Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland (Irish: Éire) is a country in Europe. The Republic covers five-sixths of the island of Ireland. It was formed as the Irish Free State, a British Dominion, under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922 after winning independence from United Kingdom in the Irish War of Independence. The new government also won the Irish Civil War against the Irish Republican Army opposed to the settlement with the UK, and later declared itself as a republic with no constitutional links to the UK by 1949. It is bordered by Northern Ireland, which remained under British rule, to the northwest. Its capital and largest city is Dublin. The population of the Republic is just under 4.6 million. It is currently governed by a coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party. Its current head of state is President Michael D. Higgins, and its current head of government is Taoiseach Simon Harris. It is a member of the European Union.

We are a small nation. Our military strength in proportion to the mighty armaments of modern nations can never be considerable. Our strength as a nation will depend upon our economic freedom, and upon our moral and intellectual force. In these we can become a shining light in the world. ~ Michael Collins

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Quotes

A nation of contradictions... Ireland is an island nation that has never developed a navy; a music-loving people who have produced only those harmless lilting ditties as their musical legacy; a bellicose people who have never known the sweet savor of victory in a single war. ~ Pat Conroy

C

• Ireland would not turn into a Marxist country, for all their wishes. The list of such nations was very thin now, though across the world academics still clung to the words and ideas of Marx and Engles and even Lenin. Fools.
  • Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six (1998), p. 515

• It is a nation of contradictions, sir. Consider this: Ireland is an island nation that has never developed a navy; a music-loving people who have produced only those harmless lilting ditties as their musical legacy; a bellicose people who have never known the sweet savor of victory in a single war; a Catholic country that has never produced a single doctor of the Church; a magnificently beautiful country, a country to inspire artists, but a country not yet immortalized in art; a philosophic people yet to produce a single philosopher of note; a sensual people who have never mastered the art of preparing food.
  • Pat Conroy, The Lords of Discipline (1980), p. 274. Said by the character Colonel Edward T. Reynolds.

• We are a small nation. Our military strength in proportion to the mighty armaments of modern nations can never be considerable. Our strength as a nation will depend upon our economic freedom, and upon our moral and intellectual force. In these we can become a shining light in the world.
  • Michael Collins, A Path to Freedom (2010), p. 64

• Our army, if it exists for honorable purposes only, will draw to it honorable men. It will call to it the best men of our race- men of skill and culture. It will not be recruited as so many modern nations are, from those who are industrially useless.
  • Michael Collins, A Path to Freedom (2010), p. 64

K

• But today this is no longer the country of hunger and famine that those emigrants left behind. It is not rich, and its progress is not yet complete; but it is, according to statistics, one of the best fed countries in the world. Nor is it any longer a country of persecution, political or religious. It is a free country, and that is why any American feels at home. There are those who regard this history of past strife and exile as better forgotten. But, to use the phrase of Yeats, let us not casually reduce "that great past to a trouble of fools." For we need not feel the bitterness of the past to discover its meaning for the present and the future. And it is the present and the future of Ireland that today holds so much promise to my nation as well as to yours, and, indeed, to all mankind.
  • John F. Kennedy; Address Before the Irish Parliament in Dublin, The American Presidency Project; 28 June 1963
• For the Ireland of 1963, one of the youngest of nations and the oldest of civilizations, has discovered that the achievement of nationhood is not an end but a beginning. In the years since independence, you have undergone a new and peaceful revolution, an economic and industrial revolution, transforming the face of this land while still holding to the old spiritual and cultural values. You have modernized your economy, harnessed your rivers, diversified your industry, liberalized your trade, electrified your farms, accelerated your rate of growth, and improved the living standards of your people. The other nations of the world--in whom Ireland has long invested her people and her children--are now investing their capital as well as their vacations here in Ireland. This revolution is not yet over, nor will it be, I am sure, until a fully modern Irish economy fully shares in world prosperity.
  • John F. Kennedy; Address Before the Irish Parliament in Dublin, The American Presidency Project; 28 June 1963

See also

• Northern Ireland

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Republic of Ireland on Wikipedia
• The dictionary definition of republic of ireland on Wiktionary
• Wikijunior:Europe/Ireland on Wikibooks
• Media related to Republic of Ireland on Wikimedia Commons
• Ireland travel guide from Wikivoyage