Ireland
Indroduction
The Constitution provides (Article 4) that the name of
the State is Éire, or in the English language, Ireland.
Ireland is an island on the western fringe of Europe between
latitude 51 1/2 and 55 1/2 degrees north, and longitude 5 1/2 to 10 1/2 degrees
west. Its greatest length, from Malin Head in the north to Mizen Head in the
south, is 486 km and its greatest width from east to west is approximately 275
km. Since 1921 the island has been divided politically into two parts. The
independent twenty-six county area, comprising 70,282 sq. km, has a population
of 3,523,401 (1991). Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and
contains six of the nine counties of the ancient province of Ulster, has a
population of 1,569,971 (1991). In 1973 Ireland became a member of the European
Union (EU).
Climate
Ireland's mild and equable climate is a reflection of the fact
that its shores are bathed by the relatively warm ocean waters of the North
Atlantic Drift. Valencia, in the extreme south-west, has an average January
temperature of 7¡C and a July temperature of 1 5¡C, a range of only eight
degrees. The figures for Dublin are 4.5¡C in January and 1 5.5¡C in July, a
range of eleven degrees. Extremely high or low temperatures are virtually
unknown.
Rainfall is heaviest on the westward facing slopes of the hills where it may
exceed 3,000 mm in Kerry, Mayo and Donegal. The east is much drier and Dublin
records on average only 785 mm annually.
The outstanding feature of the Irish weather is its changeability, a
characteristic which it shares with all the countries that lie in the path of
the temperate depressions. However more stable atmospheric conditions may arise
in winter with the extension of the continental high pressure system bringing
clear skies and cool conditions, especially to the eastern part of the country.
In summer an extension of the Azores high pressure system may bring periods of
light easterly winds and bright sunny weather.
People
Ireland has been inhabited since Stone-Age times and for more
than five thousand years has been the recipient of peoples moving westwards
across the European continent. Each new group of immigrants has contributed
something to its population and culture and no group ever entirely obliterated
the character of the earlier ones. It is these diverse elements that have come
together to form the distinctive Irish nation of today.
The population of all Ireland was 8.2 million in 1841 and four-fifths of those
lived in rural areas. After the famine of 1846, when many people died and many
more emigrated, the population began to decrease, so that by 1930 it was only
half what it had been in 1846. One result of this large-scale emigration, which
continued throughout the latter part of the nineteenth and the first half of the
twentieth century, was that many people of Irish descent have made their homes
in other countries. Irish men and women have made a significant contribution to
life in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South
Africa.
From the 1960s population numbers gradually stabilised and between 1971 and 1986
there was a modest annual increase averaging just over one per cent. From 1986,
however, the population declined for a few years as a result of renewed high
emigration. The total number of people living in the state in 1991 was
3,523,401, a decrease of 17,242 on the 1986 figure. The overall density of
population is 50 per square kilometre. There is a strong and continuing movement
from rural areas to towns so that 52 per cent of the population now live in
urban areas of 1,500 inhabitants or more. The rural population, which is mainly
in dispersed, isolated farmsteads, is fairly evenly distributed throughout the
country except in the mountainous areas and the peat bogs. Densities as high as
180 per square kilometre occur along the western seaboard, where the farms are
small. Low rural densities are associated with the larger farms on the richer
land in the east. The influence of Dublin and other urban areas is clearly seen
in the above-average densities in their contiguous rural areas.
In Ireland (Republic) Roman Catholics comprise 95 per cent of the
community. Other denominations include Church of Ireland (Anglican),
Presbyterian, Methodist and a number of smaller Protestant groups. They are
strongest in the counties bordering Northern Ireland, especially in Donegal (12
per cent), and in the Eastern Region which includes Dublin, Kildare, Meath and
Wicklow (7 per cent). In Northern Ireland 65 per cent of the population is
Protestant, mainly Church of Ireland and Presbyterian. They dominate in the
three eastern counties of Ulster and comprise 40-50 per cent of the population
in the west. There is also a small Jewish community centred in Dublin, Belfast
and Cork.
For the great majority of the people in Ireland, English is the language in
everyday use, but a quarter of the population claims to be competent in Irish as
well. Irish remains the first language in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking areas),
located along the remoter areas of the western seaboard, and in some very small
pockets of Irish speakers in West Cork, Waterford and Meath.