Between the 14th and 15th centuries there was a setback in English rule. A new treaty reaffirmed the crown's power by creating three new Anglo-Irish counties, those of Desmond, Kildare and Ormonde. The 16th century saw a remarkable revival of Irish language, legislation and culture. In that same century, the Earls of Kildare gained political control of the entire country.
The execution of Thomas de Kildare, who opposed Henry VIII of England's break with the Catholic Church in 1537, sparked an uprising in Ireland.
Kildare's son Thomas Fitzgerald was also killed, which brought about the end of the county. Henry VIII was recognized as King of Ireland and ordered the confiscation of rebel lands.
Between 1547 and 1553, under the reign of Edward VI, a policy of religious reconciliation was established in Ireland, but Protestantism was accepted only by English officials. Maria Tudor, who reigned from 1553 to 1558, restored Catholicism as the official religion.
Three great rebellions followed in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, as a result of the Statutes of Supremacy and Uniformity, approved in 1559 by the English government. Such provisions limited the practice of Catholicism on the island and sought to reinstate the supremacy of the Anglican Church.
In the seventeenth century, under James I of England, the lands of the county of Ulster confiscated from the rebels were distributed among the English and Scottish subjects of the Protestant religion, through a system of colonization that severely discriminated against Irish. This situation led to a general uprising in 1641, which was only dominated 11 years later by the forces of Oliver Cromwell.
A year later, Ireland joined Cromwell's republican regime, along with Scotland and England. Later, the Irish supported the Stuart restoration. Charles II, who from 1660 to 1685 was sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland, favored religious tolerance, but uncompromising Protestants took a stand against such a policy.
After the defeat of James II and the Irish forces against William III, in 1690, the country went through a period of misery and persecution, and the situation only relaxed in the 18th century. Attempts to achieve autonomy provoked the revolution of 1798, led by a secret society called the United Irishmen. To face the separatism of the island, the English government unified the structure of the state and founded, in 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Independence
During the 19th century, discontent spread to all sectors of Irish society. Daniel O'Connell organized a popular nationalist movement and in 1829 secured Irish Catholics the right of access to most public office. In the period between 1846 and 1848, famine and a typhus epidemic ravaged the country. The numerous emigrants who settled in Great Britain and the United States spread an important nationalist independence movement, the Sinn Féin.
After prolonged efforts to achieve the country's autonomy, on December 6, 1921, a treaty was signed whereby Ireland became a free state, but under the domain of the English sovereign. Furthermore, part of Ulster (Northern Ireland) remained annexed to the United Kingdom.
Eamon de Valera, leader of the republican nationalists, tried to achieve full independence. Victorious in the 1933 elections, he promulgated the 1937 constitution, by which Ireland was renamed Eire and disassociated itself from the British monarchy. During World War II, the Irish government maintained a policy of neutrality, despite from the German airstrikes on Dublin and from the pressures of President Franklin Roosevelt United.
With De Valera's defeat in the 1948 elections, the Republicans were replaced in power by a coalition government headed by nationalist John A. Costello. In 1949, the United Kingdom recognized the independence of Ireland, but declared that the six counties of Ireland do North, with a Protestant majority, could not be ceded to the republic without the consent of the Irish of the north. De Valera was again prime minister from 1951 to 1954, and from 1959 to 1973 he held the presidency of the republic.
In 1985, the Irish and British governments signed an agreement whereby Ireland recognized Northern Ireland's union with Great Britain. In return, the Irish government took on an advisory role in the administration of Northern Ireland. However, this measure was not enough to stop the attempts of Catholics in Northern Ireland to separate from the United Kingdom.
political institutions
Ireland is a parliamentary constitutional democracy, whose constitution, promulgated in 1937, can be amended by referendum. The president of the republic is the head of state, elected by direct popular vote, with a seven-year term and the possibility of a single reelection. He performs his duties with the help of the Council of State. The head of government is the prime minister (taoiseach).
The Parliament (Oireachtas), bicameral, is formed by the House of Representatives (Dáil) and the Senate. The Dáil has 166 members elected by universal suffrage every five years; the Senate is made up of sixty representatives, chosen as follows: 11 appointed by the prime minister, six elected by Irish universities and 43 elected to represent the various economic, professional and cultural.
The judicial system is made up of district courts in each county, and the Supreme Court, which is the court of last resort.
Judges are appointed by the president of the republic and, except in cases of incapacity or crime, hold office until retirement or death. There are no local police bodies. The Civil Guard, created in 1922, is the national public force, whose commander reports directly to the Minister of Justice. Part of the Civil Guard is employed in investigations and captures, works undercover and when necessary, armed. The rest work in uniform and unarmed. Military service is voluntary. Three-armed officers have participated in several United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in the Middle East, Zaire and Cyprus.
The three most important political forces in the country are the Republican Fianna Fáil; Fine Gael, nationalist, and the Labor Party. The administrative division establishes four provinces (Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster), subdivided into 27 counties, governed by county councils, elected periodically by suffrage universal.
Society
The administration of health services is the responsibility of local offices, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. Except for children or disadvantaged social groups, the cost of benefits is paid.
Primary education is free, compulsory and mostly religious (Catholic). Almost all secondary education is private. The most important universities are Dublin (Trinity College) and National of Ireland. Unionism, with a long tradition in the country, plays an important role in society. Collective negotiations between workers and companies are mediated by the Labor Court.
Catholicism is professed by almost the entire population, with other religious groups clearly in the minority, such as Presbyterians, Methodists and Jews. There is no official religion, and freedom of religion and conscience is guaranteed by the constitution.
Culture
One of Ireland's most notable features is that a country of such small territorial dimensions has produced such a large number of great writers, like Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett, the last three Nobel Prize winners in literature.
Both literature and theater developed under the influence of two languages, English and Irish. Since Ireland was part of England for nearly 800 years, English-speaking Irish writers are often considered English writers.
This is the case with Swift, George Augustus Moore, Joyce, Beckett, poet Yeats and playwrights Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Sheridan, John Millington Synge, Wilde and Shaw.
There are numerous institutions dedicated to promoting Irish popular culture. Some are sporting in nature, such as the Associação Atlética Gaélica; others are preferably geared towards intensive use of the local language, as is the case of the Gaélica League. There is also the Royal Irish Academy, dedicated to science; the Royal Hibernian Academy, which supports the fine arts; the Royal Dublin Society, which promotes the arts and sciences and the betterment of agriculture, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
