History
7000 BC The earliest known settlers travelled from Britain to Ireland. By 3000 BC, Neolithic or New Stone-Age people arrived and their stone monuments can still be seen dotted around the Irish landscape today. By 2000 BC the first Bronze-Age metalworkers arrived.
432 AD St. Patrick arrived to help convert the pagan Gaelic Kings to Christianity. He and his followers spread the new religion throughout the country. The following century saw Irish missionaries begin to spread Christianity throughout Europe.
800 AD The first Viking raids on Ireland. Usually small in numbers, they plunder Irish monasteries and towns. By 914 AD the Vikings begin to overwinter and establish towns mostly near the South Coast. They trade, intermarry and fight with the Gaelic Irish.
1014 AD In the Battle of Clontarf Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland defeats an army of Vikings and Leinster Men but is killed himself. 1541 AD Henry VIII declares himself King of Ireland, the first English monarch to do so. The first plantation of English people to settle in Ireland follow shortly after.
1595 AD The beginning of the Nine Years War with Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone rebelling. O'Neill and his allies were comprehensively beaten at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601.
1782 AD The Irish Parliament is granted independence from England and some of the Penal Laws against Catholics are abolished.
1823 AD The Catholic Association is founded by Daniel O'Connell and by 1829 Catholic Emancipation is passed removing virtually all restrictions placed on Catholics.
