РефератыИностранный языкIrIreland Essay Research Paper Ireland is an

Ireland Essay Research Paper Ireland is an

Ireland Essay, Research Paper


Ireland is an island country lying to the west of Great Britian. It


is separated from Great Britain by St. George’s Channel, the Irish Sea


and the Northern Channel. At its greatest length, from northeast to


southwest , it measures three hundred and two miles. The first human


settlements on the island on the northeastern edge of Europe were made


relatively late in European prehistory, about six thousand B.C. It


remained relatively uninhabited and uninvaded. The only knowledge of


this Ireland is through references in Greek and Roman literature and


pagan legends that survived into the Christian period. Sometime between


six hundred and one hundred fifty B.C. Celtic peoples from western


Europe, Known as Gaels, invaded and subdued the inhabitants.


The basic units of the Gaelic society were the tuatha, which were


petty kingdoms. They remained independent of each other but shared the


same common language, Gaelic. There were also a class of men called


brehons, “who were learned in customary laws and helped to


preserve throughout Ireland a uniform yet archaic social system.”


(Grolier) One reason for the unique nature of their society was that the


Romans, who had transformed the Celtic societies of Britain and other


societies with their armies, roads, administrative system and town


structures, never tried to conquer Ireland.


A result of Ireland’s isolation from Romanized


Europe was the development of a distinctive Celtic type of Christianity.


While Saint Patrick introduced Latin Christianity into the country in


the fifth century, the system of bishops with territorial dioceses which was


modeled on the Roman’s administrative system, it could not find security


in Ireland at the time.(Grolier) Though the independent tuath remained


the basic unit of Gaelic secular society, the sovereign monastery became


the basic unit of Celtic Christianity. During the sixth and seventh


centuries Irish monasteries were great centers of learning. Such


missionaries as Saint Columba and Saint Columban were sent out to the


rest of Europe. While the rest of Europe was in the Dark Ages, this


was Ireland’s golden age.(Grolier)


In the late Eighth century, Vikings from Scandinavia began to


raid Ireland. The other parts of Europe about this time were


responding to the pressures of the invasions by developing the system of


feudalism. However, the Gaelic society did not lend itself to such


developments because it lacked the heritage of Roman law that provided


the framework for the feudal system.(Grolier) The complex and detailed


kinship arrangements in which both property-holding and succession to


leadership roles were regulated by brehon laws. This impaired the


exchange of land for military service, a basic bargain underlying feudal


systems.


Eventually, the Gaelic society managed to organize resistance. In


1014, Irish forces led by King Brian Boru decisively defeated the


Vikings at the Battle of Contarf. King Brian was giving the title ” high


king of Ireland “. (Grolier) During Brian’ s tenure (1002-14) his power


throughout much of the island was insignificant. Without the


infrastructure of feudalism he was unable to make the transition from


symbolic kingship to effective monarch, which was beginning in other parts


of Europe.(Grolier) Though the Vikings were gone, they left their mark


upon the island by founding Ireland’s first cities, including


Dublin, Limerick and Waterford.


The unity experienced under Brian had long

disappeared by the


time Ireland faced her next challenge. It came from, the highly effective


feudal monarchy founded by William the Conqueror after his invasion of


that country in 1066 from Normandy (Grolier), England. In 1171,


Henry II , a descendant of William, took advantage of a letter from


Pope Adrian IV. It authorized Henry to make himself overlord of


Ireland in order to bring the Irish Church more “in line with Roman


standards.”(Grolier) Many Anglo-Norman barons along with their


retainers had already seized large parts of Ireland when Henry himself


went to the island accompanied by an army to receive formal submission


of those barons and most Irish Kings.


In those areas where the Anglo-Norman barons settled and


scattered the native Gaelic aristocracy, a feudal system was established


similar to their native English and Norman lands. However, it was not


an effective centralized monarchy like the Norman feudalism favored


in England. (Grolier) The English government was usually distracted


and did issue much authority to the colony. Ireland was mainly divided


into three concentric regions in this time : 1. Dublin and its immediate


area, it was the only area where the English exercised any authority ;


2. a broad area of territories beyond Dublin which where semi-


independent fiefs of the great Anglo-Norman lords ; 3. territories on the


western coast of Ireland that retained Gaelic customs and remained


completely outside of the English rule. (Grolier)


The English colony in Ireland reached its peak in the early


fourteenth century. The Gaelic society was enjoying a considerable


resurgence. Not only by winning back territories from the colonists but


through the change of the Anglo-Normans into an ” Anglo-Irish ”


aristocracy. As Anglo-Normans intermarried with the natives and


adopted the Gaelic language and customs, they progressively became to be


” more Irish than the Irish “. (Grolier – O’Brien,34)


The Anglo-Norman conquest hurried reforms that brought the


Irish church more in line with Roman standards. English legal practices


and civil administration were introduced. Additionally, an Irish


parliament, modeled on the English one, was created in the late


thirteenth century. (Grolier)


By the end of the Middle Ages it became clear that the Anglo-


Norman conquest was a failure. In the sixteenth century the English


monarchs, Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I, made concerted


efforts to reconquer Ireland by use of military and by the establishment or


plantation of colonies of English settlers upon the island.(O’Brien,36)


However, Henry’s ties between the Church of England and the papacy


complicated the attempts of reconquest. In Ireland, unlike England,


there was practically no inherent sympathy with the Protestant


reformers among either the Gaelic-Irish or the Anglo-Irish.


Consequently, the trans-formation of the Church of Ireland into a


Protestant church was rejected overwhelming by the majority of the


population. (Grolier)


1. De Vere White, Terence. Ireland .


New York : Walker and Company. 1968.


2. ” Ireland “. Collier’s Encyclopedia .


volume 11, pages 131-144 1959 ed.


3. ” Ireland “. Encyclopedia Britannica .


volume 12, pages 592-620 1951 ed.


4. ” Ireland, history of. medieval Ireland”. Grolier Multimedia


Encyclopedia . Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. 1995 ed.


5. O’Brien, Elinor. The land and people of Ireland .


Philadelphia & New York : JB Lippincott Co. 1953

Сохранить в соц. сетях:
Обсуждение:
comments powered by Disqus

Название реферата: Ireland Essay Research Paper Ireland is an

Слов:1191
Символов:8428
Размер:16.46 Кб.