Ireland
1169 - Norman England conquered Gaelic Ireland.
1541 - Henry VIII became king of Ireland, forced the Protestant planting, or colonization of Ireland.
1608 - Protestant plantation of Ulster founded
1649 - Cromwell invaded Ireland
1690 - Catholic James II defeated at the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin, and the Protestant Ascendancy that followed during the next century persecuted Catholics with the passage of the Penal Laws, took their land, outlawed their schools.
1798 - Rebellion by the Society of United Irishmen led by Wolfe Tone failed.
1801 - Act of Union between Ireland and Britain put all Irish affairs under English control.
1829 - The British Parliament passed the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 that repealed the Penal Laws and allowed Catholics to hold political office; Daniel O'Connell, leader of the Catholic Association, was elected as the first Catholic MP since the Penal Laws.
1845 - Potato Famine until 1850, killing 1million and causing another 1 million to immigrate to America.
1858 - Fenian Brotherhood founded in America by former members of the Young Ireland movement and O'Connell's Catholic Association
1867 - Fenian uprising
1905 - Sinn Fein ('Ourselves Alone') founded
1914 - World War I delayed new home rule legislation that would have restored the Dublin parliament.
1916 - Nationalists stage Easter Rising, seized the General Post Office in Dublin and proclaimed an independent Irish Republic. The rising was crushed by the British who executed its leaders, including all seven signatories of the declaration of the republic.
1919 - Led by Eamonn De Valera, the nationalist movement Sinn Fein set up a Dublin assembly, the Dail Eireann, which again proclaimed Irish independence. A guerrilla campaign by the Irish Republican Army, or IRA, against British forces began with heavy casualties on both sides.
1920 - The British parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act establishing one parliament for the six counties of Northern Ireland, and another for the rest of Ireland.
1921 - Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Free State, an independent dominion of the British crown with full internal self-government rights, partitioned from Northern Ireland which remained part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1922 - The Dublin parliament ratified the treaty despite the opposition of De Valera and others. Civil war broke out and hundreds were killed.
1923 - Irish Free State joined the League of Nations.
1927 - De Valera entered parliament at the head of the new Fianna Fail party.
1932 - De Valera became head of government after previous administration failed to deal with economic difficulties. De Valera introduced various measures to eliminate British influence in the Irish Free State.
1937 - Voters returned de Valera and approved a new constitution which abolished the Irish Free State and proclaimed Eire (Gaelic for Ireland) as a sovereign, independent, democratic state.
1938 - Douglas Hyde became first president of Eire. De Valera was prime minister.
1939 - Outbreak of World War II. Eire remained neutral, but many Irish citizens joined the Allied forces.
1948 - De Valera lost the election. Eire suffered economic difficulties. John Costello became prime minister. Dublin parliament passed the Republic of Ireland bill.
1949 - On Easter Monday, the anniversary of the 1916 uprising, Eire becomes the Republic of Ireland. Ireland leaves the British Commonwealth.
1955 - Ireland joined the United Nations. It declined to join NATO because Northern Ireland was part of United Kingdom.
1957 - De Valera became prime minister again. He stated in public that the unity of Ireland cannot be achieved by force.
1959 - De Valera became president of the Republic of Ireland.
1973 - Ireland joined the European Economic Community. Violence in Northern Ireland intensified. The IRA was active again, as were unionist paramilitary groups. Relations between Ireland and Britain were strained.
1985 - The Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed. It gave the Republic of Ireland a consultative role in the government of Northern Ireland.
1990 - Mary Robinson became first woman president of Ireland.
1991 - Ireland signed the Treaty on European Union at Maastricht. Ireland received a guarantee that its strict abortion law would not be affected.
1993 - The Downing Street Declaration by the Irish and British prime ministers offered talks on future peace in Northern Ireland to all parties if violence was renounced.
1997 - Divorce became legal in Ireland under certain circumstances. The law was opposed by the Roman Catholic church.
1998 - The Good Friday Agreement on a political settlement for Northern Ireland was approved by voters in referendums in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.
2002 - In January, the Euro replaced the punt. In May, voters re-elected Fianna Fail's Bertie Ahern as prime minister in a continuing coalition with the Progressive Democrats. Fine Gael, the main opposition party, lost over a third of its seats in parliament.
2002 - Irish voters approved Nice Treaty by comfortable margin in second referendum. The treaty required approval by all 15 EU member-states before the EU could expand to include a dozen applicant countries from eastern Europe.
2004 - On May 1, Ireland as holder of EU presidency hosted ceremonies to welcome EU's 10 new member states.
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