Ireland: timeline and key events
5th century
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Religion
Mission of Saint Patrick
According to tradition, Saint Patrick, a Romano-Briton kidnapped in his youth and enslaved in Ireland, returned to the island as a bishop to convert it. He became the country's patron saint, celebrated on 17 March.
9th century
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Politics
Vikings found Dublin
After half a century of raids on Irish monasteries, the Vikings set up a fortified camp on the banks of the Liffey. It grew into Dublin, the island's main trading centre.
11th century
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War
Battle of Clontarf
High King Brian Boru defeated a coalition of the King of Leinster and the Dublin Vikings, but was killed on the evening of his victory. The battle is traditionally seen as the end of Viking power in Ireland.
12th century
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Politics
Anglo-Norman invasion
Called in by Diarmait Mac Murchada, the deposed King of Leinster, Anglo-Norman knights landed in the south-east of the island. King Henry II of England arrived in 1171 and imposed his overlordship: it was the start of more than seven centuries of English rule.
17th century
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Politics
Flight of the Earls and the Plantation of Ulster
Defeated at the end of the Nine Years' War, the Gaelic earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell went into exile on the Continent. Their lands were confiscated and, from 1609, the Crown settled English and Scottish Protestant colonists there: the “Plantation of Ulster”.
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War
Cromwell's campaign
Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland to crush the Catholic and Royalist forces; the massacres at Drogheda and Wexford left a lasting mark on Irish memory. The confiscations that followed transferred much of the land to Protestant owners.
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War
Battle of the Boyne
The Protestant King William III of Orange defeated his father-in-law, the Catholic James II, near Drogheda. The victory secured Protestant ascendancy, reinforced by the Penal Laws against Catholics; it is still celebrated by the Orange Order in Northern Ireland.
18th century
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War
United Irishmen rebellion
Inspired by the American and French revolutions, Wolfe Tone's Society of United Irishmen rose up to found a republic. Despite a French landing in the west, the rebellion was bloodily crushed.
19th century
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Politics
Act of Union
The Dublin Parliament was abolished and Ireland was incorporated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, governed from London. For the south of the island, the union lasted until 1922.
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Religion
Catholic Emancipation
Under pressure from the mass campaign led by Daniel O'Connell, the British Parliament allowed Catholics to sit at Westminster and to hold most public offices.
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Society
Great Famine
Potato blight repeatedly destroyed the potato crop, the staple food of poor peasants. By 1852, about a million people had died and as many had emigrated; the island lost nearly a quarter of its population.
20th century
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Politics
Easter Rising
In Dublin, republicans led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly proclaimed the Irish Republic outside the General Post Office. The rising was crushed within six days, but the execution of its leaders turned public opinion in favour of independence.
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War
War of Independence
On the day the first Dáil Éireann, formed by Sinn Féin MPs, declared independence, an IRA ambush began the War of Independence against British forces. The conflict lasted until the truce of July 1921.
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Politics
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The treaty created the Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, which came into being in December 1922. Six north-eastern counties with a Protestant majority remained in the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.
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War
Irish Civil War
Supporters and opponents of the treaty, who rejected in particular the oath to the King and partition, fought each other until May 1923. Michael Collins, head of the provisional government, was killed in an ambush in August 1922.
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Politics
New Constitution
Voters approved in a referendum the Constitution championed by Éamon de Valera, which made Ireland (Éire) a sovereign, independent and democratic state with an elected president. The Crown retained a role only in external relations.
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Politics
Republic of Ireland declared
The Republic of Ireland Act came into force, formally making the country a republic and taking it out of the Commonwealth. The question of Northern Ireland remained unresolved.
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Economy
Joining the EEC
Ireland joined the European Economic Community at the same time as the United Kingdom and Denmark. European funds and then foreign investment transformed the country's economy, which boomed in the 1990s as the “Celtic Tiger”.
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Politics
Good Friday Agreement
Signed in Belfast, the agreement ended thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland that had claimed more than 3,500 lives. Approved by referendums on both sides of the border, it led the Republic to drop its constitutional claim to the North.
21st century
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Society
Same-sex marriage approved by referendum
With 62% of the vote, the Irish approved marriage for same-sex couples, making Ireland the first country to adopt it by popular vote. In 2018 another referendum opened the way to legal abortion, a sign of the rapid secularisation of a long devoutly Catholic society.
