ATURE OF. See also other articles in this sec tion.
l& IRISH HISTORY. Ireland, lying to the west of Great Britain, forms one kingdom with it, which is known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This designation was introduced in the year 1800, when the Act of Union which united the Parliament of Ire land with that of Great Britain was passed. So far as political institutions can avail, Ireland is one with the neighboring country. But in spite of the political tie she stands widely divided from Great Britain by most of the characteris tics which are distinctive of a nation — histori cal traditions, racial spirit, social and economic conditions. The distinction is marked even in the physical character of the island. Possessing little mineral wealth — iron ores in Antrim and Leitrim and some coal deposits in Antrim, Lei trim and Kilkenny — Ireland has not within it self the resources of a manufacturing country. The great central plain, stretching across the island from sea to sea, richly covered with vege tation, is adapted to pastoral and agricultural industries only, while the hilly regions to the north and south offer a soil that only tillage can make fruitful. Though water is abundant, water-power is deficient, owing to the generally low level of the country, fully one-half of which does not rise to an elevation of 300 feet above the sea.
Ancient From the earliest times to which tradition reaches back Ireland was oc cupied by off-shoots of that great Celtic race which spread from the Hellespont to the Eng lish Channel. Lying within easy reach of the coast of Gaul it was exposed to the incursions of the sea-faring Celts of northern Europe. Ac cording to the ancient legends it was succes sively overrun and conquered by five different invading tribes. The last of these were the Milesians. The legends represent these invaders as migrating from Spain about 700 B.C. and es tablishing their sovereignty over the whole of Ireland. Modern scholars incline to the view that the story of the Milesian invasion is the record in tradition of an invasion by British Celts which took place most probably about the beginning of the Christian Era. The political or ganization of the Irish Celts was strictly tribal. The land of the country was parceled out among a number of petty chiefs or heads of tribes, who owed certain duties of tribute and service to the more powerful over-kings; above these again was the and righ or chief king whose authority was acknowledged in propor tion to his power to make it effective. The
tribal organization remained an enduring source of national weakness; it hindered the growth of an effective national power; it prevented any effective combination of the national forces against foreign invasion.
Christianity In the second half of the 5th century Ireland was converted to Christianity ; its conversion was the work of a few years. That the new faith was accepted readily may be due to the fact that the previous religion of the people — if it can be called a re ligion — was ill-defined and unsystematized; a definite belief with a definite system of worship would not have been surrendered without a struggle. Saint Patrick and the other founders of the Irish Church accommodated themselves to the political organization of the country. Monastic institutions, established on lands granted by the converted chieftains, became the centres of church government, their jurisdiction being coterminous with the territory on which they were founded. They seem to have been re garded as identified with the local civil organ ization and were freely plundered and destroyed in the raids which, in the absence of a control ling central power, the petty rulers made on one another. This notwithstanding, monasticism ex hibited remarkable developments in Ireland. For three centuries after the death of Saint Patrick the Irish monastic schools were the cen tres of learning in Europe. Scholars flocked to them from Great Britain and the continent; and from these schools went forth the teachers who carried faith and knowledge among the Teutonic conquerors of the Roman empire. This missionary activity declined with the growth of civilized institutions in the new king doms that had been formed out of Rome's pos sessions. The source of supply was moreover sadly disturbed in Ireland. (See MONACHISM). At the beginning of the 9th century the North men, at the same time that they began their raids on England, extended their incursions to Ire land. They succeeded in establishing a few im portant strongholds on the coast and carried fire and sword through a country whose warring rulers met them as enemies or received them as allies according to the needs of their struggles with native rivals. The monasteries were a spe cial object of hate to the Vikings; when their power was at length broken, in the llth century, Irish monasticism was found to have run its and the field lay open to the Latin or Benedictine monasticism which was to succeed it.