Ireland

Ireland was a human island nation located in the North Atlantic on Earth in the Sol System, separated from the island and nation of Great Britain by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel.

A Gaelic political and social order, and associated culture, existed in Ireland from the prehistoric era until the early 17th century. A Norman invasion in 1169 resulted in a partial conquest of the island of Ireland and marked the beginning of more than 800 years of English political and military involvement in Ireland. Initially successful, Norman gains were rolled back over succeeding centuries as a Gaelic resurgence reestablished Gaelic cultural preeminence over most of the country, apart from the walled towns and the area around Dublin known as The Pale. However, the English Tudors would conquer Ireland between 1534 to 1603. Henry VIII proclaimed himself King of Ireland in 1541 to facilitate the conquest. Ireland became a potential battleground in the wars between Catholic Counter-Reformation and Protestant Reformation Europe. Gaelic Ireland was not fully defeated until the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 which marked the collapse of the Gaelic system and the beginning of Ireland's history as fully part of the English and later British Empire.

On 1 January 1801, in the wake of the republican United Irishmen Rebellion, the Irish Parliament was abolished and Ireland became part of a new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland formed by the Acts of Union 1800. Catholics were not granted full rights until Catholic Emancipation in 1829, achieved by Daniel O’Connell. The catastrophe of the Great Famine struck Ireland in 1845 resulting in over a million deaths from starvation and disease and a million refugees fleeing the country, mainly to the United States. Irish attempts to break away continued with Parnell's Irish Parliamentary Party which strove from the 1880s to attain Home Rule through the parliamentary constitutional movement, eventually winning the Home Rule Act 1914, although this Act was suspended at the outbreak of the Great War.

Irish republicans launched the Easter Rising against British rule in early 1916. The weakening of Britain's government, military and economy as a result of the devastating orbital weapon exchange that ended the Great War was exploited by the Irish rebel forces. The remnants of Britain's military forces were unwilling and unable to maintain control of Ireland, eventually leading to the Irish republicans conquering the entire island of Ireland and Ireland becoming de facto independent from the United Kingdom in 1918. From 1918, the United Kingdom reverted to its earlier name, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and returned to using the pre-1801 Union Flag. The surprising success of the Easter Rising inspired other successful post-Great War independence movements in the British Empire, notably in India.

Ireland joined the League of Nations in 1920.

Despite pessimistic expectations, the devastation of the Great War caused a rejection of ethno-religious segregation in Europe, and the united nation of Ireland operated as a successful democracy until the end of the 20th century in spite of religious differences between the Catholic and Protestant groups that made up the majority of its population.

Although the short Irish war of independence had been violent, relations between Great Britain and Ireland warmed during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1955 Ireland joined the Commonwealth of Nations, which included Great Britain and several other former British colonies.

In 1968, the supranational political and economic structures of the European Union and the Commonwealth of Nations were combined to form the United Commonwealth. The Commonwealth pound was replaced as the currency used in Ireland by the newly-established currency of the United Commonwealth, the Commonwealth credit.

The government of the United Commonwealth federalised in 1988. The Irish government was therefore effectively absorbed into the United Commonwealth Government in 1988, and Ireland is largely regarded to have ceased to exist as a separate nation-state on that date.