Ireland Country Details

Ireland Country Details

Five Quick Points About Ireland

  • Fascinating blend of very old and very modern cultures and art forms
  • One of world’s best-educated and most literate populations
  • Cutting-edge research and technology facilities in many schools
  • Welcoming environment currently for foreign students given government emphasis on increasing international student numbers
  • Stunning environmental as well as cultural attractions

Location and Geography



Geography

Ireland is situated in the Atlantic Ocean and separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea. Half the size of Arkansas, it occupies the entire island except for the six counties that make up Northern Ireland. Ireland resembles a basin—a central plain rimmed with mountains, except in the Dublin region. The mountains are low, with the highest peak, Carrantuohill in County Kerry, rising to 3,415 ft (1,041 m). The principal river is the Shannon, which begins in the north-central area, flows south and southwest for about 240 mi (386 km), and empties into the Atlantic.

Government

Republic.

History

In the Stone and Bronze Ages, Ireland was inhabited by Picts in the north and a people called the Erainn in the south, the same stock, apparently, as in all the isles before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. Around the 4th century B.C. , tall, red-haired Celts arrived from Gaul or Galicia. They subdued and assimilated the inhabitants and established a Gaelic civilization. By the beginning of the Christian Era, Ireland was divided into five kingdoms—Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, Meath, and Munster. Saint Patrick introduced Christianity in 432, and the country developed into a center of Gaelic and Latin learning. Irish monasteries, the equivalent of universities, attracted intellectuals as well as the pious and sent out missionaries to many parts of Europe and, some believe, to North America.

Norse incursions along the coasts, starting in 795, ended in 1014 with Norse defeat at the Battle of Clontarf by forces under Brian Boru. In the 12th century, the pope gave all of Ireland to the English Crown as a papal fief. In 1171, Henry II of England was acknowledged “Lord of Ireland,” but local sectional rule continued for centuries, and English control over the whole island was not reasonably secure until the 17th century. In the Battle of the Boyne (1690), the Catholic King James II and his French supporters were defeated by the Protestant King William III (of Orange). An era of Protestant political and economic supremacy began.

By the Act of Union (1801), Great Britain and Ireland became the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.” A steady decline in the Irish economy followed in the next decades. The population had reached 8.25 million when the great potato famine of 1846–1848 took many lives and drove more than 2 million people to immigrate to North America.


Global Financial Crisis Hits Ireland

Ireland slipped into recession in the global financial crisis of 2008. Unemployment hit 11% in February 2009, the highest rate in 13 years. The financial situation continued to deteriorate in 2009, and the government responded by implementing unpopular spending cuts and tax increases. By the end of 2009, Ireland's economy contracted by 10%. The economic malaise was largely due to a housing bubble that burst, which in turn saddled banks with bad loans, causing the financial sector to nearly collapse under the weight of the bad debt. Indeed, the Celtic Tiger suffered endured a stunning reversal of fortune.

In November 2010, Ireland sought and received a $113 billion (85 billion euro) bailout package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to shore up its banks. The rescue took its toll on Prime Minister Cowen, who rejected demands to call for new elections, opting instead to set them for 2011 after a new budget is passed.

On January 22, 2011, Prime Minister Cowen resigned as leader of his party, Fianna Fáil. The next day, the Green Party withdrew from the government coalition, leaving Cowen as the head of a minority government. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan met with delegations from the Fine Gael, Labour, and the Green parties to accelerate passage of a new budget, allowing for general elections earlier than planned. Cowen announced that he was retiring from politics. The general elections were held on February 25 and voters threw out the Fianna Fáil-led government. On March 9, Enda Kenny, of the Fine Gael party, was sworn in as the new prime minister. Kenny promised to secure a better deal from the European Union on Ireland's bail-out.



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