This is atimeline of Irish history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events inIreland. To read about the background to these events, seeHistory of Ireland. See also thelist of Lords and Kings of Ireland, alongsideIrish heads of state, and thelist of years in Ireland.
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| c. 16,000 BC | During theLast Glacial Maximum,Ireland is covered inice sheets | |
| c. 12,000 BC | A narrow channel forms betweenPrehistoric Ireland and southwestScotland[1] | |
| c. 10,000 BC | Carbon-dating on bear bones indicate the presence ofPaleolithic people in County Clare.[2] | |
| c. 8000 BC | Mesolithic hunter-gatherers migrate to Ireland | |
| c. 6500 BC | Mesolithic hunter-gatherers occupy sites such as that atMount Sandel inUlster | |
| c. 4000 BC | Agriculture (including the keeping of livestock, and crop farming) has its beginnings in Ireland, at sites such as theCéide Fields inConnacht | |
| c. 3500 BC | TheNeolithic peoples of theBoyne Valley built a complex of chamber tombs, standing stones and enclosures over a period of hundreds of years. (Newgrange itself is dated to 3300–2900 BC). |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| c. 2000 BC | Bronze Age technologies start to arrive in Ireland, including the moulding of Ballybeg-type flat axes, and the beginnings ofcoppermining atRoss Island, Killarney andMount Gabriel.[3] | |
| c. 500 BC | During theIron Age in Ireland,Celtic influence in art, language and culture begins to take hold.[4] | |
| c. 300 BC | Murder ofClonycavan Man, according toradiocarbon dating | |
| c. 200 BC | La Tène influence from continental Europe influences carvings on theTuroe Stone,Bullaun, County Galway.[5] | |
| c. 100 BC | Additional works expand the site atNavan Fort (Emain Macha), first occupied in the Neolithic period |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| c. 100 AD | Construction of aseries of defensive ditches between the provinces of Ulster and Connacht |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| c. 140 AD | Ptolemy'sGeographia provides the earliest known written reference to habitation in the Dublin area, referring to a settlement in the area asEblana Civitas |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| c. 220 AD | TheAnnals of the Four Masters, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, and other semi-historical (non-contemporary) texts, placeCormac mac Airt as a longstandingHigh King of Ireland.[6][7] (The Annals date his reign as 226–266, but scholars vary in their assessment of Mac Airt's reign as legend or historical fact)[8][9] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| c. 300 AD | Pollen data records from the late Iron Age indicate a resurgence in human activity after arelatively stagnant period[10] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| c. 400 | Niall Noígíallach is placed by Medieval texts as a legendary GoidelicHigh King of Ireland (theAnnals of the Four Masters dates his reign as 378–405) | |
| 431 | Palladius is sent as the first bishop"to the Irish believing in Christ" byPope Celestine I[11][12] | |
| 432 | According to theAnnals of Ulster (and other chronicles),Saint Patrick returns to Ireland.[13] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 536 | A seeminglyglobal climate event (possibly avolcanic winter)[14] causes crop failures[15] and famine in Ireland. | |
| 563 | Irish monastic influence during theGolden Age peaks with the foundation of monastic schools bySaint Columba andSaint Brendan atIona andClonfert.[16] (Saint Columbanus would later set up similar institutions in continental Europe,Fursa in East Anglia andGaul,Aidan at Lindisfarne. Etc.) |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 664–666 | Several sources record a pervasive "yellow plague" on the island.[17][18] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 795 | FirstViking raids onIona,Rathlin Island, andInishmurray.[16] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 830 | Óengus of Tallaght writes theMartyrology of Tallaght, thePrologue of which speaks of the last vestiges of paganism inIreland | |
| 852 | VikingsIvar Beinlaus andOlaf the White land in Dublin Bay, and establish a fortress close to where the city ofDublin now stands |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 980 | TheKing of DublinOlaf Cuaran abdicates following defeat at theBattle of Tara toMáel Sechnaill mac Domnaill.[19] | |
| 988–989 | Máel Sechnaill demands (and is paid) "tribute" by the Vikings at Dublin (this tribute date is sometimes recognised as the "foundation date" of Dublin as a city) |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1014 | 23 April | Defeat ofMáel Mórda mac Murchada and Viking forces by the armies ofBrian Boru at theBattle of Clontarf marks the beginning of the decline ofViking power in Ireland.[20] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1167 | Following exile byRuaidrí Ua Conchobair,Dermot MacMurrough seeks support fromHenry II of England to reclaim his Kingship. | |
| 1171 | Henry II of England lands atWaterford and declares his youngest son JohnLord of Ireland. | |
| 1175 | 6 October[21] | TheTreaty of Windsor consolidatesNorman influence in Ireland. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1216 | 12 November | Great Charter of Ireland issued byHenry III of England. |
| 1252 | TheAnnals of the Four Masters records a summer-timeheat wave anddrought.[22] | |
| 1297 | The first representativeIrish Parliament (of theLordship of Ireland) meets in Dublin.[23] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1315 | 26 May | Edward Bruce arrives in Ireland and rallies many Irish lords against Anglo-Norman control. |
| 1366 | 20 April | TheStatutes of Kilkenny are passed atKilkenny to curb the decline of theHiberno-NormanLordship of Ireland. |
| 1398 | Gerald FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond, mysteriously disappears; Gearóid Íarla is forever afterwards judged to be sleeping in a cave underLough Gur, waiting to gallop out on his silver-shod horse and rescue Ireland at the moment of greatest need. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1472 | TheAnnals of the Four Masters records that the King of England sent an exotic animal (possibly a giraffe) to Ireland.[24] | |
| 1490 | An earthquake takes place at Sliabh Gamh inCounty Mayo.[25] | |
| 1494 | 1 December | A parliament summoned byEdward Poyning,Henry VII of England's Lord Deputy, passesPoynings' Law, under which theIrish parliament is to pass no law without the prior consent of theEnglish parliament. |
| 1497 | TheAnnals of the Four Masters refers to a famine which "prevailed through all Ireland".[26] |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1534 | 11 June | Thomas FitzGerald, the 10th Earl of Kildare, publicly renounces his allegiance toHenry VIII of England. |
| 1537 | 3 February | FitzGerald ishanged, drawn and quartered atTyburn. |
| 1542 | TheIrish parliament passes theCrown of Ireland Act, which establishes aKingdom of Ireland to be ruled byHenry VIII and his successors. | |
| 1570 | 25 February | Pope Pius V issues apapal bull,Regnans in Excelsis, declaringElizabeth I of England a heretic and releasing her subjects from any allegiance to her. |
| 1575 | May–August | TheAnnals of the Four Masters records a drought, in which no rain fell "from Bealtaine to Lammas" (1 May to 1 August), resulting in disease and plague. |
| 1577 | November | TheAnnals of the Four Masters records that theGreat Comet of 1577 "was wondered at by all universally". |
| 1579 | 16 July | Second Desmond Rebellion:James FitzMaurice FitzGerald, a cousin of the14th Earl of Desmond, lands a small force of rebels atDingle. |
| 1594 | TheNine Years' War commences in Ulster, asHugh O'Neill andRed Hugh O'Donnell rebel against Elizabeth I's authority in Ulster. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1607 | 14 September | TheFlight of the Earls: The departure from Ireland of Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell. |
| 1609 | Plantation of Ulster byScottish Presbyterians begins on a large scale. | |
| 1641 | 22 October | Irish Rebellion of 1641:Phelim O'Neill leads the capture of several forts in the north of Ireland. |
| 1642 | Irish Confederate Wars: TheIrish Catholic Confederation is established, under the nominal overlordship ofCharles I of England, with its capital atKilkenny. | |
| 1646 | 28 March | The Supreme Council of theIrish Catholic Confederation signs an agreement with a representative ofCharles I, which procures some rights for Catholics in return for their military support of theroyalists in England. |
| The members of the Supreme Council are arrested; the General Assembly renounces the agreement with England. | ||
| 1647 | A more favourable agreement is reached withCharles's representative, which promises toleration of Catholicism, a repeal ofPoynings' Law, and recognition of lands taken by Irish Catholics during the war. | |
| 1690 | 1 July | Battle of the Boyne |
| 1691 | 12 July | Battle of Aughrim; One of the bloodiest fought in Ireland, with up to 7,000 people killed |
| 1695 | TheEducation Act, one of a series ofPenal Laws, is passed in 1695. It prohibits Catholics from sending their children to be educated abroad, and remains in place until 1782. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1740 | Extreme winters in successive years result in poor harvests, causing alarge scale famine in which between 300,000 and 480,000 die. | |
| 1760 | February | Battle of Carrickfergus: A French invasion. |
| 1782 | After agitation by theIrish Volunteers, theParliament of Great Britain passes a number of reforms—including the implicit repeal ofPoynings' Law—collectively referred to as theConstitution of 1782. | |
| 1796 | December | Expédition d'Irlande: Attempted French invasion. |
| 1798 | 24 May | Battle of Ballymore-Eustace: A miscarried surprise attack on theBritish garrison at Ballymore inCounty Kildare is counterattacked and defeated. |
| 22 August | Irish Rebellion of 1798: One thousandFrench soldiers land atKilcummin in support of the rebellion. | |
| 27 August | Battle of Castlebar: A combinedFrench-Irish force defeats a vastly numerically superiorBritish force atCastlebar. | |
| Irish Rebellion of 1798: TheRepublic of Connacht is proclaimed atCastlebar, in the firstUnited Irishmen rebellion. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1801 | 1 January | Acts of Union 1800 comes into effect; theKingdom of Ireland unites withGreat Britain, forming theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. |
| 1803 | 23 July | Second United Irishmen rebellion: The Irish nationalistRobert Emmet attempts to seizeDublin Castle. |
| 1829 | 24 March | Catholic Emancipation: TheRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829 is passed, allowing Catholics to sit in theUK Parliament. |
| 1831 | 3 May | Tithe War: A force of one hundred and twenty armed police forcibly takes possession of cattle belonging to a Roman Catholic priest, in lieu of his compulsory tithe to theAnglicanChurch of Ireland. |
| 1834 | 17 December | Dublin and Kingstown Railway is opened as the first commercial railway in Ireland. |
| 1836 | Tithe War: The passage of theTithe Commutation Act 1836 reduces the amount of the church's tithe and changes the manner of payment, which largely ends the unrest. | |
| 1845–1849 | Great Irish Famine: Apotato blight destroys two-thirds of Ireland's staple crop, leading to an estimated 1 million deaths and emigration of a further 1 million people.[27] | |
| 1867 | 5 March | Fenian Rising. |
| 1879-1882 | The "Land War," a period of rural agitation for fair rents and free sale of land to liberate Irish peasants from generations of debt and tenancy. | |
| 1886 | 1st Home Rule Bill, also known as theGovernment of Ireland Bill 1886. | |
| 1893 | 2nd Home Rule Bill, also known as theGovernment of Ireland Bill 1893. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1913 | 19 August | ADublin businessman,William Martin Murphy, fires forty workers he suspects belong to theIrish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU). A resulting strike and related civil unrest, theDublin Lockout, lasts from August 1913 to January 1914. |
| 1914 | 18 September | Government of Ireland Act is passed, providing forIrish Home Rule, but its application is simultaneously postponed for the duration ofWorld War I.[28] |
| 1916 | 24 April | Easter Rising: TheIrish Republican Brotherhood leads an action which seizes key government buildings inDublin, and issues theProclamation of the Irish Republic. The Rising lasts til 29 April 1916. |
| 1918 | 18 April | Acting on a resolution of Dublin Corporation, the Lord Mayor convenes a conference at theMansion House to devise plans toresist conscription. |
| 14 December | Ageneral election returns a majority for Sinn Féin. | |
| 1919 | 21 January | TheFirst Dáil of theIrish Republic meets and issues aDeclaration of Independence from the UK. |
| 21 January | Irish War of Independence: Volunteers of theIrish Republican Army (IRA) kill two members of theRoyal Irish Constabulary in what is considered to be the first act of the War of Independence. | |
| 1921 | 3 May | Northern Ireland is established. |
| 1921 | 6 December | Irish War of Independence: The War of Independence ends when negotiations between theBritish government and representatives of thede factoIrish Republic conclude with the signing of theAnglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of theIrish Free State. |
| 1922 | 28 June | Irish Civil War: Bombardment byMichael Collins of Anti-Treaty forces occupying theFour Courts marks the start of the Irish Civil War, |
| 1923 | 24 May | Irish Civil War: IRA Chief of StaffFrank Aiken orders volunteers to dump arms, effectively ending the Civil War. |
| 1925 | 17 September | An election was held for 19 of the 60 seats inSeanad Éireann.Single transferable vote was used, with the entire state forming a single 19-seatelectoral district, the largest number of members elected in one contest in Irish history.[29] |
| 1928 | 12 December 1928 | The new Irish Free State introduced its own currency from 1928, theIrish pound. |
| 1932 | June 1932 | The31st International Eucharistic Congress, held in Dublin 22–26 June 1932. |
| 1937 | 29 December | TheConstitution of Ireland comes into force, replacing theIrish Free State with a new state called"Éire", or, in the English language, "Ireland" |
| 1949 | 18 April | TheRepublic of Ireland Act abolishes the statutory functions of the British monarch in relation to Ireland and confers them on thePresident of Ireland. |
| 1955 | 14 December | Ireland joins theUnited Nations along with sixteen other sovereign states. |
| 1969 | August | Troops are deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland, marking the start ofthe Troubles. |
| 1972 | March | The Parliament of Northern Ireland is prorogued (and abolished later the following year). |
| 1973 | 1 January | Ireland joins theEuropean Community along with theUnited Kingdom andDenmark. |
| 1973 | June | TheNorthern Ireland Assembly is elected. |
| 1974 | 1 January | A power-sharingNorthern Ireland Executive takes office, but resigns in May as a result of theUlster Workers' Council strike; the Assembly is suspended and later abolished. |
| 1979 | 29 September to 1 October | Pope John Paul II visited Ireland from Saturday, 29 September to Monday, 1 October 1979, the first trip to Ireland by a Pope. |
| 1985 | 15 November | The governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom sign theAnglo-Irish Agreement. |
| 1990 | 3 December | Mary Robinson becomes the first femalePresident of Ireland. |
| 1995 | Ireland enters theCeltic Tiger period, a time of high economic growth which continues until 2007. | |
| 1998 | April | TheBelfast Agreement is signed; as a result, theNorthern Ireland Assembly is elected, to which powers are devolved in 1999 and a power-sharingExecutive takes office. |
| 1999 | 1 January | Ireland yields its official currency, theIrish pound, and adopts theEuro. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 15 December | TheEconomic Adjustment Programme for Ireland, which Irelandentered into in November 2010 following thepost-2008 Irish economic downturn andrelated banking crisis, officially comes to a close.[30][31] |
| 2015 | 23 May | A62% to 38% referendum result makes Ireland the first country tolegalise same-sex marriage by popular vote.[32] |
| 2018 | August | Pope Francis visited Ireland on 25 and 26 August 2018, as part of the World Meeting of Families 2018. |
Palladius, having been consecrated by Celestine, bishop of the city of Rome, is sent to Ireland [...] in the eighth year of Theodosius.
Year U432: Patrick arrived in Ireland in the ninth year of the reign of Theodosius the Less and in the first year of the episcopate of Xistus, 42nd bishop of the Roman Church. So Bede, Maxcellinus and Isidore compute in their chronicles.
U536.3 Failure of bread
Text reads:This is the agreement which was made at Windsor in the octaves of Michaelmas [October 6] in the year of Our Lord 1175
Great heat and drought prevailed in this Summer, so that people crossed the beds of the principal rivers of Ireland with dry feet. The reaping of the corn crops of Ireland was going on twenty days before Lammas 1 August, and the trees were scorched by the heat of the sun.
A wonderful animal was sent to Ireland by the King of England. She resembled a mare, and was of a yellow colour, with the hoofs, of a cow, a long neck, a very large head, a large tail, which was ugly and scant of hair. She had a saddle of her own. Wheat and salt were her usual food. She used to draw the largest sled-burden by her tail. She used to kneel when passing under any doorway, however high, and also to let her rider mount.
There was an earthquake at Sliabh Gamh, by which a hundred persons were destroyed, among whom was the son of Manus Crossagh O'Hara. Many horses and cows were also killed by it, and much putrid fish was thrown up; and a lake, in which fish is now caught, sprang up in the place.
Great famine prevailed through all Ireland in this and the following year, so that people ate of food unbecoming to mention, and never before heard of as having been introduced on human dishes.
Ireland officially exits EU/IMF bailout programme having fulfilled its conditions
an economic adjustment programme for Ireland was formally agreed in December 2010 [..] Ireland successfully exited the three year programme on 15 December 2013
