Ireland–ABriefintroduction.pptVIP

Ireland – A Brief Introduction Ireland in Western Europe The Landscape of Ireland The Landscape of Ireland The Landscape of Ireland The Landscape of Ireland Dublin Dublin Ireland – A general Introduction Ireland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets（小岛）. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain. The sovereign state of Ireland (official name Ireland, description Republic of Ireland) covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) covering the remaining one-sixth of the island, located in the northeast. Ireland – A general Introduction The first settlements in Ireland date from around 8000?BC. By 200?BC Celtic migration and influence had come to dominate Ireland. Relatively small scale settlements of both the Vikings and Normans in the Middle Ages gave way to complete English domination by the 1600s. Protestant English rule resulted in the marginalisation of the Catholic majority, although in the north-east, Protestants were in the majority due to the Plantation of Ulster. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. A famine in the mid-1800s caused large-scale death and emigration. The Irish War of Independence ended in 1921 with the British Government proposing a truce（停战） and during which the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, creating the Irish Free State. Ireland – A general Introduction The population of Ireland is slightly under six million (2006), with nearly 4.25 million residing in the Republic of Ireland and an estimated 1.75 million in Northern Ireland. This is a significant increase from a modern historic low in the 1960s, but still much lower than the peak population of over 8 million in the early 19th century, prior to the Great Famine. Ireland – A general Introduction This was a Dominion（统治） withi