IV in 1821) Though even if it had sought to use the old parliament house, it is exceptionally unlikely that the Bank of Ireland, then with a largely unionist board some of whom were descended from members of the former House of Commons and House of Lords, would have supplied the building for such a use, not least because it was also a working bank and the Bank's then headquarters . When in 1921, the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, created in the Fourth Home Rule Act (known as the Government of Ireland Act 1920) met (or supposedly met, only four MPs, all unionists, turned up for the state opening of parliament by the Lord Lieutenant), it assembled not in the old Parliament House but in the Royal College of Science. In 1922, when the Provisional Government under W.T. Cosgrave made plans for the coming into being of the new Irish Free State, it gave little thought to using the old Houses of Parliament as the parliament building for the new state. Though larger than the building eventually selected, Leinster House, it possessed three major practical problems:
- It was the working headquarters of Ireland's major bank, which would need to have an alternative headquarters provided, were the state to use the building for parliamentary purposes;
- It lacked room around it for the provision of additional buildings to be used for governmental purposes. Directly behind it, on the actual location of Chichester House, there was now a major street called Fleet Street. In front of it on both the Lords and Commons entrances were major thoroughfares, College Green and Westmoreland Street, meaning that the only space for expansion was on its Foster Place side, yet here too there was little potential for the constitution of government offices. (In contrast the eventual choice, Leinster House, possessed the Royal College of Science, parts of which the state immediately 'borrowed' to use as a cabinet office, a prime ministerial office and offices for several ministries);
- While in the 18th century the fact that one of its House of Lords entrance opened directly onto a street caused little worry, in the Ireland of 1922 with a civil war raging it building was simply too insecure to be used as a modern day parliament building. While the House of Commons entrance was surrounded by railings, it offered only minimal parking space and minimal security from attack, and practically no means of escape in the event of an attack. In contrast Leinster House was located well in from the streets that surrounded it, had considerable parking potential and was far more secure in the event of an anti-treaty republican attack on the Free State Dáil and Seanad. Seanad As a result, the Free State initially hired Leinster House from its then owner, the Royal Dublin Society in 1922, before buying it in 1924. Longer term plans either to convert the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham into a national parliament, or to build a new parliament house, all fell through, leaving Leinster House as the accidential permanent modern Irish parliament house. Royal Hospital, Kilmainham

A curiously contradictory symbol

Ultimately the old Irish Houses of Parliament, the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament building, has remained a curiously contradictory symbol for Ireland: a parliament based on discrimination and exclusion that nevertheless, through producing radical leaders like Henry Grattan, is seen generally with affection by a people whose ancestors were debarred from membership. A parliament that, though protestant establishment in membership and loyal to the Crown, in 1782 produced the first real attempt at Irish independence, achieving the 'Constitution of 1782' that stressed its loyalty to the King by virtue of his Irish, not British Crown. Though flawed in its working, discriminatory in its membership and powerless in its ability to control the executive, it was used as a symbol by generations of nationalist leaders from O'Connell to Parnell and Redmond in their own quest for Irish self government. In a particular irony, Sinn Féin, which as a republican party fought for Irish independence during the Anglo-Irish War, was founded by a man, Arthur Griffith, who sought to restore the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland and the 1782 constitution to the centre of Irish governance, and the College Green Houses of Parliament to its position as the home of an Irish parliament.

Footnotes

1 The ground and first floors in British English are called the first and second floors in American English.
2 Unsourced eighteenth century quote used in the Bank of Ireland, College Green, an information leaflet produced by the Bank of Ireland about the Irish Houses of Parliament.
3 The number of Irish MPs in Westminster fluctuated slightly during Ireland's membership of the United Kingdom but generally remained in or around the 100 mark.

References


- 'History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800' by E.M. Johnston-Liik (Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002)
- Volume 2 of 'The Unreformed House of Commons' by Edward and Annie G. Porritt (Cambridge University Press, 1903) Category:18th century Category:Buildings and structures in Dublin Category:Historical Irish legislatures Category:Legislative buildings Category:State ritual and ceremonial

Act of Union 1800

The Act of Union 1800 merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a merger of England and Scotland under the Act of Union 1707) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. The Act was passed by both the British and Irish parliaments. The Irish parliament had been given a large measure of independence by the Constitution of 1782, after centuries of being subordinated to the English (and later, British) Parliament. Thus, many members had guarded its autonomy jealously, including Henry Grattan, and had rejected a previous motion for Union in 1799. However, a concerted campaign by the British government, and the uncertainty that followed the Irish Rebellion of 1798, made Union a more palatable prospect. The final passage of the Act in the Irish Parliament was achieved with substantial majorities, and was marked by mass bribery of Irish MPs by the British government, including the granting of titles and lands. Under the terms of the union, Ireland had over 100 MPs representing it in the united parliament, meeting in the Palace of Westminster (more than would be proportionate according to population). Part of the attraction of the Union for many Irish Catholics was the promise of Catholic Emancipation, thereby allowing Roman Catholic MPs (which had not been allowed in the Irish Parliament). However this was blocked by King George III who argued that emancipating Roman Catholics would breach his Coronation Oath; it was delayed until 1829. 1829] The flag created by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801 still remains the flag of the United Kingdom. Known as the "Union Flag" (or Union Jack), it combines the flags of England and Scotland with St Patrick's Cross, representing Ireland.

See also


- Repeal (Ireland)
- Unionists (Ireland)
- King of Ireland

External links


- [http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/ Act of Union - Virtual Library]
- [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/abstract.asp?ref=0018-2648&vid=82&iid=266&aid=35&s=&site=1 Abstract] of an article from the journal History about the Act of Union. Category:British laws Category:History of Great Britain Category:History of England Category:History of Ireland Category:History of Ireland 1801-1922 Category:Irish constitutional law Category:1800 in law Category:United Kingdom constitution

United Kingdom

:For other meanings of the terms "United Kingdom" and "UK" , see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). :For an explanation of terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries—England, Scotland, and Wales—on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border, although there is a nominal frontier with France in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The UK has several overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands come under the UK's sovereignty. The UK also has close relationships with the fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, as they all share the same head of state. The UK is also one of the largest member states of the European Union and a founding partner of both the UN and NATO.

Terminology


- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation