Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Irish Pound

Irish pound

:For the coin of the same value, see Irish pound coin. Irish pound coin Irish pound coin.]] The Irish pound (Irish: punt) was the currency unit of the Republic of Ireland until 1999. The Irish pound first came to be as the currency of the Irish Free State in 1928, but was directly linked to Sterling until 1979. The Irish pound was superseded by the euro on 1 January, 1999. The Irish pound's ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the usual notation was the prefix £, or where confusion might have arisen with Sterling IR£ was used.

History

A distinct Irish pound existed throughout the island of Ireland before the Act of Union 1800, but this act led to the disappearence of the currency in 1826 and it would not appear again until 1928, just over one hundred years later. The Irish pound that appeared in 1928 was originally called the 'Saorstát pound' ("Free State pound") and was pegged to the Pound sterling; the currency was referred to as the 'Irish pound' from 1938 after the Constitution of Ireland changed the state's name.

Decimalisation

Decimalisation of the currency was actively discussed in the 1960s. Chief among the Irish Government's concerns was the Pound Sterling, which remained tied to the Irish currency. When the British Government decided to decimalise their currency the Irish Government followed suit. The legislative basis for decimalisation in the Republic was the [http://193.178.1.79/1969_23.html Decimal Currency Act, 1969]. The number of pennies in an Irish pound was redefined from 240 to 100 — the pound itself was not revalued by this act. New coins were issued of the same dimensions and materials as the corresponding new British coins. The [http://193.178.1.79/1970_21.html Decimal Currency Act, 1970] made additional provisions for the changeover not related with the issue of coins. Decimalisation was overseen by the Irish Decimal Currency Board which was created on June 12 1968. It provided a variety of changover information including a pamphlet called "Everyone's Guide to Decimal Currency". The changeover occurred on Decimal Day, 15 February 1971.

Breaking the link

In the 1970s the European Monetary System was introduced, which the Republic decided to join. The European Exchange Rate Mechanism finally broke the one-for-one link that existed between the Irish pound and the Pound Sterling; by March 30 1979 the parity link between the two currencies that had existed for over 150 years was broken and an exchange rate was introduced. By this time Irish exports to the United Kingdom (UK) were 50%, whilst imports were 47%; the Irish economy had diverged greatly since the introduction of the currency in 1928 and was less dependent on trade with the UK. Until this exchange rate was necessary UK currency was accepted in the Republic, on a one-for-one basis by many institutions. Until this time, all Irish Coins had been the same shape and size as their UK counterparts. After this, all new coins introduced were of different sizes to UK coinage. The new 20p and £1 were completely different in size, shape and colour to the previously introduced UK versions. When the UK five and ten pence coins were reduced in size the Irish followed suit, with the new Irish ten pence becoming smaller than the new UK version and the new Irish five pence slightly bigger than the UK version. The Irish fifty pence was never reduced in size as it had been in the UK and this was presumably due to forthcoming replacement of the Irish Pound by the Euro. This period also saw the creation of the Currency Centre at Sandyford in 1978 so that banknotes and coinage could be manufactured within the state. Prior to this banknotes were printed by specialist commercial printers in England, and coins by the Royal Mint.

Withdrawal

Although the euro became the currency of the Republic on 1 January, 1999, it wasn't until 1 January, 2002 that the state began to withdraw Irish pound coins and notes, replacing them with euro. Old pound notes lost their legal tender status on 9 February, 2002, although they will be exchangeable indefinitely for euro at the Central Bank. On 31 December, 2001, the total value of Irish banknotes in circulation was €4,343.8 million, and the total value of Irish coins was €387.9 million. The Irish cash changeover was the fastest in the Eurozone, with some shops illegally ceasing to accept pounds after the first week or two. With a conversion factor of 0.787564 Irish pounds to the euro, fifty-six per cent of the value of Irish banknotes was withdrawn from circulation within two weeks of the introduction of euro banknotes and coins, and 83.4 per cent by the time they ceased to have legal tender status on 9 February. Withdrawal of coinage was slower, having a lower priority, with only 45 per cent of coins withdrawn by 9 February. This figure is somewhat misleading, as at that point, almost all coinage in circulation had indeed been withdrawn – the remainder being kept as souvenirs, or in hoards. One year after the changeover, €456 million of Irish pound banknotes remained unaccounted for, including one-third of all the £5 notes which, being the smallest denomination, were likely retained as souvenirs.

Retrospect

Both decimal day and the euro changeover lead many in Irish society to believe that prices had been improperly raised by traders taking advantage of the confusion, exchange rates notwithstanding, in the case of the euro the government took special measures to prevent any unnecessary price changes.

Footnotes


- Of the 15 national currencies originally tied to the Euro (also including the currencies of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino), the Irish pound is the only one whose conversion factor is less than 1, i.e. the unit of the national currency was worth more than one Euro.

See also


- Banknotes of the Republic of Ireland
- Coinage of the Republic of Ireland

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/business/2001/euro_cash/spent_currencies/punt.stm Overview of Irish pound from the BBC]
- [http://www.centralbank.ie/data/site/spring8.pdf The Irish Pound: From Origins to EMU] (734K PDF file, from Central Bank website).
- [http://www.irishpapermoney.com Irish banknotes] Pound, Irish Category:Currency of the Republic of Ireland Category:Economy of Ireland Pound, Irish

Irish pound coin

The Irish pound coin was introduced on June 20 1990 using the design of a red deer, by the Irish artist Tom Ryan. The 2000 Millennium was used to issue a commemorative coin, the design was based on the "Broighter Boat" in the National Museum of Ireland; the coins design was by Alan Ardiff and Garrett Stokes and were issued on November 29 1999. The coin featured a milled edge - unique in Irish coinage. 1999 The Irish pound coin, which was introduced in 1990, remains the largest Irish coin introduced since decimalisation at 3.11 centimetres diameter and was 10 grams weight. The coin was almost identical in dimensions to the old penny coin that circulated before 1971, and was quite similar in diameter to, but thinner, than the half-crown coin. During the early circulation of the coin, many payphone and vending machines which had been changed to accept the pound coin also accepted the old penny because of the similar size, the latter coin which was no longer legal tender and had little value to collectors. As a result losses accrued to vending machine operators due to the substitution of the penny coin and further costs were associated with updating the machines so they would no longer accept the penny. pound coin

Irish language

Irish (Gaeilge), a Goidelic language spoken in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, is constitutionally recognized as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. On 13 June, 2005, EU foreign ministers unanimously decided to make Irish an official working language of the European Union. The new arrangements will come into effect on January 1, 2007. According to statistics released by the Government of Ireland in 2004, there are 1,570,894 speakers of Irish in the Republic. Of these, 339,541 use Irish every day, 155,039 weekly, 585,300 less often, 459,657 never, and 31,357 didn't state how often. However, these statistics are often disputed by Irish language activists and their opponents. 65,000 people has been quoted as the amount of people in the Gaeltacht who use the language as their first, daily language1. Other data states that 167,487 can speak Irish in Northern Ireland and 25,870 in the United States. For Irish English, see Hiberno-English.

Names of the language

In English

The language is sometimes referred to in English as Gaelic (IPA: ), or Irish Gaelic. This has generally been the common name for the language in the Irish diaspora. Within Ireland proper, it has inevitably acquired political significance. Referring to the language as "Gaelic" suggests that the language is as distant and unrelated to modern Irish life as the civilization of the ancient Gaels. Calling it Irish, on the other hand, indicates that it is and should be the proper national language of the Irish people, and this is the generally accepted term among scholars and in the Irish Constitution. Use of the term Irish also avoids confusion with Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), the closely related language spoken in Scotland and often referred to in English as simply Gaelic (IPA: or ). The archaic term Erse, originally a Scots form of the word Irish, is no longer used and in most contexts is also considered derogatory.

In Irish

In the Caighdeán Oifigiúil (the official written standard) the name of the language is Gaeilge, which reflects the southern Connacht pronunciation . Before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge; originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in classical Modern Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Middle Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish. Other forms of the name found in the various modern Irish dialects, in addition to south Connacht Gaeilge mentioned above, include Gaedhilic/Gaeilic/Gaeilig (pronounced ) in County Donegal and parts of County Mayo, Gaedhealaing/Gaoluinn/Gaelainn (pronounced ) in Munster, and Gaedhlag (pronounced ) in Omeath, County Louth.

Official status

Irish is given recognition by the Constitution of Ireland as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland (with English being a second official language), despite the limited distribution of fluency among the population of that country. Since the State was founded in the 1920s as the Irish Free State (see also History of the Republic of Ireland), the Irish Government required a degree of proficiency in Irish for all civil service positions (including postal workers, tax officials, agricultural inspectors, etc.), as well as for employees of state companies (e.g. Aer Lingus, RTE, ESB, etc). Proficiency in Irish for entrance to the public service ceased to be a compulsory requirement in 1974, in part through the actions of protest organizations like the Language Freedom Movement. While the requirement was also dropped for wider public service jobs, such as teaching, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools within the Republic which receive public money (see also Education in the Republic of Ireland). The need for a pass in Leaving Certificate Irish for entry to the Gardaí (police) was dropped in September 2005, although applicants are given lessons in the language during the two years of training. Most official documents of the Irish Government are published in both Irish and English. The National University of Ireland, Galway is required to appoint a person who is competent in the Irish language, as long as they meet all other respects of the vacancy they are appointed to. This requirement is laid down by the [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA35Y1929S3.html University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3)] and recently was subject of a High Court case on the matter[http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/3905.html] - it is expected that the requirement may be repealed in due course[http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?maincat=10861&pcategory=10861&ecategory=10876§ionpage=13637&language=EN&link=link001&page=1&doc=29800]. As a treaty language of the European Union, the highest-level documents of the EU are translated into Irish; in addition, the language has also recently received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, under the Good Friday Agreement. Furthermore, Irish will become an official working language of the European Union beginning January 1, 2007.

The Gaeltacht

There are pockets of Ireland where Irish is spoken as a traditional, native language. These regions are known as the Gaeltacht. These are in County Galway (Contae na Gaillimhe), including Connemara (Conamara) and the Aran Islands (na hOileáin Árann); on the west coast of County Donegal (Contae Dhún na nGall; in the part which is known as Tyrconnell/Tír Chonaill); and Corca Dhuibhne on the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry (Contae Chiarraí). Smaller ones also exist in Mayo (Contae Mhaigh Eo), Meath (Contae na Mí), Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge), and Cork (Contae Chorcaí). However, even within the Gaeltacht areas, the Irish-speaking populations have declined since the Gaeltacht boundaries were drawn up. The numerically and socially strongest Gaeltacht areas are those of Conamara and Tír Chonaill, in which a significant proportion of residents use Irish as a community language and in which children often speak the language among each other. The highest concentrations of Irish speakers are found in Ros Muc, Connemara, and around Bloody Foreland (Cnoc na Fola) in Tír Chonaill.

Dialects

See main article Irish dialects. There are a number of distinct dialects of Irish. Roughly speaking, the three major dialect areas coincide with the provinces of Munster (Cúige Mumhan), Connacht (Cúige Chonnacht) and Ulster (Cúige Uladh).

Munster dialects

Munster Irish is spoken in the Gaeltachtaí of Kerry (Contae Chiarraí), Muskerry (Múscraí), Cape Clear (Oileán Cléire) in the western part of County Cork (Contae Chorcaí), and the tiny pocket of Irish-speakers in An Rinn near Dungarvan (Dún Garbháin) in County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge). The most important subdivision in Munster is that between Decies Irish (spoken in Waterford) and the rest of Munster Irish. Some typical features of Munster Irish are: # The use of personal endings instead of pronouns with verbs, thus "I must" is in Munster caithfead, while other dialects prefer caithfidh mé (mé means "I"). "I was and you were" is Bhíos agus bhís in Munster but Bhí mé agus bhí tú in other dialects. # In front of nasals and "ll" some short vowels are lengthened while other are diphthongised. # A copula-construction involving is ea is frequently used.

Connacht dialects

The strongest dialect of Connacht Irish is to be found in Connemara and the Aran Islands. In some regards this dialect is quite different from general Connacht Irish but since most Connacht dialects have died out during the last century Connemara Irish is sometimes seen as Connacht Irish. Much closer to the traditional Connacht Irish is the very threatened dialect spoken in the region on the border between Galway (Gaillimh) and Mayo (Maigh Eo). The Irish of Tourmakeady (Tuar Mhic Éadaigh) in southern Mayo (Maigh Eo Theas) and Joyce Country (Dúthaigh Sheoige) are considered the living Irish dialects closest to Middle Irish. Also, the northern Mayo dialect of Erris (Iorras) and Achill (Acaill) is in grammar and word-building essentially a Connacht dialect; but shows an affinity in vocabulary with Ulster Irish, due to large-scale immigration of dispossessed people following the Plantation of Ulster. Connemara Irish is very popular with learners, thanks to Mícheál Ó Siadhail's self-teaching textbook Learning Irish. However, there are features in Connemara Irish outside the official standard—notably the preference for verbal nouns ending in -achan, such as lagachan instead of lagú, "weakening". The non-standard pronunciation with lengthened vowels and heavily reduced endings give Connemara Irish its distinct sound.

Ulster dialects

The most important of the Ulster dialects today is that of the Rosses (na Rosa), which has been used extensively in literature by such authors as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna, locally known as Jimí Fheilimí and Joe Fheilimí. This dialect is essentially the same as that in Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair= Inlet of Streaming Water), the same dialect used by native speaker Enya (Eithne) and her siblings in Clannad (Clann as Dobhar = Family from the Water). Ulster Irish sounds very different and shares several unusual features with Scottish Gaelic, as well as having lots of characteristic words and shades of meanings. However, since the demise of those Irish dialects spoken natively in what is today Northern Ireland, it is probably an exaggeration to see Ulster Irish as an intermediary form between Scottish Gaelic and the southern and western dialects of Irish. Indeed, Scottish Gaelic does have lots of non-Ulster features in common with Munster Irish, too. One noticeable trait of Ulster Irish is the use of the negative participle cha(n), in place of the Munster and Connaught version ní. Even in Ulster, cha(n), most typical of Scottish Gaelic, has ousted the more common ní only in easternmost dialects (including the now defunct ones once spoken in what is now Northern Ireland). The practice seems to be that cha(n) is most usually used when answering to a statement, either confirming a negative statement (Níl aon mhaith ann - Chan fhuil, leoga = "It is no good" - "Indeed it isn't") or contesting an affirmative one (Tá sé go maith - Chan fhuil! = "It is good" - "No, it isn't!"), while ní is preferred in answering a question (An bhfuil aon mhaith ann? - Níl = "Is it any good?" - "No").

Other regions

The extant dialects of Irish native to Leinster, the fourth province of Ireland, became extinct during the 20th century, but records of some of these were made by the Irish Folklore Commission among other bodies prior to this. The present-day Irish of Meath (in Leinster) is a special case. It belongs to the Connemara dialect, as the Irish-speaking community in Meath is simply a group of mostly Connemara speakers who moved there in the 1930s, after a land reform campaign spearheaded by Máirtín Ó Cadhain (subsequently one of the greatest modernist writers in the language). In areas outside the traditional Gaeltacht, where standard Irish was learnt in schools, this has become the "dialect" of leaners of the language. What has been called "Dublin Irish" or "Gaelscoil Irish" has also arisen, that is Irish poorly learnt and heavily influenced by English. English idioms are translated directly, e.g. "Tabhair suas" for Give up when the verb "Lig" should be used. English grammar is sometimes used straight when not applicaple to Irish. Often, when the speaker doesn't know a word, the English will be substituted, sometimes with "áil" affixed. "áil" is generally an ending for the verbal noun of a verb, but when added to an english word, this becomes the stem, e.g. vótáil. Many "Béarlachas"(false Irish based on English) words and phrases are used, e.g. pioc, sórt, saghas, féar plé etc. Also, typical interjection words often used in English and especially English influenced by America are used, e.g. like, man, so, etc. are used un-translated in Irish.

Comparisons

The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in defining standard Irish. Even everyday phrases can show startling dialectal variation: the standard example is "How are you?":
- Ulster: cad é mar atá tú? ("what is it as you are?" Note: caidé or goidé and sometimes dé are alternative renderings of cad é)
- Connacht: cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? ("what way [is it] that you are?")
- Munster: conas taoí? ("how are you?") In recent times, however, contacts between speakers of different dialects have become more common, and mixed dialects have originated. Nevertheless, many dialect speakers (especially Ulster) are still jealously trying to guard their own variety against influences from other dialects. Among non-native speakers, this can be seen as a quest for authenticity. Regional accents are commonly taught to non-natives and imitated: an urban non-native speaker of Irish in Cork City (Cathair Chorcaí) is very probably trying to emulate Coolea or Kerry dialect; one from Belfast (Béal Feirste) tends to speak an Irish modelled on the Rosses dialect of Donegal; and Galwegian Irish-speakers, living next door to Connemara, will do their best to sound like a Connemara native.

Shelta

There also exists a cant called Shelta, based partly on English and partly Irish, in use by the Irish Travellers.

Linguistic Structure

The features most unfamiliar to English speakers of the language are the orthography, the initial consonant mutations, the Verb Subject Object word order, and the use of two different forms for "to be". However, initial mutations are found in other Celtic languages as well as in some Italian and Sardinian dialects, as an independent development. They are also found in some West African languages.

Syntax

See main article Irish syntax One aspect of Irish syntax that is unfamiliar to speakers of other languages is the use of the copula (known in Irish as an chopail). The copula is used to describe what or who someone is, as opposed to how and where. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs ser and estar in Spanish and Portuguese, although this is only a rough approximation. The copula, which in the present tense is is, is usually demonstrative: :Is fear é. "It is a man." :Is Sasanaigh iad. "They're English." When saying "this is", or "that is", seo and sin are used: :Seo í mo mháthair. "This is my mother." :Sin é an muinteoir. "That's the teacher." One can also add "that is in him/her/it", especially when using an adjective, when it is desired to emphasise the quality: :Is fear láidir atá ann. "He's a strong man." :(Literally: "It is a strong man that is in him.") :Is cailín álainn atá inti. "She's a beautiful girl." :(Literally: "It is a beautiful girl that is in her.") This sometimes appears in Hiberno-English, either translated literally as "that is in it", or as "so it is".

Morphology

See main articles Irish morphology, Irish nominals, and Irish verbs. Another feature of Irish grammar that is shared with other Celtic languages is the use of prepositional pronouns (forainmneacha réamhfhoclacha), which are essentially conjugated prepositions. For example, the word for "at" is ag, which in the first person singular becomes agam "at me". When used with the verb bí ("to be") ag indicates possession; this is the equivalent of the English verb "to have". (Literally, "is a book at me")
Tá leabhar agam."I have a book."
Tá deoch agat."You have a drink."
Tá ríomhaire aige."He has a computer."
Tá páiste aici."She has a child."
Tá carr againn."We have a car."
Tá teach agaibh."You (plural) have a house."
Tá airgead acu."They have money."
Compare with Breton: ('Banne' related to the Irish 'bainne' - milk - though semantically drifted) ('Bugel' related to Irish word "buachail" - boy - though semantically drifted)
Ul levr a zo ganin."I have a book."
Ur banne a zo ganit."You have a drink."
Un urzhiatur a zo ganti."He has a computer."
Ur bugel a zo gantañ."She has a child."
Ur c'harr a zo ganomp."We have a car."
Un ti zo ganeoc'h."You (plural) have a house."
Arc'hant a zo ganto."They have money."

Orthography and pronunciation

See main articles Irish orthography and Irish phonology. The written language looks rather daunting to those unfamiliar with it. Once understood, the orthography is relatively straightforward. The acute accent, or síneadh fada (´), serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Munster Irish (Kerry), a is or and á is in "law" but in Ulster Irish (Donegal), á tends to be . Around the time of World War II, Séamas Daltún, in charge of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (the official translations department of the Irish government), issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved of by the State and called the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil. It simplified and standardised the orthography. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected. Examples:
- Gaedhealg / Gaedhilg(e) / Gaedhealaing / Gaeilic / Gaelainn / Gaoidhealg / Gaolainn => Gaeilge, "Irish language" (Gaoluinn or Gaolainn is still used in books written in dialect by Munster authors, or as a facetious name for the Munster dialect)
- Lughbhaidh => Lú, "Louth"
- biadh => bia, "food" (The orthography biadh is still used by the speakers of those dialects that show a meaningful and audible difference between biadh - nominative case - and bídh - genitive case: "of food, food's". For example, in Munster Irish the latter ends in an audible -g sound, because final -idh, -igh regularly becomes -ig in Munster pronunciation.) Modern Irish has only one diacritic sign, the acute (á é í ó ú), known in Irish as the síneadh fada 'long mark'; this is frequently referred to, especially by English speakers as simply the fada, using the adjective as a noun. The dot-above diacritic, called a ponc séimhithe or sí buailte (often shortened to buailte), derives from the punctum delens, which was used in medieval manuscripts to indicate deletion, similar to crossing out unwanted words in handwriting today. From this usage it was used to indicate the lenition of s (from /s/ to /h/) and f (from /f/ to zero) in Old Irish texts. Lenition of c, p, and t was indicated by placing the letter h after the affected consonant; lenition of other sounds was left unmarked. Later both methods were extended to be indicators of lenition of any sound except l and n, and two competing systems were used: lenition could be marked by a buailte or by a postposed h. Eventually, use of the buailte predominated when texts were writing using Gaelic letters, while the h predominated when writing using Roman letters. Today Gaelic letters and the buailte are rarely used except where a 'traditional' style is required, e.g. the motto on the University College Dublin coat-of-arms or the symbol of the Irish Defence Forces. Letters with the buailte are available in Unicode and Latin-8 character sets (see Latin Extended Additional chart [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1E00.pdf PDF]).

Mutations

See main article Irish initial mutations In Irish, there are two classes of initial mutations:
- Lenition (in Irish, séimhiú "softening") describes the change of stops into fricatives. Indicated in old orthography by a dot (called a sí buailte) written above the changed consonant, this is now shown by adding an extra -h-:
  - caith! "throw!" - chaith mé "I threw" (this is an example of the lenition as a past-tense marker, which is caused by the use of do, although this is now usually omitted)
  - margadh "market", "market-place", "bargain" - Tadhg an mhargaidh "the man of the street" (word for word "Timothy of the market-place" (here we see the lenition marking the genitive case of a masculine noun)
  - Seán "Seán, John" - a Sheáin! "O John!" (here we see lenition as part of what is called the vocative case - in fact, the vocative lenition is triggered by the a or vocative marker before Sheáin)
- Nasalisation (in Irish, urú "eclipsis") covers the voicing of voiceless stops, as well as the true nasalisation of voiced stops.
  - athair "father" - ár nAthair "our Father"
  - tús "start", ar dtús "at the start"
  - Gaillimh "Galway" - i nGaillimh "in Galway"

History and politics

Stages of the Irish language

The introduction of Irish to Ireland dates from some time after 1200 BC.2 The earliest form of the language, Primitive Irish, is found in ogham inscriptions up to about the 4th centuryAD. After the conversion to Christianity, Old Irish begins to appear as glosses in the margins of Latin manuscripts, beginning in the 6th century, until it gives way in the 10th century to Middle Irish. Modern Irish dates from about the 16th century.

The Irish Language Movement

The Irish language was the most widely spoken language on the island of Ireland until the 19th century. The first Bible in Irish was translated by William Bedell, Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore, in the 17th century. A combination of the introduction of a primary education system (the 'National Schools'), in which Irish was prohibited and only English taught by order of the British government, and the Great Famine (An Drochshaol) which hit a disportionately high number of Irish language speakers (who lived in the poorer areas heavily hit by famine deaths and emigration), hastened its rapid decline. Irish political leaders, such as Daniel O'Connell (Dónall Ó Conaill), too were critical of the language, seeing it as 'backward', with English the language of the future. Contemporary reports spoke of Irish-speaking parents actively discouraging their children from speaking the language, and encouraging the use of English instead. This practice continued long after independence, as the stigma of speaking Irish remained very strong. Some, however, thought differently. The initial moves to save the language were championed by Irish Protestants, such as the linguist and clergyman William Neilson, in the end of the eighteenth century; the major push occurred with the foundation by Douglas Hyde, the son of a Church of Ireland rector, of the Gaelic League (known in Irish as Conradh na Gaeilge) which started the Gaelic Revival. Leading supporters of Conradh included Pádraig Mac Piarais and Éamon de Valera. The revival of interest in the language coincided with other cultural revivals, such as the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the growth in the performance of plays about Ireland in English, by such luminaries as William Butler Yeats, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey and Lady Gregory, with their launch of the Abbey Theatre. Even though the Abbey Theatre playwrights wrote in English (and indeed some disliked Irish) the Irish language affected them, as it did all Irish English speakers. The version of English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English bears striking similarities in some grammatical idioms with Irish. Some have speculated that even after the vast majority of Irish people stopped speaking Irish, they perhaps subsconsciously used its grammatical flair in the manner in which they spoke English. This fluency is reflected in the writings of Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and more recently in the writings of Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan, Dermot Bolger and many others. (It may also in part explain the appeal in Britain of Irish-born broadcasters like Terry Wogan, Eamonn Andrews, Graham Norton, Desmond Lynam, etc.) This national cultural revival of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century matched the growing Irish radicalism in Irish politics. Many of those, such as Pearse, de Valera, W.T. Cosgrave (Liam Mac Cosguir) and Ernest Blythe (Earnán de Blaghd), who fought to achieve Irish independence and came to govern the independent Irish state, first became politically aware through Conradh na Gaeilge, though Hyde himself resigned from its presidency in 1915 in protest at the movement's growing politicisation. A Church of Ireland campaign to promote worship and religion in Irish was started in 1914 with the founding of Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise (the Irish Guild of the Church). The Roman Catholic Church also replaced its liturgies in Latin with Irish and English for their liturgies following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Independent Ireland and the language

The independent Irish state was established in 1922 (The Irish Free State 1922-37; Ireland (Éire) from 1937, also known since 1949 as the Republic of Ireland). Although some Republican leaders had been committed language enthusiasts, the new state continued to use English as the language of administration, even in areas where over 80% of the population spoke Irish. The government refused to implement the 1926 recommendations of the Gaeltacht Commission, which included restoring Irish as the language of administration in such areas. As the role of the state grew, it therefore exerted tremendous pressure on Irish-speakers to speak English. This was only partly offset by measures which were supposed to support the Irish language. For instance, the state was by far the largest employer. A qualification in Irish was required to apply for state jobs. However, this did not require a high level of fluency, and few public employees were ever required to use Irish in the course of their work. On the other hand, state employees had to have perfect command of English and had to use it constantly. Because most public employees had a poor command of Irish, it was impossible to deal with them in Irish. If an Irish-speaker wanted to apply for a grant, obtain electricity, or complain about being over-taxed, they had to do it in English. As late as 1986 a Bord na Gaeilge report noted "...the administrative agencies of the state have been among the strongest forces for anglicisation in Gaeltacht areas". (page 41 of “The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future”. Author: Advisory Planning Committee of Bord na Gaeilge. Published by Criterion in 1986). The new state increased attempts to promote Irish through the school system. Some politicians claimed that the state would become predominantly Irish-speaking within a generation. However, it is generally agreed that this policy was clumsily implemented. From the mid-1940s onward the policy of teaching English-speaking children through Irish was abandoned. In the following decades, support for the language was progressively withdrawn. Whereas the first three presidents of Ireland (Douglas Hyde/Dubhghlas de hÍde, Sean T. O'Kelly/Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh and Eamon de Valera) and the fifth (Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh) were all so fluent in Irish that it became the working language in their official residence, later presidents struggled with any degree of fluency, its use declining to such an extent that it is only used now (if at all) in occasional speeches. Similarly, where earlier generations of Irish government leaders were highly fluent, recent prime ministers (Albert Reynolds/Ailbhe Mag Raghnaill, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern) had little fluency, struggling to pronounce passages of their speeches in Irish to their Ard-Fheiseanna (party conference(s), ). It is, though, disputed to what extent such professed language revivalists as de Valera genuinely tried to Gaelicise political life. Ernest Blythe did little during his time as Minister of Finance to assist Irish language projects beyond the vested interests of already established organisations. Even in the first Dáil Éireann, few speeches were delivered as Gaeilge (in Irish), with the exception of formal proceedings. None of the recent taoisigh (plural of 'Taoiseach', meaning 'prime minister') have been fluent in Irish; however, the two most recent Presidents, Mary McAleese (Máire Mhic Ghiolla Íosa) and Mary Robinson (Máire Mhic Róíbín) are fluent, though the latter studied the language while in office to improve her fluency. Every President of Ireland has all so far taken their inaugurational 'Declaration of Office' in the language, but they have the option of taking the English declaration at the inauguration. Even modern parliamentary legislation, though supposed to be issued in both Irish and English, is frequently only available in English. Much of publicly displayed Irish is ungrammatical, thus irritating both language activists and enemies of the language and contributing to the public image of the revival as phony and bogus. Many public bodies have Irish language or bilingual names, but some have downgraded the language. For example, Eircom (formerly Telecom Éireann) effectively dropped Irish from its telephone directories in 1999. An Post, the Republic's postal service, continues to have place names in the language on its postmarks, as well as recognising addresses (as does the Royal Mail in Northern Ireland). In an effort to address the half-committed attitude of Irish language use by the State, the Official Languages Act was passed in 2003. This act ensures that every publication made by a governmental body must be published in both official languages, Irish and English. In addition, the office of Language Commissioner has been set up to act as an ombudsman with regard to equal treatment in both languages. ombudsman, with placenames in English and Irish.]] In 2002, at the launch of what was to be a new traffic management system for Dublin, it was revealed that the vast majority of signs would be in English only. The justification offered was that, in making the English lettering large enough to be easily read by motorists from a distance, there was no space to include Irish. The use of the single Irish words left, 'An Lár' (meaning city centre) was criticised on the basis that no-one would know what it meant, even though it was a term used widely for decades on street signs. Even the once common method in Ireland of beginning and ending letters - beginning 'A Chara' (meaning friend) and ending 'Is Mise le Meas' - is becoming rarer. A major factor in the decline of spoken Irish has been the movement of English-speakers into the Gaeltacht (predominantly Irish speaking areas) and the return of native Irish-speakers who have acquired English-speaking families. This has been stimulated by government grants and infrastructure projects. "only about half Gaeltacht children learn Irish in the home... this is related to the high level of in-migration and return migration which has accompanied the economic restructuring of the Gaeltacht in recent decades" (page xxvi of The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future) . Many see this as a deliberate attempt by anti-nationalist politicians to wipe out the language. "That economic development of the kind undertaken was likely to have such consequences was readily predictable a decade ago" (p47). In a last-ditch effort to stop the complete collapse of Irish-speaking in Connemara in Galway, planning controls have been introduced on the building of new homes in Irish speaking areas. These are supposed to ensure that the proportion of English speakers in the local population does not increase. But even this may be too little, too late, as many of those areas have a majority of English speakers, with all Irish speakers being bilingual, using English as their everyday language except among themselves. Attempts have been made to offer some support for the language through the media, notably the launch of Raidió na Gaeltachta (Gaeltacht radio) and Teilifís na Gaeilge (Irish language television, called initially 'TnaG', now renamed TG4); both have been relatively successful. TG4 has offered Irish-speaking young people a forum for youth culture as Gaeilge (in Irish) through rock and pop shows, travel shows, dating games, and even a controversial award-winning soap opera in Irish called Ros na Rún (featuring, among other characters, an Irish-speaking gay couple and their child). Most of TG4's viewership, however, tends to come from showing Gaelic football, hurling and rugby matches, and films in English. There is also a daily Irish-language newspaper called Lá, a weekly called Foinse, and the Irish Times and Daily Ireland have pages in Irish, with articles appended with short lists giving the meaning of some of the words used in English. In 1938, the founder of the Conradh na Gaeilge, Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. The record of his delivering his inauguration 'Declaration of Office' in his native Roscommon Irish remains almost the only surviving remnant of anyone speaking in that dialect, which in effect died out with him. Over sixty years later, the majority of the Gaeltacht and Irish-speaking areas in existence as he took that oath no longer exist. There is a concerted effort to promote the language among recent immigrants. In 2003, the Qur'an was translated into Irish, following a collaboration between the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin and Foras na Gaeilge.

Northern Ireland

:Main article: Irish language in Northern Ireland As in the Republic, the Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland, known in Irish as Tuaisceart na hÉireann/Tuaisceart Éireann or na sé chontae (the six counties). Attitudes towards the language in Northern Ireland have traditionally reflected the political differences between its two divided communities. The language has been regarded with suspicion by unionists, who have associated it with the Catholic-dominated Republic, and more recently, with the republican movement. Many republicans in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, learnt Irish while in prison, a development known as the jailtacht. Although the language was taught in Catholic secondary schools (especially by the Christian Brothers), it was not taught at all in state (Protestant) schools and public signs in Irish were effectively banned under laws by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which stated that only English could be used. These laws were not repealed by the British government until the early 1990s. However, Irish-medium schools, known as gaelscoileanna, had already been founded in Belfast and Derry, and an Irish-language newspaper called Lá ('day') was established in Belfast. BBC Radio Ulster began broadcasting a nightly half-hour programme in Irish in the early 1980s called Blas ('taste', 'accent'), and BBC Northern Ireland also showed its first TV programme in the language in the early 1990s. The Ultach Trust was also established, with a view to broadening the appeal of the language among Protestants, although hardline loyalists like Ian Paisley continued to ridicule it as a "leprechaun language". Ulster Scots, promoted by many loyalists, was, in turn, ridiculed by nationalists as "a DIY language for Orangemen" According to recent statistics, there is no significant difference between the number of Catholic and Protestant speakers of Ulster Scots in Ulster (see Ulster Scots language), although those involved in promoting Ulster-Scots are almost always unionist. Irish received official recognition in Northern Ireland for the first time in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. A cross-border body known as Foras na Gaeilge was established to promote the language in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, taking over the functions of the previous Republic-only Bord na Gaeilge. The British government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect to Irish in Northern Ireland. It has been claimed that Belfast now represents the fastest growing centre of Irish language usage on the island - and the Good Friday Agreement's provisions on 'parity of esteem' have been used to give the language an official status there. In March 2005, the Irish language TV service TG4 began broadcasting from the Divis transmitter near Belfast, as a result of agreement between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Northern Ireland Office, although so far this is the only transmitter to carry it.

The Irish Language Today

The number of native Irish-speakers in the Republic of Ireland today is a tiny fraction of what it was at independence. The Official Languages Act of 2003 gave people the right to interact with state bodies in Irish. It is too early to assess how well this is working in practice. Other factors were outward migration of Irish speakers from the Gaeltacht and inward migration of English-speakers. The Planning and Development Act (2000) attempted to address the latter issue, but the response is almost certainly inadequate. Planning controls now require new housing in Gaeltacht areas to be allocated to English-speakers and Irish-speakers in the same ratio as the existing population of the area. This will not prevent houses allocated to Irish-speakers subsequently being sold on to English-speakers. Outward migration of Irish-speakers could be reduced if the state, which is the main employer in the Republic of Ireland, were to exercise its right to have certain jobs performed in Irish and relocated to the Gaeltacht. On 3rd December 2003 the Minister for Finance announced a new Decentralisation programme, moving over 10,000 civil and public service jobs to 53 locations in 25 other counties outside Dublin. The government explicitly said this was being done to boost the economy of outlying areas. None of these jobs were used to provide employment for native Irish-speakers in the Gaeltacht. According to data compiled by the Irish Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, only one quarter of households in Gaeltacht areas possess a fluency in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe, described the Irish language policy followed by Irish governments a 'complete and absolute disaster.' The Irish Times (January 6, 2002), referring to his analysis, which was initially published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse, quoted him as follows: 'It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but the number now is between 20,000 and 30,000.' According to the language survey, levels of fluency among families is 'very low', from 1% in Galway suburbs to a maximum of 8% parts of west Donegal. With such sharp decline, particularly among the young, the real danger exists that Irish will largely become extinct within two generations, possibly even one. While the language will continue to exist among English speakers who have learned fluency and are bilingual (though mainly English-speaking in their everyday lives) Gaeltachtaí embody more than just a language, but the cultural context in which it is spoken, through song, stories, social traditions, folklore and dance. The death of the Gaeltachtaí would make a break forever between Ireland's cultural past and identity, and its future. All sides, irrespective of their view on the methodology used by independent Ireland in its efforts to preserve the language, agree that such a loss would be a cultural tragedy of a monumental scale. The [http://www.usenglish.org/foundation U.S. English Foundation] has published analyses of the United States Census 2000, and states that 25,870 US residents [http://www.usenglish.org/foundation/research/lia/languages/irish_gaelic.pdf speak the Irish language at home (pdf file)]. An interest in the Irish language is maintained throughout the English speaking world among the Irish diaspora and there are active Irish language groups in North American, British and Australian cities. Several computer software products have the option of an Irish-language interface. Prominent examples include Mozilla Firefox[http://gaeilge.mozdev.org/], Mozilla Thunderbird[http://gaeilge.mozdev.org/], OpenOffice.org[http://ga.openoffice.org/], and Microsoft Windows XP[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0db2e8f9-79c4-4625-a07a-0cc1b341be7c&displaylang=ga].

Notes

1Article in the Irish Independent. 2 J.P.Mallory Two Perspectives on the Problem of Irish Origins Emania 9(1991)53, at 58: "The lexical evidence of the Irish language suggests that it was introduced into Ireland most plausibly after c.1200 BC and any attempt to set the arrival of the Irish before this date becomes increasingly difficult to sustain ... I find it difficult to imagine it as anything other than a language introduced by a population movement rather than a lingua franca or pidgin carried along trade routes ..."

See also


- Differences between Scottish Gaelic and Irish
- Irish dialects
- Irish initial mutations
- Irish name
- Irish morphology
- Irish orthography
- Irish phonology
- Irish syntax
- Irish words used in the English language
- Modern literature in Irish
- Place names in Irish
- List of Irish given names
- Common phrases in different languages
- Non-native pronunciations of English
- List of Ireland-related topics
- Céad míle fáilte
- Newfoundland Irish

External links


- [http://wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page:Gaeilge Irish main page at Wikisource]
- [http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Die_araner_mundart Die araner mundart] (a phonological description of the dialect of the Aran Islands, from 1899)
- [http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/gaeilge.html Gaeilge ar an ghréasán Irish online recources]
- [http://www.bnag.ie Foras na Gaeilge]
- [http://www.foinse.ie Foinse - weekly newspaper]
- [http://www.daltai.com Irish Language Information and Resources]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=gle Irish] at Ethnologue
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Irish-english/ Irish - English Dictionary]
- [http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/search.html Gaelic Dictionaries]
- [http://nualeargais.ie/gnag/gram.htm Braesicke's Gramadach na Gaeilge (Engl. translation)]
- [http://www.kids.net.au/encyclopedia-wiki/ir/Irish_language Kids.net.au Article]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Irish-english/ Irish English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition

Northern Ireland


- [http://www.cinni.org/ultach/ Ultach Trust]
- [http://www.nuacht.com Lá]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/ BBC Northern Ireland Irish language] ja:アイルランド語 nb:Irsk gælisk språk

Republic of Ireland

:For an explanation of often confusing terms like Ulster, (Republic of) Ireland, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology) . The Republic of Ireland (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is the official description of the sovereign state which covers approximately five-sixths of the island of Ireland, off the coast of north-west Europe. The state's official name is Ireland (Irish: Éire), and this is how international organisations and citizens refer to the country. It is a member of the European Union, has a developed economy and a population of slightly more than four million. The remaining sixth of the island of Ireland is known as Northern Ireland and is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Name

Main article: Names of the Irish state The constitution provides that the name of the state is "Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland." However the state is commonly referred to as the "Republic of Ireland" in order to distinguish it from the island of Ireland as a whole. The name Republic of Ireland came into use after the Republic of Ireland Act defined it as the official "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), it is also the accepted legal name in the United Kingdom of the state as per the Ireland Act 1949. Today while Republic of Ireland is an accepted term for the state, Ireland is used for official purposes such as treaties, government and legal documents and membership of international organisations. The state is also referred to, in English, by many other names such as Éire and the Twenty-six Counties. The use of Éire, in the English language, in Ireland has become increasingly rare, not least due to past condescending connotations. Historically the state has had more than one official title. The revolutionary state established by nationalists in 1919 was known as the "Irish Republic", while when the state achieved de jure independence in 1922 it became known as the "Irish Free State" (in the Irish language Saorstát Éireann), a name that was retained until 1937.

History

Main article: History of the Republic of Ireland The partition of Ireland came about because of complex constitutional developments in the early twentieth century. From 1 January 1801 until 6 December 1922, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Famine in 1845-1847, in which 1.5 million Irish died, was followed by enormous emigration. From 1874, but particularly from 1880 under Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish Parliamentary Party moved to prominence with its attempts to achieve Home Rule, which would have given 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 unionist 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, 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 Sir Edward Carson and the northerner Sir James Craig they became more militant. In 1914, to avoid rebellion in Ulster, the British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, with agreement of the leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party 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 Great War. (The war at that stage was expected to be ended by 1915, not the four years it did ultimately last.) For the prior reasons Redmond and his Irish National Volunteers supported the Allied cause, and tens of thousands joined the British Army. In January 1919, after the December 1918 general elections, 73 of Ireland's 106 MPs elected were Sinn Fein 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. This Dáil in January 1919 issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence and proclaimed an Irish Republic. This Declaration of Independence was mainly a restatement of the 1916 Proclamation 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 Lenin's Russian Republic. Nevertheless the Republic's Áireacht (ministry) sent a delegation under Ceann Comhairle Sean T. O'Kelly to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. However it was not admitted. After the bitterly fought War of Independence, representatives of the British government and the Irish rebels negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 under which the British agreed to the establishment of an independent Irish State whereby the Irish Free State (in the Irish language Saorstát Éireann) with dominion status was created. The Dáil narrowly ratified the treaty. The Treaty however 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 concerns. The new Irish Free State was in theory to cover the entire island, subject to the proviso that Northern Ireland (which had been created as a separate entity under the Government of Ireland Act 1920) could opt out and choose to remain part of the United Kingdom, which it duly did, to no-one's surprise. The remaining 26 counties of the island became the Irish Free State, a constitutional monarchy over which the British monarch reigned (from 1927 with the title King of Ireland). It had a Governor-General, a bicameral parliament, a cabinet called the "Executive Council" and a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council. The Irish Civil War was the direct consequence of the creation the Irish Free State. Anti-Treaty forces, led by Eamon 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 British Commonwealth and that TDs would have to swear an oath of fidelity to King George V and his successors. Pro-Treaty forces, led by Michael Collins, 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 anti-treaty IRA. However, through the lack of an effective command structure in the anti-treaty IRA, and the pro-treaty IRA's defensive tactics throughout the war, Collins and his pro-treaty commanders were able to build up an army capable of overwhelming the anti-treaty forces on the battlefield. 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 4000 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 as a result. Collins On the 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 representing the state symbolically internationally remained vested in statute law in the King as an organ. On 1 April 1949 the Republic of Ireland Act declared a republic, with the functions previously given to the King given instead to the President of Ireland. The Irish state had remained a member of the then British Commonwealth after independence until the declaration of a republic in April 1949. Under Commonwealth rules declaration of a republic automatically terminated membership of the association, consequently Ireland 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 with the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland known as the "Troubles". A peace settlement for Northern Ireland, the Belfast Agreement, was approved in 1998 in referenda north and south of the border, and is currently being implemented, albeit more slowly than many would like.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the Republic of Ireland 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 Taoiseach (prime minister), is appointed by the president on the nomination of parliament. The Taoiseach 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 the period of 1987–1989. The bicameral parliament, the Oireachtas, consists of a Senate, Seanad Éireann, and a lower house, Dáil Éireann. The Seanad is composed of sixty members; eleven nominated by the Taoiseach, six elected by two universities, and 43 elected by public representatives from panels of candidates established on a vocational basis. The Dáil has 166 members, Teachtaí Dála, 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. Single Transferable Vote (Parliament of Ireland)]] The Government is constitutionally limited to fifteen members. No more than two members of the Government can be selected from the Senate, and the Taoiseach, Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and Minister for Finance must be members of the Dáil. The current government is made up of a coalition of two parties; Fianna Fáil under Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Progressive Democrats under Tánaiste Mary Harney. The main opposition in the current Dáil is made up of Fine Gael and Labour. Smaller parties such as the Progressive Democrats, Green Party, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party also have representation in the Dáil. Ireland has been in the European Union since 1973. Although it has less than 1% of the Union's population, it has received 16% of all "first warnings" issued on environmental issues.

Role of the Catholic church in national affairs

As mentioned in the Demographics section, church attendance has declined rapidly in Ireland in recent years. As with other European states (eg, Italy) that were predominently Roman Catholic, the Irish state has undergone a period of secularisation and legal de-Catholicisation. In 1972 the "special position" of the Catholic Church in Ireland was deleted from the Irish constitution. The Catholic Church was hit in the 1990s by a series of sexual scandals and cover-up charges against its hierarchy. In 1995, after a seventy-year ban, a constitutional amendment allowed divorce in the Republic. In 1983, the Irish constitution was amended to recognise "the right to life of the unborn", subject to qualifications concerning the "equal right to life" of the mother. In the 1990s the Supreme Court interpreted the qualifications in the amendment as allowing abortion in limited circumstances. However, the Oireachtas has not introduced a law enabling abortion to take place in those circumstances allowed by the court. A subsequent series of constitutional amendments allow Irish citizens access to information about abortion and to travel freely to get abortions outside Ireland. In 2005, a major inquiry was made into child sex abuse allegations. The Fern's report, which was published on 25 October, revealed that more than 100 cases of child sex abuse, between 1962 and 2002, by 21 priests, had taken place in the Diocese of Ferns alone. The report criticised the Garda and the health authorities, who failed to protect the children to the best of their ablities and in the case of the Garda before 1988, no file was ever recorded on sex abuse complaints.

Counties

Main article: Counties of Ireland The Republic of Ireland has 26 counties, and these are used in political, cultural and sporting contexts. Dáil 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-Leitrim), but by and large, the actual county boundaries are not crossed. As local government units, however, some have been restructured, with County Dublin distributed between 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 29 administrative counties and five cities. The five cities — Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford — 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:

- County Carlow
- County Cavan
- County Clare
- County Cork
  - City of Cork
- County Donegal
- County Dublin
  - City of Dublin
  - Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
  - Fingal
  - South Dublin
- County Galway
  - City of Galway
- County Kerry
- County Kildare
- County Kilkenny
  - City of Kilkenny (Borough)
- County Laois
- County Leitrim
- County Limerick
  - City of Limerick
- County Longford
- County Louth
  - Drogheda (Borough)
- County Mayo
- County Meath
- County Monaghan
- County Offaly
- County Roscommon
- County Sligo
  - Sligo (Borough)
- County Tipperary
  - North Tipperary
  - South Tipperary
    - Clonmel (Borough)
- County Waterford
  - City of Waterford
- County Westmeath
- County Wexford
  - Wexford (Borough)
- County Wicklow

Geography

County Wicklow Main article: Geography of Ireland The island of Ireland extends over 84,421 km² of which five-sixths belong to the Republic, with the remainder constituting Northern Ireland. It is bound to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the northeast by the North Channel. To the east is found the Irish Sea which reconnects to the ocean via the southwest with St. George's Channel and the Celtic Sea. The west-coast of Ireland mostly consists of cliffs, hills and low mountains (the highest point being Carrauntoohil at 1,041 m). In from the perimeter of the country is mostly relatively flat farmland, traversed by rivers such as the River Shannon and several large lakes or loughs. The center of the country is part of the River Shannon watershed, containing large areas of bogland, used for peat production. The local temperate climate is modified by the North Atlantic Current and is relatively mild. Summers are rarely very hot, but it freezes only occasionally in winter. Precipitation is very common, with up to 275 days with rain in some parts of the country. Chief cities are the capital Dublin on the east coast, Cork in the south, Galway and Limerick on the west coast, and Waterford on the south east coast (see Cities in Ireland).

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Republic of Ireland The economy of the Republic of Ireland has transformed in recent years from an agricultural focus to one dependent on trade, industry and investment. While still small compared to its European neighbours, its growth is averaging a robust 10% in 1995–2000, and 7% in 1995-2004. Industry, which accounts for 46% of GDP, about 80% of exports, and 29% of the labor force, now takes the place of agriculture as the country's leading sector. Exports play a fundamental role in the state's rampant 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. One key reason for the country's economic surge might be her government's role in the past ten years. A number of programs to address the problems of high inflation (with poor results in recent years), large tax burdens, government spending, lack-luster foreign investment and low job skills have been introduced. A key part of economic policy, since 1987, has been Social Partnership which is a neo-corporatist 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 ten 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 it is expected to be 5% or higher for 2005. 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 [http://www.finfacts.com/Private/bestprice/irishconsumerprices.pdf], especially in the booming property market. Ireland has the fourth-highest GDP (based on PPP) per capita in the world after Luxembourg, Norway, and the United States [http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/publications/other/bes_04.pdf], but lies 8th in the 2005 UN Human Development Index, which counts GDP per capita as a factor. This indicates that life expectancy (77.36 in 2004) and literacy (98% in 1981), which both place Ireland at about 40th in the world, currently trail behind economic growth. Poverty figures show that 10% of Ireland's population live below the poverty line (1997 [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ie.html]). UNICEF figures show Ireland has the 6th highest child poverty rate in the developed world at 16.8% ([http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_chi_pov]).

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of the Republic of Ireland The Irish people are mainly of indigenous origin, with the country's only significant minorities having descended from the Vikings and Anglo-Normans. Some of them are also of English, Scottish, and Welsh descent. Demographics of the Republic of Ireland The official languages are Irish (Gaeilge), the native language, and English. Although learning Irish is not compulsory in education, most schools teach it to all of their pupils who are not exempt from needing it to qualify for National University of Ireland universities. English is by far the predominant language spoken throughout the country. People living in predominantly Irish-speaking communities (the Gaeltacht) are limited to the low tens of thousands in isolated pockets largely on the western seaboard. Roads signs are usually bilingual, except in the Gaeltachts, where they are in Irish only. The legal status of placenames 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 to Irish (e.g. Dingle is now officially named An Daingean). Most public notices are only in English, as is most of the print media. National media in Irish exists on TV and radio. The Republic of Ireland is 92% nominally Roman Catholic, but there has been a massive decline in full adherence among Irish Catholics. Between 1996 and 2001, regular Mass attendance, already previously in decline, declined from 60% to 48% (it had been 90%+ in 1973), and all but two of its seminaries have closed. The second largest Christian denomination, the Church of Ireland (Anglicanism), having been in decline for most of the twentieth century, has now experienced an increase in membership, according to the 2002 census, as have other small Christian denominations, and Islam. The largest other Protestant denominations are the Presbyterian Church in Ireland , followed by the Methodist Church in Ireland. The very small Jewish community in the state has continued to decline in numbers. Ireland is also home to a variety of small immigrant populations. According to the 2002 census, conducted by the Central Statistics Office, the largest EU groups are from: the UK, Germany and France; the largest non-EU groups are from: the USA, Nigeria and Romania.

Culture

Jewish Main article: Culture of Ireland The island of Ireland has produced the Book of Kells, Irish traditional music, and writers such as George Berkeley, Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, John Millington Synge, Seán O'Casey, Séamus Heaney, Bram Stoker and others. Shaw, Yeats, Beckett and Heaney are Nobel Literature laureates. Other prominent writers include Roddy Doyle, Dermot Bolger, Frank McCourt, Edna O'Brien, Joseph O'Connor, John McGahern and Colm Tóibín. Ernest Walton of Trinity College Dublin shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for "splitting the atom". William Rowan Hamilton was a significant mathematician. William Rowan Hamilton Figures influential in music included Blues guitarist Rory Gallagher, folk singer Christy Moore, Shane MacGowan with his band The Pogues and singer Sinéad O'Connor. Successful entertainment exports in the late twentieth century include the rock group U2, Thin Lizzy, Bob Geldof, The Corrs, The Cranberries and the internationally acclaimed stage dance show Riverdance.

References


- Bunreacht na hÉireann (the 1937 constitution) ([http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/upload/static/256.pdf PDF version])
- The Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922
- J. Anthony Foley and Stephen Lalor (ed), Gill & Macmillan Annotated Constitution of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan, 1995) (ISBN 071712276X)
- FSL Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine
- Alan J. Ward, The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland 1782–1992 (Irish Academic Press, 1994) (ISBN 0716525283)
- Some of the material in these articles comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.
- OECD Information Technology Outlook 2004

External links


- [http://www.gov.ie/aras Áras an Uachtaráin] - Official presidential site
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1038581.stm BBC country profile]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations] Irish History
- [http://www.browseireland.com/ Browse Ireland] - Directory of Irish Websites
- [http://www.irlgov.ie/ Information on the Irish State] - Governmental portal
- [http://www.irelandstory.com/ Ireland Story] - History, geography and current affairs
- [http://www.walkingtree.com/ Mercator Atlas of Europe] Map of Ireland ("Irlandia") circa 1564
- [http://taoiseach.gov.ie/ Taoiseach] - Official prime ministerial site
- [http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/britishisles/ The British Isles] Independent view of Ireland and the UK
- [http://www.gov.ie/oireachtas/frame.htm Tithe an Oireachtais] - Houses of Parliament, official parliamentary site Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Republic of ja:アイルランド ko:아일랜드 ms:Ireland simple:Republic of Ireland th:สาธารณรัฐไอร์แลนด์ fiu-vro:Iirimaa zh-min-nan:Éire

1999

1999 (MCMXCIX) is a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations.

Events


- Kosovo War
- Y2K preparation was a major event in 1999 both in actual events and in media over-reporting.
- The human population of the world surpassed six billion. The United Nations Population Fund designated October 12 as the approximate date for this event.

January


- January 1 - Euro currency introduced.
- January 1 - An avalanche destroys a school gymnasium during New Year celebrations in Kangiqsualujjuaq in far northern Quebec, killing nine.
- January 2 - A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern USA, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 19 inches (487 mm) at Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago, temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C), and 68 deaths are reported.
- January 4 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque killing 16 people and injuring 25.
- January 12 - The remains of Christina Marie Williams were found three miles (5 km) from her home on the old Fort Ord military base.
- January 20 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafes.
- January 21 - War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4.3 t) of cocaine aboard. The ship was headed for Houston, Texas.
- January 25 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000

February


- February 4 - Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.
- February 5 - Mike Tyson is sentenced to a year's imprisonment, fined $5,000, and ordered to serve 2 years probation and perform 200 hours of community service for the August 31, 1998 assault on two people after a car accident.
- February 7 - King of Jordan, Hussein of Jordan, dies from cancer. His son Abdullah II then inherits the throne, and becomes King of Jordan.
- February 10 - Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least ten.
- February 11 - Pluto, a planet with an irregular orbit, changes from the eighth to ninth planet furthest from the Sun. It had been the eighth furthest since 1979, and will become again in 2231.
- February 12 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial
- February 12 - John Myatt and John Drewe are sentenced for art forgery for one and six years, respectively.
- February 16 - In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov.
- February 16 - Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
- February 16 - In Jasper, Texas, testimony begins in the trial of John William King who is accused of dragging African American James Byrd Jr. to death in an apparent hate crime. King was later convicted and sentenced to the death penalty.
- February 22 - Moderate Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr is assassinated.
- February 23 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
- February 23 - White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African America