Irish literary renaissance Flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was closely allied with a strong politi¬
cs) 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Irish Potato Famine ► ironclad I 959
cal nationalism and a revival of interest in Ireland’s Gaelic heritage (see Gaelic revival). Other factors in the renaissance were the retelling of ancient heroic legends in books such as Standish O’Grady’s History of Ireland (1878, 1880) and Douglas Hyde’s A Literary History of Ireland (1899), and the Gaelic League, formed in 1893 to revive the Irish lan¬ guage and culture. It developed into a vigorous literary force centred on William Butler Yeats; other important figures were Augusta Gregory, John Millington Synge, and Sean O'Casey. See also Abbey Theatre.
Irish Potato Famine (1845-49) Famine that occurred in Ireland when the potato crop failed in successive years. By the early 1840s almost half the Irish population, particularly the rural poor, was depending almost entirely on the potato for nourishment. A reliance on only one or two high-yielding varieties made the crop vulnerable to disease, including the late blight fungus, which ruined the crop. The British government pro¬ vided minimal relief to the starving Irish, limited to loans and soup kitch¬ ens. The famine was a watershed in Ireland’s demographic history: more than a million people died from starvation or famine-related diseases, and perhaps as many as 1.5 million emigrated to North America and Britain. Population continued to decline thereafter, and by independence in 1921 the Irish population was barely half of the 8.4 million it had been before the famine.
Irish Rebellion See Easter Rising
Irish Republican Army (IRA) Republican paramilitary organization, founded in 1919, seeking the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and the unification of the province with the republic of Ireland. The IRA used armed force to achieve the same objectives as Sinn Fein, though the two always operated independently. After the establishment of the Irish Free State (1922), the IRA refused to accept a separate Northern Ireland, and the violence continued. The IRA was declared illegal in 1931, and the Irish legislature provided for internment without trial for its members. It gained popular support in the 1960s when Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland began a civil rights campaign against discrimination by the domi¬ nant Protestant majority. In 1969 the IRA split into the Marxist Official wing, which eschewed violence, and the Provisionals (Provos), Ulster Catholics committed to the use of terror tactics against Ulster Protestants and the British military, tactics that included the 1979 assassination of Lord Mountbaiten and the killing of some 1,800 people by the early 1990s. In 1994 the IRA declared a cease-fire, and its political representatives were included in multiparty talks beginning in 1997. Negotiations pro¬ duced the Good Friday Agreement (1998), in which the IRA agreed to decommission (disarm). In the ensuing years the IRA destroyed some of its weapons but resisted decommissioning its entire armoury, hampering implementation of the peace agreement. In July 2005, however, the IRA announced that it was ending its armed campaign and instead would pur¬ sue only peaceful means to achieve its objectives.
Irish Sea Arm of the North Atlantic Ocean that separates Ireland from Great Britain. Connected with the Atlantic by North Channel and by St. George’s Channel, it is about 130 mi (210 km) long and 150 mi (240 km) wide. Its total area is about 40,000 sq mi (100,000 sq km). Its greatest depth measures about 576 ft (175 m). The Isle of Man and Anglesey are its two principal islands.
Irish terrier Breed of terrier developed in Ireland, one of the oldest ter¬ rier breeds. It stands 16-18 in.
(41.5-46 cm) high, weighs 22-26 lbs (10-12 kg), and has a wiry golden- red to reddish brown coat. Nick¬ named the daredevil, it is reputedly adaptable, loyal, spirited, and reck¬ lessly courageous. It served as a messenger and sentinel in World War I, and has been used to hunt and to retrieve game.
Irish wolfhound Tallest of all dog breeds, a keen-sighted hound used in Ireland to hunt wolves and other game and noted for its speed and strength. An ancient breed, first mentioned about the 2nd century ad, it is similar in build to the greyhound but far more powerful. The female, substantially smaller than the male, stands at least 30 in. (76 cm) tall and weighs 105 lb (48 kg) or more. The rough coat is long on the brows and
underjaw, and the colours include gray, brindle, red-brown, black, and white. The dog is valued as a gentle, even-tempered companion.
Irkutsk \ir-'kiitsk\ City (pop., 2001 est.: 587,200), east-central Russia. Located on the Angara River, it was founded as a wintering camp in 1652. It soon became a commercial centre for the fur trade and a base on the Russian trade route to China and Mongolia. Its importance grew after the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 1898. An industrial and cultural centre, it is the seat of Irkutsk State University and the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences.
iron Metallic chemical element, one of the transition elements, chemical symbol Fe, atomic number 26. Iron is the most used and cheapest metal, the second most abundant metal and fourth most abundant element in Earth’s crust. It occurs rarely as a free metal, occasionally in natural alloys (especially in meteorites), and in hundreds of minerals and ores, including hematite, magnetite, limonite, and siderite. The human body contains about one-sixth of an ounce (4.5 g) of iron, mostly in hemoglobin and its pre¬ cursors; iron in the diet is essential to health. Iron is ferromagnetic (see ferromagnetism) at ordinary temperatures and is the only metal that can be tempered (see tempering). Its uses in steels of various types, as well as in cast and wrought iron (collectively, “ferrous metals”), are numerous. Alteration of its properties by impurities, especially carbon, is the basis of steelmaking. Iron in compounds usually has valence 2 (ferrous) or 3 (ferric). Ferrous and ferric oxides (FeO and Fe 2 0 3 , respectively) are used as pigments and the latter as jewelers’ rouge. Rust is ferric oxide con¬ taining water; ferric oxide is widely used as a magnetic recording mate¬ rial in computer data-storage devices and magnetic tapes. Ferrous and ferric sulfates and chlorides are all of industrial importance as mordants, reducing agents, flocculating agents, or raw materials and in inks and fer¬ tilizers.
Iron Act (1750) Measure by the British Parliament to restrict the Ameri¬ can colonial iron industry. Pig iron and iron bar could be exported to England duty-free to meet British needs. Further development of colonial manufacturing to produce finished iron goods was prohibited, as was the export of iron to other countries.
Iron Age Final technological and cultural stage in the Stone-Bronze- Iron-Age sequence (or Three-Age System) in which iron largely replaced bronze in implements and weapons. The start of the Iron Age varied geo¬ graphically, beginning in the Middle East and southeastern Europe c. 1200 bc but in China not until c. 600 bc. Though the large-scale production of iron implements brought new patterns of more permanent settlement, use of iron for weapons put arms in the hands of the masses for the first time and set off a series of large-scale movements and conquests that did not end for 2,000 years and that changed the face of Europe and Asia. See also Bronze Age.