History of Ireland

The history of Ireland begins between 8000 and 7000 BC, when the first humans inhabited Ireland. This was followed by a migration of Celtic-speaking people between 700 and 500 BC and Viking settlers in the ninth century AD. Until the fifteenth century Ireland was a patch-work of competing kingdoms and over-kingdoms. English involvement in Ireland began with the arrival of the Normans in the twelfth century, but England did not have full control until the whole island had been conquered in 1653.

Further reading

• S.J. Connolly (editor) The Oxford Companion to Irish History (Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Tim Pat Coogan De Valera (Hutchinson, 1993)
• Norman Davies The Isles: A History (Macmillan, 1999)
• Nancy Edwards, The archaeology of early medieval Ireland (London, Batsford 1990).
• R. F. Foster Modern Ireland, 1600-1972
• Joseph Lee The Modernisation of Irish Society 1848-1918 (Gill and Macmillan)
• FSL Lyons Ireland Since the Famine
• Dorothy McCardle The Irish Republic
• James H. Murphy Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in #Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria (Cork University Press, 2001)
• John A. Murphy Ireland in the Twentieth Century (Gill and Macmillan)
• Frank Packenham (Long Longford) Peace by Ordeal
• Alan J. Ward The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government & Modern Ireland 1782-1992 (Irish Academic Press, 1994)