Ireland, Northern See Northern Ireland
Irenaeus V.i-ro-'ne-os, J-ro-'na-ssV Saint (b. c. 120/140, Asia Minor—d. c. 200/203, probably Lyon; Western feast day June 28; East¬ ern feast day August 23) Bishop and theologian. Bom of Greek parents, he was a missionary to Gaul before being named bishop of Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France). All his major works, including Against Heresies, were written in opposition to Gnosticism. To counteract Gnostic influence, he promoted the development of an authoritative canon of the New Tes¬ tament. His defense of the belief that the Christian God and the God of the Old Testament were identical led to the development of the Apostles’ Creed. His writings against the Gnostics also supported the authority of the bishops, and he claimed that the bishops of various cities were known as far back as the Apostles (see apostolic succession). His works have proved a valuable source of information on the Gnostics, because he gave accurate summaries of their beliefs before refuting them.
Ireton \'Ir-t 3 n\, Henry (b. 1611, Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, Eng.—d. Nov. 28, 1651, Limerick, County Limerick, Ire.) English poli¬ tician, leader of the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil Wars. Join¬ ing the Parliamentary army at the outbreak of war, he was involved in many victories. He was elected to Parliament in 1645 and married Oliver Cromwell’s daughter in 1646. In 1647 he proposed a scheme for a con¬ stitutional monarchy; after its rejection by Charles I, Ireton provided the ideological foundations for the assault on the monarchy. He helped bring Charles to trial and was one of the signers of his death warrant. As lord deputy of Ireland and commander in chief (1650), he fought against the Roman Catholic rebels and died after the siege of Limerick.
Irgun Zvai Leumi Ur-'giin-tsvo-'e-b-u-'meX Hebrew "National Military Organization" Jewish right-wing underground movement that advocated using force to establish a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan River. It opposed the British and the Arabs; its activities included a 1946 attack on the King David Hotel that left 91 dead and a 1947 raid on an Arab village in which all 254 inhabitants were killed. In 1943 Men- achem Begin became the movement’s leader. With Israeli independence its units disbanded. Israel’s Herut Party was its political incarnation. See also Likud; Haganah.
Irian See New Guinea
Irian Jaya See Papua
iridium \i-'ri-de-3m\ Metallic chemical element, one of the transition ele¬ ments, chemical symbol Ir, atomic number 77. A very rare, precious, sil¬ very white, hai'd, brittle metal that resists most acids, it is one of the densest substances known on Earth. It probably does not occur uncombined in nature but is found in natural alloys with other noble (i.e., chemically inactive or inert) metals. The pure metal is too hard to work with to have any significant uses; alloys with platinum are used in jewelry, pen points, surgical pins and pivots, electrical contacts and sparking points, and extru¬ sion dies. The international prototype kilogram, the primary standard (see weights and measures) for weight, is made of an alloy comprising 90% platinum and 10% iridium. The discovery of abnormally high amounts of iridium in rocks dating to the boundary between the Cretaceous and Ter¬ tiary periods led to a much-debated hypothesis that an iridium-containing asteroid striking Earth led to a catastrophic chain of events including the extinction of dinosaurs and many other forms of life.
Irigaray \e-re-ga-'ra,\ English Vir-i-.gar-eX, Luce (b. 19327, Belgium) French feminist psychoanalyst and philosopher. She examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women in such works as Specu¬ lum of the Other Woman (1974), which argues that history and culture are written in patriarchal language and centred on men, and that the thinking of Sigmund Freud was based in misogyny. Among her other works are An Ethics of Sexual Differences (1984) and Je, tu, nous (1990).
Irigoyen \,ir-i-'go-yen\, Hipolito or Hipolito Yrigoyen (b. July 12, 1852, Buenos Aires, Arg.—d. July 3, 1933, Buenos Aires) Argentine statesman and president (1916-22, 1928-30). A lawyer, teacher, rancher, and politician, he became leader of the Radical Party in 1896. Working relentlessly for electoral reform, he succeeded in 1912 in securing a secret-ballot vote. When he was elected president in 1916, he passed measures regulating labour conditions but failed to enforce them, and a serious strike was violently broken in 1919. Corruption and the failure to implement democratic reforms cost him support after his return to power in 1928, and he was further weakened by the Great Depression. A nearly bloodless military coup ended his career.
iris family Family Iridaceae, composed of about 1,700 species of peren¬ nial herbaceous plants, as well as a few shrubs, in some 80 genera. It is known for ornamentals such as irises (genus Iris), gladioli (see gladiolus), CROCUSes, and freesias. Irises have swordlike, smooth leaves and bear showy flowers in a great variety of colours and sizes on a smooth stem. Most abundant and diverse in Africa, they are found nearly worldwide across temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones. The underground stems may be rhizomes (e.g.. New World Iris species), bulbs (e.g., southwestern European Iris species), or corms (e.g., Gladiolus).
Irish elk Any member of a genus ( Megaloceros) of extinct giant deer commonly found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits (1.8 million-10,000 years ago) in Europe and Asia. About the size of a modem moose, the Irish elk had the largest antlers of any form of deer known, in some speci¬ mens about 13 ft (4 m) across. It may have survived until c. 700-500 bc.
Irish Free State See Ireland Irish Home Rule See Irish Home Rule
Irish language or Gaelic language Celtic language of Ireland, written in the Latin alphabet introduced with Christianity in the 5th cen¬ tury. Irish is conventionally divided into three periods: Old Irish (600-c. 950), Middle Irish (c. 950-1200), and Modern Irish (from c. 1200). Ogham writing predates Old Irish. Old and Middle Irish are the vehicles of a rich literature of prose tales and verse. Classical Modern Irish was the exclusive literary medium in Ireland and Scottish Gaeldom into mod¬ em times (see Scottish Gaelic language). Literacy in Irish declined under English rule; by 1800 it was all but an unwritten language. The deaths and emigration resulting from the Irish Potato Famine and a massive shift to English afterward drastically reduced the number of Irish-speakers. Irish was revived as a literary language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and with Irish independence (1921) it was made official. Though it is a true community language only for a small number of people on Ireland’s western coast in what are called Gaeltachts, hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens and people of Irish descent have some com¬ petence in Irish.