Irish History at a Quick Glance

6500BC: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers arrive in Ireland

3200BC: Early farmers build Neolithic Passage Grave at Newgrange

500BC: First Celtic Tribes begin to arrive and settle in Ireland

432AD: Arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland on his Christian mission

795AD: First Viking raids in Ireland

1014: Brian Boru defeats the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf

1169: Norman Invasion of Ireland

1586: English Plantation of Munster

1601: Ulster Chieftains and allies defeated at the Battle of Kinsale

1607: Flights of the Earls from Ulster to the Continent

1609: Plantation of Ulster begins

1649: Arrival of Oliver Cromwell in Ireland

1690: Battle of the Boyne – Protestant Ascendancy firmly established

1695: Beginning of Penal Laws against Catholics

1798: United Irishmen Rising

1801: Union of Ireland and Great Britain begins

1803: Robert Emmet’s Rising

1829: Catholic Emancipation achieved under Daniel O’Connell’s leadership

1845-1849: The Great Irish Famine

1848: Young Irelanders Uprising

1867: Fenian Rising

1916: Easter Rising

1919-21: War of Independence

1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed

1922-23: Irish Civil War

1949: Republic of Ireland inaugurated

1969: British troops arrive in Northern Ireland

1973: Ireland joins the European Economic Community (EEC)

1985: Anglo-Irish Agreement

1994: First cease-fire in Northern Ireland

1998: Good Friday Agreement signed in Belfast, introduces Power Sharing

2007: Devolved Government established in the Northern Ireland Assembly

2014: British forces in N.I. reduced to pre-conflict numbers of 1.800 personnel

2018: Northern Ireland Assembly suspended due to inter-party disagreements

2019: A No Deal Brexit threatens a return to instability in Northern Ireland