Ireland

The one Western European country that was itself a colony, and the only one whose population is still below its nineteenth-century peak. Irish monasteries preserved and copied Latin learning while much of Europe was in disorder, and Irish missionaries went back out to it. English involvement began in 1169 and hardened into conquest and plantation under the Tudors and Cromwell, with land transferred to Protestant settlers and penal laws excluding Catholics from property, office and education. The Great Famine from 1845 killed around a million people and drove another million abroad while food was exported under armed guard; the population fell from about eight and a half million to under five and has never recovered. The Easter Rising of 1916 was unpopular until its leaders were executed. Independence in 1922 came with partition, a civil war over the treaty, and a border that produced thirty years of conflict in the north ending with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The country was poor and emigrating until the 1990s, then became one of Europe's wealthiest. Legalising same-sex marriage by referendum in 2015 was a first anywhere. Dublin is the capital. The country has about 5.4 million people, with several times that number claiming Irish descent abroad. Irish and English are both official and Irish is a required school subject. The island is shared with Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. Dublin was founded by Vikings. Irish writers have won four Nobel prizes in literature, a remarkable number for the population. The country is now home to the European headquarters of many large technology firms.

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