vast majority of the inhabitants of Ireland are Boman Catholics; but the Episcopal church, a branch of the Church of England, was the established church till Tan., 1871. It now exists independently as the Church of Ireland. In 1871 the number of Homan Catholics was 4,150,877; of Protestants, 1,260,568; and of Jews, 258.
possesses several universities: Dublin university (q.v.) was founded by queen Elizabeth in 1591; the queen's colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway, opened iu 1849, are United in one university. The 'Homan Catholic• university was founded in 1854; and Maynooth college (q.v.) in 1795, for the education of Roman Catholic priests. There are also several Irish colleges and medical schools in connection with the London university. The primary schools of Ireland are mostly under the management of the "commissioners of national education." This system, established in• 1833, proceeds on the principle that "the schools shall be open alike to Christians of I every denomination; that no pupil shall be required to attend any religious exercise, or receive any religious instruction which his parents may not approve; and that sufficient opportunity shall be afforded to pupils of each religious persuasion to 'receive separately _such religious instruction as their parents or guardians may think fit." The following table exhibits the progress of the system: In 1875 there were 7,267 national schools, with a total of 1,011,799 pupils; of whom 198,0'2.4 were Roman Catholic; 111,132 Presbyterian; and 89,907 Episcopalian children. one parliamentary grant in the same year was 1:639,368. Besides the national schools, Le "church education society" had, in 1870, 52,106 scholars, of whom 44,662 belonged to the established church.
HInfory.—According to ancient native legends, Ireland was in remote times peopled by tribes styled Firbolgs and Danauns, eventually subdued by Milesians or Gaels, who acquired supremacy in the island. The primitive inhabitants of Ireland are now believed to have been of the same Indo-European race with the original population of Britain. 'Although Ireland, styled /ernis, is mentioned in a Greek poem live centuries before Christ, and by the names of Ribernia and Javerna in various foreign pagan. writers,
Ltle is known with certainty of her inhabitants before the 4th c. after Christ, when, tinder the appellation of &oti, or inhabitants of Scotia, they became formidable by their descents upon the Roman province of Britain. These expeditions were continued and extended to the coasts of Gaul till the time of Laogaire MacNeill, monarch of Ireland (430 A.D.), in whose reign St. Patrick (q.v.) attempted the. conversion of the natives. Although Christianity had been previously introduced in some parts of the island, Patrick encountered great obstacles, and the new faith was not fully established is Ireland till about a century after his decease.
From the earliest period each province of Ireland appears to have had its own king subject to the ard-rig/t or monarch, to whom the central district called Meath wan allotted, and who usually resided at Tara. Each clan was governed by a chief selectee from its most important family, and who was required to be of mature age. capable of taking the field efficiently when occasion required. The laws were peculiar in their nature, dispensed by professional jurists styled brekons, who, as well as the poets and men of learning, received high consideration, and were endowed with lands and ti important privileges. Cromlechs, or stone tombs and structures, composed of large encemented stones, ascribed to the paean Irish, still exist in various parts of Ireland. Lacustriuc habitations, or stocka,ied islands, styled crannogs or crannogo (q v.), in inland lakes, also appear to have been in use there from early ages. Of articles of metal, stone, clay, and other materials in use among the ancient Irish, a large collection has been formed in the museum of the royal Irish academy at Dublin. It is remarkable that a greater number and variety of antique golden articles of remote age have been found in Ireland than in any other part of northern Europe; and the majority of the gold antiquities illustrative of British history, now preserved in the British museum, are Irish.