A Timeline of Irish History 

BC
c. 8000 – First human presence in Ireland. 

AD
43 – Roman legions arrive in southern Britain. They call the island to the west “Hibernia” (Latin for “land of winter”). 

c.430 - Palladius and Patrick minister in Ireland and expand the Christian faith in the country. 

c.800 - Vikings begin raiding Ireland and found the settlement of Dublin. 

1169 – The English invade eastern Ireland and King Henry II also declares himself Lord of Ireland. Dublin and its surrounding areas, referred to as The Pale, remain under British control while the rest of the island continues to be ruled by Gaelic lords. 

1367 – The Statues of Kilkenny are passed by the English parliament to prevent the mixing of English settlers and the native Irish. 

1494 – Poynings' Law forbids the Irish parliament from passing any legislation not first approved by King Henry VII or his council. 

1539 – King Henry VIII, having broken with the Catholic Church and founded the Anglican Church of England, orders the dissolution of the Irish monasteries. He soon crowns himself King of Ireland. 

1569-73 and 1759-83 – Irish in the southwestern province of Munster rebel against the encroachment of English settlers and governance. After the supression of the rebellions, confiscated lands are distributed to settlers from Britain as part of the Munster Plantation. 

1595-1603 – Rebellion breaks out again, this time in the northern province of Ulster, led by Hugh O’Neill. Early victories over the English forces galvanize support for rebellion countrywide. The Munster Plantation is wiped out. A new English commander, Lord Mountjoy, turns the tides in England’s favor. Even with the support of Spanish forces, the Irish are routed at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. O’Neill surrenders in 1603 and flees the country a few years later. England’s influence now spans the entire island for the first time. 

1608 – The Ulster Plantation is founded and finds more success than the earlier Munster one. 30,000 settlers, many from Scotland, arrive by 1640. The city of Derry is renamed Londonderry to encourage investment from British merchants. 

1641-1652 – Irish forces rebel again, this time in support of King Charles I who is fighting challenges to his rule from the parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell. Self-rule in Ireland is obtained for almost ten years while the English Civil War rages across the Irish Sea. Thousands of Protestants are massacred in sectarian violence in Ireland, solidifying an anti-Catholic sentiment in Britain. After Charles I is executed in 1649, Cromwell leads his forces to Ireland and crushes the rebellion. Huge amounts of rebel land are confiscated, with Catholic landownership plummeting to only 10% by the end of the 1650s. 

1688-91 – The Catholic King James II is deposed in favor of protestants William and Mary, and Irish Catholics again rise up in rebellion but the Jacobite supporters are defeated rather quickly. 

1695 – To further solidify control of the country, the English begin passing a series of penal laws to refashion Irish society. The Education Act prevents Catholics from serving in parliament, voting, owning firearms, buying land, or teaching. 

1740-1 – A severe famine devastates Ireland, killing the same percentage of the population as the more famous famine of the 19th century. 

1791 – The Society of United Irishmen is formed to advocate for parliamentary reform, having witnessed successful revolutions in America and France in recent years. 

1798 – Wolfe Tone leads the Irish in another rebellion against English rule. The French promise military support but their ships fail to arrive on schedule. The Irish forces are crushed and Tone executed. 

1801 – Ireland is formally brought into the newly named United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish parliament is disbanded as all government is now centered in London. Emigration to North America grows exponentially over the coming decades, with 1 million Irish leaving their homeland by 1845. 

1823 – Politician Daniel O’Connell founds the Catholic Association, fusing the nationalist cause with a Catholic identity. His speeches in support of Catholic Emancipation are widely attended. 

1824 – The Ordnance Survey of Ireland begins. The Corps of Royal Engineers start mapping Ireland in great detail, beginning with the north of the country. 

1828 – O'Connell wins a seat in parliament but is unable to take it without swearing an oath that denigrates the Catholic Church. He refuses. 

1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act is passed which removes the anti-Catholic oath of office. O’Connell wins his seat again and this time is able to join the British parliament. 

1833 – Translations takes place in County Donegal in the northern province of Ulster. 

1842 – Potato blight begins to strike crops in Europe. 

1843 – O'Connell begins holding public meetings advocating for Ireland’s exit from the United Kingdom. He is arrested and imprisoned for sedition and dies in 1847. 

1845-49 – The potato blight arrives in Ireland and devastates the potato harvest. Ireland has a higher proportion of people entirely dependent on the crop than anywhere else. Failures recur in 1846, leaving nothing to plant in 1847. 3 million people become dependent on the government to supply them with food. 1 million people die from the famine and another million emigrate. 

1886 – A Home Rull bill for Irish autonomy is introduced in Parliament but does not pass. 

1905 – A new nationalist political party, Sinn Féin (Irish for “Ourselves”), is founded. 

1914 – An Irish Home Rule bill finally passes in British Parliament, but the new freedoms accorded are suspended due to the outbreak of World War I. 

1916 – Irish Republicans, seeking complete separation from Britain, lead an armed resurrection in Dublin during Easter Week. 485 people are killed in skirmishes, including 260 civilians, before the British Army achieve victory. The rebellion leaders are tried and executed. 

1918 – Sinn Féin wins a sizeable majority in general elections and declares an Irish Republic, forming their own parliament, the Dáil, in early 1919. The Irish Republican Army begins to fight against British forces in the Irish War of Independence. 

1920 – The Government of Ireland Act partitions the island into two semi-autonomous regions: six counties in Ulster become Northern Ireland while the remaining twenty-six counties become Southern Ireland. 

1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty ends the War of Independence. Southern Ireland is offered dominion status by the British, granting them self-governance while retaining a ceremonial allegiance to the Crown as part of the British Commonwealth, the same status held by Canada and Australia. Southern Ireland becomes the Irish Free State. Northern Ireland opts out of joining the new country, instead remaining a semi-autonomous part of the United Kingdom with its own parliament. Gerrymandering of districts preserves a solidly Unionist government in Northern Ireland, marginalizing Catholics. 

1922 – Civil War breaks out between Irish who support the Free State status and those who want total separation from Britain. The pro-treaty forces ultimately prevail, but Michael Collins, a revolutionary hero and the first leader of the Irish Free State, is killed during the fighting. 

1929 – Brian Friel is born outside the city of Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. 

1937 – Irish politicians under the leadership of Éamon de Valera pass a new constitution which removes Ireland from the British Commonwealth and the country fully becomes its own republic. 

1939 – World War II begins. Ireland declares its neutrality. 

1950 – Friel begins a career as a teacher in the Derry school system. 

1955 – The Republic of Ireland becomes a member of the United Nations, ending the isolationist foreign policy position it had held since independence. 

1964 – Friel’s play Philadelphia, Here I Come! debuts in Dublin. The play moves to Broadway two years later and earns a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. 

1967 – The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) is founded to advocate for equal rights and representation for Catholics in Northern Ireland. Violence begins to escalate between nationalist Catholics and unionist Protestants. 

1969 – British troops are sent to Northern Ireland to quell sectarian violence. Their tactics of internment without trial, curfews and sweeps through Catholic neighborhoods erode trust in the government further. 

1972 – On January 30, British troops fire on a NICRA rally in Derry, killing 14 civilians in what becomes known as Bloody Sunday. The British soldiers are acquitted of any wrongdoing. Friel is part of the protest but unharmed. Self-rule in Northern Ireland is suspended and the British Parliament in London takes over governance of the region. 

1973 – The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom both join the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union. The Sunningdale Agreement attempts to find a new power sharing structure for Northern Ireland but is undermined by both extreme loyalists and nationalists. The Freedom of the City, one of Friel’s most political plays, premieres. 

1979 – Two of Friel’s most respected plays debut. Aristocrats premieres at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in March, and Faith Healer opens on Broadway in April. 

1980 – Field Day Theatre Company is founded by Friel and actor Stephen Rea, intended as a “cultural and intellectual response to the political crisis in Northern Ireland.” The company’s debut production is Translations, produced at the Guildhall in Derry and featuring Rea, Ray McAnally and Liam Neeson in the cast.  

1981 – IRA prisoners begin a hunger strike to be recognized as political prisoners. Ten ultimately die of starvation. 

1985 – The Anglo-Irish agreement is signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. It affirms that any change in the constitutional status of Northern Ireland will be decided by the votes of its own people. The Republic of Ireland is granted an advisory role in the government of Northern Ireland. 

1987 – Friel is appointed to the Irish Senate and serves for two years. 

1990 – Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa premieres at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and then transfers to the National Theatre in London, winning an Oliver Award for Play of the Year. The play opens the following year on Broadway and wins a Tony Award for Best Play. 

1993-1995 – The Republic of Ireland passes several social liberalization laws, decriminalizing homosexuality and permitting divorce for the first time. 

1994 – The IRA declares a ceasefire. It is broken with a bombing in London in February 1996 but resumes again in July 1997. Friel’s Molly Sweeney premieres in Dublin in 1994. 

1998 – A power-sharing agreement is finally agreed to in April, known as the Good Friday Agreement. As part of the negotiations, the British agree to re-open an inquiry into Bloody Sunday. A splinter group of the IRA carries out a bombing in Omagh in August that kills 29 people, the deadliest incident in the sectarian conflict known as the Troubles. A film version of Dancing at Lughnasa is released, starring Meryl Streep. 

1999 – The Constitution of Ireland is amended to remove a claim to sovereignty over the entire island, part of the Good Friday agreement. 

2001 – The biased Royal Ulster Constabulary, which had been Northern Ireland’s formal law enforcement agency since partition, is replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. 

2007 – Self-rule returns to Northern Ireland for the first-time since 1972. 

2009 – The Commision to Inquire into Child Abuse publishes its findings in the Ryan Report. It documents decades of abuse and cover-ups by the Catholic Church in Ireland. 

2010 – The global financial crisis leads Ireland to ask the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. The Bloody Sunday inquiry is completed with British Prime Minster David Cameron publicly admitting the British soldiers were unprovoked and unjustified in their firing on the protesters. 

2015 – Brian Friel dies on October 2nd and chooses to be buried in Glenties, County Donegal. 

2016 – Britain votes to exit the European Union in a referendum. 55% of Northern Ireland voters had elected to remain in the EU. 

2017 – The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin win the most seats in a Northern Ireland general election, routing the more moderate Ulster Unionist Party and Social Democratic and Labour Party. The DUP and Sinn Féin refuse to share power and the government is suspended for three years. 

2020-24 – The United Kingdom exits the European Union and a solution is sought for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which had previously been open. The Northern Irish government collapses several times over Unionist disapproval of trade regulations between the region and the rest of Great Britain. Sinn Féin wins the most seats in the 2022 general election, a first for an Irish nationalist party.