Ad
related to: how was ireland organized in the 9th century timelineSave up to 40% with Ireland. Book soon for biggest savings!
- Independent Ireland Trips
Plan an Independent Ireland trip &
save while exploring on your own!
- Save 40% with Trafalgar
Explore beautiful & historic
Ireland with Trafalgar & save 40%.
- Huge Ireland Discounts
Find all of the best discounts on
escorted tours of Ireland!
- Escorted Ireland Tours
See our comprehensive list of
escorted tours of Ireland & save!
- Save 40% with CIE Tours
Book a CIE Tour to Ireland & save
up to 40%. Best price & service!
- Best Price & Service
Save up to 40% on one of our
Escorted Tours of Ireland!
- Independent Ireland Trips
Search results
This is a timeline of Irish history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Ireland. To read about the background to these events, see History of Ireland. See also the list of Lords and Kings of Ireland, alongside Irish heads of state, and the list of years in Ireland
- Overview
- Political and social organization
- Rural economy and living conditions
- Early political history
- Irish raids and migrations
Politically, Ireland was organized into a number of petty kingdoms, or clans (tuatha), each of which was quite independent under its elected king. Groups of tuatha tended to combine, but the king who claimed overlordship in each group had a primacy of honour rather than of jurisdiction. Not until the 10th century ad was there a king of all Ireland (árd rí Éireann). A division of the country into five groups of tuatha, known as the Five Fifths (Cuíg Cuígí), occurred about the beginning of the Christian era. These were Ulster (Ulaidh), Meath (Midhe), Leinster (Laighin), Munster (Mumhain), and Connaught (Connacht).
Surrounding a king was an aristocracy (airi aicme, the upper class), whose land and property rights were clearly defined by law and whose main wealth was in cattle. Greater landowners were supported by céilí, or clients. These and other grades of society, minutely classified and described by legal writers, tilled the soil and tended the cattle. Individual families were the real units of society and collectively exercised powers of ownership over their farms and territory. At law the family (fine) did not merely act corporately but was, by one of the oldest customs, held responsible for the observance of the law by its kindred, serfs, and slaves.
Politically, Ireland was organized into a number of petty kingdoms, or clans (tuatha), each of which was quite independent under its elected king. Groups of tuatha tended to combine, but the king who claimed overlordship in each group had a primacy of honour rather than of jurisdiction. Not until the 10th century ad was there a king of all Ireland (árd rí Éireann). A division of the country into five groups of tuatha, known as the Five Fifths (Cuíg Cuígí), occurred about the beginning of the Christian era. These were Ulster (Ulaidh), Meath (Midhe), Leinster (Laighin), Munster (Mumhain), and Connaught (Connacht).
Surrounding a king was an aristocracy (airi aicme, the upper class), whose land and property rights were clearly defined by law and whose main wealth was in cattle. Greater landowners were supported by céilí, or clients. These and other grades of society, minutely classified and described by legal writers, tilled the soil and tended the cattle. Individual families were the real units of society and collectively exercised powers of ownership over their farms and territory. At law the family (fine) did not merely act corporately but was, by one of the oldest customs, held responsible for the observance of the law by its kindred, serfs, and slaves.
There were no urban centres, and the economic basis of society was cattle rearing and agriculture. The principal crops were wheat, barley, oats, flax, and hay. The land was tilled with plows drawn by oxen. Sheep appear to have been bred principally for their wool, and the only animal reared specifically for slaughter was the pig. Fishing, hunting, fowling, and trapping provided additional food. The transport of goods over land was by packhorse, for wheeled vehicles appear to have been few. Sea transport was by curragh, a wicker-framed boat covered with hides; the normal freshwater craft was the dugout.
The dwellings of the period were built by the post-and-wattle technique, and some were situated within the protected sites archaeologists call ring forts. Excavations have shown that some of these may have existed even in the Bronze Age and that they remained a normal place of habitation until medieval times. Advantage was also taken of the relative security of islands in rivers or lakes as dwelling places; and artificial islands, called crannogs, were also extensively made.
The documentary history of Ireland begins only in the 7th century, which saw the production in both Latin and Irish of sufficiently rich and numerous records of all sorts. For events before that time, historians rely on literary sources such as the sagas, many of whose characters may represent only poetic imagination and in which the social or poli...
Latin writings from about the mid-3rd century make frequent reference to raiding expeditions carried out by the Irish, who were now given the new name Scoti rather than the older one Hiberni. In the second half of the 4th century, when Roman power in Britain was beginning to crumble seriously, the raids became incessant, and settlements were made a...
People also ask
What was the period of 'classical Old Irish'?
When did Ireland become part of the UK?
What happened in Ireland in 1834?
What was Ireland like in the 1690s?
On 9th July, a truce was declared between the IRA and the British army. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London on 6th December. 1922: The Dáil Éireann approved the Treaty on January 7th. Violence broke out in Northern Ireland. The IRA was declared illegal in the North and a Special Powers Act was passed. The Civil War began on June 28th.
Timeline. c. 7000 BCE - 6500 BCE. First human beings appear in Ireland . c. 4200 BCE - c. 2200 BCE. Construction of the Great Megaliths of Ireland . c. 4000 BCE. Transition in Ireland from hunter-gatherer to agrarian society. c. 3200 BCE. The megalithic monument Newgrange is built in County Meath, Ireland .
- Joshua J. Mark
- Content Director
Starting in the 9th century, the Vikings regularly invaded and pillaged Ireland. They would do this for nearly 200 years. In the 12th century the Normans invaded and conquered the land.
Overview. In this period, the lands now known as England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are subdivided into smaller regions, each of which is governed by a territorial king. They are in constant contact and conflict with one another, frequently clashing over issues of land ownership and power.
Feb 26, 2021 · By the end of Elizabeth’s reign, Ireland was for the first time under effective English control; but the foundations of Irish hatred for governing Englishmen had been laid. Meanwhile the Old English and Gaelic Irish moved closer together.
Ad
related to: how was ireland organized in the 9th century timelineSave up to 40% with Ireland. Book soon for biggest savings!
